Cultural Resistance: A Reader 1859846599, 9781859846599

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CULTURAL RES STANCE li

POLITICS OF CULTURE

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CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER STEPHEN DUNCOMBE

V

VERSO London

•

New York

First

published by Verso 2002

© Stephen Duncombe 2002 Individual contributions © the authors All rights reserved

The moral

rights

of the author have been asserted

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]

To

my

in the Lower East Side Collective and Reclaim the Streets/New York City who have taught me volumes

comrades

about cultural resistance

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction i

ONE CULTURAL

RESISTANCE

17

Christopher

Hill, "Levellers

and True Upside

Levellers,"

from The World Turned

Down

17

TWO

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE 35

Raymond Williams, "Culture," from

Keywords

35

Karl

Marx and

Frederick Engels, from The German Ideology 4i

Matthew Arnold, from

Culture and Anarchy

49

Antonio Gramsci, from The 58

Prison Notebooks

viii

CONTENTS Walter Benjamin, "The Author

as

Producer"

67

THREE A POLITICSTHAT DOESN'T LOOK

LIKE POLITICS

82

Mikhail Bakhtin, from Rabelais and His World 82

James C.

Scott,

from Weapons of the Weak 89

Robin D.G.

from Race Rebels

Kelley,

96

Adolph Reed Jr., "Why

Is

There

No

Black

Political

Movement?"

99 Jean Baudrillard, "The Masses: in the

The Implosion of the

Social

Media"

100

Hakim

Bey, from

TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone 113

Simon Reynolds, from

Generation Ecstasy

118

"Huge Mob Tortures Negro," account of a lynching

in

1920

131

FOUR SUBCULTURES AND

PRIMITIVE REBELS

135

EJ.

Hobsbawm, from

Primitive Rebels

135

Robin D.G. Kelley,"OGs

in Postindustrial

Los Angeles",

from Race Rebels 149 Stuart Cosgrove, "The Zoot-suit and Style Warfare" 157

CONTENTS Dick Hebdige, "The Meaning of Mod" 166

John Clarke, "The Skinheads and the Magical Recovery of Community" 174

Riot

Grrrl,

"Riot Grrrl

Is

." .

.

178

Kathleen Hanna, interview in Punk Planet 180 Bertolt Brecht, "Emphasis

on Sport"

183

Stuart Hall,

"Notes on Deconstructing

'the Popular'"

185

FIVE DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE 193

Elaine Goodale Eastman,

from

"The Ghost Dance War",

Sister to the

Sioux

193

Mahatma Gandhi, from Hind

Swaraj

200 C. L.R.James, from Beyond

a

Boundary

205

Lawrence Levine, "Slave Songs and Slave Consciousness" 215

George

Lipsitz,

"Immigration and Assimilation: Rai,

Reggae, and Bhangramuffin", from Dangerous Crossroads 231

SIX A

WOMAN'S PLACE 240

Virginia Woolf, from

A Room

240

of One's

Own

ix

x

CONTENTS Radicalesbians,

"The Woman-Identified Woman" 248

Jean Railla,"A

Broom of One's Own," from

Bust

254 Janice A. Radway, from Reading the Romance

259

John

Fiske,

"Shopping

from Reading

for Pleasure"

the Popular

267

SEVEN COMMODITIES, CO-OPTATION, AND CULTURE JAMMING 275

TheodorW. Adorno,"On

the Fetish-Character in Music and

the Regression of Listening"

275

Richard Hoggart, from The Uses of Literacy 303

Malcolm Cowley, from

Exile's

Return

312

Thomas

Frank,

"Why Johnny

Can't Dissent"

316

Abbie Hoffman, from Revolution/or

the Hell of It

327 Jerry Rubin, from

Do

It!

330

EIGHT MIXING POP AND

POLITICS

333

Barbara Epstein, "The Politics of Prefigurative

Community"

333

John Jordan, "The Art of Necessity: The Subversive Imagination of Anti-road Protest and Reclaim the Streets" 347

CONTENTS Jason Grote, "The

God

that People

Who Do

Not

Believe in

God

Believe In: Taking a Bust with Reverend Billy" 358

Andrew Boyd, "Truth

Is

a Virus:

Bush

Meme Warfare (or

and the

Billionaires for

Gore)"

369

Ricardo Dominguez, "Electronic Disturbance: 379

Notes 397

Notes on contributors 433

Permissions

443

An

Interview"

xi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

and foremost

First

them

is,

for

ings

this

my

couldn't have

I

a cliche.

research assistant

activist's instincts

on

were invaluable

and shaping the narratives

of others

the authors (some posthumously)

all

book. To say

once perhaps, not merely

Kerstin Mikalbrown,

mind and

thank

I'd like to

whose words make up

done

Almost

this

without

was

as essential

this project. Kerstin's scholarly

of selecting read-

in the process

that link these readings together.

A number

generously shared their insights and suggestions, these

also

include:

Agent

mT

Amanda Andrew

Bird,

Doug

aka Azoteas aka Geoff Kupferman, Paul Bartlett, Cordell,

Mark

Dery, L.A. Kauffman, Jason King,

Mark Read, Ben Zwerman. Thanks also

Mattson, Christian Parenti, Hanna Radschinski,

Shepard,BillTalen, Leila Walker, Jon Weiss and Gilda

Robinson of Verso who was

to Colin

enthusiastic about this anthology

from the get go, Peter Bell and Richard Stack of SUNY Purchase

me

going along

this

path so long ago, and Stuart and Liz

been there the whole way. Gallatin School of

done on

and productive month

both these places for taught

at

NYU

all

in the

staff,

and

I'd like

who

Adirondacks to

my

put

me up

for a

finish the job. I'm

colleagues and fellow residents

their help. Cultural Resistance arose out

of a course

called "Media Activism and Cultural Resistance" in the

spring of 2000. All the students in that remarkable

book, but

The

sustained this book:

and the Blue Mountain Center,

grateful to the administration,

I

institutions

New York University, my home base for most of the work

this project,

beautiful

at

Two

who got who have Ewen

to single out

my teaching assistant

Bradford for special appreciation.

And

finally, this

class

helped create

this

(and fellow RTSer) Eve

book could only have been

written with the support of my wife, frequent editor, and current contributor,

Jean Railla.Jean continues to expand

my definitions of politics

and

love.

ONE

INTRODUCTION

When

I

hear the word culture

I

reach for

my

revolver.

attributed to Joseph Goebbels

NEW YORK a

It's

damp afternoon

OCTOBER

in early October.

periodically a light mist rolls

young people,

CITY,

down. For the

clouds are heavy and low and past twenty minutes groups

three here, five there, have been walking

large steel sculpture

on

a traffic island

uniform of oversized

others,

talking too loudly into cell

to

of

"The Cube," a to Manhattan's

and dressed in the young hipster

and super-wide pants, they look

shirt

coming home from or launching out on an

more anxious than

up

marking the entrance

East Village. Carrying portable radios

either

The

1998

4,

like they're

all-night rave.

and the most anxious of the

phones or more quietly

in

Some

lot scurry

little

look

around

huddles. Radios

tuned to the frequency of a pirate radio station and techno music flows

are

out from

and

fifty

boomboxes. Thwump, thwump, thwump. Heads

feet shuffle. The

Meanwhile, invisibly

a

crowd

is

visibly excited.

Something

block south, an old bread truck

emanating the pirate

signal.

Jammed

portable radio transmitter, a sound engineer, a

pot smoke to levitate the vehicle.

A

is

inside

is

start to

nod

going to happen.

parked by the curb, its

rusting

body

is

a

couple of DJs, and enough

block west

a

small

crew of people,

studiously feigning nonchalance, waits next to a bundle of three, thirty-

foot-long

steel poles, laid horizontally

end. Further

down and around

rounding what looks

like a

along the ground and linked

>it

one

the corner stands another small group sur

garden wagon covered

in a tarpaulin.

CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER

2

At a little after 3 pm, as the crowd had grown to more than a hundred, someone gives a signal. Led by a man holding aloft a large orange traffic sign with outlines of a man and woman dancing, the crowd moves tentatively off the curb of the traffic island and on to the street. "Move, move," the anxious ones yell and the crowd breaks into a run down Astor Place. It's one short block and a left turn onto Broadway - the major thoroughrunning the length of Manhattan. In the middle of the

fare

pipes are being pushed into the air to

and

stable a

cart

is

a

young man scrambles up and

wheeled

out,

its

beats

turned to

pump from

full

volume:

powering

a tripod.

seats

and —

tarp ripped off,

small generator fires up,

Heavy

form

after

the sound system, echoed by the

The force.

amplifier.

boomboxes now

off the sidewalk, people

Broadway on

a

Police

Department shows

up, at

first

slowly and then in

Dressed in riot gear they stand by bewildered, confused by

look

of

ravers,

some with painted

a protest

by the young man perched pre-

like a protest, mystified

cariously twenty-five feet above the pavement, and unsure a street full

Sunday

a street party.

New York

that doesn't

up

THWUMP, THWUMP, THWUMP, Thwumpada

dance, and soon 300 people have turned

afternoon into

is

The garden many frustrating tries —

compact receiver and

a

metal

street the

the tripod

himself on top.

Thwumpada Thwumpada. Curious crowds come start to

Once

faces, a

how

to confront

few decked out

in

Mane

Antoinette garb, and one fellow dancing particularly energetically in

bunny

bright blue

Propaganda has been handed out to the crowd, proclaiming

this as

action of the newly formed New York City chapter of Reclaim the

thrown

a

suit.

to protest the Mayor's draconian "Quality

an

Streets,

of Life" policing cam-

paign and the increased privatization of public space. But such assertions

were redundant. The protest

itself

spoke more eloquently about reclaiming

the streets for free and public expression than any photocopied sheet of

indictments and demands. think

I

one of the

it

was

1

there, in the

of the tripod

legs

middle of that happy, frenetic crowd, holding steady, that

poten-

fully realized the political

I

of culture.

tial I

had been

a political activist

my

pressuring the State University of businesses in South Africa.

shut

down

the

From

entire adult

New York

there

City University of

I

life. I

began

to pull their

111

college,

money

constructed houses

in

out ot

Nicaragua,

New York over tuition increases, ACT UP, walked picket lines to

protested the Gulf War, got arrested with

support immigrant restaurant and greengrocery workers, formed

munity

activist

organization in the

Lower

East Side, and

a

com-

would soon

INTRODUCTION

3

assemble direct action affinity groups for world trade demonstrations. For built organizations,

fifteen years

I

and attended

far

meetings.

was committed to the struggle for

I

disappointed in

bit

many

too

planned actions, strategized campaigns,

many

too

it:

radical change, but also

too

defeats,

was part of often seemed stuck

in

much

defeatism.

filled

me

were used little

we had

to,

"No! We're

we're for."

we (and the police, media, and public) our own liberatory culture and — at least for a

in the

it

to the world. In place

place.

first

met

tracked out of sufficiently it

sell. It

stared

my

I

was

I

a

was

culture,

me

to pol-

me down

a I

supportive family,

in rage.

called faggots

and

was bored. For explanation

being taken care

one of the lucky ones, shut Then, sometime

NOW!

Right!

am am

I

I

I

White

I

kids in

classes.

girls

thought I

I

work boots were

Boys

who were

existed only to fuck.

turned to what culture

normal,

mid-teens,

good

I

was reassured

it

And

had

at

that these

men were working on

might not even

must be

I

not

exist,

you're

crazy.

heard the Sex

Pistols.

ha ha ha ha ha

an anarchist

know what want, know how to get it I

wanna

'cos

my

up.

it's

to a

an anti-Christ

don't

but

in

of,

went

I

knew something was wrong. Black

problems are too complex for easy answers, smart it's all

what

in the

culture, that led

the time: television. Informed and entertained,

them,

is

this action as a loyal

committed believer

punk rock

college-bound high-school

macho were

off,

meeting of

2

grew up with

I

of the sour Lefty

yelled out triumphantly: "Yes! This

lived in a nice suburb, but

I

kids I'd never

to top

we

to the first planning

resistance.

wasn't a hard

school,

it,"

by the end of the afternoon

skeptic,

It

created

against

went

I

power of cultural

I

glimpsed some-

I

with hope. Instead of the exhausted march, chant, and

while - had demonstrated

cry of

I

I

disobedience protest model that

civil

itics

a

ways and those ways were not

its

working. But that afternoon with Reclaim the Streets thing that

more than The "Left"

I,

I

destroy the passer by

wanna be

.

.

.

anarchy.

Damned if could figure out what Johnny Rotten was singing about, but did know that he was angry, and was angry, and was not alone. remember that feeling. That wonderful feeling. A joyous homecoming to a world hadn't even known existed. I

I

I

I

I

I

About

the same time

I

was listening to the Sex

Pistols

I

discovered the

CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER

4

Ramones. Since they were from the US,

I

could better understand what

they were saying (even through lead singer Joey's affected

But what was

C it

got from the

I

Ramones

Two

.

bar chords, three positions: "Hey, ho,

was stupid, anyone could play

Ramones some

listening to the

ments and we formed

And

so

a band.

I

owned my

since

we

all

and

friends

I

as a

punk

seemed

society's

I

go!"

was simple,

It

Within months of

I.

me my

consumer

first,

to creator.

and probably most

learned the importance of community. Alone, /

we

to share them,

My

problems.

was bored, / was too

who

found others

sensitive to

had these problems, and

also

reasoned that they must not just be

problems became

personal

social

a

problem. Us punks then supported each other, helping each other face society

we

and working together to create

didn't like

a

micro-world

functioned according to different principles. In Lefty parlance,

power of I

"solidarity."

could do

But before

Initially,

it.

I

it

learned to "play" our instru-

I

crossed the line from

I

-

G-G-G-G-G-G-G-

let's

and so could

.

problems: / was alienated,

But

ours, but

.

.

was punk rock that taught

it

important, political lessons.

injustice.

it

accent).

wasn't from their funhouse lyrics

their music: high energy, repetitive, rock 'n' roll:

—D —

Cockney

didn't.

I

could do anything,

first

I

a

that

learned the

I

had

to believe

Like most people growing up in liberal

democracies and consumer economies,

I

was used to

and

politics, products,

my own or casting a vote. Punk taught me to could create my own culture - do-it-

entertainment being created and carried out by others for me, action limited to spending a dollar

DIY: Do-it-yourself. The idea

that

I

me revolutionary, as it carried within it the promise that could also create my own politics and my own world. Punk provided me with political ideas, then ingrained them through myself— was for

experience.

I

The

first

time

I

heard the term anarchist used

than an insult was in the Sex that song,

Clash, pret

and

later

talk

in the

as

anything other

UK." The

ones from more overtly ideological bands

Dead Kennedys, and

and

"Anarchy

Pistols'

Stiff Little Fingers, lent

about the world.

And

me new words

monic

cultures,"

I

world

that

culture

became

held before. Smashing the for Senior year.

to-do

list

didn't

work

playing out

unless I

I

it

as

I

state

way of looking

internalized a

"natural"

as

any

I

in the

rough,

a

learned,

I

spent tunc

at

and acting

of habits or values

set

topped getting

And what

a

didn't read about "counterhege-

was surrounded by one: fun, messy, mine. As

immersed within punk in the

my own.

The

to inter-

spoke not

critically this culture

pious slogans of sectarians or the priests' Latin of academics but in

emotional language that was

lyrics of like

prom I

date

on

my

I

had

things-

learned by doing.

Punk

was performed, and by writing songs, dressing up and

learned to perform

my

passions.

That

is,

I

learned

how

to

INTRODUCTION transform ideas into action.

few years

later, it

When

But only halfway For

many

just as

where

nothing to

I

—

plan at

In

me toward me away Punk was a

world, and providing

could develop that critique, but punk in

affect the root causes

inequality

my

there.

of punk pulled

aspects

great tool for articulating the problems of

to political activism a

was already halfway

I

were equal forces pushing

political resistance, there

portive culture

my way

found

I

was an easy step because

5

of the things

-

sup-

a

did

itself

racism, sexism, and class

was so angry about. Punk had no

strategic plan; it had no some ways punk rock was merely a release, an escape valve for my political dissatisfaction: "I wanna be anarchy!" OK, I've said that, now I feel better. The culture of resistance that my friends and I had built became all.

I

a safe place to hide. Fortified

by our righteous sense of superiority, stocked

with a steady supply of punk rock band, club, and scene busy, boundaries

between "us" and "them"

clearly

keep us

trivia to

demarcated by dyed hair

and leather jackets, we closed off the world. Eventually, however, punk did escape the ghetto walls

we had

constructed. Following the success of the

band Nirvana and the discovery of "grunge" and

signifiers

of punk became

a

potentially lucrative "Generation

way

sell

I

The very word

is

pliable;

"culture"

been stretching

its

is

it's

how

it is

Nike sneakers

still

word

felt sick,

I

"culture," as

Raymond Williams

I

probably already noticed that

meaning. Here I'm referring to culture

other places, I'm describing culture

but

not pre-

is

used that matters.

elastic. You've

there as a set of norms, behaviors and ways to in

a

heard Iggy Pop's proto-punk

another important lesson: the politics of culture

determined. Culture

I've

to

in the early 1990s, the signs

market commercial products to

X."When

anthem "Search and Destroy" used also learned

to

make

as a thing,

sense of the world, and,

as a process.

This

will later elaborate,

is

because the

means

all

these

things.

The term it

"cultural resistance"

to describe culture that

or not, to

resist

is

is

no

firmer. In the following pages

use

I

used, consciously or unconsciously, effectively

and/or change the dominant

political,

economic and/or

mean many things and take on many forms, and before we go much farther it may help to clarify some of its parameters, developing schematically some of the ideas sketched out more casually above and introducing new ones.

social structure.

Let's

But

cultural resistance, too, can

begin by considering

how

cultural resistance

works

to foster or

retard radical political activity. First off, cultural resistance can provide a sort

of "free space" for developing ideas and constraints

practices. Freed

from the

limits

and

of the dominant culture, you can experiment with new ways

ol

And

.is

seeing and being and develop tools and resources for resistance.

CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER

6

culture

usually

is

to build a

something shared,

it

becomes

a focal

point around which

community.

Equipped with new

ideas, skills, confidence,

and comrades, the

step into

may seem less frightening. And because cultural resistance often speaks in a more familiar and less demanding voice than political dissent it makes this move even easier. In this way the

unknown

of political resistance

terrain

works

cultural resistance

as a sort

of stepping stone into

political activity.

Cultural resistance can also be thought of as political resistance. theorists argue that politics

is

symbols and meanings, that

we

of that discourse - which

is

Some of

essentially a cultural discourse, a shared set

abide by. If this

all

essentially

what

is

true then the rewriting

-

cultural resistance does

is

a

political act in itself.

Taking

more

a

escape from

pessimistic view, cultural resistance can be seen as an

and

politics

be expressed through resistance

way

a

to release discontent that

political activity.

From

the creation of a sort of safe sanctuary, a "haven in a heartless

is

world." 3 Within this private Utopia an ideal society are magically resolved, but outside

And

finally,

and cannot

if

ance

it

appears rebellious,

component of

as

a

Next

let's

look

is

at

From

this perspective cultural resist-

for example, the

culture conveys

its

band counsels

resistance

wanna

and even an action plan (although

A

politics.

a

travel

"Anarchy

in the

through explicit

lyrics.

a political vocabulary,

in the case

of the Sex

Pistols" *T

destroy the passer by," a pretty dubious one).

Politics

can also be transmitted through the form culture

emotion or

laid

over

a

danceable beat. Similarly,

veyed by the same song recorded on

and distributed by

a

a

DIY

multi-national corporation.

again depending on whether you are listening to

an underground party, or sung in

watch the performer from Marshall McLuhan:"the

afar

on

medium

is

a

a different

label versus a

And it

takes.

one

It is

them sung with

thing to read lyrics on a page, quite another to hear

at

worst

at

message can

Pistols'

Reading or hearing these words provides you with analysis,

and

best a waste of time

real political resistance.

how

at

or will soon be repackaged and transformed

of culture. Returning to the Sex

via the content

UK"

from

that cultural

The dominant system is one of such hegemony than any cultural expression,

the status quo.

political practice

delusional detour

is,

at all.

you can argue

exist.

complete ideological and material even

slide,

conjured up, problems

is

nothing changes

continuing the pessimistic

resistance does not

into, a

might otherwise

vantage point, cultural

this

message

is

con-

CD manufactured

that

song changes

performed or mixed

yet live

stadium where you've paid $so

a wall-sized

to

video screen. To crib from

4 the message."

INTRODUCTION

How mines

culture

an

Pistols as

across the Atlantic

rock n'

from hearing

"We Are

Sledge's disco hit

And

finally,

the very

us,

we

it

of

is

that

first

culture that

such.

The

creating your

is

of politics

act

may

other pole

for political resistance is

meaning.

should consume what others

own

—

is

is

culture

simply to

resistance. Political self-consciousness

scale

as

political

warehouse rave or creating an

illegal

is

takes

act.

the

one.

first

On

one

serve the function of resistance, but was

not created with that in mind, nor with the idea that stand

by an audience.

I

The

of the

5

can consider the spectrum of political engagement, or what

rebellious resonance.

side

appropri-

a

label

call scales

me

Sister

on

underground music

Now we

Sex

solidarity in the 1980s.

until interpreted

throwing an

—

same way,

new meaning when and

deter-

started the

didn't stop a kid like

of producing culture has

activity

In a society built around the principle that

have produced for

it

—

interpretation

its

message, but the meaning and potential

a

dormant

lie

swindle,

roll

lesbian pride

Content and medium may carry impact of that message

—

a call to arms. In the

Family" took on

an anthem of gay and

ated as

sense of

Even though Malcolm McLaren

cum

prank

art

made

received and

is

politics as well.

its

7

its

participants under-

occupied by culture consciously created

and used for

that purpose.

culture appropriated for ends for

which

it

Somewhere

in the

middle

was not intended. This can cut

both ways: culture that was not meant to be rebellious can be turned and used for those

political

ends

and,

conversely,

culture

that

mind can be made

consciously fashioned with rebellion in

was

self-

to serve very

non-rebellious purposes.

The next the

may -

scale

measures the social unit engaged in cultural resistance. To

the individual, creating and perhaps even living out a culture that

left is

theoretically

-

challenge the dominant system to

that person does this in their

sharing

or

off,

order to create right

is

more

to

a shared, inclusive set

things: that the

fall

away

at

Which

is

its

world,

from the dominant society

of cultural values and

engaged

in

practices. To the

in cultural resistance it

it

means

props up are

any moment, or that cultural resistance has been so is

one

brings us to the final scale: the results of cultural resistance.

The

a society

of spectacle that

its

practice

futility.

cultural resistance

injustices

little

the subculture, a group that has

spectrum here ranges from survival to revolution. Survival

which

very core. But

own

dominant culture and the power

thoroughly incorporated into

of political

lies

likely has cut itself off,

society. If an entire society

one of two

bound

head, within their

with no one. In the middle

it

been cut

own

of

life

is

is

the point

.it

merely a way to put up with the daily grind and

while holding on to

a

semblance of

dignity.

Rebellion

is

8

CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER

where

contributes

resistance

cultural

to

sion

to

forcing meaningful reform, yet

all

complete overthrow of the ruling system and

The

becomes just

following

may

against

the

range from suffering repres-

of

a

occurs within the

this

framework of the dominant power. And revolution,

resistance

activity

political

may

powers-that-be. Results of this resistance

well, revolution

time

when

is

the

the culture of

culture.

help clarify things:

Cultural resistance and political action •

cultural resistance creates a "free space": ideologically:

space to create

new

language, meanings, and visions of

the future

community, networks, and organizational

to build

materially: place

models •

cultural resistance

community •

is

a stepping stone, providing a language, practice,

to ease the

cultural resistance

way

political activity:

is

and

into political activity

writing or rewriting political dis-

course and thus political practice •

culture resistance

is

a

"haven in

a heartless world,"

an escape from the

world of politics and problems •

cultural resistance does not exist. All culture

is,

or will immediately

become, an expression of the dominant power Means of cultural •

resistance

content: the political

• form: the political

message resides within the content of the culture

message

is

expressed through the

medium of

trans-

mission •

interpretation:

the political message

is

determined by

how

the culture

is

received and interpreted •

activity:

the action of producing culture, regardless of content or form or

reception,

is

the political message

Scales of cultural resistance

•

unconsciously political

appropriation

self-consciously political

•

individual

subculture

society

•

survival

rebellion

revolution

Culture, of course,

made and maintained by

people, and people don't

fit

neatly into charts and typologies. To get a feel of what cultural resistance

is,

how

it

is

works, and what

it

can do,

we need

to turn to people

and their

INTRODUCTION theories, descriptions,

follow

borrow

are, to

and proclamations.

believe that the readings that

I

from one of the authors, "the best which has

a line

been thought and said" about and memoir,

9

cultural resistance. I've

history, philosophy,

from the writings of cultural

and the

The

literature

of course,

social sciences, and,

themselves.

activists

drawn from essays span

from the

mid-nineteenth century to the present, and explore cultures of resistance

from the Middle Ages

to the

new Millennium.

an eye to readability and have judiciously edited

make them more immediately

picked the essays with

I've

good number

a

in order to

enjoyable. I've divided the essays

among

eight sections, each addressing a particular aspect of cultural resistance. start

each section and each essay with

and context, and

raise

key

issues

few words

a

to provide

some

and questions for the readings

I

history

that follow.

Scattered alongside these essays are smaller snippets: sidebars of songs or stories,

ments

eyewitness accounts, historical examples, and other primary docu-

within each section and

as a

any good

resistance. Like is

both

that enrich each selection. Finally, I've arranged the essays,

whole, in order to

story, this

one

not some specimen, anesthetized,

constitutes a lively, ongoing,

We stanley

is

full

tell a

story about cultural

of conflict. Cultural resistance

classified,

and mounted on

a pin, but

and sometimes cantankerous, debate.

open with an archetype: Christopher

Hill's

account of Gerrard Win-

and the Diggers' seizure of St George's Hill in 1649. Laid out in the

Diggers' action and Winstanley's words are nearly pitfalls

all the possibilities and of cultural resistance that will be played out for centuries to come —

and explored

The next

in the readings that follow.

word culture With one definition in hand we look toward another, asking what is meant by "The Politics of Culture?" Addressing this question are five influential theorists. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, in

from

section begins with an historical definition of the

Raymond

selections

Williams.

from The German

economic and

social, that

Ideology,

argue that culture

is

a reflection

of the

material, conditions of a society. Therefore, they

is

argue, the ruling culture of every age expresses the world-view of those

Matthew Arnold asserts much the opposite: that culture - "sweet- is what allows us to transcend politics, guiding us out of morass of the material world. The Italian communist Antonio Gramsci,

who

rule.

ness

and

the

light"

writing from a Fascist prison, further complicates our picture. Culture, for

Gramsci,

is

not something "out there" but intimate, internalized into our

consciousness and directing Full

-

of contradictions, culture

reactionary tendencies.

mess and extract

often without our is

of

activity.

shot through with both revolutionary and

The job of

a culture

knowledge - our

the revolutionary

resistance.

We w ind up

is

to untangle this

this first sec tion

with

CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER

10

the brilliant and tragic Walter Benjamin, the patron saint of DIY culture. In his essay

"The Author

means

culture

little,

Producer," Benjamin argues that the content of

as

for today's cultural resistance

commercial product. Instead culture

produced, that holds the

is

The next

is

tomorrow's

section explores the

or

art object

how

the conditions of cultural production,

it is

political key.

theme of "A

Doesn't Look

Politics that

Like Politics." Mikhail Bakhtin's study of the carnival of the Middle Ages,

and the

of rebellion played out within

acts

laughter, sets the stage.

world to the

fields

We

then

jump 500

a

drama of buffoonery and

years

and halfway around the

of Malaysia, where anthropologist James C. Scott finds in

form of

the grumblings and gossip of peasants a potent "everyday

ance" that he then traces back through

world again and

we

are in

history.

urban Los Angeles, where historian Robin D.G.

- and not working -

Kelley recounts a personal tale of working

McDonald's

as a

teenager.

resist-

Nearly halfway around the

Here

tural resistance that falls outside

mainstream definitions of

in a

form of

too, Kelley finds an everyday

cul-

political action.

Others, however, are not so sure that these "hidden transcripts" of resistance are resistance at

all.

survival techniques

those

who

are a

dangerous

The

Adolph Reed Jr.

critic

on the

retreat

from

real politics.

new forms of social

which

is

control.

a

So

But other

democracy where you

dollar than simply to

of

tics

political fantasy for

are constantly

it is

better

resist a

consumer

capitalist,

being asked for your vote or a twist

on the

poli-

what he names temporary autonomous zones,

zones of cultural resistance created only to disappear hostile all-powerful state or, worse, a

new

argues,

asks the always provocative post-

do nothing? Hakim Bey then puts

retreat, calling for

looking for

Reed

theorists hold that

new form of politics, one

modernist Jean Baudrillard: what better way to liberal

and

study them. Cultural politics and their valorization,

the retreat from politics itself suited to

interprets these acts as simple

part of their participants

lifestyles

to

when

confronted by

a

very receptive consumer economy

market.

Next, music

journalist

Simon

Reynolds, taking Ecstasy and entering into the world of rave culture, leads us

into

blissful

a

temporary autonomous zone. Once here Keynolds

explores the Utopian politics of raves, but stays long off the high and critique

turbing propensity uncritically

end

its

shortcomings.

within

the

any popular cultural

this section

with

a grisly

field

And

enough

finally,

of cultural resistance

activity as

come down

to

because there

one of admirable

and hopefully sobering warning:

to

is

a dis-

applaud

rebellion, a

paper account of the lynching of an African-American man; an example a popular,

From

we

[920s new

s

ot

spontaneous, anti-governmental cultural celebration ot racism. here

we move

to "Subcultures

and Primitive Rebels" and the

INTRODUCTION

I

I

study of groups that have separated themselves from the mainstream of society, often distinguishing their distance

the

first

selection the great social historian Eric

world of the

The nineteenth-century Robin Hoods he

bandit.

social

studies respond to inequities strategies

medium of style. In Hobsbawm excavates the

through the

of wealth and power with "pre-political"

of cultural rebellion, creating for themselves the myth,

not

if

always the practice, of the peasant rebel, righting wrongs by stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

A

second essay by

Robm

Kelley links

Hobs-

bawm's "primitive

rebels" to gangsta rappers of the late twentieth century.

Gangsta rap and

OG.

to

economic and

that

is

"Original Gangster"

social degradation faced

American men. but

style,

are

response

a

by young and poor African-

map they use to The intamous zoot-suit riots

are also, as Kelley points out. a creative

navigate the terrain of capitalism and racism.

of 1943, in which white servicemen beat up and stripped zoot-suit wearing Chicanos. are the topic of the next selection. Recounted by historian Stuart Cosgrove. the riots illustrate rejection of minority invisibility

American youth and

how

was employed

as

a

two

tural Studies, for

classic subcultural studies. In

how mods how

the real problems they face as

Is

what

it

terms,

the

." .

.

to

is

Dick Hebdige

first.

in a subcultural tongue. In the second,

young working-class men identified

John

in a deindustrializ-

which be

a

their manifesto

uses their subculture to redefine,

woman. This

Riot

subcultures, the

network of post-punk young women, contribute

"Riot Grrrl

to

Contemporary Cul-

skinheads use their subculture to "resolve magically"

ing England. Continuing with music Grrrls. a

for

appropriate mass cultural items, reassigning their

meanings so that they speak Clarke analyses

a visual

weapon. Then we go

Birmingham. England, home of the famed Centre describes

as

and understood, by both the Mexican-

tormenters.

their

sty le

on

their

own

followed by an excerpt from an

is

interview with Kathleen Hanna. one of the founding mothers of Riot Grrrl. in

which she

world while

reflects

upon

the difficulties of trying to create a

living in the old one.

still

The

new

radical playwright Bertolt

Brecht then moves us out of subcultures and into the mainstream, insisting that in order to talk to tural

language they understand, even

language

is

show them

tion in this section

Birmingham.

what

people about your politics you need to speak

In

a culture

makes

little

is

is

if

the possibility of

from Stuart

"Notes on

Hall, a past director

subcultural,

political difference as these is

do with

to

The

of the

last

that

selec-

CCCS

in

Deconstructing the Popular," Hall argues that

- mainstream or

matters politically,

what you plan

a different culture.

a cul-

the political use to

commercial or

traditional

boundaries inevitably

which culture

is

put.

shift.

-

What

CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER

12

The

of culture in anti-colonial resistance

political uses

our next section, "Dismantling the Master's House."

the subject of

is

We

with the

start

"ghost dances" of 1890 and Elaine Goodale Eastman's first-hand account of the magical hope of the decimated Sioux Indians

as

they danced to bring

back their land and buffalo, and the tragic outcome

responded with their guns. Next,

Mahatma Gandhi, proposes as a

young man

to free herself

in the

from

culture.

Britain, she

must

his

the

as

Swaraj,

resistance.

Gandhi reasons

complications continue

Writing

that if India

any such

radical critic

call for a pristine

beloved game of cricket James locates both

how African-American

cavalry

is

purge herself - entirely - of the

also

But C.L.R. James, the

British rule and a lightning rod for

US

successful anti-colonial warrior,

of Indian cultural

a strategy

nationalist, complicates

For in

more

pamphlet Hind

British culture she has adopted.

West Indian

a

West Indian national

a

and

national

symbol of

pride. Cultural

the historian Lawrence Levine demonstrates

as

blended

slaves

hybrid culture to articulate their

a

longings for freedom. Using the master's tools of language and religion and the covert cultural blueprints of West African tradition, slaves used song as a

means

imagine dismantling the master's house. George

to

this section

by bringing us up

to date, studying

Lipsitz concludes

music created by young

Algerian, West Indian, and Indian immigrants in France and Britain. These

mix

musicians

home, then

ingredients from the old world with those of their

new

who

have

fold in the music of immigrants of other ethnicities

done the same, ending up with and may

cultural purity

immigrant

By

a

polyglot creation that makes

a

mockery of

just point out fruitful directions for inter-ethnic

alliances.

focusing on cultural resistance

the clubs, or in the field

-

public activity

as a

— on

resistance in the private sphere

the streets,

is

at

often over-

looked. Perhaps not coincidentally, this private sphere has also traditionally

been

a

woman's

women's from

cultural

A Room

imaginary

of One's

sister

place in the

The next section, "A Woman's Place" resistance. The great novelist Virginia Woolf, in a place.

Own,

home

Woolf

that

argues,

a

women's

women

of an

private

culture stunted.

To

create

a

viable

into the public

w orld

Arriving in the second wave of feminism

in the

women

Woman," arguing

men's definitions of

selection life

woman's

must force

their

way

1970s, the Radicalesbian collective issues a call for

Identified

argue,

it is

unhappy

her problem. Limited horizons and constant

is

left

now monopolized by men. early

us off. Sketching the

of Shakespeare, Woolf suggests that

domestic demands have culture,

starts

explores

that a

herself.

can construct

a

woman

Through

new and

a

can only be free

"The Womanif

woman-centered

liberatory identity.

she

is

free

of

culture, they

Riding the

third

INTRODUCTION wave

in an article in Bust

magazine

in 2001, Jean Railla

makes

devalued by

men and feminists women for

and cultivated by

romance

alike, Railla discovers a rich culture

novels.

romances, she finds that

from reading them

far

often

their that

cater to their desires

power by buying products. This

shopping

is

a

form of cultural

The commodification of

readers

extract

as

and spaces where they

is,

of course,

The next

starts

where

a critical

when

Fiske leaves us, but

moves

studies,

We

begin

Richard Hoggart, writing

essay

"On

in

marketers pitch products to the working classes

these cultural markers are

poses, their

"women's daily exert

chapter in the

of Britain by drawing upon traditional signs and symbols of But,

of

per-

section, "Commodities,

rapidly in the opposite direction toward different conclusions.

with one of the pioneers of cultural

how

its

leads Fiske to the provocative claim

resistance.

Co-optation, and Culture Jamming,"

the 1950s and noting

stories

theoretical line to

resistance.

culture

contemporary story of cultural

devalued:

about their

like

haps illogical conclusion, John Fiske identifies shopping malls

which

created

of women's depend-

as tales

upon and subservience to men, the reassurance and empowerment. Following this ence

places," places

place,

millennia. In the next selection, literature

Radway studies a women's literature By asking women readers what they

professor Janice

a case for re-

women's

evaluating the domestic sphere. Within this traditional

13

employed

class culture.

commercial pur-

for purely

meanings subtly but decisively change. Theodor Adorno's

classic

Music and the Regression of Listening"

the Fetish-Character in

follows. Capitalism, the author argues, transforms nearly

all

culture into

commodities. This alienates us from the very things upon which

we bestow

meaning, and reduces our cultural passions, and even cultural rebellions, to

"pseudo activity" Adorno's

thesis

is

easily

incorporated back into the system. Illustrating

an excerpt from poet and

memoirs of Greenwich Village bohemian

life.

writes, the ostensibly anti-bourgeois values

working

to support the then

Thomas Frank then

"Why Johnny

brings

built

critic

of bohemia were inadvertently

business ethic of

Cowley

become

the

Malcolm Cowley's Cowley

early as the 1920s,

consumer

capitalism.

to the present, arguing in his essay

Can't Dissent" that cultural rebellion,

the powers-that-be, has

world

new

As

far

from challenging

mainstream philosophy of

a business

around endless consumption. But the appropriators can always

be appropriated. Pioneering

a strategy

now

called "culture jamming," 1960s'

Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin close

this section

with

advice on hijacking the methods and means of commercial culture to

com-

Yippie

activists

municate radical messages.

The

final section,

"Mixing Pop and

Politics," takes

theory to the

streets.

CULTURAL RESISTANCE READER

14

demonstrating

how

by the

change, told

employ

activists

activists

Community," Barbara

figurative

action protests in the

cultural resistance as a tool for social

themselves.

start

with "The

Politics

model

protests, later to provide the

stress

means

well

as

of Pre -

of anti-nuclear direct

study

Epstein's

US. These

those in Seattle and beyond,

We

for

(and sometimes in place

as

of) ends, creating a culture of activism within the protest that "prefigures"

community

the type of

desired for the future. Following

this, activist

and

John Jordan unfolds the history and philosophy of Reclaim the Streets, describing and explaining their carnavalesque practice of protest artist

which transforms the

protest itself into a living, dancing

own

they advocate. Telling the story of his

politics

Jason Grote then introduces us to Reverend created by performance

artist Bill

Talen,

arrest in a

Billy, a

who

Andrew Boyd, an

writes about activist ization,"

organizer

"memes":

with no leadership,

is

battles the equally cartoonish,

mem-

and private

specializes in theatrical agitprop,

membership, or ideology. In place

an organized cultural idea that spreads and

is

acted upon, and then disappears.

Our

last

reading

view with Ricardo Dominguez, co-founder of the Internet

an inter-

is

It

a

is

group

activist

Electronic Disturbance Theater, and co-creator of the electronic

obedience tool FloodNet.

store,

new and growing form of activist "organ-

a

office, fixed

of the material organization multiplies,

who

Disney

cartoon-like character

yet also very real, Disney Corporation over public space ories.

example of the

civil dis-

good finale, for Dominguez not only on the Internet, but also reaches back

points toward the future of activism to

tell his life

weaving culture and

story as an activist

politics into effective

resistance.

So

that's

resistance

and

nesses,

become

the story.

No,

that's

whose contours

my

you read on.

not true. This

shaped by

political passions

clear as

selected. I've

are

I

my

my

is

will

have tried to be inclusive in the essays

I've

all

covered the major debates within the

field,

don't personally agree with but are important nevertheless.

much

there was

that

I

did not include. I've

essays for simple reasons

itics

of the fine

subject tion,

is

and

What think,

left

of space. Others,

out

I

whose But

not the

many worthy

final I've

word on

is

a selection,

I

end

authors

my

new

selec-

cultural resistance.

included are words to inspire. To inspire you to

and think hard, about the relationship between culture and

pushing ideas in

ideas

in the

or high culture, I've largely excluded because the

arts

do hope

stretched to

like those addressing the pol-

better dealt with elsewhere. What follows it is

weak-

of which, no doubt,

and prejudices,

include topics often neglected, and even included writers

and

of cultural

story, a story

scholarly strengths and

directions.

But

I

also

hope

politics,

these words will inspire

INTRODUCTION you

to act: to create

and

cultivate cultures

building a world turned upside down.

And

of

resistance, imagining,

then to take

it

one

15

and

step further,

transforming resistance in the realm of culture to political action on terra firma. For if cultural resistance this

so

must be the

many

Diggers

goal.

is

to take

As those quixotic

centuries ago sung out in the all."

its

own rebellious who dug up

rebels

last line

claims seriously, St George's Hill

of their song, "Glory

here,

ONE

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

CHRISTOPHER HILL, LEVELLERS AND TRUE LEVELLERS," FROM THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN In

1649 a group of landless commoners, radicalized by the English

disappointed by

its

than radical outcome, occupied a

less

hill

planting crops and issuing manifestos calling for the "earth to be a ury."

The crops

grow and the commoners were soon

didn't

Civil

War

and

outside London,

common

treas-

forcibly evicted, but

the acts of the True Levellers, or Diggers, as they called themselves, and the

words of action

their leader,

was

common

Gerrard Winstanley, have reverberated ever

a cultural one, through

land

what had been enclosed corn

ble material value of planting

New

Cromwell's

Model Army

their act of resistance;

demanded

new

lion. Alas,

privatized)

barren

did hold dear a scale

soil.

overshadowed the

was the community they created

model of the

in

brotherhood they

universal

was made to speak the words of the commoner's

the Diggers' lack of political organization and disinterest

made

their revolt a simple

of their rebellion

made

hard to contain. The seizure of is

St.

George's

Hill

is

many

George's

Hill

from

Christopher

his

quality

of the characteristics

strategy and organizational structure, spread of idea and ideal

St.

long-term

down" exceedingly

pre-figurative symbolic protests, ideological appropriation of a

is

rebel-

a fitting place for this anthology

archetypal, exhibiting

resistance today. What follows

in

one to crush, but the same amorphous

the ideal of a "world turned upside

to begin, for their struggle

taking of

negligi-

But what these outcasts of the

universe and, through Winstanley's masterful reworking of

Bible, a familiar text

strategy

was

in

(i.e.

of the future. Rejecting the culture of class and property, the Diggers

conjured up a

The

it

since. Their

and through. The symbolism of taking back as

Hill's classic

master

-

that

-

text, lack of

mark

cultural

account of the Diggers'

book The World Turned Upside Down.

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

All it

men

are

have stood for freedom

ashamed and

garment

.

.

.

.

.

.

and those of the richer

own it, because it comes man that will turn the world

afraid to

Freedom

is

the

no wonder he hath enemies

.

.

and community in the earthly

.

True freedom

spread abroad in the creation, restoring

A

and

treasury,

Watch-Word

to the

lies

this

is

sort

of you that see

clothed in a clownish upside down, therefore

in the

community

in spirit

Christ the true man-child

things unto himself.

all

City of London, Gerrard Winstanley (1649)

1

St George's Hill

The

years

from 1620

came

were bad; the 1640s were

to 1650

On

decade of the period.

the worst civil

war

of disastrous harvests. Between 1647 and 1650 food prices

a series

money wages

rose steeply above the pre-war level;

and the cost of living rose

new

heavy, and Pym's

significantly.

2

lagged badly behind,

Taxation was unprecedentedly

tax, the excise, fell especially severely

popular consumption sales

much

top of the disruption caused by the

on

articles

beer and tobacco. These were the years

like

of church, crown and

of

when

lands were breaking traditional land-

royalists'

lord/tenant relations, whilst disbanded soldiers were trying to pick up living again. diers

The

city

of York's special fund for the assistance of lame

was doubled in 1649 because of increased

Wildman divided

tells

among

it

upon corn

as it

will break

through stone

Tradesmen

warned Parliament and the Army

in

'Necessity dissolves walls',

would be

for the

risen so

December

King

much,

if

it

The economic and

to market,

and

in the

same month. 4 'The

pamphleteer admitted in October

were allowed

had to

to express itself freely.

5

Northumberland complained hire themselves out as

wage-

6

political situation in the early

fooled in the negotiations

and

a

cavalry troopers in

particularly explosive. Levellers

in January;

was carrying

The Mournfull Cries of Many Thousand Poore

1648, that copyholders

labourers or shepherds.

King

all

vote of the giddy multitude',

Rents had

'The poor'.

laws and government, and hunger

starve.'

1648,

3 it.

themselves before the owners' faces, telling them they

could not

common

upon

us in January 1648, 'did gather in troops of ten, twenty,

the roads and seized

thirty, in

calls

a

sol-

and

which

that the

Army

led

up

months of 1649 was

radicals felt that they

to the trial

had been

and execution ot the

Independent Grandees had taken over repub-

programme without making any real concessions The abysmal harvest of 1648 led to widespread hunger and unemployment, especially among disbanded soldiers. In March 1649 the poor of London were being supplied with free corn and coal. On

lican reforms

from

their

to their democratic content.

CHRISTOPHER

3

April Peter

them. 7

for

"LEVELLERS

Chamberlen announced

bread: he feared they

done

HILL,

would proceed

Clubmen

that

and

many were

reappeared in the Severn

recall

LEVELLERS"

levels,

something was

valley, seizing

the Levellers

now

by

were

re-

a General, a

Court Martial and House of Commons; and we pray you what 8

corn.

demanded

of the General Council of the Army. 'We

were before ruled by King, Lords and Commons,

ference?'

19

want of

starving for

to direct action unless

Whilst food prices reached famine election of Agitators

AND TRUE

the dif-

is

At the end of March Lilburne, Overton, Walwyn and Prince

arrested.

A

Leveller pamphlet,

appealed to the soldiers

'to

More Light Shining

Buckinghamshire,

in

stand everyone in his place, to oppose

all

tyranny whatsoever', particularly that of lawyers, enclosing lords of manors

Army

and the

who

Grandees

nothing for the poor.

have rejected social reform and have done

4

Next month mutinies broke out

in the

Army when men who

refused to

volunteer for service in Ireland were demobilized without payment of

-

arrears

what had driven the Army

exactly

though then with the acquiescence of the

among

broke out

revolts

two

to revolt

generals. In

years earlier,

May more

serious

troops in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Bucking-

hamshire, and there were rumours of civilian support from the Southwest,

Clubman

the old

area.

Cromwell and

Fairfax, acting

with great vigour and

determination, overwhelmingly defeated the mutinous regiments

on

ford

14 May. The period of

Frightened conservatives University and the

crisis for

rallied to

City of

its

support,

eller conspiracies

as

London hastened

Cromwell. The sermon preached on the

denounced those who

aspired to

remove

at

Bur-

the military regime was over. the lesser

to

latter

evil.

honour

Oxford and

Fairfax

occasion appropriately

their neighbour's landmark.

10

Lev-

continued, soon to be joined by Fifth Monarchist plots:

but none of them offered a serious threat to the regime so long

as

the

repeatedly purged Army remained securely under the control of its generals.

Nevertheless, the early the

men

raries as late as

of property. it is

It

months of 1649 had been

to us that the defeat at Burford

November

1649 Ralph Josselin

tells

had been us that

because of danger from robbers, and the rich even

own

houses. Poor people, he added the following

regardless

a terrifying

final

men felt

and

It

was

decisive.

As

feared to travel

insecure in their

month, 'were never more

of God than nowadays'. 11 This was the background against w hich

not only the Levellers but also Peter Chamberlen, John Cook, and very

time for

was for some time not so obvious to contempo-

many

also the

Hugh

Peter

others called for drastic social reform on behalf of the poor.

background

to the activities

of the Ranter Abiezer

and to the Digger or True Leveller movement.

C

loppe,

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

20

One Sunday

in

March or April 1649

church of Walton-on-Thames was

group of six in

diers,

soldiers after series

a

the congregation of the parish

Master Faucet had preached

of symbolical

Sunday three

men

group of poor

a

months

later)

13

collected

began to dig the waste land ship

common

of the

On

12

abolished.

all

lands.

conventional pieties, which

quite possibly the

was

It

was

link

a

a

sol-

and

same

labourers in a legal action

as

same parish and

St George's Hill in the

It

may

-

April

1

(described

there.

sermon. The

tithes, ministers, magistrates

Sunday

on

his

and amid scenes of some

gestures

excitement, announced that the Sabbath, the Bible were

church invaded by

startled to see the

symbolic assumption of ownersymbolic

further

a

up with the

soldiers'

on

the parish church, that the digging began

demonstration in

Sunday. 14

a

of

rejection

One

of the

Diggers followed up the soldiers' demonstration in Walton Church by

up

'getting

a great

burden of thorn and

briars

.

.

.

into the pulpit of the

15

The numbers of the Diggers soon rose to twenty or thirty. 'They invite all to come in and help them', an observer noted, 'and promise them meat, drink and clothes They give church

at

Walton

to stop out the parson'.

.

.

be four or

out, they will

thousand within ten days

five

... It

is

.

feared they

have some design in hand.' 16

Consider for

a

moment

the area affected. St George's Hill was just

outside London, within easy reach of any poor interested in the colony. in 1641 'scores

It

there

who

on the edge of Windsor Great

lay

and hundreds

man

set

upon

the King's deer'.

17

It

might be

where

Forest,

was unpromis-

ing agricultural land, the improver Walter Blith sniffed ('thousands of places

more capable of improvement than view of flesh

.

.

.

very barren'.

Diggers were taken for It

had

a

trial

18

this'.

Winstanley agreed that

local landlords,

Martin Marprelate's secret printing

press.

19

was it

a great

prayer 'Thy

artisan

The town

such eldership

and deacons as Christ's

erian system, in fact.

in

a petition 'that

Another burgess of Kingston hoped

assassin, Felton,

it

ears'.

clearly

Seven years

a 'very factious

had

a

that the

have pastors,

town'. 22

It

full

to

Presbytpull

the

20

was in Kingston that Buck-

was welcomed by an old

bless thee, little David!' 21

found Kingston

we might

holy discipline doth require' - the

This radical tradition continued. In 1628

'God

He

every parish, and so be governed by

non-preaching clergy 'out of the church by the

ingham's

of

seat

lecturer at that tunc

from Kingston told Bishop Bancroft

kingdom come' was

doctors, elders

'in

corn market.

had been the

was the Puritan John Udall, sentenced to death in 1590.

An

was

Kingston, the nearest town, to which the

)

by the

long standing radical tradition. In 1858

strong following.

it

woman

with the w ords

later

Archbishop Laud's

had

a Puritan vicar,

visitor

and from

CHRISTOPHER

1642 to

Puritan lecturer

a

London, with

AND TRUE

HILL, "LEVELLERS

many it

attempted

his

civil

Kingston, covering the southern approaches

as well.

seat

after the Parliamentarians

of the county committee.

in July

magazine there

the time

at

of the Five Members. Kingston was the scene of

arrest

war skirmishes, and

was the

London

21

bridge across the Thames, was a strategically significant

its

centre. Charles sent troops to guard the Surrey

of

LEVELLERS"

When

the

Army

advanced on

Rainborough over the Thames

sent

Fairfax

1647

took over the area

at

Army supporters in radical Southwark. The Army centre from that time onwards. The Army

Kingston to link up with

whole region was an council

met

Kingston on

at

porting the Agitators'

The 1653

it

area continued to

was

August 1647 to draw up

18

demand

a

Declaration sup-

purge of Parliament. 23

for a

be radical

after the ejection

of the Diggers. In

Kingston jury which found Lord Chandos guilty of man-

a

slaughter (in a duel), notwithstanding his claim to privilege of peerage: he

was sentenced

to

be burnt in the hand. 24 Next year James Nayler told Fox

there was a constant

Quaker meeting

Burrough occupied

his leisure

sum

there.

25

In 1657 the

time in Kingston gaol by computing the

England and Ireland

total paid in tithes in

George Fox frequently resided

Quaker Edward

Kingston in

at

at

later

£iY2 million

The son

up

set

for himself in 1637.

stanley

Wigan mercer with Puritan London as a clothing apprentice

(probably) of a

Gerrard Winstanley came to

But

it

as

than

later

sympathies, in 1630,

and

was the worst possible time; by 1643 Win-

had been 'beaten out of both

described

2(1

life.

This was the area to which Gerrard Winstanley came, not 1643.

a year.

estate

and

trade'. In

1649 he was

of Walton-on-Thames. Here he herded cows, apparently

as a

hired labourer, and wrote religious pamphlets, until he had a vision in a trance telling

common persons'.

him

to publish

it

abroad that 'the earth should be made a

whole mankind, without

treasury of livelihood to

respect of

27

Landowners

round

in the area

were more disturbed by

St George's Hill

the digging than the Council of State or General Fairfax,

who had

of amicable conversations with Winstanley - despite the

latter's refusal

remove

his hat to a 'fellow-creature'.

have been unduly alarmed

propos the Diggers, that ers,

England

manors

in

will have

'if

when

'a

Nor

troubles'.

Surrey organized raids

28

made

for

But Parson

Piatt

and other

lords

ause was

'If

would pick out such

One

of

on the colony and an economic boycott:

good', an officer of the Kingston court said, 'he

should overthrow him'.

a

them poor common-

they harassed the Diggers with legal actions.

as

to

does Oliver Cromwell seem to

northern prophetess' warned him,

provision be not

new

a series

the Digger's

c

a

of the cases charging the Diggers with

jury riot

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

22

argument about

led to a technical

law-books. Serjeant Wilde,

who

commitment which got

their

into the

always seems to have done his best for

argued that they should have been discharged because the Sheriff

radicals,

was not present charge them.

29

the finding of the riot. The court bailed but did not dis-

at

Even

moved

Diggers

after the

Cobham Heath

to

a

few

miles away the raids continued, and by April 1650 the colony had been forcibly dispersed, huts

the area. score

was

It

men

and

a

and furniture burnt, the Diggers chased away from

brief episode in English history, involving perhaps a few

their families:

we know

and

Forests

Thus

if

we

the

Commons

New Model Army

see the

democracy, commons, wastes and intensive schools in

names of seventy-three of them.

as a short-lived

school of political

were longer-lasting though

forests

economic democracy. Winstanley thought

half to two-thirds of

England was not properly

cultivated.

that

less

from

a

One-third of

England was barren waste, which lords of manors would not permit the

poor

to cultivate.

dren,

30

'If the

would become

it

waste land of England were manured by her chil-

in a

few years the

less (it

was then more

like 6s. or 7s.).

digger poet Robert Coster added,

31

An

and [most]

richest, the strongest

flourishing land in the world'; the price of corn

would

fall

to

is.

a

bushel or

increase in the cultivated area, the

would bring down

the price of land and

therewith the cost of living. 32

claimed property rights in the

The custom, by which lords of manors commons, and so could prevent their culti-

vation to the advantage of the poor, argued Winstanley, should have been

abolished by the overthrow of kingly power. 33

Communal

cultivation

could allow for capital investment in improvements without sacrificing the

of commoners. There was land enough to maintain ten times the

interest

present population, abolish begging and crime, and

make England

'first

of

the nations'. 34

This was the programme which Winstanley conceived in the cruel

winter of 1648-9. attributed

it

It

him so novel and so important that he command. The vision which he had in a trance told

seemed

to a divine

to

him

to declare abroad the message:

that

works

eously earth a ation this

.

.

.

for another, either for

together; eat bread together.' 'He

'Work

wages or

to pay

him

rent,

works unright-

but they that are resolved to work and eat together, making the

common

treasury,

from bondage, and

doth join hands with Christ to

restores

message both verbally and

all

lift

up the

cre-

things from the curse.' After declaring

in print,

Winstanley decided he must 'go

CHRISTOPHER

forth

and declare

it

in

my

HILL,

"LEVELLERS

action'

by organizing

communal

LEVELLERS"

lands'.

23

common

'us that are called

common

people to manure and work upon the Winstanley's conclusion, that

AND TRUE

35

cultivation of the

was the crucial question, the starting-point from which

commons

common

people

all

over England could build up an equal community, was absolutely right.

'The whole Digger movement,' regarded

upon

as

Mr Thomas

has written, 'can be plausibly

the culmination of a century of unauthorized encroachment

commoners, pushed on

the forests and wastes by squatters and local

by land shortage and pressure of population' - and, MrsThirsk adds, by lack of employment for casual labour in the depression of 1648-9. 36 Winstanley

had arrived

at

which was not merely

the one possible democratic solution

backward-looking,

as all

other radical proposals during the revolutionary

— an agrarian law, partible inheritance, stable copyholds — tended to The economic arguments against those who merely defended com-

decades be.

moners' traditional rights in the waste were overwhelming. England's

growing population could be fed only by more intensive

men

bringing marginal land under the plough. Enclosure by brutally disregarding the rights

long run,

its

of commoners, did

advocates rightly claimed,

the short run

it

disrupted a

employment which

it

way of

it

created

life,

cultivation,

at least

with

by

capital,

do the job;

in the

more employment. But

in

causing intense misery and the

did ultimately create was not of a sort to attract free

commoners. Collective cultivation of the waste by the poor could have had the

advantages of large-scale cultivation, planned development, use of izers, etc.

It

fertil-

could have fed the expanding English population without

way of life to anything like the extent that in fact happened. The Diggers sowed their land with carrots, parsnips and beans crops of the sort which were to transform English agriculture in the seventeenth century by making it possible to keep cattle alive throughout the winter in order to fertilize the land. 37 'Manuring' is the crucial word in disrupting the traditional

Winstanley's programme. ('True religion and undefiled quietly have earth to manure.') Winstanley

had got

is

to let every

a solution to his

one

own

paradox: 'the bondage the poor complain of, that they are kept poor by their brethren in a land

where there

covetousness and pride did not rule

The

as

is

so

much

plenty for everyone,

if

king in one brother over another'. 38

gentry and parsons around St George's Hill appreciated that the

Diggers were doing something different in kind from the traditional squatting of cottagers.

Even communal

cultivation

of the earth, Parson

assured Winstanley, was less intolerable than cutting timber that

the

common.

Squatting and cultivating the earth could be

Piatt

grew on

deemed

to be

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

24

done by courtesy of the lord of the was

a direct assertion

And indeed

of

soil;

was intended by the Diggers

it

be

'to

our poor brethren through the land of England, eat

till

wood

but cutting

against his wishes

property right which could not be overlooked.

a

a stock for ourselves

... to provide us

the fruit of our labours in the earth bring forth increase'.

The

down

'our

manor

Diggers had ordered the lords of the

common woods

and

trees

.

.

.

for

to stop cutting

your private

use'. It

was intended,

necessary step.

By and

39

1650 the Diggers had added

a

demand

Winstanley further suggested that the land should be repudiated, and that monasteries fund.

40

all

Law

two proposals would

last

The danger from

crown

of Freedom

authorized by Parliament

lands confiscated at the dissolution of the

Commonwealth

land

deep into existing property

bite

the Diggers was that they called

organize themselves for practical action. if

sales

century earlier should be added to the

a

These

relations.

for confiscated church,

land to be turned over to the poor. In The

royalists'

as all

econom-

the Diggers' actions were, to be a symbolic challenge as well as an ically

and

bread to

on

the poor to

A series of collective communities,

they had lasted, would have overcome the dispersion of forces which

bedevilled the Levellers: they the

New Model Army

have extended Collective

all

for the

True Levellers what

and they could

Levellers;

over the country.

manuring of the

Diggers; for Parson Lee

government

would have been

might have been for the

'a

common

hedge

lands was a religious act for the

in the field

is

necessary in

as

church or commonwealth'. Religion,

in the

and government were closely linked

name of reformation'

for

[of the church],

both

its

as

'is

as

'The very

sides in the dispute.

Lee added,

kind

property

liberty,

much exploded

by

the vulgar as enclosure; those sacred ordinances of magistracy and ministry .

.

.

are

now become

offensive to the leveling multitude.'

41

True Commonwealth's Freedom For Winstanley Jesus Christ was the Head Leveller. 42 Winstanley s thought incorporates

many

Leveller ideas:

of the small proprietor, in

its

it

goes beyond them, beyond the vision

hostility to private

property

made

In the beginning of time the great creator, Reason,

common govern

treasury, to preserve beast, birds, fishes

this creation

.

.

.

did set up one

man

to teach

.

.

.

the earth to be

and man. the lord

Not one word was spoken

branch of mankind should rule over another

as such.

But

in the .

.

.

that

beginning

selfish

that

imaginations

and rule over another. And thereby

.

.

.

.1

was to

one .

.

man was

.

CHRISTOPHER

HILL, "LEVELLERS

brought into bondage, and became

AND TRUE

the earth

enclosures by the teachers and rulers, and the others were that earth that

within

is

bought and sold and kept mightily dishonoured,

made

this creation

in the

hands of

he were

as if

common

a

.

.

kind than

made

.

.

.

slaves.

storehouse for

And

all,

is

great Creator

is

of persons, delighting

a respecter

25

was hedged into

.

whereby the

a few,

own

such of his

a greater slave to

And hereupon

the beasts of the field were to him.

LEVELLERS"

in the

comfortable livelihood of some and rejoicing in the miserable poverty and straits

of others. From the beginning

Winstanley told lords of manors

it

was not so

.

.

that:

power of enclosing land and owning property was brought

the

by your ancestors by the sword; which

men, and

after

plunder or

you, their children.

And

steal

away

first

their land,

and

land successively to

left this

though you did not

therefore,

into the creation

did murder their fellow creatures,

kill

or thieve, yet you

hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you

wicked deeds of your

justify the

visited tion,

land.

upon

and

fathers,

of your fathers

that sin

shall

be

the head of you and your children to the third and fourth genera-

and longer

too,

till

your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the

43

Winstanley extended the Leveller justification of

democracy

political

to

economic democracy: The .

.

.

poorest

man

hath

True freedom

lies

and just right to the land

as true a title

people have no more freedom in England but only to brothers and

work

them

for

more than we can have

in

for hire,

that

he declared,

hath',

among

their elder in

England

Turkey or France? 44

back the laws of the

to get

is

England

live

man

common

If the

what freedom then have they

Norman Yoke,

Winstanley transcended the Leveller theory of the

we need

the richest

as

enjoyment of the earth ...

in the free

free

that

all

Anglo-Saxons. 'The best laws

yokes and manacles, tying one sort of

'are

people to another.' 'All laws that are not grounded upon equity and reason, not giving

freedom to

a universal

cut off with the King's head.'

45

all

but respecting person, ought

But England's

rulers

... to

be

had not completed the

Revolution: While

this

kingly

power reigned

complained of oppression were assembled

come and kingly still,

in

help you

power

.

.

.

in

one man

Thereupon you

Parliament, you called .

in that

.

.That top bough

one

particular

is

is

called Charles, that

upon

all

sorts

of people

were the gentry, when you

the poor

common

people to

lopped off the tree of tyranny, and the

cast out.

But

alas,

and keeps off the sun of freedom from the poor

oppression

commons

is

still.

a great tree

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

26

Kingly power, clergy, lawyers, and buying and selling were truly

must

fall, all

fall'.

linked:

all

many

Winstanley must have been expressing the opinions of

when he wrote

appointed radicals

Army

Therefore, you

if

you do not

field,

up

set

may be

but they

in

In 1652,

won

Saxon

if so

the field of you, though you

laws. 'No, that

law of righteousness before the

two

Fall.'

Law

of Freedom

in a Platform, a draft

communist commonwealth. 'All men have stood

written

'and

earlier;

now

in a mist, seeking for

stanley could

the

common enemy

no body than

is

gone you

that

to have

lies

where

no food

of land and labour ceased. 49

for

it.'

must look

of Freedom: the reader

with which

been intended

have

Cromwell

in the

hope

as

that

but on the while

Mr

his

it is

it is

worked

may account at St

Dell pertinently pointed out

ical

opposition to the

evils

anarchist society. Magistrates

of

for

George's

pictures of communist society. his

50

some

The

own

had

it is.'

men

Win-

receives

his

A man

had

.

and buying

Its

Law

significance

lies

at that date,

but

of Freedom seems to

it.

How

Oliver

to

else in 1652

could

some apparent compromises, s

ideals as

Hill.

years ago that Winstanley gives

first

can be deduced from

times.

He

his crit-

depicted by contrast an

and lawyers would be superfluous when there

where any mechanic

state, in

.

established,

selling, just as a professional clergy

necessary in a society

.

like

all

statement of Winstanley

a straightforward

two

then expected the

out. The

he would implement

experience

was no buying or

constitution

document, dedicated

'possibilist'

a

have been realized? This

modified by

Cobham,

True human dignity would

for himself.

it

but to

impossible to summarize The

It is

at

man

a

not only in the general conception, remarkable enough also in the detail

are

of the earth

in the use

is

when communal ownership was

be possible only selling

it';

for freedom', he

freedom and know not where nor what

them. 'True freedom

tell

nourishment and preservation, better have

not

is

48

years after the collapse of the Digger colony at

Winstanley published The for a

it

For

established.

47

only' and restore

restore 'the pure

Law

freedom

Diggers' aim, he had told Fairfax in 1649, was not to remove the

Norman Yoke

and

The enemy

it!

your laws again, King Charles hath con-

quered you and your posterity by policy, and seemingly have cut off his head.

dis-

too hard for you by policy in

common

stick close to see

be that kingly authority be

The

one

in 1652:

of England's Commonwealth, look to

could not beat you in the counsel

'if

46

is

would become un-

free to preach.

51

Winstanley

Marxist phrase, to wither away immediately

'What need have we of imprisonment, whipping or hanging

law

s

to bring

"

CHRISTOPHER

HILL, "LEVELLERS

AND TRUE

one another into bondage?' Only covetousness made even for it

away.

came

murder would

52

But

be murder: only

itself

may

realized that 'offences

new

society,

from the

arise

not punitive.

53

He

bondage

now

emphasized

and destroy

'restrict

who

all

Execution

life

may

take

when Winstanley

of unreasonable ignorance'.

spirit

that

gives

27

he included laws because he

prisons were abolished, and he insisted that

But

theft a sin.

God who

of the Digger colony,

after the collapse

to draft a constitution for his

LEVELLERS'

all

law must be corrective,

an army would be needed to

endeavour to keep up or bring in kingly

again', to protect the

people', and to enforce the laws;

community against 'the rudeness of the but this army was to be a popular militia,

which would not obey any Parliament not representative of the people. Liberty

is

secured by a right of popular resistance. 54

Winstanley 's experience with 'rude freeholders'

among

perhaps with Ranters

at St

George's Hill, and

own ranks, had taught him He now foresaw that a longer

his

compromises might be required.

some

that

process of

education and adaptation would be necessary than he had originally envisaged.

He

proposed to have magistrates, elected annually and responsi-

ble to 'their masters, the people,

include planners ('Overseers').

who

During

chose them'. These

should

officials

period such officers

a transitional

might receive pay and maintenance allowances, in order to ensure that poor

men

served.

The

laws for the preservation of the

labour.

They extended even

selling, rape,

ley

rights

and forced buying and

as to

make

punishments that are to be

'all

the offender ... to live in the

law of love one with another'.

punishment for

idleness,

He

inflicted ... are only

community of the righteous

had then postulated forced labour

as a

an offence which he associated with the gentry

rather than with the poor.

lawyers,

civil

or following the trade of lawyer or parson. 55 In 1649 Winstan-

had written that

such

commonwealth were

to the death penalty for murder,

enforced by penalties, including deprivation of

50

In his ideal

commonwealth

there

would be no

and prisons would be abolished; accused persons would appear on

parole (the breaking of which was another offence punishable by death).

bound

Since Winstanley envisaged no forcible expropriation, there was to be a time-lag

during which persuasion was used against 'the

unreasonable ignorance', 'the

spirit

the franchise was extended to

those

who had been

which they were

of rudeness'.

too hasty to buy and

was

No

doubt for

this

instituted.

sell

commonwealth

I

and

lands -

need not be church members,

Marriage was to be

a civil

ceremony,

money. Parliament, chosen annually, would be the highest court

equity in the land, overseeing

.ill

other courts and

officials.

of

reason

males except supporters of Charles

to restore. Officials

universal toleration

love not

all

57

spirit

i.e.

tor ol

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

28

Harrington, attached great political importance to

Winstanley, like

property in land. Although

communal

cipal remedy for England's

economic

His

life.

which

extent to

list

ills,

cultivation

seemed

him

to

the prin-

he by no means ignored other aspects of

of industries in The Law of Freedom illustrates the England virtually all industry was a

in seventeenth-century

matter of collecting and processing natural products. Winstanley criticized the

way

in

which

tolls in

Winstanley had thought out there

would have

things the Soviet

to

be

who

market towns pillaged the country people

59 used them. This would end

a state

government

when buying and problem

his

monopoly

were abolished.

selling

sufficiently to appreciate that

power

established after taking over

Abolition of wage labour had

as a

one of the

for foreign trade,

first

in 1917.

60

necessary corollary the preservation of

apprenticeship. In general Winstanley thought the system of government in

London companies elected annually.

'very rational

and well ordered', provided

officials

were

61

Education naturally seemed to Winstanley of the greatest importance.

was to continue

man was

until a

'acquainted with

Quite exceptionally for the seventeenth century, both

sexes)

'merely

it

all arts

was to be universal

and equal: there were to be no specialized scholars

upon

the labours of other men',

It

and languages'.

whose 'show of knowledge

(for

living rests in

reading or contemplating or hearing others speak'. Children should be trained 'in trades

and some bodily employment,

guages or history'. spin.

'fear

would

rare inventions'. 'Kingly

to

well

as in

learning lan-

learn music and to read, sew, knit, and to

be encouraged and rewarded.

suffer

it

power hath crushed the

to rise

up

in

its

beauty and

be publicized through the two Postmasters

in each parish collect

as

of want and care to pay rent to taskmasters hath hindered

and would not were

Girls

Experiment and invention were

Hitherto

many

62

-

officers

and report

unique to Winstanley, so

statistical

spirit

of knowledge,

fullness.'

who

far as

I

63

Inventions

were to be elected know. They would

information about the health and welfare of

their

communities, and would publicize important information from other

parts

of the country reported to them from regional centres. The idea may

owe something links

it

to Hartlib's Office

with that

influential in

of Addresses, but

political arithmetic

England

its statistical

which William Petty was

in the later seventeenth century.

The

to

approach

make

so

Postmasters

would thus at once make known any new invention or discovery. This was one of the many ways in which Winstanley s communist organization of society

would break down

would be

abolished.

internal barriers to national unity. Trade secrets

So the commonwealth would be

peace and plenty, and others would be stirred up

'to

assisted to flourish in

employ

their reason

CHRISTOPHER

and industry'

Winstanley put

29

insist,

but

'to

as a

the beauty of our commonwealth',

words of which William Blake or Herbert Marcuse

in

it,

LEVELLERS"

merely in order to increase production,

in emulation, not

modern economist would as

AND TRUE

"LEVELLERS

HILL,

might have approved. 64 Winstanley spoke for 'the poor despised ones of the these

who formed

of society

his

colony

at St

whole, of humanity

as a

my

and the

livelihood,

65

and

it

was

George's Hill. But he thought in terms

whole.

as a

liberty

of

this

You poor

'Alas!

Norman

moles', he cried to 'lords of manors and

away

earth',

blind earth

gentry', 'You strive to take

poor weak frame

my body

of

flesh, which is my house I dwell in for a time; but I strive to cast down your kingdom of darkness, and to open hell gates, and to break the devil's bonds asunder wherewith you are tied, that you my enemies may live in peace; and that is all the harm I would have you to have.' 66 The Ranter Abiezer Coppe thought there was 'a most glorious design' in the overthrow of property: 'equality, community and universal love shall be in request, to

utter

confounding of abominable pride, murder, hypocrisy, tyranny and

oppression'.

67

Similarly Winstanley believed that

wheresoever there into oneness,

be

as

one man

is

a

people

become

will

it

.

.

common community

united by

.

of livelihood

the strongest land in the world; for then they will

to defend their inheritance

.

.Whereas on the other

.

side,

plead-

ing for property and single interest divides the people of a land and the whole

world into everywhere it

must

.

.

.

parties, .

.

.

then

dominion over

and

is

the cause of

this

enmity of

his

common

kill

none

treasury again, as shall dare to

another, nor desire

seek

more of

68

Myths

the most astonishing of the is

a

lands will cease, and

all

New One of

wars and bloodshed and contention

others, neither shall any dare to

the earth than another.

stanley

all

But when once the earth becomes

for

many

Old astonishing things about

Win-

mythological use of Biblical material. There are of course

precedents: the Family of Love was accused of turning the Bible into allegories, especially the story

Salmon taught ical

of the

Fall.

that the true Christian

mystery

is

Christ in

the imagery of the the male and

man

7 us'. "

Abiezer

Song of Songs the female.'

1

So did many Ranters. Joseph

was not he

.

who

power of the

truth of the Bible, 'but he that by the

history to be verified in the mystery;

69

.

.

Coppe

the history in

believed the histor-

spirit believes all this is

Christ for

us, the

an early pamphlet employed

to depict an erotic

union between

Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah and

C Ihrist

Isaac,

wen-

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

30

allegories,

Erbery

insisted,

accused of turning

The Quakers were

things into allegories, or a Christ within them'. 73

'all

They mythologized,

'though such person were'. 72

of the resurrection to such an

for example, the story

extent that they were often believed to have claimed to raise from the dead

when they only meant that they had effected a conversion. 74 The mental habit was medieval. Calvin too taught that God spoke capacity of his audience.

Latin text

whose

was one thing

to put their

vernacular text available for

ground of a

it

on

sacredness was accepted

mechanic laymen

for

But

all

own

to read,

all sides; it

allegorical

and to do

which allowed popular

was quite another

constructions

on

a

the back-

this against

conditions of free and

critical Protestant Biblical scholarship, in

unfettered discussion

to the

for the clergy to allegorize a

attitudes free rein,

and

in an

atmosphere charged with millennarian expectations.

some ways Winstanley looks forward not only

In

Vico and Blake. His very

clear.

He

critical attitude

to Milton but also to

towards the text of the Scripture

noted the contradictions which Walwyn and Clarkson

saw: the Bible suggested the existence of

But Winstanley used

this

before

Adam,

for instance.

not merely negatively, to discredit the Biblical

narrative; but to insist that the story

metaphorically, not

men

is

also

literally.

75

By

ration of the Bible, as Ranters,

of

Adam

and Eve must be taken

implication Winstanley denied the inspi-

Clement Writer and the Quaker Samuel

Fisher did. Winstanley was in fact not really interested in the historical truth or otherwise of the Bible:

or no,

it

matters not much.' 'The

tual mysteries,

The Virgin

spirit.'

The

Bible should be

of which one was already convinced: Winstanley

to use Acts 4.32 to justify

community of property. 76

Birth was an allegory; 77 so was the resurrection. 'Christ lying

corn of wheat buried under the clods of earth for

in the grave, like a

and Christ

Scriptures are but a report of spiri-

of them by the eye of the

illustrate truths

was prepared

whole

held forth to the eye of flesh in words, but to be seen in the

substantial matter

used to

'Whether there were such outward things

rising

up from the powers of your

flesh,

and above those clouds, treading the curse under

a time,

above that corruption his feet,

is

to

be seen

within'; Winstanley appears to reject any other resurrection or ascension.

The

resurrection of the dead occurs during our lives

judgement has already begun and some heaven. 79 less all

The

casting out of covetousness

society will be

'a

new heaven and

the prophecies of the

Old and

a

common

treasury'.

80

Salvation

is

earth: the day

new

earth'.

New Testaments liberty

'this

of

kingdom of

and the establishment of a

the Jews and the restoration of Israel refer to a

on

are already living in the

8

class-

Even more remarkably, regarding the calling of

work of making

the earth

and peace. The second coming

is

CHRISTOPHER up of Christ

'the rising

man must

31

then cease. 81

Garden of Eden Winstanley

story of the

LEVELLERS"

and daughters'; the worship of any other

in sons

Christ but the Christ within

The

AND TRUE

HILL, "LEVELLERS

treated as an idle tale unless

taken allegorically. 'The public preachers have cheated the whole world by

of

telling us

a single

Adam

called

the forbidden

fruit';

man. 82 'The apple

Winstanley

as for

all

by eating

man and woman

a single

that hath eaten

symbolizes the power of covetousness in every

that the first

Adam

see

Adam

man

eats

is

.

.

.

the objects of the creation.'

down

every day before our eyes walking up and

The symbolism of the garden

street.'

that killed us

an apple': in fact 'you are the

fruit, called

'We may

man

the

has almost as great a significance for

Marvell or Milton. Eden

is

mankind. 83 In Eden

is

fought

out the conflict between Reason on the one hand and covetous imagina-

on the

tion

innocency or plain-heartedness

other. 'This

man was

in

not

an estate 6,000 years ago only but every branch of mankind passes through it

.This

.

.

the field or heaven wherein Michael and the

is

Dragon

fights the

God Almighty.' And this conflict still goes on. 'There is no woman needs go to Rome nor to hell below ground, as some talk,

great battle of

man

or

to find the Pope, Devil, Beast or

heaven above the

powers

be

are to

power of darkness; neither

skies to find Christ the

felt

within

a

man, fighting

word of

go up into

to

For both these

life.

against each other.'

84

This poetic concern with spiritual meaning rather than with historical truth enabled Winstanley to blend the

Norman

the

Conquest:

was the

myth of the

'the last enslaving

Norman

Fall

with the myth of

conquest which the enemy got

over England'. 85 Equally allegorical

Winstan-

over

Israel

ley

use of the stories of Cain and Abel, of Esau and Jacob: the younger

s

is

brother being the 'poor oppressed'; the elder brother the rich freeholders. 86 'Cain

still

is

phlets

alive in all the great landlords', said

which Winstanley probably did not

birthright', says

To

persons.

this

the elder brother replies, like

by quoting Scripture. But 'though

time

now

is

blessing

come'; he will supplant Esau, and

is

'the earth

my

is

no respecter of

seventeenth-century

Jacob be very low, yet 'takes

his

both birthright and

the ending of the old world', said a pamphlet

new

world'.

89

The Ranter Abiezer Coppe

the righteous Abel' with the 'blood of the 90

many

is

which

Norfolk in February 1649. 'The reign of Jacob, of the

begins the

death'.

But

from him'. 88 Use of the myth of the two brothers deserves further

study. 'Esau

lated in

this

87

God

Winstanley 's younger brother:

clerics,

one of the Digger pam-

write.

George Fox used the myth

Bnnyan, were

'lords

and

necks under oppression.'

rulers', 92

in

last

while 'Abel and

91

his

.

.

.

linked 'the blood of

Levellers that

[659.

circu-

saints

'Cain's

were shot

to

brood', wrote

generation have then

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

32

Dr Thirsk

"The Diggers' Song,"

has

shown how

actual

were the problems

attributed to Gerrard

of younger brothers in seventeenth-century England. 93

Winstanley

Opposition to primogeniture was perhaps more wide-

more

and

spread You noble Diggers

stand up now,

all,

appreciated.

than

significant

was shared by the

It

historians

have

Hugh

Peter,

Levellers,

stand up now,

You noble Diggers

The wast

stand up now,

all,

Northtonus

land to maintain, seeing

name

Cavaleers by

all

Robert Wiseman

(1655),

Champianus

Sheppard,

Covell, William Sprigge and the

Your digging does maintain, and persons

Harrington, William

James

(1656),

William

anonymous author of

Chaos (1659). Abolition of primogeniture, in order to

defame

destroy 'the monopolies of elder brethren', was

one of

Stand up now, stand up now.

the objectives of Venner's Fifth Monarchist revolt in Your houses they

down, stand up

pull

pull

down, stand up

pull

down

now.

men

in

most opposed

to fright

appeal.

town

come down,

But the gentrye must

and the poor

shall

wear the crown.

Stand up now, Diggers

stand up now, stand up

their

share,

Your freedom to uphold, seeing

birthright

a

men

self-will

is

self-will

is

now no

theire law, stand

up

that

up

came

back

men

in

they count

gin,

to starve poor

basis

of Ireton's

demand

for the

of

guilt

from

Adam

to

all

notion of an original contract

all

time.

of nature could bind

97

the Everlasting Gospel goes

human

in the twelfth century.

history into three ages: that of the

from the

Fall to the

death of Christ, the age of

the Law; followed by that of the Son, the age of the

Gospel; the third age, the age of the Spirit, was always all.

all

round, stand up

now, stand up now, are

was the

Joachim of Fiore

the present age, in into the hearts of

The gentrye

from status.

it

Father,

Stand up now, Diggers

are

It

in the state

The myth of

at least to

This divided

therein.

The gentrye

inheritance

Winstanley took over and transformed other popular beliefs.

theire law, stand

sin

To make a gaol a

signified

all.

now. Since tyranny

legend deeper mytho-

was equivalent to freeborn

living, just as the

assumed

now, stand up now,

now.

the

of freeborn Englishmen. The doctrine of origi-

their posterity for

men

whom

John Bunyan, might be tempted to sell 96 Inheritance was the backbone of

hold.

Stand up now, Diggers

Theire

those

of property, however small

nal sin assumes transmission

they could, and rights

from you to

like

men

For

seventeenth-century society.

rights

Cavaliers are bold if

radicals gave the

defence of property, of the Levellers'

stand up now,

Theire

after

—

their birthright.

now

With spades and hoes and plowes

you

But the

logical overtones.

Some,

kill

families

authority to

paternal

to

ancestors; property

all.

With spades and hoes and plowes,

To

Quaker converts from landed

rough egalitarianism of northern yeomen would most

Your houses they your

94

1662 were mostly younger sons and daughters 93

now, stand up now,

Your houses they

1661.

all

round, stand up

which the Holy all

forms and ordinances.

men It

to free

was

Spirit

was coming

them from existing

a heretical

doctrine, for

it

not only rejected the authority of the institutionalized church, but

it

put the

spirit

within

man

above the

CHRISTOPHER

HILL, "LEVELLERS

AND TRUE

of Scripture. This doctrine had been taken over

letter

by the Familists and Jacob Boehme; in the

England of the

1640s.

it

was widespread

LEVELLERS"

The gentrye

33

are

round, on each

all

side they are found,

Theire wisdom's so profound, to

98

cheat us of our ground

Winstanley, by a remarkable imaginative

muted

apocalyptic

this

vision

rationalism and democracy.

of

God

into

The key

lies

feat, trans-

of

theory

a

in his equation

with Reason, and Reason with the law of the

now

universe. In the third age,

who

himself,

beginning, 'the Lord

Eternal Gospel, doth manifest

the

is

Stand up now, stand up now.

The lawyers they conjoyne,

The

lawyers they conjoyne, stand up

now,

To arrest you they

himself to rule in the flesh of sons and daughters'.

Their hearts will be returned to the Reason which pervades the cosmos, to 'that spiritual power that guides end'.

all

men's reasoning in right order to

man

Every

subject to Reason's law

Son or God. He no longer ruler

without him,

ruler

is

is

'the ministration

upon

a

becomes

a

God and

a

be called conscience or love

it

second coming,

Christ's

after

of Christ in one single person

which

is

to

be

and draw back' before the righteousness and

The

devill in

A

in every person."

similar transvaluation

More

Puritans

radical

and the

as

regard

to

as

as a

crusade for Christ

again Antichrist. Winstanley again pushed this farther still,

seeing property

itself as antichristian,

embodied

in

covetousness or self-love. 100 'The antichristian captivity is

and hath

Stand up now, stand up now.

come

clergy they

in,

stand up

come

in,

stand up

come

in,

and say

now, stand up now,

The

clergy they

now.

The

clergy they

it

is

a sin

That

we

now

should

begin,

our

for to win.

Stand up now, Diggers

all.

The

have, stand

tithes

they yet

will

up now, stand up now,

The

tithes

they yet

will

have, stand

they yet

will

have, and

up now.

war

civil

came

Church of England

bishops and indeed the whole antichristian,

lies,

took place with the myth

of Antichrist. Orthodox divines saw the Pope Antichrist.

them

blinded both their eyes.

freedom

wisdom

advise, such fury

they devise,

The

the beast of the field does'; his

within, whether

or Reason. This

silent

as

'looks

right

a

stand up

now, stand up now,

expiring', he thought; but the civil

war had not

completed Antichrist's overthrow. There was

still

The

tithes

lawyers their fees crave,

And

this

they say

the poor their

is

brave, to

make

slave.

Stand up now, Diggers

all.

a 'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests,

conflict

of 'Beast against Beast, covetousness and pride

against covetousness

and

pride'.

101

'That government

that gives liberty to the gentry to have

all

the earth,

and shuts out the poor commoners from enjoying any part, ...

is

Antichrist', that

the

government of imaginary, self-seeking

and must be rooted out. Winstanley hoped

England would be the

'that Beast,

first

country to

fall

off from

kingly property'. 102

Since the external world

is

the manifestation

of

stand up now, stand up now, 'Gainst lawyers

and

'gainst Priests

stand up now.

For tyrants they are both even

flatt

againnst their oath,

To grant us they are and drink and

loath free

cloth.

Stand up now, Diggers

all.

meat

CULTURAL RESISTANCE

34

The

club

is all

their law, stand

Winstanley's God, our senses are to be valued because

up

The

club

is all

their law, stand

up

in

club

is all

their law to

keep

men

world.

Man

must

awe,

imaginations, books or hearsay doctrines.

We know God by the senses, 'in the

Then God

all.

tasting, smelling, feeling'.

own

their

The Cavaleers

light, this

is

are foes, stand up

The Cavaleers

outward

are foes, stand up

and

now;

The Cavaleers

are foes, themselves

they do disclose in

104

When

'the state

the five senses act in

of simple plainhearted-

When man

ness or innocency'.

now, stand up now,

By verses not

clear-sighted expe-

rience of one single creature, man, by seeing, hearing,

law.

Stand up now, Diggers

places his

Hobbist

state

competition bordering on war. here: only

when

of nature,

Man

finds

dering power' has been cast out does

Stand up now, Diggers

all.

all,

come

in

love,

come

now

To conquer them by

mur-

God become

105

'all

Winstanley passionately asserted

the earthly nature of this Paradise of the senses:

in

of

a state

the alone king in that living soul or earth, or the

five living senses'.

To conquer them by

in

no happiness

'the selfish, imaginary, covetous,

prose to please the

in

good

objects, imagination 'corrupts the five senses'

this leads to a

singing boyes.

now,

live in himself,

walks and delights himself in his garden, mankind. 103

But they no vision saw to maintain

such a

this

not out of himself; in his five senses, not in empty

now.

The

know

by them we

now, stand up now,

'Oh ye

hearsay preachers, deceive not the people any longer by love,

come

in

them that this glory shall not be known and the body is laid in the dust. I tell you, this great mystery is begun to appear, and it must be seen by the telling

now;

To conquer them by

love, as

it

does

you behove, For hee like

is

King above,

noe power

till

material eyes of the flesh: and those five senses that

man

to love,

Glory here, Diggers

is

seen

all.

is

shall

at a distance

and so

nature;

in

is

partake of this glory'. 'All outward glory that

of Heaven

is

from the

is

five senses ...

is

of

a transient

the heaven that your preachers

here in

this

world. Winstanley

tell

you

made

the

point with his accustomed epigrammatic vigour by

on 'proud

calling 'stoop

priests' to 'leave off their trade'

unto our God'.

them down

to earth, to

the Diggers' song called for: 'Glory

But can

if

God

and

He was literally trying to bring God in man. The last line of

106

is

everywhere,

if

matter

here,

Diggers

1

God, then

is

"

all!'

there

be no difference between the sacred and the

secular:

pantheism leads to secularism.

Christopher

Hill,

The World Turned

Harmondsworth: Peregrine/Penguin, 128-50.

Upside

Down.

1972, pp. 107-13,

TWO THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

When

I

tell

people

study the politics of culture they sometimes respond, often

I

with a mild and vaguely condescending

who from artists who

sigh:

but

it's

just culture.

I

get this from

consider culture a distraction from the "real" struggle and

politicos

But culture

is

think of culture as reflecting only their

deeply

culture: tradition

and

and the culture

which

in

lived

we

experience live

own

Culture, artistic creation,

political.

(cf.

how

get

it

personal struggles.

an expression of

is

Williams). Both the culture

provide us with ideas of

I

we

enjoy

things are and

how

they should be, frameworks through which to interpret reality and possibility.

They help us account for the future. Culture can be,

than any army

should be.

is

and

make sense

past,

is,

way

a shared conception that the

The powers-that-be

don't remain

are the answer, but rather that there is,

of the present and

dream of the

used as a means of social control. More effective

is

in

things are

is

the

power by convincing

no other

you have

first

to imagine

it,

things

solution. But culture can be,

used as a means of resistance, a place to formulate other solutions.

strive for change,

way

us that they

and culture

is

In

and

order to

the repository of

imagination.

RAYMOND WILLIAMS, CULTURE," FROM KEYWORDS What does out

in this

"culture"

selection

to his surprise class still

Welsh

- and

family,

mean? Any number of

from Keywords. As interest

-

elite

his socialist

Raymond Williams

points

a young man at college, the author found

that "culture"

another to the

something else to

things, as

and

meant one

thing to his working-

Cambridge crowd of artist friends.

his university,

and

Even these meanings, he

found, changed over the short course of history, the span of the Second

World

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

36

War. This idea of culture as something created and debated

became the subject of Williams's seminal work of

history

and

Society

soned

(

1

Keywords

a short

is

was planned

956), of which Keywords

Appearing

at his editor's insistence).

in

its

meanings are contested terrain. Culture out, culture has at least three distinct

if

right

was

jetti-

later,

in

the sense that their

not discrete meanings. Culture

process of cultivation and growth - this carries through today usage. Culture

with such a slippery term) culture ings,

way of

a

in

living.

You

tion of culture, but the fact

of

is

how

Culture

is

its

(if

one can use that word These mean-

the product of a process which has

is

not leave Williams's essay with a definitive

be defined

in

one of the two or three most complicated words

in the English

so partly because of its intricate historical development, in

is

European languages, but mainly because

it

has

now come

to

be used

[forerunner of the word]

had

worship.

Some of

cultura,

is

L

[Latin],

a

L

colonus,

to

cult.

(1483)).

which by

[early]

eCi5

meaning was then Culture

in

its

own

[15th century]

all its

by

early uses

with

cultivation or tend-

cultura

were

couture,

specialized meaning,

[Old French],

and

later culture.

had passed into English. The primary of natural growth.

a noun of process: the tending oj someThe subsidiary coulter - ploughshare, had route, from culter, L - ploughshare, cultet

was

a different linguistic

eCi7 culture.

still

developed

In English culture as 'worship' in

[Old English], to the variant English spellings as

though

'inhabit'

though with subsidiary medieval

in husbandry, the tending

thing, basically crops or animals. travelled

(cf.

The French forms of

since developed

Thus

on the main meaning of

meanings of honour and worship

Caxton

[the root] colere,

'Honour with worship' developed through

to colony.

Cultura took

ings, including, as in Cicero, cultura animi,

which has

from

these meanings eventually separated,

occasional overlapping, in the derived nouns.

L

in

range of meanings: inhabit, cultivate, protect, honour with

L. Colere

through

and

and incompatible systems of thought.

several distinct

cultus,

its

defini-

the pages to come.

for important concepts in several distinct intellectual disciplines

The

first a

is

biological

you won't explains a great deal about the broad range

cultural resistance will

language. This several

will

finally

a thing, a product, an art work.

of course, overlap: art, for example,

roots

And

this definition.

in

way of understanding. Anthropolo-

also a pattern of living and a

is

comfortable with

gists are

(it

such a word. As Williams points

just

is

and

two decades

as an appendix

own

of problematic words: problematic

list

via politics

cultural studies, Culture

(Webster, Duchess of Malfi,

culter, colter, coulter

III,

ii:

and

as late

'hot burning cultures*).

This provided a further basis for the important next stage of meaning, by

RAYMOND

WILLIAMS. ••CULTURE"

37

metaphor. From eCi6 the tending of natural growth was extended to process of human

development, and

husbandry, was the main sense until

[late]

IC18 and eCio.Thus More:

the culture and profit of their minds': Bacon: "the culture and

minds' (1605): Hobbes:

"a

crucial changes occurred:

extension of particular processes to

could abstractly

earn.". It is

process of change it is

is

a

so intricate,

its

latter

of

early stages

second, an

direct:

which the word

development

and the

latencies

of meaning are

not possible to give any definite date. Culture

this

is

common

not

that the

complicated modern history, but the

pendent noun, an abstract process or the product of such important before IC18 and

in this

degree of habituation to

general process,

of course from the

independent noun culture began

so close, that

At various points

first, a

which made the sense of human tending

the metaphor,

as

an indeis

not

mCig. But

the

a process,

before [mid]

development were not sudden. There

is

an interesting

Religion, through

all

parts

to

of the Land, by communicating the

Government and Culture more

natural heat of

num

which now He

("natural heat")

Way

Commonwealth (1660): 'spread much more Knowledg and

Establish a Eree

parts,

times

at

use in Milton, in the second 'revised' edition of Tlie Readie and Easie

Civility; yea.

"to

manurance of

culture of their minds' (1651); Johnson: "she neg-

lected the culture of her understanding' (1759).

development two

a

m

meaning

alongside the original

this,

still

distributively to

extreme

all

and neglected". Here the metaphorical sense

appears to be present, and

civility is still

written where in

C19 we would normally expect culture. Yet we can also read "government m a quite modern sense. Milton, from the tenor of his whole

and culture' argument, stage nite

writing about

is

associations

class

commonly used

general social process, and this

cit

clear sense:

has not

to breed

"it

this

is

a definite

general process acquired defi-

though cultivation and cultivated were more

for this.

Mrs Clayton:

tion.

a

of development. In CiS England

But there

Plumb. England

is

a letter

in the

of i~;o Bishop of

Killala. to

which

Eighteenth Century)

has this

been customary for persons of either birth of culture

up their children

to the

Church'. Akenside

Pleasures of Imagina-

i~44J wrote: 'nor purple state nor culture can bestow'.

Wordsworth

wrote "where grace of culture hath been utterly unknown* (1805). and Jane

Austen (Emma, 1816) 'every advantage of discipline and It is its

culture".

thus clear that culture was developing in English towards

modern

senses before the decisive effects of a

movement. But and eCi9.

we

especially in

to follow the

new

development through

have to look also

at

developments

social

this

and

some of

intellectual

movement,

in

IC18

in other languages

and

German.

In French, until

C18. culture was always accompanied by

a

grammatical

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

38

form indicating the matter being noted.

Its

cultivated, as in the English usage already

than similar occasional uses in

later

emerged

tion also

noun dates from mCi8, rather English. The independent noun civiliza-

occasional use as an independent

complicated

.

.

.

in

mCi8;

its

There was

relationship to culture has since

German: the word was borrowed from French, and from C19 Kultur.

vated';

second, in

Its

of

in the abstract sense

main use was a

the

still

as a

general process of

which had

sense

been very

point an important development in

at this

spelled

first

synonym

becoming already

(IC18) Cultur

for civilization: 'civilized'

first

or 'culti-

been established for

by the historians of the Enlightenment, in the popular C18 form

civilization

of the universal

histories, as a description

of the secular process of human

development. There was then a decisive change of use in Herder. In

his

unfinished Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind (1784—91) he

wrote of Cultur: 'nothing

more indeterminate than

is

nothing more deceptive than

its

application to

all

this

word, and

nations and periods'.

He

attacked the assumption of the universal histories that 'civilization' or

-

'culture'

- was what we

the historical self-development of humanity

would now

call a

of C18 European

unilinear process, leading to the high and culture.

dominant point

Indeed he attacked what he called European sub-

jugation and domination of the four quarters of the globe, and wrote:

Men

of all the quarters of the globe,

who

have perished over the ages, you have

not lived solely to manure the earth with your ashes, so that

at

the end of time

your posterity should be made happy by European culture. The very thought of a

superior European culture

a blatant insult to

is

then necessary, he argued, in

It is

innovation, to speak of 'cul-

and variable cultures of different nations and

tures' in the plural: the specific

periods, but also the specific

a decisive

the majesty of Nature.

and variable cultures of

social

a nation.

movement,

an alternative to the orthodox and dominant

was

first

as

'civilization'. It

used to emphasize national and traditional cultures, including the

new concept of folk-culture.

It

the 'mechanical' character of the

new

abstract rationalism

ment.

and economic

This sense was widely developed, in the Romantic

groups within

It

was

development.

was

later

used to attack what was seen

civilization

then emerging: both

and for the 'inhumanity' of current

used

to

distinguish

Politically, as so

between

it

as its

industrial develop-

'human'

often in this period,

for

and

'material'

veered between radi-

calism and reaction and very often, in the confusion of major social change,

fused elements of both.

(It

should also be noted, though

it

adds to the

real

complication, that the same kind of distinction, especially betw een 'material'

and

'spiritual'

development, was made by von Humboldt and others,

RAYMOND until as late as 1900,

and

WILLIAMS, "CULTURE"

39

with the reversal of the terms, culture being material

civilization spiritual. In general,

however, the opposite distinction was

dominant.)

On

the other hand, from the 1840s in Germany, Kultur was being used

much the sense in which civilization had been used in C18 universal histories. The decisive innovation is G.F. Klemm's Allgemeine Kulturgeschichte

in very

- General Cultural History of Mankind (1843-52) - which human development from savagery through domestication to free-

der Menschheit

traced

dom. Although the American anthropologist Morgan, stages,

used 'Ancient

with

Society',

a

tracing comparable

culmination in Civilization, Klemm's

sense was sustained, and was directly followed in English tive

Culture (1870).

along

It is

this line

by Tylor

in Primi-

of reference that the dominant sense

modern social sciences has to be traced. The complexity of the modern development of the word, and of its modern usage, can then be appreciated. We can easily distinguish the sense which depends on a literal continuity of physical process as now in 'sugarin

beet culture'

or, in

the specialized physical application in bacteriology since

the 1880s, 'germ culture'.

we have

But once we go beyond the physical

to recognize three broad active categories

two of these we have already

noun which thetic

discussed:

(i)

reference,

of usage. The sources of

the independent and abstract

describes a general process of intellectual, spiritual, and aes-

development, from C18;

generally or specifically,

which

(ii)

the independent noun, whether used

indicates a particular

way of life, whether of

a people, a period, a

group, or humanity in general, from Herder and

Klemm. But we have noun which describes

the works and practices of intellectual and especially

artistic activity.

also to recognize

now

This seems often

(iii)

the independent and abstract

the most widespread use: culture

A

music, literature, painting and sculpture, theatre and film.

Culture

refers to these specific activities,

philosophy, scholarship, history. This use, difficult to date precisely

because

it is

is

Ministry of

sometimes with the addition of

(iii), is

in fact relatively late.

in origin an applied

It is

form of sense

(1):

the idea of a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic develop-

ment was applied and which represent and of process;

cf.

effectively transferred to the

sustain

it.

But

it

also

'progressive culture of fine

works and

developed from the arts',

English Government, IV, p. 314 (18 12). In English

Millar, Historical (i)

and

(iii)

are

practices

earlier sense

View of

still

the

close; at

times, for internal reasons, they are indistinguishable as in Arnold, Culture

and Anarchy (1867); while sense

(ii)

was decisively introduced into English

by Tylor, Primitive Culture (1870), following Klemm.

ment of sense

(iii)

in English

was

in

IC19 and eC20.

The

decisive develop-

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

40

Faced by

complex and

this

by selecting one

react

other senses

as

'true'

loose or confused. There

where usage

Concepts and Definitions, effect taken as a

norm.

It is

But

has to be clarified.

in

in general

it is

way of life, and between both and It

especially

is

production, while in history and

are

some

also,

is

in

complex argument

human development and

a particular

the works and practices of art and intel-

archaeology and in

in

the reference

cultural studies

cultural

primarily to material

is

primarily to

is

This often confuses but even more often con-

recent argument

—

cf.

my own

always to be related rather than contrasted. Within this

there

Review of

of the relations between 'material' and 'symbolic'

ceals the central question

tions;

Critical

the range and overlap of meanings

interesting that

signifying or symbolic systems.

there are fundamentally

A

Culture:

North American anthropology

anthropology the reference to culture or a culture

production, which in

easy to

evidence of this reaction even in

senses indicates a

about the relations between general

ligence.

it is

sense and dismissing

clear that, within a discipline, conceptual usage

The complex of

significant.

is

is

of the word,

'scientific'

by Kroeber and Kluckhohn,

the excellent study

that

active history

still

or 'proper' or

opposed

as

well

understandably,

as effectively

many

Culture

— have

complex argument overlapping posi-

unresolved

questions

and

confused answers. But these arguments and questions cannot be resolved by reducing the complexity of actual usage. This point

is

relevant also to uses

of forms of the word in languages other than English, where there siderable variation.

The

anthropological use

common

is

Scandinavian and Slavonic language groups, but to the senses

ment, in

in the

is

con-

German,

distinctly subordinate

it is

of art and learning, or of a general process of human develop-

Italian

and French. Between languages

as

within a language, the

range and complexity of sense and reference indicate both difference of

and some blurring or overlapping. These

intellectual position

whatever kind, necessarily involve alternative views of the

and

tionships,

complexity, that

which It

its

is

which

processes is

to say,

is

not

this

complex

finally in the

word

word but

variations,

of

activities, rela-

indicates.

in the

The

problems

variations of use significantly indicate.

some

necessary to look also at

associated

and derived words.

Cultivation and cultivated went through the same metaphorical extension

from

a

physical to a social or education sense in C17, and were

especially significant

tinction

between

distinction,

words

in

civilization

and occasional

C18. Coleridge, making

and

culture,

contrast,

wrote

between

a classical eCio. dis-

(1830): 'the

cultivation

and

permanent civilization".

The noun in this sense has effectively disappeared but the adjective is still quite common, especially in relation to manners and tastes. The important

RAYMOND

from the 1870s;

adjective cultural appears to date

the 1890s.

The word

pendent noun,

become

is

only available, in

in the artistic

and

its

word culture

from the controversy around Arnolds views. eC20, in association with comparable

an area of

was

also

and

after the

central area

sized

sense,

when

the inde-

in English appears to date

gathered force in IC19 and

It

and

hostility to aesthete

produced the mime-word

hostility associated

aesthetic.

culchah.

hostility has lasted,

Its

There

with anti-German feeling, during

The

1914-18 War, in relation to propaganda about Kultur.

of

1

became common by

it

modern

4

intellectual or anthropological sense, has

familiar. Hostility to the

association with class distinction

WILLIAMS, "CULTURE"

and one element of it has been empha-

by the recent American phrase culture-vulture.

It is

significant that

the hostility (with the sole exception of the temporary anti-

virtually

all

German

association) has

been connected with uses involving claims

to

superior knowledge, refinement {culchah) and distinctions between 'high' (culture) and popular art and entertainment.

art

It

thus records a real

social history

and

a

development.

It is

interesting that the steadily extending social

very

difficult

and confused phase of social and

pological use of culture and cultural and such formations (the culture

of

a distinguishable small

as

cultural

and anthro-

sub-culture

group) has, except in certain areas

(notably popular entertainment), either bypassed or effectively diminished the hostility and

its

associated unease

culturalism, to indicate a

analysis, retains

and embarrassment. The recent use of

methodological contrast with

many of the

structuralism in social

and does not always bypass

earlier difficulties,

the hostility.

Raymond edition,

Williams, Keywords:

New York: Oxford

A

Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised

University Press, 1976/ 1985, pp. 87-93.

KARL MARX AND FREDERICK ENGELS, FROM THE GERMAN IDEOLOGY Written in

in

1845-6 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology was,

Marx's words,

to the gnawing criticism of the mice" and not published

"left

1932, long after their death. Written mainly for purposes of self-clarification

until

(and self-amusement),

it

is

indeed the clearest explication of Marx and Engels's

materialist philosophy. In this selection they address a simple question:

ideas

- consciousness and

"first

premises," establishing that the

produce that

we

in

culture

- come from? Marx and first

act of

humans

interaction with the natural and social world.

arrive at

our

ideas.

However, the world

in

which

is

It is

we

where do

Engels begin with

to produce, and

out of

this activity

act and think

is

not

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

42

some

primitive state of nature, but a

Therefore

complex and thoroughly

power to shape

stands to reason that those with

it

power to shape our consciousness, to

political society.

society also have

wit: "the ideas of the ruling class are in

every epoch the ruling ideas." Because these ideas are integrated into our every-

become normalized and

day activity they simply,

our culture.

change

this culture

it,

and

this

It

naturalized, invisible.

Marx and

follows from

you must change the

They become,

Engels's materialism that in

only accomplished, they believed, through revolutionary

is

The

activity.

of German Ideology

Illusions

As we hear from German

order to

and material base that produced

social

ideologists,

Germany

has in the

last

few years

gone through an unparalleled revolution. The decomposition of the Hegelian philosophy, which began with

ferment into which

versal

all

developed into

Strauss, has

a uni-

the 'powers of the past' are swept. In the

meet with immediate

general chaos mighty empires have arisen only to

doom, heroes have emerged momentarily only obscurity by bolder and stronger

was

rivals. It

to

be hurled back into

a revolution beside

which

which

the French Revolution was child's play, a world struggle beside

the

of the Diadochi [successors of Alexander the Great] appear

struggles

insignificant. Principles ousted

one another, heroes of the mind overthrew

each other with unheard-of rapidity, and in the three years 1842-5 more

of the past was swept away in Germany

other times in three

tjian at

centuries.

All this

supposed to have taken place in the realm of pure thought.

is

Certainly

it is

an interesting event

When

of the absolute

spirit.

components of

this caput

combinations and formed

who

till

seized

upon

which, to

all

in

last

we

are dealing with: the putrescence

spark of

had

its life

failed,

the

new

substances.

The

industrialists

efforts

combinations. Each with

all

with, was carried

the

found no response

the usual

on

German market was

in

moderately

glutted,

new

of philosophy spirit,

now

possible zeal set about

apportioned share. This naturally gave

start

when

new

the various

mortuum began to decompose, entered into

then had lived on the exploitation of the absolute

retailing his

Later

the

rise

staid

to competition,

bourgeois fashion.

and the commodity

in spite of

in the

world market, the business was spoiled

German manner by

fabricated and fictitious production,

deterioration in quality, adulteration of the raw materials, falsification of labels, fictitious purchases, bill-jobbing,

real basis.

The competition turned

and

into

a

a credit

system devoid of any

bitter struggle,

which

is

now

MARX AND ENGELS, FROM THE GERMAN IDEOLOGY being extolled and interpreted to us

43

revolution of world significance,

as a

the begetter of the most prodigious results and achievements. If

we wish

to rate at

true value this philosophic charlatanry,

its

awakens even in the breast of the honest German citizen pride, if we

of

wish to bring out clearly the

between the

beyond

a standpoint

German

we must look

criticism has, right

up

whole body of its

to

their very questions there

why

the reason

latest efforts,

its

its

was

never quitted the

from the

not one of these modern

dependence on Hegel even attempted

critics has

much

one another

is

com-

each professes

- each

are confined to this

extracts

whole system

this against the

one

as

of the Hegelian

side

well as against the sides

extracted by the others.

To begin with they extracted pure

Hegelian categories such

as 'substance'

desecrated these categories with

Unique', 'Man',

The from

a

advanced beyond Hegel. Their polemics against Hegel and against

system and turns

Stirner

of a defi-

soil

of Hegel. Not only in their answers but in a mystification. This

prehensive criticism of the Hegelian system, however to have

spectacle

general philosophic premises,

inquiries has actually sprung

nite philosophical system, that

whole

the

at

of Germany.

the frontiers

realm of philosophy. Far from examining the

in particular the tragicomic

of these heroes about their achievements and

illusions

the actual achievements themselves,

from

narrowness

pettiness, the parochial

whole Young Hegelian movement and

this

contrast

which

glow of national

a

entire is

really

religious

Strauss to

critics started

moral

religion

and as

man — 'man

a

they went

similarly in

religious

class

of

pronouncing politi-

or theological, and the

in the last resort

—

as religious.

The

was taken for granted. Gradually every dominant

was pronounced a cult

as

subsuming the allegedly dominant meta-

moral consciousness

political, juridical,

of law,

from

The

moral and other conceptions under the

religious or theological conceptions;

cult, a cult

criticism

conceptions.

meant was determined variously

along. Their advance consisted in physical, political, juridical,

relationship

they

later

as 'species', 'the

and actual theology. What religious consciousness and

conception

dominance of

names such

unfalsified

etc.

confined to criticism of

cal, juridical,

secular

body of German philosophical

real religion

religious

more

and 'self-consciousness',

a religious relationship

of the

State, etc.

On

all

sides

and transformed into it

was only

a

a

question

of dogmas and belief in dogmas. The world sanctified to an ever-increasing extent

till

at last

thus dispose of

our venerable Saint

it

once and

for

The Old Hegelians had

Max

was able to canonize

it

en bloc

and

all.

comprehended everything

as

soon

as

reduced to an Hegelian logical category. The Young Hegelians

it

was

criticized

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

44

everything by attributing to theological matter.

it

religious conceptions or

The Young Hegelians

by pronouncing

it

a

agreement with the Old

are in

Hegelians in their belief in the rule of religion, of concepts, of a universal principle in the existing world. Only, the

usurption, while the other extols

it

one party

attacks this

dominion

as

as legitimate.

Since the Young Hegelians consider conceptions, thoughts, ideas, in fact all

the products of consciousness, to

which they

attribute an

independent

men (just as the Old Hegelians declared human society) it is evident that the Young

existence, as the real chains of

the true bonds of

them

Hegelians have to fight only against these illusions of consciousness. Since,

according to their fantasy, the relationships of men,

their doings, their

all

chains and their limitations are products of their consciousness, the

men

Hegelians logically put to present consciousness for thus of

removing

amounts

or egoistic consciousness, and

critical,

demand

change consciousness

to

to interpret reality in another way,

by means of another spite

human,

their limitations. This

demand

to a

Young

the moral postulate of exchanging their

interpretation.

i.e.

The Young Hegelian

to recognize

it

ideologists, in

of their allegedly 'world-shattering' statements, are the staunchest con-

servatives.

The most recent of them have found the correct expression for when they declare they are only fighting against phrases. They

their activity forget,

however, that to these phrases they themselves are only opposing

way combating

other phrases, and that they are in no

world results

that

when

the real existing

they are merely combating the phrases of this world. The only

which

this

philosophic criticism could achieve were a few (and

at

thoroughly one-sided) elucidations of Christianity from the point of

view of

religious history;

all

the rest of their assertions are only further

embellishments of their claim to have furnished, in these unimportant elucidations, discoveries It

of universal importance.

has not occurred to any

connection of

one of these philosophers

German philosophy with German

their criticism to their

own

to inquire into the

reality,

the relation of

material surroundings.

History: Fundamental Conditions Since

we

are dealing

must begin by fore,

of

live in

all

with the Germans,

stating the first premise

who

of

all

history, the premise, namely, that

order to be able to 'make history'. But

else eating

and drinking,

a habitation,

are devoid

human

men must life

of premises, we

existence and. there-

be

in a position to

involves before everything

clothing and

many

other things.

The

MARX AND ENGELS, FROM THE GERMAN IDEOLOGY historical act

first

thus the production of the

is

the production of material

fundamental condition of all

must daily and hourly be

history,

fulfilled

Even when the sensuous world

Bruno

Saint

[Baur],

fundamental

this,

fact in

is

means

indeed

which

to satisfy these needs,

this

is

an historical

reduced to

a

minimum,

of history one has

significance

all its

due importance.

know

well

It is

and

all its

that the

and they have never, therefore, had an

of

first

human

to a stick as

this

stick. There-

implications and to accord

Germans have never done

earthly basis for history

extremely one-sided fashion, particularly toils

as

long

as

of civil

society,

The second satisfying,

and conthey have in

an

they remained in the

of political ideology, have nevertheless made the

first

the writing of history a materialistic basis by being the ries

if

with so-called history only

fact

life.

with

to observe this

all

sequently never an historian. The French and the English, even

conceived the relation of

act, a

of years ago,

today, as thousands

merely in order to sustain

presupposes the action of producing the

it

fore in any interpretation

it its

And

life itself

45

attempts to give

first

to write histo-

of commerce and industry.

point

is

of the

that the satisfaction

first

need

(the action

of

and the instrument of satisfaction which has been acquired) leads

new needs; and this production of new needs is the first historical act. Here we recognize immediately the spiritual ancestry of the great historical wisdom of the Germans who, when they run out of positive material and when they can serve up neither theological nor political nor literary to

rubbish, assert that this

is

not history

not, however, enlighten us as to

history' to history proper; although,

speculation they seize

upon

at all,

how we on

but the 'prehistoric

proceed from

this

era'.

They do

nonsensical 'pre-

the other hand, in their historical

this 'prehistory'

with especial eagerness because

they imagine themselves safe there from interference on the part of 'crude facts',

and,

at

same time, because there they can give

the

The cal

rein to their

full

set

up and knock down hypotheses by the thousand.

third circumstance

which, from the very outset, enters into histori-

speculative impulse

development,

is

and

that

men, who

daily

remake

their

own

life,

begin to

make other men, to propagate their kind: the relation between man and woman, parents and children, the family. The family, which to begin with is the only social relationship,

new

social relations

one (except

in

becomes

later,

when

increased needs create

and the increased population new needs,

to the existing empirical data, not according to 'the as

is

the

custom

in

Germany. These three

of course to be taken or, to

make

it

a

subordinate

Germany), and must then be treated and analysed according 1

as

clear to the

aspects

concept of the family',

of social

activity are not

three different stages, but just as three aspects

Germans, three 'moments', which have existed

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

46

dawn of history and

simultaneously since the

the

first

men, and which

still

assert themselves in history today.

The production of life, both of one's own

now

procreation,

on

natural,

appears

and of fresh

in labour

the other as a social relationship.

By

social

we

in

life

double relationship: on the one hand

as a

as a

understand the co-

operation of several individuals, no matter under what conditions, in what

manner and

what end.

to

of co-operation, or

mode of promode

follows from this that a certain

It

duction, or industrial stage,

combined with

always

is

and

social stage,

mode of

this

certain

a

co-operation

itself a

is

'productive force'. Further, that the multitude of productive forces accessible to

men

ity'

determines the nature of society, hence, that the 'history of human-

must always be studied and treated

and exchange. But

how

also clear

it is

in relation to the history of industry

Germany

in

it is

impossible to write

of history, because the Germans lack not only the necessary power

this sort

of comprehension and the material but for across the

also the 'evidence

of their

Rhine you cannot have any experience of these

history has stopped happening.

Thus

it is

senses',

things since

quite obvious from the start that

men with one another, which is mode of production, and which is as connection is ever taking on new forms, and

there exists a materialistic connection of

determined by their needs and their old

as

men

themselves. This

thus presents a 'history' independently of the existence of any political or religious

nonsense which in addition

Only now, primary

after

start

the

do we find

historical relationships,

sciousness', but,

even

so,

only

it

really exists for

arises

Where

me

personally

from the need, the

is

old

as

its

therefore,

long

as

it

it

also possesses 'con-

From

the

air,

consciousness, language

as

men, and

for that reason

language, like consciousness,

of intercourse with other men.

exists for

me: the animal does not enter

does not enter into any relation

at all.

For

relation to others does not exist as a relation. Consciousness

from the very beginning

men

as well;

necessity,

there exists a relationship,

into "relations" with anything,

the animal,

man

with the curse of being 'burdened' with matter,

practical consciousness that exists also for other

alone

is,

that

appearance in the form of agitated layers of

its

sounds, in short, of language. Language is

together.

not inherent, not 'pure' consciousness.

'spirit' is afflicted

which here makes

may hold men

having considered four moments, four aspects of the

exist

at

all.

a social

Consciousness

is

product, and remains so at

as

of course, merely

first,

consciousness concerning the immediate sensuous environment and consciousness of the limited connection with other persons and things outside

the individual

who

is

sciousness of nature,

growing self-conscious. At the same time

which

first

appears to

men

as

a

it

is

completely

conalien,

MARX AND ENGELS, FROM THE GERMAN IDEOLOGY which men's

all-powerful and unassailable force, with

animal and by which they

overawed

are

relations are purely

like beasts;

it

is

thus a purely

animal consciousness of nature (natural religion) just because nature

(We

yet hardly modified historically.

gion or

of society and vice

man

way

as

determined by the form

is

everywhere, the identity of nature and

versa. Here, as

appears in such a

is

see here immediately: this natural reli-

of men to nature

this particular relation

47

men

of

that the restricted relation

to nature

determines their restricted relation to one another, and their restricted relation to

one another determines men's

On

restricted relation to nature.)

the

other hand, man's consciousness of the necessity of associating with the

around him

individuals

living in society at stage. It

is

all.

is

the beginning of the consciousness that he

This beginning

mere herd-consciousness, and his instinct

consciousness receives

its

is

point

at this

man

is

only distin-

takes the place

conscious one. This sheep-like or

a

further development and extension

increased productivity, the increase of needs, and,

is

as social life itself at this

him consciousness

guished from sheep by the fact that with

of instinct or that

animal

as

is

what

is

tribal

through

fundamental to

both of these, the increase of population. With these there develops the division of labour,

which was

originally nothing but the division

then that division of labour which develops spontaneously

in the sexual act,

or 'naturally' by virtue of natural predisposition needs, accidents,

etc., etc.

moment when

the first

a division

consciousness can really

of material and mental labour appears. (The is

concurrent.)

flatter itself that

sciousness of existing practice, that

representing something itself

from

real;

it

comes

is

to

From

moment onwards

this

something other than con-

represents something without

really

theory, theology, philosophy, ethics, etc.

this

it

now on

from the world and

philosophy, ethics, etc.

physical strength),

(e.g.

Division of labour only becomes truly such from

form of ideologists, priests,

emancipate

of labour

consciousness

is

in a position to

proceed to the formation of 'pure'

But even

if this theory, theology,

into contradiction with the existing relations,

can only occur because existing social relations have

come

into contra-

diction with existing forces of production; this, moreover, can also occur in a particular national

sphere of relations through the appearance of the

contradiction, not within the national orbit, but sciousness and the practice of other nations,

the general consciousness of a nation

Moreover, its

it

is

own: out of

all

three

quite immaterial

such

moments, the

sciousness, can

muck we

forces

(as

we

between

i.e.

see

this national

it

now

Germany).

in

what consciousness

get only the

of production, the

con-

between the national and

starts

one inference state

of

society,

to

do on

that these

and con-

and must come into contradiction with one another.

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

48

because the lectual

possibility,

- enjoyment and

activity

consumption - devolve on ity

implied the

division of labour

and material

different individuals,

of their not coming into contradiction

the division of labour.

It is

lies in

nay the

fact that intel-

labour, production and

and

that the only possibil-

the negation in

its

turn of

self-evident, moreover, that 'spectres', 'bonds',

merely the

'the higher being', 'concept', 'scruple', are

idealistic, spiritual

expression, the conception apparently of the isolated individual, the image

of very empirical

and

fetters

which the mode of pro-

limitations, within

duction of life and the form of intercourse coupled with

it

move.

Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas

The

of the ruling

ideas

which

is

every epoch the ruling ideas,

class are in

the ruling material force of society,

intellectual force.

The

class

at

is

i.e.

the same time

the class

its

ruling

which has the means of material production

disposal, has control at the

at its

same time over the means of mental production,

so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those

mental production are subject to

it.

The

who

lack the

ruling ideas are nothing

means of

more than

the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant

which

material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships

make

the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance. The

individuals sciousness,

composing the ruling and therefore think.

class possess

determine the extent and compass of an epoch,

do as

this in its

whole

among

other things con-

Insofar, therefore, as they rule as a class

range, hence

among

it is

and

self-evident that they

other things rule also

as thinkers,

producers of ideas, and regulate the production and distribution of the

ideas of their age: thus their ideas are the ruling ideas

and

instance, in an age

in a

of the epoch. For

country where royal power, aristocracy, and

bourgeoisie are contending for mastery and where, therefore, mastery shared, the doctrine of the separation of powers proves to be the

idea and

The

is

expressed

as

up

division of mental

till

which we

already saw ... as

now, manifests

itself also in

and material labour, so

appears as the thinkers of the class

make

(its

one of the chief

the ruling class as the

that inside this class

active,

one

part

conceptive ideologists, w ho

the perfecting of the illusion of the class about itself their chief source

of livelihood), while the other's attitude to these ideas and passive class

dominant

an 'eternal law'.

division of labour,

forces of history

is

and receptive, because they are in

and have

less

time to

make up

reality the active

illusions

and

illusions

is

more

members of tins

ideas about themselves.

.

MARX AND ENGELS, FROM THE GERMAN IDEOLOGY Within and

this class this

hostility

cleavage can even develop into a certain opposition

between the two

which the

cal collision, in

49

parts,

which, however, in the case of a practi-

class itself

is

endangered, automatically comes to

nothing, in which case there also vanishes the semblance that the ruling ideas

were not the ideas of the ruling

power of this

the

class.

The

class

and had

now

of history

in considering the course

we

dominant tions

class

confine ourselves to saying that these or those ideas were

of production and the producers of these

and world conditions which

concepts honour,

loyalty, etc.

whole imagines to

necessarily ideas ity. is

ideas, if

are the source

we

of the

hold sway,

i.e.

new

be

so.

against the

which

ideas

class

etc.

phenomenon

The

common

them

itself in

as

it

of

all

has to give

its

interest

its

members of

the

ideas the

ans have not yet

life

every shopkeeper

won

even

is

this trivial insight.

believe that everything

Marx and Frederick

New York:

it,

aim, to represent

its

society, that

is,

form of universality, and

the only rational, universally valid ones.

Whilst in ordinary

Karl

is

on the form of universal-

the place of one ruling before

very well able to distinguish

between what somebody professes to be and what he

word and

on

ruling class itself

that increasingly abstract

increasingly take

which puts

expressed in ideal form: represent

can

This conception of history, which

compelled, merely in order to carry through

interest as the

we

ideas,

was dominant, the

historians, particularly since the eighteenth century, will

all

come up

For each

this to

thus ignore the

were dominant, during the dominance of the

bourgeoisie the concepts freedom, equality,

common

.

them an independent

for instance, that during the time that the aristocracy

the

.

given time, without bothering ourselves about the condi-

at a

individuals say,

we

from

detach the ideas of the

ruling class from the ruling class itself and attribute to existence, if

distinct

existence of revolutionary ideas in a particular

period presupposes the existence of a revolutionary If

power

a

it

says

Engels, The

They

really

and imagines about

German

is,

take every

our histori-

epoch

itself

Ideology, C.J.

is

at its

true.

Arthur

(ed.),

International Publishers, 1970, pp. 39-41, 48-52, 64-7.

MATTHEW ARNOLD, FROM CULTURE AND ANARCHY You can read Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy upside down.

If

as

Marx and

Engels turned

culture for the latter arises out of the interchange of daily

life,

for

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

50

Arnold

promises transcendence, something that

it

above the storm and

rises

stress of the everyday world. In philosophical terms, Arnold provides the idealist

counterpart to Marx and Engels's materialism. True, both parties understand culture as political. But for Arnold there's a twist: the value of culture

is in its

Culture provides the means with which to resist the rancorous

politics.

economic, and

anti-

political,

social divisions of the industrialist, imperialist, class-torn England of

Arnold's time. Unlike the "anarchy" of politics, culture: "the best which has been

thought and said

the world," provides a

in

the pursuit of perfection. Arnold

-

as a conservative

elitist.

Schools he was certainly a

As

all,

and

our stock notions and But

sweetness and

how

is

know, on

a

will "real

real culture,

is

essay

his

conservatism

to

all

recommend being

thought and

is

vainly imagining that there for the mischief

whom?

culture as the great help out

a pursuit

the matters

of our

total perfection

which most concern

said in the world, and,

we now is

real beauty; real

be determined, and by

by

us, the

through

upon our

stream of fresh and free thought

notions and habits, which

makes up

national Inspector of

but

Hardly the musings of an orthodox conservative.

which has been thought and

knowledge, turning

elite,

to turn "a stream of fresh and free thought upon

difficulties; culture

to

in

all

is

The whole scope of the of our present

can unite us

not meant to be the property of the few but what

is

real light," that

means of getting

Oxford and

of the cultural

the thorny question remains:

still

best

a professor at

ideal that

- and sometimes championed

habits."

purpose

its

common

often dismissed

member

complex. Culture, for Arnold, binds us

is

this

stock

follow staunchly but mechanically,

a virtue in

following

them staunchly which

of following them mechanically.

The disparagers of culture make its motive curiosity; sometimes, indeed, make its motive mere exclusiveness and vanity. The culture which is supposed to plume itself on a smattering of Greek and Latin is a culture they

which

is

begotten by nothing so intellectual

out of sheer vanity and ignorance, or distinction, separating

who

have not got

value to

it,

estimate

which

it.

its

No

as curiosity;

holder, like a badge or serious

as culture, at all.

To

man would

find the real

call this culture,

ground

motive for culture in the terms of which may

lie a real

motive the word

English as in a

we do

bad

I

have before

not, like the foreigners, use this

sense;

sense; a liberal

curiosity gives us.

with us the word

and

is

intelligent eagerness

now

word

always used in

a

class

or attach any

for the very differing

culture,

a

valued either

from other people

title,

upon

serious people will set

it is

an engine of social and

else as

we must

find

some

ambiguity: and such

pointed out that in

in a

good

sense

as

well

somewhat disapproving

about the things of the mind max

MATTHEW ARNOLD, FROM CULTURE AND ANARCHY be meant by

when he

a foreigner

Quarterly Review,

French

some

little

my judgement, was. And way

English

a

very inadequate estimate

inadequacy consisted chiefly in

w as r

if

it

out of sight the double sense really involved in the word

he was impelled in

said that

and many other people with him, would consider that

himself,

why

be accounted worthy of blame and not of praise. For about intellectual matters which certainly a curiosity sakes

-

is futile,

and for the pleasure of seeing them

they are implies

a

and diseased impulse of mind which

Montesquieu

curiosity.

us to study

is

the desire to

says:

for

culture,

is

'The

is

— which

they are

more

is

is,

in an

desire to see things

mind which

not often

is

the very opposite of the blind

what we mean first

a curiosity

a disease, so there

blame when we

to

motive which ought to impel

augment the excellence of our

render an intelligent being yet assign

as

balance and regulation of

and which

is

was

really to

of the mind simply for their

and laudable. Nay, and the very

attained without fruitful effort,

this

ought

it

there

as

and merely

a desire after the things

intelligent being, natural

blame

by

his operations as a critic

praiseworthy and not blameworthy, or to point out

as

in

our

and omitting either to perceive that Monsieur Sainte-Beuve

curiosity,

own

it.

this: that in

thinking enough was said to stamp Monsieur Sainte-Beuve with

curiosity,

blame

left

it

its

In the

time ago, was an estimate of the celebrated

Monsieur Sainte-Beuve, and

critic,

activity.

I

word

speaks of curiosity, but with us the

always conveys a certain notion of frivolous and unedifying

5

intelligent'.

This

is

nature,

the true

and to

ground

to

the genuine scientific passion, however manifested, and for

viewed simply

even though

we

But there

is

let

as a fruit

of

this passion;

and

it is

the term curiosity stand to describe

a

worthy ground,

it.

of culture another view, in which not solely the

passion, the sheer desire to see things as they are, natural intelligent being, appears as the

ground of it. There

a

is

and proper

view

love of our neighbour, the impulses towards action, help,

scientific

in

which

in an all

the

and beneficence,

human error, clearing human confusion, and diminsum of human misery, the noble aspiration to leave the world better and happier than we found it — motives eminently such as are called social - come in as part of the grounds of culture, and the mam and prethe desire for stopping

ishing the

eminent

part.

curiosity,

but

fection.

It

Culture as

having

is

then properly described not

its

moves by the

as

having

origin in the love of perfection; force, not

it is

its

origin in

a study of per-

merely or primarily of the

scientific

passion for pure knowledge, but also of the moral and social passion for

doing good. As,

in

the

first

view of it, we took

for

tesquieu's words: 'To render an intelligent being yet

the second view of it, there

is

no

better

its

worthy motto

more

motto w hich

it

Mon-

intelligent!' so, in

can have than these

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

52

w ords of Bishop Wilson: 'To make reason and the whereas the passion for doing good

what reason and the thinking, and

own

it

will

of God

say,

because

wants to be beginning to

what

all

turn

is

prevail!'

Only,

for acting rather than

and whereas

own

its

is,

that

it is

state

it is

apt to take

its

of development and

possessed by the scientific passion,

well as by the passion of doing good; that

of God, and does not readily

will

to substitute themselves for them;

tution can be

of God,

of God

the imperfections and immaturities of this, for a basis of action;

distinguishes culture

and the

its

act;

conceptions, which proceed from

share in

will

apt to be overhasty in determining

is

and

salutary

and

are

as

worthy notions of reason

has

suffer

that,

which

stable

it

its

own

knowing

crude conceptions

that

no action or

insti-

not based on reason and the will

not so bent on acting and instituting, even with the great aim of

it is

human

diminishing

error and misery ever before

its

thoughts, but that

it

can

remember that acting and instituting are of little use, unless we know how and what we ought to act and to institute. This culture is more interesting and more far-reaching than that other, which is founded solely on the scientific passion for knowing. But it needs

when

times of faith and ardour, times

and widening intellectual lifting up,

For us,

all

round

are not

And

us, to flourish in.

horizon within which

and

the intellectual horizon

new

we

is

opening

not the close and bounded

is

have long lived and

moved now

lights finding free passage to shine in

upon

us?

long time there was no passage for them to make their way in upon

a

and then

it

was of no use to think of adapting the world's action

to

Where was the hope of making reason and the will of God prevail among people who had a routine which they had christened reason and them.

the will of God, in

which they were

they had no power of looking? But old routine

—

is,

all

which

is

the iron force of adhesion to the

—

has wonderfully yielded; the iron

new

has wonderfully yielded; the danger

not that people should obstinately refuse to allow anything but

their old routine to pass for reason

and the

will

of God, but either

should allow some novelty or other to pass for these too they should underrate the importance of

enough

to follow action for

make reason and for culture to

its

own

them

the will of God prevail therein.

be of

service, culture

which

God and

whatever

new, from getting acceptance for

is

altogether,

prevail, believes in perfection,

no longer debarred, by

Now,

believes in

the will of

is

easily,

that they

or else that

and think

it

sake, without troubling themselves to

perfection,

are new.

beyond which

now

social, political, religious

force of exclusion of

now

inextricably bound, and

is

then,

is

moment

the study and pursuit of

a rigid invincible its

the

making reason an J

ideas,

exclusion of

simply because they

MATTHEW ARNOLD, FROM CULTURE AND ANARCHY The moment not solely

this

view of culture

knowledge of the

-

misery to go counter to say,

but

culture

is

learn

for

it

making is

make

the endeavour, also, to

as

it

own

our

prevail, a

be intended and aimed

at

it

as

personal satisfaction

preparing the

way

mere endeavour

indeed

is

for this,

a

of

title

to see

commencement

which always

and degeneration. But perhaps

caricature

its

blame, and disparaged with the dubious

serves this,

itself,

and for

and

and not only

has got stamped with

it

com-

because in

curiosity,

parison with this wider endeavour of such great and plain utility selfish, petty,

this,

the moral, social, and benefi-

prevail,

manifest. The

becomes

of God - the moment,

the endeavour to see and learn

wrongly, therefore, stamped with blame absolutely in

in

regarded

is

a

are, to

to learn, in short, the will

considered not merely

cent character of culture

to

it

draw towards

they

as

man's happiness to go along with or his

a

is

it

moment

seized, the

which seems

universal order

and which

in the world,

I

is

the endeavour to see things

as

53

looks

it

and unprofitable.

And religion, the greatest and most important of the efforts by which the human race has manifested its impulse to perfect itself - religion, that voice of the deepest human experience - does not only enjoin and sanction the

aim which

to ascertain

is

the great aim of culture, the aim of setting ourselves

what perfection

and

is

human

ing generally in what

to

make

prevail;

it

but

also, in

perfection consists, religion

determin-

comes

to

a

conclusion identical with that which culture — seeking the determination

of

this

question through

been heard upon

it,

art,

all

the voices of

human

experience which have

science, poetry, philosophy, history, as well as reli-

gion, in order to give a greater fullness and certainty to likewise reaches. Religion says: culture, in like

manner, places

the growth and

The kingdom of God

human

is

its

solution

within

you;

-

and

perfection in an internal condition, in

predominance of our humanity proper,

distinguished

as

from our animality, in the ever-increasing efficaciousness and in the general

harmonious expansion of those

gifts

of thought and feeling which make

the peculiar dignity, wealth, and happiness of

on

a

former occasion:

endless expansion of that the spirit

its

'It

is

but

making

of the human race finds

a

human

nature.

growing and

is

a

its

As

endless additions to

powers, in endless growth in

an indispensable aid, and that a resting,

in

ideal. To

is

have said

wisdom and

in the

beauty,

reach this ideal, culture

the true value of culture.'

becoming,

I

itself,

Not

a

is

having and

the character of perfection as

it; and here, too, it coincides with religion. And because men are all members of one great whole, and the sympathy which is in human nature will not allow one member to be indifferent to the rest, or to

culture conceives

have

a

perfect

welfare independent of the

rest,

the expansion

of our

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

54

humanity, to

of perfection which culture forms, must be

suit the idea

conceives

as culture

expansion. Perfection,

general

the individual remains isolated: the individual

being stunted and enfeebled in carry others along with

doing

ually

all

him

march towards

stream sweeping thitherward; and here, once more,

that 'to

if

he disobeys, to

perfection, to be contin-

he can to enlarge and increase the volume of the

obligation as religion,

which

promote the kingdom of

-

happiness'. Finally, perfection

God

lays

on

us the

and hasten one's

to increase

is

as culture,

human

study of human nature and

it

human same

Bishop Wilson has admirably put

says, as

from

a

not possible while

obliged, under pain of

is

own development

his

in his

it, is

a

it,

own

thorough disinterested

experience, learns to conceive

it

-

is

an

harmonious expansion of all the powers which make the beauty and worth of

human

nature,

one power gion

is

at

and

is

not consistent with the over-development of any

the expense of the

rest.

Here

it

goes beyond religion,

as reli-

generally conceived by us.

If culture, then,

is

of perfection, and of harmonious perfection,

a study

general perfection, and perfection

which

consists in

becoming something

mind and of circumstances it is clear that culture, and useless thing which Mr Bright, and Mr

rather than in having something, in an inwards condition of the

not in an outward

spirit,

set

instead of being the frivolous

Frederic Harrison, and

important function to

many

fulfil

other

for

liberals are apt to call

mankind.

And

this

function

it,

is

has a very particularly

important in our modern world, of which the whole civilization

much

greater degree than the civilization of Greece and

and external, and tends constantly to become more

own

country has culture

a

so.

But above

as

most eminent degree. Indeed nearly

culture teaches us to fix them,

meet

tendency which thwarts them and

all

in this

expansion

personality,

us.

the characters of perfection,

The

us,

and nowhere,

idea of perfection

as

swing of the individuals

maxim of 'every man for himself. The idea of perfection expansion of human nature is at variance with our w ant

with our inaptitude for seeing more than one

be following. So culture has

a

I

as a general

variance with our strong individual-

limits to the unrestrained

with our intense energetic absorption to

that

shown

our

an harmonious flexibility,

all

is

our

them at defiance. The idea of permind and spirit is at variance with the

much in esteem as with of the human family is at

ism, our hatred of

in

country with some powerful

mechanical and material civilization in esteem with said, so

to a

sets

fection as an inward condition of the

have

all

weighty part to perform, because here

mechanical character, which civilization tends to take everywhere, in the

is,

Rome, mechanical

side ot a thing,

in the particular pursuit

rough

as

of

we happen

task to achieve in this country,

and

MATTHEW ARNOLD, FROM CULTURE AND ANARCHY preachers have, and are likely long to have, a hard time of

its

much

will

55

and they

it,

oftener be regarded, for a great while to come, as elegant or spu-

and benefactors. That, however,

rious Jeremiahs, than as friends

good

prevent their doing in the end

mode of action

while, the

service if they persevere;

will not

and mean-

they have to pursue, and the sort of habits they

must fight against, should be

made

quite clear to every

who may

one

be

willing to look at the matter attentively and dispassionately. Faith in

machinery

do any good

at all,

our besetting danger; often in machinery

said,

is, I

most absurdly disproportioned

to the

end which

machinery,

this

to serve; but always in machinery, as if it

is

had

if it is to

a value in

What is freedom but machinery? What is population but machinery? What is coal but machinery? What are railroads but machinery? What is wealth but machinery? What are religious organizations but and for

itself.

machinery?

Now

almost every voice in England

these things as if they

some of

Mr

of all gainsayers. his,

so

England

he thinks,

as

Mr Roebuck is

do not know why

I

in

likes?'

quite sufficient, and

is

our aspirations ought to be

she

is,

Mr Roebuck

when

every

say

what they

like, is

than bad. In the same

have

But the

satisfied.

worth saying

way The Times,

this

it.

argument of

'May not every

perpetually asks; and that,

man may

say

what he

aspirations of culture,

what men

the study of perfection, are not satisfied, unless

may

I

and for quite stopping the mouths

never weary of reiterating

should be weary of noticing

I

what he

say

of

to speak

Roebuck's stock argument for proving the great-

and happiness of England

man

accustomed

the characters of perfection indisputably joined to them.

once before noticed ness

is

were precious ends in themselves, and therefore had

- has

good

replying to

in

some

it,

say,

likes,

which

when

is

they

and more good

foreign strictures

on

the dress, looks, and behaviour of the English abroad, urges that the English ideal

is

that every

one should be

culture indefatigably tries, not to rule

what

free to

do and

to look just as

he

by which he fashions himself; but to draw ever nearer to is

likes.

make what each raw person may a

And

in the

same way with respect

to railroads

and

the

sense of

coal.

one must have observed the strange language current during the cussions as to the possible

failure

thousands of people were saying,

is

But

indeed beautiful, graceful, and becoming, and to get the raw person

to like that.

if

like,

our coal runs short, there greatness?

-

culture

worthy to excite

is

is

makes

that

coal.

late dis-

Our

coal,

the real basis of our national greatness;

an end of the greatness of England. But what

love, interest

possessing greatness

is

of our supplies of

Every

us ask. Greatness

is

a

spiritual

condition

and admiration; and the outward proof of

we

excite love, interest and admiration. If

England were swallowed up by the

sea

to-morrow, which of the two,

.1

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

56

hundred years hence, would most excite the of mankind

-

would most,

England of the

sessed greatness - the

show

therefore,

twenty

last

years, or the

Elizabeth, of a time of splendid spiritual effort, but industrial operations

then,

depending on

what an unsound habit of mind

when our

were very

coal,

and admiration

love, interest,

the evidences of having pos-

England of

coal,

must be which makes us

it

things like coal or iron as constituting the greatness of England, salutary a friend

is

culture, bent

and our

developed? Well

little

on seeing

talk

and

how

things as they are, and thus dissi-

pating delusions of this kind and fixing standards of perfection that are

The

pursuit of perfection, then,

who works light

and

works

for sweetness

is

light united,

who works

works

make

to

he

for machinery,

real!

the pursuit of sweetness and light.

He

who works

for

end

in the

works in the end for sweetness

of

also.

reason

for light also;

he

who works for sweetness and the will of God prevail. He But he

who works

works only

for hatred,

for

confusion. Culture looks beyond machinery, culture hates hatred; culture has but

one great

yet greater! all

come

-

passion, the passion for sweetness

making them

the passion for

to a perfect

must be imperfect

man;

knows

it

until the

touched with sweetness and

we must

that as

possible.

have

a

broad

moments of humanity, how

how

and

that the sweetness

genius,

when

whole of society

light

beauty;

real

and

sweetness and

one

we

till

of the few are

we

I

light, so

I

neither have

shrunk from saying

I

must have sweetness and have insisted

is

a national

how

light for as

many

those are the happy

alive.

glow of

life

all

Only

real light.

it

must be

life,

the creative

and thought, when

measure permeated by thought,

in the fullest

is

has

those are the marking epochs of a peoples

there

ble to beauty, intelligent

it

satisfied

those are the flowering times for literature and art and

power of the

not

have not shrunk from saying that

basis,

Again and again

light. Yes,

raw and unkindled masses of humanity

light. If

must work for sweetness and

and

prevail. It is

real

sensi-

thought and

real

Plenty of people will try to give the

masses, as they call them, an intellectual food prepared and adapted in the

way they think proper popular literature

is

of the masses. The ordinary way of working on the masses.

for the actual condition

an example of

this

Plenty of people will try to indoctrinate the masses with the set of ideas

and judgements constituting the creed of

Our

religious

and

working on the masses. ently. It

their

political organizations give

does not try to

own

profession or party.

an example of

this

way

of

condemn neither way; but culture w orks differteach down to the level of inferior classes: it does I

not try to win them for

this

ments and watchwords.

It

or that sect of its own, with ready-made judge-

seeks to

do away with

classes; to

make

all

live in

MATTHEW ARNOLD, FROM CULTURE AND ANARCHY an atmosphere of sweetness and freely

-

This

is

fusing, for

the

to divest

men

making

men

and the

social idea;

uses

it

them

itself,

of culture are the true apostles of

of culture are those

who

have had a passion for

from one end of society

prevail, for carrying

knowledge, the best ideas of their time;

other, the best

knowledge of all

sional, exclusive; to

that

was harsh, uncouth,

humanize

it,

the cultivated and learned, yet

thought of the time, and

make

to

who

dif-

to the

have laboured

difficult, abstract, profes-

efficient outside the clique

it

remaining the

still

- what, indeed, few of

best

those

-

to read this disquisition are likely to dispute

of

knowledge and

of sweetness and

a true source, therefore,

conclude, therefore

honour

ideas, as

to be nourished and not bound by them.

equality. The great

I

and use

light,

57

light.

who do me

that

we

can

the

as little

find in the working-class as in the aristocratic or in the middle-class our

much- wanted source of authority, Well, then, the

what

if

we

whole community,

ity there?

culture suggests

Every one of us has the idea of country,

and wishes of the

State, as a

afraid

class to

of class to the idea of

much

as a

sentiment; hardly any

working power. And why? Because

which do not carry

which we happen

of giving to the State too

to us.

and to find our centre of light and author-

habitually live in our ordinary selves,

ideas

it

tried to rise above the idea

the State,

one of us has the idea of the

we

as

to belong.

we

power, because

us

beyond the

And we

are

all

only conceive of

the State as something equivalent to the class in occupation of the executive

government, and are

purposes. If

we

afraid

of that

tion of the executive government,

up captive

class

abusing power to

strengthen the State with the aristocratic

class in

own

its

occupa-

we imagine we are delivering ourselves Sir Thomas Bateson; if with the

and wishes of

to the ideas

middle-class in occupation of the executive government, to those of the

Rev. W. Cattle;

if

with the working-class, to those of

with

much justice; owing

have

said, entertain

likes,

of the affirming oneself, and oneself just

cratic class

want

to the exaggerated notion

Mr

which we

English, as

of the right and blessedness of the mere doing as

it is.

And

Bradlaugh.

as

I

one

People of the aristo-

to affirm their ordinary selves, their likings

and

dislikings;

people of the middle-class the same, people of the working-class the same.

By our everyday

selves,

however,

we

only safe from one another's tyranny safety, in its turn,

peril

arc this

And when, therefore, anarchy we know not where to turn.

cannot save us from anarchy.

presents itself as a danger to us,

But by our

we

when no one has any power; and

are separate, personal, at war;

best self

we

are united, impersonal, at

from giving authority to

this,

because

it

is

harmony. We

the truest friend

are in

we

all

no of

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

58

us can have;

and

turn with sure

when

anarchy

danger to

a

is

Well, and this

trust.

is

study of perfection, seeks to develop in us;

untransformed do,

self,

us, to this

doing the same! So that our poor culture, which leads us to the very ideas capable

cal,

present embarrassed times!

We

likes

it

or

of clashing with every one

risk

want an

we may

culture, or the

the expense of our old

at

taking pleasure only in doing what

and exposing us to the

authority

which

the very self

is

is

else

used to

who

is

flouted as so unpracti-

of meeting the great want of our authority,

and we find nothing but

jealous classes, checks, and a dead-lock; culture suggests the idea of the State.

We

no

find

culture suggests

one

for a firm State-power in

to us in

our

our ordinary

selves;

best self.

Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criti-

Matthew Arnold, cism,

basis

London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1869,

pp.

5-19, 47-9, 87-9.

viii,

ANTONIO GRAMSCI, FROM THE PRISON NOTEBOOKS "We must

stop this brain from working for twenty years!" the Fascist prosecutor

demanded

at his trial in

1928. Antonio Gramsci, the young head of the Italian

Communist

Party, died in less than ten.

following

a small selection

is

But

from the nearly 3,000 handwritten pages of notes

smuggled out of prison. Gramsci, a theatre political activist,

one, he argues,

had a keen interest

is

never stopped working.The

his brain

in

and theoretician

critic

as well as a

popular culture and consciousness. Every-

a philosopher; each of us carries with us

ways of making sense

of the world. These nascent philosophies, however, are imbedded so deeply that

we

often cannot recognize them.

ideas of the ruling class

Growing up within

(cf.

A

great deal of these ideas reflect the ruling

Marx and

Engels), but

a traditional peasant culture,

not

all

working

of them, not entirely. in

a

modern

factory,

these lived experiences give rise to their own, and sometimes conflicting, ways of seeing.

One may Human

another.

even act out one philosophy while believing wholeheartedly consciousness

is

exceedingly complex, "an

infinity

in

of traces,

without leaving an inventory." Gramsci, however, was not a psychologist, but a revolutionary. The successes of the Catholic

Church and the

him that

hegemony. Hearts and minds are as

political

power

rests

upon

cultural

Fascist state taught

important as bodies and buildings.Thus part of any revolutionary project ing a

counterhegemonic culture.

communist

integrity,

it

If

this

culture

is

is

creat-

to have real power, and

cannot - contra Arnold - be imposed from above, but

must come out of the experiences and consciousness of people. Thus, the job of the revolutionary

is

to discover the progressive potentialities that reside within

GRAMSCI, FROM THE PRISON NOTEBOOKS

popular consciousness and from

However,

this material fashion a culture

of resistance.

important to remember that counterhegemonic culture

it is

for Gramsci.

end

in itself

ical,

economic, and

It is

59

not an

is

merely a weapon, albeit an important one, for

polit-

yes, cultural revolution.

The Study of Philosophy It

and

strange

of

destroy the widespread prejudice that philosophy

essential to

is

difficult

thing just because

a particular category

philosophers.

It

must

of

first

it is

a

is

the specific intellectual activity

or of professional and systematic

specialists

be shown that

men

all

are 'philosophers',

by

defining the limits and characteristics of the 'spontaneous philosophy'

which

proper to everybody. This philosophy

is

which

itself,

is

words grammatically devoid of content; sense'; 3.

contained

'common

2.

sense'

Having

first

shown

everyone

that

is

a

philosopher, though in his

own

since even in the slightest manifestation of any is

contained

conception of the world, one then moves on to the second

of awareness and criticism. That

is it

are col-

'folklore'.

intellectual activity whatever, in 'language', there

that

and 'good

ways of seeing things and of acting, which

bundled together under the name of

way and unconsciously,

—

language

in: i.

popular religion and, therefore, also in the entire system of beliefs,

superstitions, opinions, lectively

is

of determined notions and concepts and not just of

a totality

to say,

is

one proceeds

a specific

level,

which

is

to the question

better to 'think', without having a critical awareness, in a disjointed

and episodic way? In other words, the world mechanically

is it

better to take part in a conception of

imposed by the external environment,

i.e.

by one

many social groups in which everyone is automatically involved from the moment of his entry into the conscious world (and this can be of the

one's village or province; lectual activity'

or in the

minor

little

of the

old

intellectual

the other hand,

it

can have

woman who soured by

is it

its

better to

his

origins in the parish and the 'intel-

aging patriarch whose wisdom

local priest or

is

law,

has inherited the lore of the witches or the

own

stupidity

and

inability to act)? Or,

work out consciously and

critically one's

on

own

conception of the world and thus, in connection with the labours of one

own

brain,

choose one's sphere of

activity, take

ation of the history of the world, be one's passively

Xotc

own

s

an active part in the creguide, refusing to accept

and supinely from outside the moulding of one's personality? I.

In

a particular

acquiring one's conception of the world one always belongs to

grouping which

is

that

of

all

the social elements whic h share

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

60

the

same mode of thinking and

acting.

We

are

conformists of some con-

all

formism or other, always man-in-the-mass or collective man. The question is

this:

of what historical type

the conformism, the mass humanity to

is

which one belongs? When one's conception of the world is not critical and coherent but disjointed and episodic, one belongs simultaneously to a multiplicity it

of mass

a future

over.

make

past phases

all

principles of a

of history

own

criticize one's

more advanced

human

a

race united the world

raise

to the level reached

it

means

by the most

advanced thought in the world.

It

vious philosophy, in so far

this has left stratified deposits in

as

therefore also

philosophy. The starting-point of critical elaboration

what one

really

and

is,

is

'knowing thyself

which has deposited

process to date

science,

conception of the world means therefore to

coherent unity and to

a

strangely composite:

is

the local level and intuitions of

at

philosophy which will be that of

To it

groups. The personality

Age elements and

contains Stone

prejudices from

human

as a

you an

in

is

criticism of

all

pre-

popular

the consciousness of

product of the historical

of

infinity

without

traces,

leaving an inventory.

Note

Philosophy cannot be separated from the history of philosophy,

II.

nor can culture from the history of culture. In the most immediate and evant sense, one cannot be a philosopher, by

which

mean have

I

and coherent conception of the world, without having its

historicity,

fact that

it

of the phase of development which

it

rel-

a critical

consciousness of

a

represents and of the

contradicts other conceptions or elements of other conceptions.

One's conception of the world

posed by

reality,

relevance.

How

present, with a

which is

it

is

response to certain specific problems

and

'original' in their

immediate

of thought elaborated for a past which

remote and superseded?

the least that he

a

possible to consider the present, and quite specific

mode

walking anachronism,

is

are quite specific

When someone

a fossil,

and not

strangely composite.

does

this, it

living in the

And

it is

means

modem

that

is

often

he

is

world, or

a at

in fact the case that social

groups which in some ways express the most developed modernity, lag

behind in other

respects, given their social position,

and

are therefore

incapable of complete historical autonomy.

Note

III.

If

it is

true that every language contains the elements of a con-

ception of the world and of

a

culture,

it

could

also

be true that from

anyone's language one can assess the greater or lesser complexity of his

conception of the world.

Someone who only

speaks dialect, or understands

the standard language incompletely, necessarily has an intuition of the

world which

is

more or

less

limited and provincial,

which

anachronistic in relation to the major currents of thought

is

fossilized

and

which dominate

GRAMSCI, FROM THE PRISON NOTEBOOKS

world

history.

His interests will be limited, more or

omistic, not universal.

While

1

corporate or econ-

less

not always possible to learn

it is

6

a

number of

foreign languages in order to put oneself in contact with other cultural lives, it is at

the least necessary to learn the national language properly.

A

great culture can be translated into the language of another great culture, that ity,

is

to say a great national language

and

with historic richness and complex-

can translate any other great culture and can be

it

means of expression. But Note IV. Creating

a

new

ual 'original' discoveries. in a critical

form of

a dialect

cannot do

culture does not only

and most

It also,

world-wide

mean

particularly,

one's

own

means the

individdiffusion

truths already discovered, their 'socialization' as

making them the

were, and even

a

this.

of

basis

vital action,

it

an element of co-

ordination and intellectual and moral order. For a mass of people to be led to think coherently

world,

and

in the

a 'philosophical'

is

some

discovery by

same coherent fashion about the

event far

philosophical

real present

more important and 'original' than 'genius' of a truth which remains

the the

property of small groups of intellectuals.

Connection between 'Common Sense', Religion and Philosophy Philosophy

is

intellectual order,

can be.

is

to

It

which neither

be observed that religion and

coincide either, but that religion sense.

common sense one common sense, for

Moreover

not just

is

is

that too

to

'common

'common'

is

common

common sense

an element of fragmented

a collective

of the historical process. Philosophy gion and

religion nor

is

a

it

do not

common

like religion: there

product of history and

criticism

sense'. In this sense

noun,

sense

is

a part

and the superseding of reli-

coincides with 'good'

as

opposed

sense.

Relation between Science, Religion

and Religion and

common

Common

sense

Sense

cannot constitute an intellectual order,

because they cannot be reduced to unity and coherence even within an individual consciousness, let alone collective consciousness.

cannot be so reduced

'freely'

—

for this

may be done by

Or

rather they

'authoritarian'

means, and indeed within limits

this has been done in the past. Note the problem of religion taken not in the confessional sense

the secular sense of a unity of faith

between

a

hut

in

conception of the world and

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

62

a

norm of conduct. But why

corresponding

and not 'ideology', or even frankly

call this

unity of faith 'religion'

'polities'?

Philosophy in general does not in fact exist.Various philosophies or conceptions of the world exist, and one always makes a choice between them.

How

this choice made? Is it merely an intellectual more complex? And is it not frequently the

is

thing

between

contradiction

conduct?

Which

of each man, which

real activity

action

is

political,

contained in

choice

intellectual

would be the

some-

is it

case that there

is

and one's mode

a

of

conception of the world: that

real

an intellectual choice? or that which emerges from the

logically affirmed as

all

one's

therefore

event, or

mode of action? And since real philosophy of each man is

implicit in his

is

can one not say that the

entirety in his political action?

its

This contrast between thought and action,

the co-existence of

i.e.

two

conceptions of the world, one affirmed in words and the other displayed in effective action,

is

not simply

product of self-deception

a

[malafede]. Self-

deception can be an adequate explanation for a few individuals taken

even for groups of a certain

separately, or

the contrast occurs in the

size,

but

it is

not adequate

of great masses. In these

life

when

cases the contrast

between thought and action cannot but be the expression of profounder contrasts

of

question

may indeed have

embryonic;

a social historical order. It signifies that the social

a

itself in action,

- when,

acting as an organic

in flashes

this

same group adopted

a

times'

-

it,

that

is

is,

the group

it

is

not

its

own

its

this

is

is

Hence

submissive and subordinate.

divorced from politics.

the conception

conduct

And one

if

in

only

but occasionally totality.

But

intellectual subordina-

but

affirms this conception verbally

because

when

is

of submission and

conception which

another group; and

be following

that

has, for reasons

group

conception of the world, even

conception which manifests

and

tion,

own

its

which

is

borrowed from

and believes it

itself to

follows in 'normal

not independent and autonomous, but the reason

why

philosophy cannot be

can show furthermore that the choice and

the criticism of a conception of the world

is

also a political matter.

What must next be explained is how it happens that in all periods there co-exist many systems and currents of philosophical thought, how these currents are born, how they are diffused, and why in the process of diffusion they fracture along certain lines and in certain directions. The fact of this process

critical

to determine exactly that

it is

must

be,

how

goes to show

coherent and

necessary

fashion one's

what

is

to

own

it

is

intuitions

to order in a systematic,

of life and the world, and

be understood by the word 'systematic',

not taken in the pedantic and academic sense. But

and can only

be,

performed

in the context

so

this elaboration

of the history

oi

GRAMSCI, FROM THE PRISON NOTEBOOKS

philosophy, for

this history

it is

rated over the centuries and

all

what

past history, including

this

all

past

and since corrected, one cannot be sure

duced

in the present

What looking

common

expressions in

at

philosophical about rejected as a phrase.

which,

it',

It is

if

true that

nation and patience, but

it

usage.

It

away by

carried

One

me

and to

compared with

such, and that

similar expressions used a large

a

sense', the part

ophy from the

by writers of

One

common

a

- which

dictionary

can see from these

is

the healthy nucleus that

of it which can be called 'good sense' and

be made more unitary and coherent. So

not possible to separate what

it is

one

oneself be

conception of necessity which

gives a conscious direction to one's activity. This

here again

let

meaning: that of overcoming

a quite precise

and elemental passions through

to

whatever

realize fully that as

is

and violent impulses. These popular turns of

instinctive

'common

'being

most important point

and must be confronted

examples that the terms have

exists in

is

not to be entirely

is

it,

contain the terms 'philosophy' or 'philosophically'.

which deserves

be repro-

of the most usual

that the

popular stamp - examples being drawn from

bestial

in the

can be reconstructed by

should apply one's power of rational concentration and not

phrase could be

made

contains an implicit invitation to resig-

seems to

it

basically rational

is

and mistakes. Nor

although

that they will not

you consider

rather the invitation to people to reflect

happens

for,

and once again require correcting.

the popular image of philosophy?

is

gone into the

subsumed and

has

follies

its

should these mistakes themselves be neglected,

been elabo-

has

a collective effort has

method of thought which

creation of our present

absorbed

which shows how thought

63

known

is

it

appears that philos-

as 'scientific'

and popular philosophy which

only

is

a

fragmentary collection of ideas and opinions.

But ception

point

at this

movement,

is

used in

manifest in

its

any that has produced

which the philosophy

One might

ical 'premise'.

itly

reach the fundamental problem facing any con-

a 'religion', a 'faith',

activity or will in

word

we

of the world, any philosophy which has become

is

contained

as

a

form of practical

on condition

say 'ideology' here, but

individual and collective logical unity

of the entire

and to

unify.

The

ticular,

has lain, and

in

life.

economic

activity

This problem

social bloc

which

is

and

that

in

cultural

an implicit theoret-

highest sense of a conception of the world that

art, in law,

a

all

that the

implic-

is

manifestations of

of preserving the ideo-

that ideology serves to

cement

strength of religions, and of the Catholic church in parstill lies,

for the doctrinal unity

in the fact that they feel

of the whole mass of the

that the higher intellectual stratum

very strongly the need

faithful

and

strive to

ensure

does not get separated from the lower.

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

64

The Roman church

has always

prevent the

formation of two religions, one for the

'official'

and the other for the 'simple

been the most vigorous in the struggle

souls'.

Church

serious disadvantages for the

This struggle has not been without

which contains

but these disadvantages are con-

itself,

nected with the historical process which society and

to

'intellectuals'

transforming the whole of civil

is

overall a corrosive critique

of

religion,

all

and

they only serve to emphasize the organizational capacity of the clergy in the cultural sphere and the abstractly rational and just relationship

the

Church

and the simple. The

lectuals

architects

the

has been able to establish in

of

Church

this

own

equilibrium, and in order to preserve

a progressive

forward

which

sphere between the intel-

have undoubtedly been the major

Jesuits

movement which

demands of science and philosophy the

its

be to

to

rhythm of the movement has been

a certain

so slow

they have given

it

has tended to allow the

extent

satisfied.

and methodical

But

that the

changes have passed unobserved by the mass of the simple, although they appear 'revolutionary' and demagogic to the

One

consists precisely in the fact that they have

logical unity

between the bottom and the

intellectuals. In the history

on

a

'integralists'.

of the greatest weaknesses of immanentist philosophies in general

European

scale,

is

between the

'simple'

civilization the fact

is

and the

exemplified

with the rapid collapse of the Renaissance and to

certain extent also the

weakness

of Western

not been able to create an ideotop,

Reformation faced with the

demonstrated in the educational

Roman

field, in that

a

church. Their

the immanentist

philosophies have not even attempted to construct a conception

which

could take the place of religion in the education of children. Hence the pseudo-historicist sophism

whereby non-religious, non-confessional, and

in reality atheist, educationalists justify allowing the teaching of religion

the grounds that religion

is

renewed

in every non-metaphorical infancy. Idealism has also

opposed

to cultural

movements which

shown

'go out to the people', as

with the so-called 'Popular Universities' and similar

Nor w as

genuine enthusiasm and level

and

a higher

m

study. They

enjoyed

a certain

demonstrated on the part of the 'simple'

a strong

determination to attain

a

and central

rather like the

a

higher cultural

conception of the world. What was lacking, however, w as

any organic quality either of philosophical thought or of organizational bility

that

improve them. And yet these move-

ments were worthy of attention, and deserved success, in the sense that they

itself

happened

institutions.

the objection solely to the worst aspects of the institutions, because case they could simply have tried to

on

mankind

the philosophy of the infancy of

cultural direction.

first

One

got the impression that

it

sta-

was

all

contacts of English merchants and the negroes of Africa:

GRAMSCI, FROM THE PRISON NOTEBOOKS

trashy baubles

were handed out

one could only have had if

there had existed the

as there

in

exchange for nuggets of gold. In any case

and an organic quality of thought

cultural stability

same unity between the

intellectuals

should be between theory and practice. That

had been organically the

65

is,

if

and the simple

the intellectuals

of those masses, and

intellectuals

if

they had

worked out and made coherent the principles and the problems raised by the masses in their practical activity, thus constituting a cultural and social bloc.

The

namely

movement

a philosophical

devoted to creating

a

of thought superior to

'common

sense'

contact the source of the problems

and

restricted

and coherent on

must be

it

'historical',

itself at

philosopher and that entific

it is

not

of 'common

a

'critical'

1

the outset in a

sense', basing

polem-

thinking and all,

there-

itself initially,

question of introducing from scratch a

an already existing

it

this

'life'.

sense in order to demonstrate that 'everyone'

form of thought into everyone's individual

and making

form

purify itself of

become

mode of

superseding the existing

criticism

a

common

however, on

a

a scientific plane,

existing concrete thought (the existing cultural world). First of fore,

is

out to study and to resolve? Only

become

of praxis cannot but present

critical guise, as

to,

it

intellectual

of elaborating

elements of an individual character and

A philosophy ical

among

in the process

sets

it

contact does a philosophy

intellectualistic

when

remain in contact with the 'simple' and indeed finds in

never forgets to

this

have already referred

properly so called

culture

specialized

when, and only when,

groups, or rather

by

we

question posed here was the one

this: is

activity. It

life,

is

a

sci-

but of renovating

must then be

a criticism

of the philosophy of the intellectuals out of which the history of philoso-

phy developed and which, fact

it

in so far as

it is

a

phenomenon of individuals

(in

develops essentially in the activity of single particularly gifted indi-

viduals)

can be considered

made by common

as

marking the 'high

common

points'

of the progress

more eduthem also of the people. Thus an introduction to the study of philosophy must expound in synthetic form the problems that have grown up in the process of the development of culture as a whole and which are only partially reflected in the history of sense, or at least the

sense of the

cated strata of society but through

philosophy. (Nevertheless

it

is

the history of philosophy which, in the

absence of a history of common sense, impossible to reconstruct for lack of

documentary

material,

must remain the main source of reference.) The

purpose of the synthesis must be to their real value, if any, links

criticize the

problems, to demonstrate

and the significance they have had

as

superseded

of an intellectual chain, and to determine what the new contempo-

rary problems are

and

how

the old problems should

now

be analysed.

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

66

The is

relation

common

between

assured by 'polities', just as

between the Catholicism of the are,

sense and the upper level of philosophy

it

is

politics that assures the relationship

and

intellectuals

of the simple. There

that

however, fundamental differences between the two

Church

up

has to face

been

there has

to a

problem of the

'simple'

community of the

a split in the

faithful.

That the

cases.

means This

precisely that

split

cannot be

healed by raising the simple to the level of the intellectuals (the

does not even envisage such a omically beyond discipline

on the

differentiation

its

which

task,

present capacities), but only by imposing an iron

do not exceed certain

intellectuals so that they

and so render the

mass movements which led

faithful

or were absorbed

to,

on strong

religious orders centred

and

catastrophic

split

community of the

past such divisions in the

personalities (St

Its

origins

New

is

the

last

orders

irreparable. In the

the creation of

Dominic,

this

sterile

new

St Francis).

2

upsurge of

of the great religious orders.

were reactionary and authoritarian, and Its

of

limits

were healed by strong

in,

But the Counter-Reformation has rendered popular forces. The Society of Jesus

and 'diplomatic'.

Church

both ideologically and econ-

is

its

character repressive

marked the hardening of the Catholic organism.

birth

which have grown up

since then have very

little

religious sig-

nificance but a great 'disciplinary' significance for the mass of the faithful.

They

are,

or have become, ramifications and tentacles of the Society of

Jesus, instruments of 'resistance' to preserve political positions that have

been gained, not

become

political party

The

-

of renovation and development. Catholicism has

forces

Modernism

'Jesuitism'.

has not created 'religious orders', but a

Christian Democracy. 3

position of the philosophy of praxis

[i.e.

Marxism]

is

the antithesis

of the Catholic. The philosophy of praxis does not tend to leave the 'simple' philosophy of common sense, but rather to lead them to

in their primitive a higher

conception of life.

lectuals

and simple

preserve unity

at

the

it

not in order to

is

low

level

The

active

theoretical

for contact

which can make

consciousness

of

his

practical

activity, it

in order to

say

that

in reality unites

him with

all

his

is

con-

which nonetheless

transforms

it.

His theoretical activity.

implicit in

fellow-workers

his in

One

(or

one

activity

and

he has two theoretical consciousnesses

contradictory consciousness): one which

which

and

but has no clear

consciousness can indeed be historically in opposition to his

might almost

activity

intellectual groups.

a practical activity,

involves understanding the world in so far as

intel-

politically possible the

of the mass and not only of small

man-in-the-mass has

between

restrict scientific

of the masses, but precisely

struct an intellectual-moral bloc intellectual progress

need

If it affirms the

the practical

GRAMSCI, FROM THE PRISON NOTEBOOKS

67

transformation of the real world; and one, superficially explicit or verbal,

which he has inherited from the verbal conception social group,

it

is

and

past

not without consequences.

which the contradictory

holds together a specific

It

state

passivity.

through

a struggle

understanding of

Critical

a situation in

of consciousness does not permit of any

any decision or any choice, and produces

political

a

condition of moral and place

self takes

therefore

of political 'hegemonies' and of opposing directions,

in the ethical field

and then in

that

own

is

the

first

(that

is

part of the historical process,

not just

matter of mechanical

a

Thus

fact,

'apart', in

level

and coherent conception of the world. This

is

the

but

whose elementary and primitive phase

of independence, and which progresses to the

is

real possession

why

must be

it

great philosophical advance as well as a politico-practical one. For

of

only within narrow

Antonio Gramsci,

limits, a critical

Selections

from

common

sense and has

a

stressed

it

a

neces-

supposes an intellectual unity and an ethic in conformity with

conception of reality that has gone beyond

a

to

an instinctive feeling

of

development of the concept of hegemony represents

that the political

if

say,

stage towards a further progressive self-

be found in the sense of being 'different' and

sarily

to

is

consciousness in which theory and practice will finally be one. unity of theory and practice

at

conception of reality. Con-

hegemonic force

sciousness of being part of a particular political consciousness)

first

of politics proper, in order to arrive

the working out at a higher level of one's

single

this

influences moral conduct and the direction of will, with

varying efficacity but often powerfully enough to produce

action,

But

uncritically absorbed.

a

become,

conception.

the Prison Notebooks,

Geoffrey Nowell Smith (translators and

eds.),

New

Quintin Hoare and York: International

Publishers, 1971, pp. 323-34.

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER" In

1934, the brilliant and tragic critic Walter Benjamin asked a simple question:

what

is

radical culture? In his essay

"The Author

entirety below, he offers up a novel answer:

that

makes

it

radical, instead

jamin observed that the neutralized

ment

(cf.

if

it is

most

it is

as Producer,"

presented

in its

not the content of the culture

the conditions of

radical of

1

its

production.

In his

day Ben-

content could be assimilated and thus

presented within the context of high art or commercial entertain-

Cowley and

Frank). This, however,

does not mean that

radical culture

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

68

cannot

exist.

The problem, he

insisted,

was that the wrong question was being

posed. Instead of asking what politics a piece of art asking about the politics of

how

is

it

representing,

is

argued, was that which can "transcend the specialization

duction" of capitalism.

In

should be

the process of pro-

in

other words, radical culture erodes the

between

line

and spectator, producer and consumer, challenging the hierarchical division

artist

of labor and encouraging everyone to create.

terms of debate regarding duction. Although, like

With

Benjamin changes the

this,

cultural resistance, shifting focus

from product to pro-

Gramsci, Benjamin was to die young and

committing suicide while fleeing the Nazis, he it-

we

produced. Truly radical culture, Benjamin

lives

on

tragically,

as the patron saint of

Do-

Yourself culture.

The

task

is

to

win over

making them

the intellectuals to the working class by

aware of the identity of their spiritual enterprises and of their conditions

as

producers.

Ramon

Fernandez

remember how Plato, in his model state, deals with poets. He banishes them from it in the public interest. He had a high conception of the power of poetry. But he believed it harmful, superfluous — in a perfect community, of course. The question of the poet's right to exist has not

You

will

often, since then, itself.

Probably

familiar to

freedom this

you

it

been posed with the same emphasis; but today is

all

to write

only seldom posed in as

the question of the

whatever he

pleases.

You

autonomy. You believe that the present

entertainment literature that,

interests.

without admitting

A

But

it

autonomy of are

is

is

he

is

less

not disposed to grant him

social situation

working

poses

the poet: of his

compels him

to place his activity.

it,

it

more or

The bourgeois does not acknowledge this choice. You

decide in whose service he

him

this form.

to

writer of

prove to

in the service of certain class

more advanced type of writer does recognize this choice. His on the basis of a class struggle, is to side with the prole-

decision, taken tariat.

what

That puts an end is

monly

to his

autonomy. His

activity

useful to the proletariat in the class struggle.

is

now

decided by

Such writing

is

com-

called tendentious.

There you have the catchword around which has long familiar to you.

Its

familiarity

tells

you how

unfruitful

it

circled a debate

has been. For

it

has

not advanced beyond the monotonous reiteration of arguments for and against: on one hand, the correct political line other, it

is

justifiable to

expect his

work

is

demanded of the

to have quality.

Such

a

poet; on the

formulation

is

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER"

69

the connection between the

two

Of course, the

con-

of course unsatisfactory

and

factors, political line

long

as

quality, has

as

not been

perceived.

nection can be asserted dogmatically. You can declare:

work that shows tendency need show no other quality. You can also

the correct political declare: a

work

a

tendency must of necessity have

that exhibits the correct

every other quality.

This second formulation

make

my

it

own. But

is

not uninteresting, and further:

doing so

in

I

from

abstain

asserting

it

it is

correct.

dogmatically.

I

It

must be proved. And it is in order to attempt to prove it that I now claim your attention. — This is, you will perhaps object, a very specialized, out-ofthe-way theme. such

you it

a

And how do

-That

proof?

I

indeed

is

intend to promote the study of fascism with

my

intention. For

political literary criticism.

tendency of a

is

is

should

to

be able to show

a perfectly useless instru-

show you

to

like

politically correct if

I

would add

it is

that the also liter-

tendency includes

to say that the politically correct

is

And

literary tendency.

I

work can only be

literary

That

arily correct.

which

hope

concept of political tendency, in the summary form in which

that the

usually occurs in the debate just mentioned,

ment of

I

a

straight away: this literary tendency,

implicitly or explicitly contained in every correct political tendency,

alone constitutes the quality of the work. The correct political tendency of a

work

includes

its

This assertion

literary quality because

-

For the moment,

I

hope

should

I

ferent starting point for

on the

it

like to interject that

my

its

reflections.

I

started

I

have started from an even older and no

less

between form and content,

This kind of question has

a

literary tendency. clearer.

might have chosen

a dif-

from the unfruitful debate

between tendency and quality

relationship

relationship

includes

can promise you - will soon become

I

in literature.

unfruitful debate:

I

what

could is

the

particularly in political poetry?

bad name: rightly

so. It is

the textbook case of

the attempt to explain literary connections with undialectical cliches. Very well.

But what, then,

The

dialectical

central point

-

novel, book.

It

it

the dialectical approach to the same question?

has absolutely has to insert

declare that this has

Only

is

approach to

question

this

no use

them

- and here

for such rigid, isolated things

done by launching

at

once into

mined by conditions of production. And when a

work,

it

to

as:

my

work,

friends. Certainly.

large,

necessarily often vague, questions. Social conditions are, as

approached

come

into the living social context. You rightly

been done time and again among our

has often been

I

was accustomed to ask

tion to the social relations of production of

question. But also a very difficult one.

Its

how its

answer

we know,

materialist

this

is

deter-

criticism

work stood

time. This is

and therefore

in rela-

an important

not always unambiguous.

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

70

And

should

1

question that

which

has,

asking:

what

it

time?

Does

them?

Is it

question, attitude

I

now to propose to you a more immediate question. A somewhat more modest, somewhat less far-reaching, but seems to me, more chance of receiving an answer. Instead of like

is

work

the attitude of a

is

accept them?

it

Is it

of production of its

to the relations

reactionary

-

or does

it

aim

at

should like to propose another. Rather than asking: what

of a work to the relations of production of its time?

ask:

what

the

work

overthrowing

revolutionary? Instead of this question, or at any rate before this

is its

position in

them? This question

directly

I

should

is

the

like to

concerns the function

has within the literary relations of production of its time.

It is

con-

cerned, in other words, directly with the literary technique of works. In the concept of technique,

named

have

I

that

concept which makes

and therefore

literary

products directly accessible to

analysis.

At the same time, the concept of technique provides the

starting point

be surpassed.

from which the

And

a social

unfruitful antithesis of form

furthermore,

question raised

at

the outset.

the correct political tendency of a it

includes

its

literary tendency,

by saying that

this literary

work

we

dialectical

and content can

concept of technique contains an indi-

this

cation of the correct determination of the relation quality, the

a materialist

can

If,

between tendency and

therefore,

includes

now

its

we

stated earlier that

literary quality,

formulate

this

more

because

precisely

tendency can consist either of progress or of

regression in literary technique.

You

will certainly approve if

arbitrariness, to

should

I

now

pass on,

with only an appearance of

very concrete literary conditions. Russian conditions.

like to direct

your attention to Sergei Tretiakov and to the

I

type,

defined and embodied by him, of the "operating" writer. This operating writer provides the most tangible example of the functional interdepend-

ency which always and under

all

political

tendency and progressive

example:

I

conditions exists between the correct literary technique.

hold others in reserve. Tretiakov distinguishes the operating from

the informing writer. His mission

is

not to report but to struggle: not to

play the spectator but to intervene actively.

account he gives of his collectivization

own

activity.

When,

He

defines this mission by the

in 1928, at the time

of the

total

of agriculture, the slogan "Writers to the kolkhoz!" was

proclaimed, Tretiakov went to the there,

admit only one

I

during two lengthy

commune "Communist

stays, set

about the following

Lighthouse" and

tasks: calling

mass

meetings; collecting funds to pay for tractors; persuading independent peasants to enter the kolkhoz [collective farm]; inspecting the reading rooms;

creating wall newspapers and editing the kolkhoz newspaper: reporting for

Moscow

newspapers; introducing radio and mobile cinemas,

etc. It

is

not

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER" surprising that the

book Commanders

lowing these

is

stays,

of the Field,

7

which Tretiakov wrote

I

fol-

have had considerable influence on the further

said to

development of collective agriculture.

You may have

a

high regard for Tretiakov, and yet

example does not prove

that his

still

be of the opinion

The

a great deal in this context.

performed, you will perhaps object, are those of a journalist or this has little to

dist; all

do with

literature.

However,

I

which we have

to rethink

he

propagan-

did intentionally

quote the example of Tretiakov in order to point out to you the horizon within

a

tasks

how compre-

our conceptions of

hensive

is

literary

forms or genres in view of the technical factors affecting our present

situation, if

we

are to identify the

forms of expression that channel the

lit-

erary energies of the present. There were not always novels in the past, and there will not always have to be; not always tragedies, not always great epics;

not always were the forms of commentary, translation, indeed, even

so-called plagiarism, playthings in the margins of literature; they

had

a place

not only in the philosophical but also in the literary writings of Arabia and China. Rhetoric has not always been a minor form, but antiquity

on

large provinces

we

thought that

melting-down

of literature. All

are in the midst

is

lose their force. Let

unfruitfulness of such opposites

And we

its

stamp in

a

which we have been

in

me

give an example of the

and of the process of their

remain with Tretiakov. For

shall

set

accustom you to the

to

of a mighty recasting of literary forms,

which many of the opposites

in

accustomed to think may

scendence.

this

this

dialectical tran-

example

the

is

newspaper. "In our writing," a left-wing author writes, 2

opposites

which

in happier periods fertilized

antinomies.

ble

education and sion

is

Thus science and

the newspaper,

its

impatience

speculator

is

one another, have become insolulettres,

The

politics, fall apart in disorder.

criticism

and production,

theatre of this literary confu-

content 'subject matter,' which denies

form of organization than this

belles

that

imposed on

it

itself

any other

by the readers' impatience.

And

not only that of the politician expecting information or of the

on the lookout

for a tip;

behind

it

smoulders that of the

sidelines

who

fact that

nothing binds the reader more tightly to

believes he has the right to see his

own his

man on

interests expressed.

paper than

this

the

The

impatient

longing for daily nourishment, the publishers have long exploited by constantly

opening new columns to fore,

his questions, opinions, protests.

Hand

in

hand, there-

with the indiscriminate assimilation of facts goes the equally indiscriminate

assimilation

however,

who moment

of readers

a dialectic

are is

instantly

geois press proves to be the formula for

writing gains in breadth what

elevated to collaborators. In

this,

concealed: the decline of writing in the bour-

it

its

revival in that

of Soviet Russia. For

as

loses in depth, the conventional distinction

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

72

between author and public, which

is

upheld by the bourgeois

press,

begins in

become a w riter, that is, a describer, but also a prescriber. As an expert - even if not on a subject but only on the post he occupies - he gains access to authorship. Work itself has its turn to speak. And the account it gives of itself is a part of the competence needed to perform it. Literary qualification is no longer founded on specialized but rather on polytechnic education, and is thus public property. It the Soviet press to disappear. For the reader

is,

in a

in the theatre

it is

of the word - the newspaper - that

hope

I

rate

shown by

to have

as a

recasting

which

between

Of this

revises

as

cannot, however, stop

Europe does not constitute

nical

It still

difficulties. It

Germany

is

conventional distinc-

affects the

producer must include

at this

a serviceable

belongs to

Since

capital.

of the writer into

been one of the

rethink their

in

their

on one hand

most important

literary position,

of the opposition,

Germany, the leading emanated from Activism and

this

New

I

am

with the most immense

revolutionary

a

means of production, then

speaking, as

you

movements of the

left-wing intelligentsia.

tendency, however revolutionary

long

no

of its productive minds, under the

Matter-of-Factness, to

as

is

see, of the so-

will limit myself to the bourgeois Left. In

politico-literary

revolutionary function

it

his social conditionality, his tech-

their relation to the

and

the news-

decisive processes of the last ten years in

technique, in a really revolutionary way. called left-wing intellectuals,

Western

without being able simultaneously to

attitudes,

own work,

in

instrument of production in the

in the hands

is

it.

newspaper

point. For the

his political task, has to grapple

has

mighty process of

economic conditions, have passed through

development

political

that the

the decisive example, and therefore any

that a considerable proportion

pressure of

the press. For by the press, at any

even the distinction between author and

this position

that the insight

means and

of the unbridled debasement being prepared."

quotation that the description of the

as far as

paper, technically speaking, represents the

but on the other,

wonder

times ready to

between writer and poet, between scholar and

process the press

hands of the writer.

is

one recognizes

press,

consideration of the author It

salvation

spoke of earlier not only

I

genres,

popularizer, but also reader.

its

this

producer must extend

by the Soviet Russian

tion

at all

word, the literarization of the conditions of living that masters the other-

wise insoluble antinomies, and

author

is

as

I

shall

decade have

mention two of them.

show by it

last

these examples that

may seem,

a

has a counter-

the writer feels his solidarity with the

proletariat only in his attitudes, but not as a producer.

The catchword

in

which the demands of Activism

"logocracy," in plain language, rule of the mind. This

is

are

summed up

is

apt to be translated

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER" of the

as rule

concept of the

intellectuals. In fact, the

and dominates

intelligentsia,

to Doblin.

It

its

any regard for the position of the

of

intellectuals in the process

as

"members of certain

a certain characterological type."

stands as such

between the

means

of production. to

intellectuals

professions" but as "representatives

classes. It

encompasses any number of private

Hiller formulates his denunciation of the party leaders, deal; they

may be

more popular appeal he

sure: that

is

.

.

.

more

they "think

that matter, since politically

expressed

it,

more courageously" than

it

is

he, but

Probably

defectively."

When

he concedes them

"in important matters better informed

fight

.

.

.

but what does

so,

not private thinking but,

Brecht once

as

the art of thinking in other people's heads, that

- of common

terms unquantifiable

sense.

3

Its

is

decisive.

formed

is

is

reactionary;

no wonder

that

-

in

intellectuals represent at

which

best a social group. In other words: the principle itself on tive

a

have

of one thing

Activism attempted to replace materialistic dialectics by the notion class

be

This characterological type naturally

individuals without offering the slightest basis for organizing them.

good

Mann

concept has been coined without

this

Hiller, the theoretician of Activism, himself

understood not

its

left-wing

from Heinrich

political manifestos

can readily be seen that

with

intellectual,

camp of the

attendant spiritual values, has established itself in the

73

its

this collec-

could never be

effect

revolutionary.

However,

this

pernicious principle

of collectivization continues to

operate. This could be seen three years ago

Verdndern

[Know and Change] came

written in reply to a

had put to the famous author the invites

him

to join the cause

according to Doblin

of

tion

all

is:

is

known,

a

at injustice

this

and coercion, humanity,

may

be,

justice can

it

on

the basis of this

the theory and practice of the radical

workers' movement. "Nothing," Doblin declares, "can

war

pamphlet was

calls

spontaneous union of men, the rejec-

However

sets his face against

thing that was not already in

this

him Herr Hocke - who question "What is to be done?" Doblin

compulsion, indignation

he

As

Doblin's Wissen und

of socialism, but with reservations. Socialism,

"freedom,

tolerance, a peaceful disposition." socialism,

out.

young man - Doblin

when

- and from

a

come out of any-

murderously exacerbated

come, but not socialism." "You,

my

dear

sir,"

class

thus Doblin

formulates the recommendation which, for these and other reasons, he gives

Herr Hocke, "cannot put into

effect

your agreement

in

principle

with the struggle (of the proletariat) by joining the proletarian front. Yon

must be content with an agitated and but you also will

know

that if

remain unmanned

.

.

.

bitter approval

of

this

struggle,

you do more, an immensely important post the original communistic position of

human

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

74

individual freedom, of the spontaneous solidarity and is

this position,

my

dear

that alone

sir,

where the conception of the

ble

falls

union of men

Here

to you."

...

It

quite palpa-

it is

"intellectual," as a type defined

by

his

opinions, attitudes or dispositions, but not by his position in the process of

production, leads.

He

must,

as

Doblin puts

But what kind of place

letariat.

ideological patron.

An

is

of the

identified, or better, chosen, only

That of

And

impossible place.

stated at the outset: the place

find his place beside the pro-

it,

that?

we

so

benefactor, of an

a

return to the thesis

be

intellectual in the class struggle can

on the

of his position in the process

basis

of production. For the transformation of the forms and instruments of production in the

way

—

desired by a progressive intelligentsia

that

means of production and serving the

freeing the

is,

one

interested in

class struggle

coined the term Umfunktionierung [functional transformation]. first

to

make of

demand: not

intellectuals the far-reaching

- Brecht

He

was the

to supply the

apparatus of production without, to the utmost extent possible, changing in accordance

writes in introducing the series of writings bearing this

when

time

it

with socialism. "The publication of the Versuche" the author

certain

works ought no longer

"occurred

title,

at a

be individual experiences

to

(have the character of works), but should rather concern the use (transfor-

mation) of certain institutes and institutions." fascists

proclaim, that

come back

is

to these innovations.

I

should

reference to the decisive difference

ductive apparatus and discussion of the

supply

a

changing

its

"New

would

still

not spiritual renewal,

like to

I

as

shall

content myself here with

a

between die mere supplying of a pro-

transformation.

And

I

should

my

like to preface

Matter-of-Factness" with the proposition that to

productive apparatus without it

It is

desirable: technical innovations are suggested.

be

—

to the

utmost extent possible —

highly censurable course even

a

if

the material

we furnished are faced by the fact of which the past decade in Germany has an abundance of examples - that the bourgeois apparatus of production

with which

it

is

supplied seemed to be of a revolutionary nature. For

and publication can

assimilate

astonishing quantities

themes, indeed, can propagate them without calling

which owns

the existence of the class

remains true

at least as

long

as

they be revolutionary hacks. abstains in principle

wing

I

of revolutionary

own

existence, and

seriously into question. This

supplied by hack writers, even though

define the hack writer

as

the

man who

from alienating the productive apparatus from the

ruling class by improving

And

it is I

it,

its

it

in

ways serving the

interests

of socialism.

further maintain that a considerable proportion of so-called literature possessed

no other

social function than to

left-

wring from the

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER" political situation a

continuous stream of novel

me

ment of the public. This brings

effects for the entertain-

New

to the

Matter-of-Factness.

whom

stock-in-trade was reportage. Let us ask ourselves to

was

75

Its

technique

this

useful.

For the sake of ground. What

clarity

I

shall place

photographic form in the fore-

its

true of this can be applied to the literary form.

is

Both owe

the extraordinary increase in their popularity to the technology of publication: the radio

and the

Let us think back to Dadaism.The

illustrated press.

revolutionary strength of Dadaism consisted in testing art for ity. Still lifes

put together from

linked with

artistic

they thereby

show

tiniest

elements.

tickets, spools

They put

authentic fragment of daily

Much

whole thing

were

And

the public: look, your picture frame ruptures the age; the

of

this

more than

says

life

the bloody finger print of a murderer the text.

butts,

in a frame.

of thread, cigarette

the

authentic-

its

on

a

paintings. Just as

page of a book

more than

says

revolutionary content has sought survival in pho-

tomontage. You need only think of the work of John Heartfield, whose technique

made

the

book cover

into a political instrument.

the path of photography further. nuance, ever

graph

more modern, and

tenement block or

a

without saying that factory other than is

in

see

this:

the result

a refuse

New

But

now

what

a beautiful

world!

can no longer photo-

it

"A

Beautiful

abject poverty,

photography to restore subjects that

had

earlier

it.

by recording

in other

Here we have

-

it is

one of its

words: fashionably a flagrant

overthrow another of the the

goes

a

cable

World" -

that

which

in

has succeeded

in a fashionably perfected

it

an economic function of

it is

withdrawn themselves from

-

it.

the world as it

springtime, famous

To change

intellectuals.

it

renew from

it is.

means

barriers, to transcend

production of

-

it

political functions to

example of what

apparatus without changing

fetter

if

it

It

mass consumption, by fashionable adaptation,

to

people, foreign countries

within -

peak. For

at its

follow

becomes ever more

heap without transfiguring

manner, into an object of enjoyment. For

which

that

is

It

unable to say anything of a power station or

Matter-of-Fact photography

making even

tive

see?

of the well-known picture anthology by Renger-Patsch,

a title

we

it is

What do you

to supply a

produc-

would have meant

another of the antitheses, In

this

case,

the

barrier

between writing and image. What we require of the photographer ability to give his picture that

caption which wrenches

commerce and gives it revolutionary demand most emphatically when we Here, too, therefore, technical progress

use-value.

But we

the writers is

to

-

take

it

is

the

from modish

shall

make

this

up photography.

for the author as

producer the

foundation of his political progress. In other words: only by transcending

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

76

the specialization in the process of production which, in the bourgeois

view, constitutes

its

order,

imposed by

the limits

is

production made

this

specialization

must be breached jointly by both the

productive forces that they were set up to divide. discovers taneity

-

in discovering his solidarity

with certain other producers

concern him. a

word on

I

we

The author

producer

as

with the proletariat - that simul-

who

earlier

have spoken of the photographer;

the musician that

and

politically valuable;

have from

I

seemed

shall

scarcely

to

very briefly insert

Eisler:

In the development of music, too, both in production and in reproduction,

must learn

to perceive an ever-increasing process

gramophone canned

as a

record, the

sound

highly qualified, crisis

is

this process

.

.

we

The

crisis

.

of rationalization

consigned to ever diminishing, but

groups of specialists. The

.

can purvey top quality music

film, jukeboxes

commodity. The consequence of

that musical reproduction

of rationalization

new

.

is

more

also ever

of the commercial concert

of an antiquated form of production made obsolete by

.

is

the

technical

inventions.

The

task therefore consisted

concert that had to

fulfill

between performers and

On

content.

this Eisler

of an Umfunktionierung of the form of the

two conditions:

to eliminate the antithesis

makes the following illuminating observation: "One

must beware of overestimating orchestral music and considering high

art.

Music without words gained

extent only under capitalism." This

concert

the only

it,

its

full

of changing the

that the task

formulates

effect the transformation, as Eisler

it

great importance and

its

means

impossible without the collaboration of the word.

is

first

and second between technique and

listeners

It

of a concert into

meeting. But that such a transformation does indeed represent

alone can a political a

peak of

musical and literary technique, Brecht and Eisler prove with the didactic play The Measures Taken. If

you look back from

forms that

whatever

I

else

vantage point on the recasting of literary

all

are cast.

You

the conditions of

the extent of this

melting-down

and music, and

find

life

it

confirmed

provides

a

that only the liter-

correct understanding of

process, just as the state of the class strug-

determines the temperature

gle

how photography

occurs to you, are entering the growing molten mass from

which the new forms arization of

this

spoke of earlier, you can see

at

which - more or

less

perfectly

-

it

is

accomplished. I

spoke of the procedure of

poverty

is

made an

Factness as a literary

a

certain

modish photography whereby

object of consumption. In turning to

movement,

I

must take

a step further

New

Matter-of-

and say

that

it

has

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER" made

importance of the movement was indeed exhausted

bourgeoisie, into objects of

political struggle

from

enjoyment, from

means of production

defining characteristic of this literature.

using the example of Erich Kastner,

With

the workers'

common.

The

the

way without

their

transformation of the

compulsion to decide into an object of contempla-

a

a

in

they occurred in

as

amusement which found

the big-city cabaret business.

difficulty into

this,

The political many cases by the

the struggle against poverty an object of consumption.

conversion of revolutionary reflexes, insofar

tive

77

A

consumer

into a

article,

the

is

perceptive critic has explained

as follows:

movement this left-wing radical intelligentsia has nothing in phenomenon of bourgeois decomposition, a counter-

rather, as a

It is

part of the feudalistic disguise

which the Second Empire admired

officer. The radical-left publicists

are the proletarian

in the reserve

of the stamp of Kastner, Mehring orTucholsky

camouflage of decayed bourgeois

strata.

Their function

is

to

produce, from the political standpoint, not parties but cliques; from the literary standpoint, not schools but fashions; from the

banquet in

economic standpoint, not produc-

who make a great display of their poverty, and a of yawning emptiness. One could not be more totally accommodated

but agents. Agents or hacks

ers

an uncozy situation.

This school,

said,

I

most urgent

task

and

how poor

that

is

what

like Plato,

outset

-

is

but

a great display

of its poverty.

It

thereby shirked the

how poor

involved. The Soviet state will not,

true, banish the

it is

- and this is why I recalled the him tasks which do not permit him to

it

the

long-since

counterfeit

which

poet

display in

new mas-

wealth of creative personality. To is

a privi-

gives rise to such scatterbrained formulations as that

with which Giinter Griindel in

on

is

Platonic state at the

will

expect a renewal in terms of such personalities and such works lege of fascism,

the section

he

he has to be in order to begin again from the beginning. For

assign

terpieces

made

of the present-day writer: to recognize

literature:

"We

his Mission of the Young Generation

cannot better conclude

this

.

.

.

rounds off

survey and

prognosis than with the observation that the Wilhelm Meister and the Green

Henry of our generation have not yet been written." Nothing farther

from the author

who

means of production. above their character

as

political

has said:

"A

be confined to their value is

not enough.

The

will

the

must have, over and

works, an organizing function, and

tendency alone

work on

the same time,

In other words: his products

their organizational usefulness

Their

at

be

on the conditions of

has reflected deeply

present-day production than to expect, or desire, such works. His

never be merely work on products but always,

will

in as

no way must propaganda.

excellent Lichtenberg

man's opinions are not what matters, but the kind of man these

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

78

of no use

best are

The

best political

with which

it

demonstrate in

dency

Now

make of him."

opinions

is

true that opinions matter greatly, but the

it is

make nothing useful out of those who have them. tendency is wrong if it does not demonstrate the attitude

if

they

And

be followed.

to

writer can only

this attitude the

his particular activity: that

A

in writing.

is

political ten-

the necessary, never the sufficient condition of the organizing

is

function of a work. This further requires a directing, instructing stance the part of the writer. before.

An

therefore

author

is

And

who

today

this

to

is

on

be demanded more than ever

What

teaches writers nothing, teaches no one.

the exemplary character of production,

which

is

matters

able

to

first

induce other producers to produce, and second to put an improved apparatus at their disposal.

And

this

apparatus

able to turn into producers, that

We

is,

is

better the

more consumers

already possess such an example, to which, however,

here.

It is

it is

readers or spectators into collaborators. I

can only allude

the epic theater of Brecht.

Tragedies and operas are constantly being written that apparently have a well-tried theatrical apparatus at their disposal, while in reality they

nothing but supply one that ation that prevails

among

immense consequences

is

derelict.

"The

do

lack of clarity about their situ-

musicians, writers and critics," says Brecht, "has

that are far too

little

considered. For, thinking that

they are in possession of an apparatus which in reality possesses them, they

defend an apparatus over which they no longer have any control and which

no

is

a

longer, as they

means

gigantic supporting

ery, its

means

means

believe, a

still

staff,

complicated machin-

become

a

against the producers not least in seeking to enlist the producers in

which film and radio have enmeshed

the hopeless competitive struggle in it.

its

sophisticated effects, has

its

become

for the producers, but has

against the producers." This theater, with

This theater - whether in

complementary -

becomes

is

that

of

educating or

its

a sated class for

a stimulant. Its position

instead of

is

entertaining role; both are

which everything

Not

so that

of

touches

it

a theater

competing with newer instruments of publication, seeks

and learn from them, in the epic theater has

short, to enter into debate

made

its

of development of film and For the sake of

ments of the

this

theater.

own

affair. It is,

He

functional connection

and

actor.

to use

with them. This debate

measured by the present

fell

state

back on the most primitive

contented himself, broadly, with

between

which,

contemporary form.

radio, the

debate Brecht

dispensed with wide-ranging plots.

director

lost.

its

He

stage

a

podium.

ele-

He

thus succeeded in changing the

and public,

text

and performance,

Epic theater, he declared, had to portray situations

rather than to develop plots.

It

obtains such situations, as

we

shall

see

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER" by interrupting the

presently,

plot.

remind you here of the songs, which

I

-

have their chief function in interrupting the action. Here ple of interruption

-

become

you

familiar to

tography.

am

I

you

epic theater, as

see, takes

element disrupts the context in which

a

procedure that has

radio, press

it

But

inserted.

is

and pho-

that this pro-

perhaps indeed a perfect right, allow

a special,

The

indicate.

up

from film and

in recent years

in the princi-

speaking of the procedure of montage: the superimposed

cedure has here to

79

described his theater

as epic,

ence. For such illusion

is

a

me

briefly

which Brecht

interruption of action, on account of

constantly counteracts an illusion in the audi-

hindrance to

a theater that

proposes to

of elements of reality in experimental rearrangements. But

make

use

it is

at

the end,

not the beginning, of the experiment that the situation appears.

A

situation

which, in

or that form,

this

spectator but distanced

with

always ours.

is

from him.

He

satisfaction, as in the theater

It is

recognizes

home

not brought it

as

of naturalism, but with astonishment.

Epic theater, therefore, does not reproduce situations, rather

them. This discovery

it

discovers

accomplished by means of the interruption of

is

Only interruption does not have here the

sequences. lant

to the

the real situation, not

but of an organizing function.

character of a stimu-

arrests the action in

It

course, and

its

thereby compels the listener to adopt an attitude vis-a-vis the process, the actor vis-a-vis his role. Brecht's discovery

tion of the

I

should

and use of the

method of montage

merely modish procedure to wife

is

just

the father

opening the window

is

The

process

on which the

window, disordered

more

nothing other than the restora-

decisive in radio

human

a

show you by an example how

is

and

is

call

interrupted;

stranger's

furniture.

to

At

for help.

fall:

her daughter;

at

it

what appears

now

eyes

There

from an often

film,

event. Imagine a family scene: the

about to grab a bronze sculpture to throw

stranger enters. situation

to

like

gestus

this

in

agitated

faces,

are eyes, however, before

usual scenes of present-day existence

do not look very

moment place

its

a

the

is

open

which the

The

different.

eyes of the epic dramatist.

To the dramatic makes use

in a

expose what

man;

a

new way of the

is

this

present.

at their

tests,

the dramatic laboratory.

great ancient opportunity of the

At the center of his experiment

the only one

is

subjected to

not

work he opposes

reduced man, therefore, chilled in

however, is

total art

we

have,

it is

in

a

chilly

our

examinations. What emerges

is

to

man. Present-day

environment. Since,

interest to is

He

theater -

this:

know

him.

He

events are alterable

climaxes, not by virtue and resolution, but only in their strictly

habitual course,

by reason and

ments of behavior what

practice.

in Aristotelian

To construct from the dramaturgy

is

smallest ele-

called "action,"

is

the

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

80

purpose of epic theater. traditional theater;

means

Its

are therefore

aims likewise.

its

It

more modest than those of concerned with

less

is

public with feelings, even seditious ones, than with alienating

It

may be noted by And,

the

way

in particular,

that there

no

is

in an

it

enduring manner, through thinking, from the conditions in which

laughter.

the

filling

it lives.

better start for thinking than

convulsion of the diaphragm usually provides

better opportunities for thought than that of the soul. Epic theater

is

lavish

only in occasions for laughter. It

you

has perhaps struck

of thought that

that the train

about to be

is

concluded presents to the writer only one demand, the demand reflect

on

his position in the process

this reflection leads,

sooner or

to think,

to

of production. We may depend on

it:

who

for the writers

later,

the best technicians in their subject, to observations

most

with the

factual foundation for their solidarity

like to

conclude by adducing

extract

from

whom

questionnaire: "For

do you write?"

is,

for

which provide the I

should

form of

a small

proletariat.

a topical illustration in the

Commune

journal published here, Commune.

a

matter, that

circulated a

quote from the reply of Rene

I

Maublanc and from the comment added by Aragon. "Unquestionably,"

says

Maublanc, I

write almost exclusively for

[here

Maublanc

and second, because

come from

bourgeois public.

which

mean, however, that

milieu,

I

will

it

write in order to please or support

be the more rapid,

easy, successful, .

from the camp of the bourgeoisie, exactly

On

this

allies

obliged to teacher]

to address myself to

This does not

best.

On

it.

one hand

I

am

necessary and desirable, on the

is

.

am

I

bourgeois education and

a

am naturally inclined know and understand

I

weaker the opposition of the bourgeoisie

bourgeoisie needed

because

grammar school

and so

belong, that

I

convinced that the proletarian revolution other that

First,

have bourgeois origins and

I

bourgeois

a

the class to

a

refers to his professional duties as a

.

and the

bloody the

less

the proletariat today needs

as in

from the feudal camp.

I

allies

the eighteenth century die

among

wish to be

those

allies.

Aragon comments:

Our comrade

here touches on a state of

present-day writers. see their

own

Not

all

situation as clearly as

them more must be required from within,

it is

affairs that affects a large

have the courage to look

...

necessary to fight

Rene Maublanc

it

is

in the face

But

are few.

.

.

.

number of those w ho

precisely from

not enough to weaken the bourgeoisie

them

with the proletariat

and many of our friends among the writers the example of the Soviet Russian writers geoisie

it

.

.

.

Rene Maublanc

who are still hesitating are faced b\ who came from the Russian bour-

and nevertheless became pioneers of the building of socialism.

WALTER BENJAMIN, "THE AUTHOR AS PRODUCER"

8

I

Thus Aragon. But how did they become pioneers? Certainly not without very bitter struggles, extremely

difficult debates.

The

considerations

have

I

put before you are an attempt to draw some conclusions from these struggles.

They

are based

on the concept owes

the Russian intellectuals specialist.

The

its

of the

solidarity

which the debate on the

specialist

the beginning of this clarification

- can only be

a

of

of the

with the proletariat — herein

lies

mediated one. The

they pleased: they could not do away with the fact that even the

makes

proletarianization of an intellectual hardly ever

Because the bourgeois

a proletarian.

gave him, in the form of education,

class

production which, owing to educational privilege, makes him ity

attitude

and the representatives of New Matter-of-Factness could gesticu-

Activists late as

to

decisive clarification: the concept

with

and

it,

more

still

with him.

it

It

Why?

means of

a

feel solidar-

was thereby entirely correct

when

Aragon, in another connection, declared: "The revolutionary intellectual appears

first

and foremost

as

betrayal consists, in the case

from

a supplier

tion. This

is

a

in

conduct which turns him,

of the productive apparatus, into an engineer

adapt

his task to

the betrayer of his class of origin." This

of the writer,

this

mediating

activity, yet

frees the intellectual

it

which Maublanc and many of

destructive task to

who

sees

it

as

apparatus to the purposes of the proletarian revolu-

necessary to confine him.

Does he succeed

in

his

from

that purely

comrades believe

promoting the

it

socialization

of the intellectual means of production? Does he see ways of himself organizing the intellectual workers in the production process? Has he proposals for the Umfunktionierung

more completely he can

of the novel, the drama, the poem? The

orient his activity towards this task, the

more

correct will be the political tendency, and necessarily also the higher the technical quality, of his work. is

thus informed

occur to him to in the

on

And on

the other hand: the

his position in the process

more

exactly he

of production, the

lay claim to "spiritual" qualities.

The

spirit that

less it will

holds forth

name of fascism must disappear. The spirit which, in opposing it, own miraculous powers, will disappear. For the revolutionary

trusts in its

struggle

is

not between capitalism and

spirit

but between capitalism and the

proletariat.

Walter Benjamin, (ed.),

"The Author

New York: Schocken

as

Producer," Reflections,

Books, 1986, pp. 220-38.

Peter

Demetz

THREE

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

LOOK

Is

laughter revolutionary?

LIKE POLITICS

Does throwing

a party constitute a political act?

Can

doing nothing be considered doing something? According to a respected source like

the Oxford English Dictionary, the answer

defines,

This

is

is

clear: no. Politics, the

is

matter of states and governments, organization and administration.

a

a valid, but also very limited, definition. Defined this

out most people and most of exactly

what compose

life,

way

"politics" leaves

states and legitimize governments, and

makes organiza-

Thus our

definition of

needs to be expanded. Countless times throughout the day each of us

thinks and acts through a culture which reflects and reinforces a

of seeing and being

undermine

in

the world, or

this culture (or, as

we

think and act

understood as

politics,

in

dominant way

ways which challenge and

Gramsci might argue, we often do both). While

these everyday events frequently take place

is

1

yet these populations and their activities are

tion and administration either possible or impossible. politics

OED

in

the margins of what

these cultural practices are, indeed,

a group of essays which explore,

champion and

political.

is

commonly

What

follows

into question this politics

call

that doesn't look like politics.

MIKHAIL BAKHTIN,

FROM

RABELAIS

AND

HIS

WORLD

Francois Rabelais, the great French humorist of the sixteenth century,

comic of the Gargantua

belly

(c.

good downy

1

and the

fart,

In his

was

a

book

534) he devotes a chapter to evaluating ways to wipe one's ass ("a

gosling" wins the prize). To understand Rabelais, argues the Russian

literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin, festivals

the grotesque and the scatological.

you must understand the

of his time. Central to Bakhtin's analysis

is

folk

humor and

frequent

the carnival. Far from the

MIKHAIL BAKHTIN, FROM RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD

commercial entertainment that

it

has

become

in

our time, the

carnival of the

Middle Ages and Renaissance was a popular production of subversion. nival

made

the fool was

strictures of

83

the car-

In

king and the king a fool, the sacred ceremonies and rigid

Church and State were

defiled

Bakhtin's words, a "world inside out."

and ridiculed (see sidebar).

Not merely

was,

It

in

just imagined, but bodily ex-

perienced, this "second world" of flattened hierarchies, Utopian plenty and bodily pleasure provided a stage for the population to act out a play of resistance

drama performed

in

flesh

olutions of centuries to

and

France and across Europe

steel in

come. By resurrecting

in

-

a

the great rev-

Rabelais, Bakhtin implies that he

has something to say to our age as well. His championing of the laughter of the

common critical

lived

people and the subversive qualities that

commentary on the

and wrote, as

it

on Europe of years

is

lie

therein

is

perhaps as much a

"people's state" of the Soviet Union past. In

in

which Bakhtin

even more recent times,

Bakhtin's celebration of the carnival has inspired direct action groups like Reclaim

the Streets

among

(cf.

Jordan), and encouraged scholars to look for politics

people, and

Laughter and

that at first glance might not

in activities

forms represent

its

people's creation.

.

.

.

seem so

places,

in

political.

the least scrutinized sphere of the

The narrow concept of popular

character and of folklore

was born in the pre-Romantic period and was basically completed by von

Herder and the Romantics. There was no room

in this

concept for the

peculiar culture of the marketplace and of folk laughter with

of manifestations.

Nor

that marketplace

become

folk

lyrics,

and

wealth

the object of historic, literary, or folkloristic

scrutiny as the study of early cultures continued.

was accorded the

all its

did the generations that succeeded each other in

least place

of all in the

The element of laughter

vast literature

devoted to myth, to

to epics. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the

peculiar nature of the people's laughter was completely distorted; entirely alien notions

and concepts of humor, formed within the framework of

modern culture and aesthetics, were applied to this interpretation. We may therefore say without exaggeration that the profound originality expressed by the culture of folk humor in the past has remained

bourgeois

unexplored until now.

And

yet, the

scope and the importance of this culture were immense

the Renaissance and the

Middle Ages.

forms and manifestations opposed the ecclesiastical

and feudal

the carnival type, the

comic

rites

and

and serious tone of medieval

of their

cults, the

and manifold

in

boundless world of humorous

official

culture. In spite

dwarfs, and jugglers, the vast

A

variety, folk festivities oi

clowns and

literature

fools, giants,

of parody —

all

these

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

84

forms have one

"Kings are nothing but

dumb

calves

.

.,"

.

LOOK

LIKE POLITICS

common:

style in

they belong to one

humor.

culture of folk carnival

Francois Rabelais

Carnival I

want to

how

you

tell

Panurge ritual

treated his prisoner [the king]

Anarche up

.

.

[OJne day he dressed

.

a fine

his said king in

doublet,

all

slashed

and nice

cap,

he

(for,

one

two - and

a

handsome

of fools"

(

and the

festa stultorum)

"feast

consecrated by tradition. Moreover, nearly

every Church feast had

blue and

was

of

(risus

its

comic folk

feasts,

marked by

usually

which

Such, for instance,

also traditionally recognized.

were the parish

aspect,

and

fairs

saying that this livery

belt,

served him

well, seeing that [a

words

and green].

for blue

he had

pun on the French

been perverse

state

and complex pageants and processions, there

"feast

paschalis)

little

think he had

I

of medieval man. Besides carnivals proper, with

the ass"; there was a special free "Easter laughter"

they

and a

life

was the

big capon's

feather - I'm wrong,

green

said,

spoil his vision),

blue cap with

an Albian's

breeches,

sailor's

without shoes

would

like

the

their long,

linen

little

and the comic spectacles and

festivities

connected with them had an important place in

In this

varied open-air amusements, with the participation of giants, dwarfs, monsters,

and trained animals.

atmosphere reigned on days

he brought him before Panta-

when

were produced. This atmosphere

A carnival

mysteries and also

soties

pervaded such

gruel and said to him:

"Do you

"No, indeed," "It's

but

which was celebrated

said Pantagruel.

Milord the pluperfect king;

want to make a good man of These

devils

dumb

agricultural feasts as the harvesting of grapes (vendange)

recognize this clown?"

ceremonies and

I

him.

clowns

and

festivals,

mimicked

took on

constant

fools,

and

social

comic aspect

a

participants

as

these

in

the kings are nothing

calves;

know

they

nothing

and they're good for nothing, except to

also in the city. Civil

rituals

do harm to

their

poor

serious rituals such as the tribute

rendered to the victors

at

tournaments, the transfer of

feudal rights, or the initiation of a knight.

subjects,

and trouble the whole world by

sions

were

also

Minor occa-

marked by comic protocol,

as

for

making war, for their wicked and detestable pleasure.

I

want to

instance the election of a king and

set

a

him to a trade, and make him a

hawker of green sauce [made of onions].

So now

'Don't you need

And

too

soft," said

sauce?'"

poor

in

said:

the key of G. So, you

You have a strong

devil!

c.

1

532, The

Complete Works of Francois Rabelais, (trans.),

3

I

,

p.

based on

m

all

the dis-

official, ecclesiastical, feudal,

and a

completely different, nonofFicial, extraecclesiastical and extrapolitical aspect

of the world, of man, and of human second world and

outside officialdom, a world in

which

people participated more or

in

during

a

less,

a

second

all

which they

given time of the year. If

we

tail

life

medieval

to

lived

rake

Berkeley:

University of California Press,

Chapter

rirc).

ritual

forms and ceremonials. They offered

relations; they built a

be king any more."

Donald M. Frame

from the serious

political cult

throat,

you've never been so lucky as not to

from "Pantagruel,"

pour

and

countries of medieval Europe; they were sharply tinct

Panurge;

and he took him by the ear and "Sing louden

to preside at

laughter and consecrated by tradition existed

the poor devil shouted.

"That's

(roi

All these forms of protocol

start shouting:

some green

banquet "for laughter's sake"

queen

1

237 (paras 3-6)

99

into consideration this

two-world condition, neither

I

medieval cultural consciousness nor the culture ot the

MIKHAIL BAKHTIN, FROM RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD

85

Renaissance can be understood. To ignore or to underestimate the laughing people of the Middle Ages also distorts the picture of European culture's

development.

historic

This double aspect of the world and of earliest stages

coupled with the

comic

other, ter");

human

life

existed even at the

of cultural development. In the folklore of primitive peoples, cults

which were

and organization were

serious in tone

which laughed and

cults

scoffed at the deity ("ritual laugh-

coupled with serious myths were comic and abusive ones; coupled

with heroes were their parodies and doublets. These comic

myths have attracted the attention of folklorists.

But

at

the early stages of preclass and prepolitical social order

that the serious

and

rituals

1

seems

it

and the comic aspects of the world and of the deity were

equally sacred, equally "official." This similarity was preserved in rituals of a later

period of history. For instance, in the early period of the

the glorifying and the deriding of the victor.

composed of lamenting

(glorifying)

definitely consolidated state

aspects earlier

became

and

and others

later, to a

in the

such an equality of the two

comic forms were

nonofficial level.

state

funeral ritual was also

and deriding the deceased. But

class structure

impossible. All the

The

Roman

on almost equal terms

the ceremonial of the triumphal procession included

some

transferred,

There they acquired

a

new

meaning, were deepened and rendered more complex, until they became the expression of folk consciousness, of folk culture. festivities

tive

carnivals. They were,

community's

What

Of course, these

Christian liturgy to

religious also

which and

which they

gives

form

far

Saturnalias,

and such

removed from the primi-

of the comic

rituals

and spectacles of the

are not religious rituals like, for instance, the are linked

by

distant genetic ties. The basis

to carnival rituals frees

dogmatism, from

ecclesiastic

all

them completely from

mysticism and

piety.

They

of all

are

completely deprived of the character of magic and prayer; they do not

command nor do

they ask for anything. Even more, certain carnival forms

parody the Church's the

of course,

carnival

ritual laughter.

are the peculiar traits

Middle Ages?

laughter

Roman

of the ancient world, especially the

were medieval

Such were the

Church and

cult. All these

religiosity. They

forms are systematically placed outside

belong to an entirely different sphere.

Because of their obvious sensuous character and their strong element of play, carnival

images closely resemble certain

tacle. In turn,

artistic

forms, namely the spec-

medieval spectacles often tended toward carnival folk culture,

the culture of the marketplace, and to a certain extent

became one of

components. But the basic carnival nucleus of this culture purely

artistic

form nor

a

spectacle

is

its

by no means

a

and does not, generally speaking, belong

LOOK

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

86

to the sphere

of

belongs to the borderline between

art. It

reality, it is life itself,

LIKE POLITICS

know

not

In fact, carnival does

footlights, in the sense that

acknowledge any distinction between actors and

would

performance. Carnival

live in

and everyone participates because

people. While carnival

time

life is

it

its

all its

Roman

experienced in the

a spectacle seen

no other

is

laws, that

would

destroy a

by the people; they

outside

During

it.

own

its

which

all

participants.

Such

take part. It

was most

the

all

carnival

freedom.

is

It

remained unbroken and

upon

earth.

alive in the

expressed this universal renewal and was vividly

the essence of

and

clearly expressed

Saturnalias, perceived as a true

way of life. Clowns and fools, which

does not

very idea embraces

life

the laws of

is,

temporary, return of Saturn's golden age Saturnalias

its

it

condition of the entire world, of the

a special

is

world's revival and renewal, in

by

not

is

there

lasts,

subject only to

has a universal spirit;

carnival, vividly felt

In

life.

spectators. Footlights

destroy a carnival, as the absence of footlights

theatrical it,

and

art

but shaped according to a certain pattern of play.

The

and

full,

though of the

tradition

medieval carnival, which felt as

an escape from the

usual official

tic

often figure in Rabelais' novel, are characteris-

of the medieval culture of humor. They were the constant, accredited

representatives of the carnival spirit in everyday

Like Triboulet 2 parts

on

at

the time of Francis

comic

a stage, as did the

Harlequin, Hanswurst,

etc.,

I,

life

out of carnival season.

they were not actors playing their

actors of a later period, impersonating

but remained fools and clowns always and

wherever they made their appearance. As such they represented

form of life, which was

real

and

borderline between

and

art,

life

ideal at the

in a peculiar

a certain

same time. They stood on the

midzone

as it

were; they were

neither eccentrics nor dolts, neither were they comic actors.

Thus

carnival

is

the people's second

ter. It is a festive life.

spectacles of the All these

Festivity

is

life,

organized on the basis of laugh-

a peculiar quality

of all comic

rituals

and

Middle Ages.

forms of carnival were

also linked externally to the feasts

of the

Church. (One carnival did not coincide with any commemoration sacred history or of a saint but

marked the

last

days before Lent, and

ot

for this

reason was called Mardi gras or careme-prenant in France and Fastnacht in

Germany.) Even more significant ancient pagan

festivities,

element in their

The It

is

the genetic link of these carnivals with

agrarian in nature,

which included the comic

rituals.

feast (every feast)

is

an important primary form of

human culture. commu-

cannot be explained merely by the practical conditions of the

nity's

work, and

it

would be even more

superficial to attribute

it

to the

MIKHAIL BAKHTIN, FROM RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD

physiological

demand

for periodic rest.

meaningful philosophical content. rendered

festive

per

tical

rest

world of ideals. Without feast

had always an

They must be sanctioned not by

conditions but by the highest aims of

The

feast

period or breathing

something must be added from the

se;

ideological dimension.

No

The

human

sanction there can be

this

essential,

spell

can be

spiritual

and

the world of prac-

existence, that

no

87

is,

by the

festivity.

always essentially related to time, either to the recurrence of

is

an event in the natural (cosmic) cycle, or to biological or historic timeliness.

Moreover, through

all

the stages of historic development feasts were

moments of crisis, of breaking points in the cycle of nature or in of society and man. Moments of death and revival, of change and

linked to the

life

renewal always led to

perception of the world. These moments,

a festive

expressed in concrete form, created the peculiar character of the

framework of class and feudal

In the

acter could

feasts.

political structure this specific char-

be realized without distortion only in the carnival and in similar

marketplace

festivals.

They were

the second

of the people,

life

who

for a time

entered the Utopian realm of community, freedom, equality, and abundance.

On siastic,

the other hand, the official feasts of the Middle Ages, whether ecclefeudal, or sponsored

existing

by the

did not lead the people out of the

state,

world order and created no second

life.

On the

tioned the existing pattern of things and reinforced

became formal; changes and moments of Actually, the official feast secrate the present.

asserted

all

that

was

looked back

Unlike the stable,

was put forward official feast

was

alien

distorted.

contrary, they sanc-

The

link with time

were relegated

to the past.

the past and used the past to con-

and purer

feast,

the official feast

unchanging, perennial: the existing hierarchy, the

existing religious, political,

was the triumph of

at

earlier

crisis

it.

and moral

norms, and prohibitions.

values,

a truth already established, the

as eternal

and indisputable. This

predominant truth is

why

It

that

the tone of the

why the element of laughter human festivity was betrayed and

was monolithically serious and

to

But

it.

The

true nature of

this true festive

character was indestructible;

it

had to be

tol-

erated and even legalized outside the official sphere and had to be turned

over to the popular sphere of the marketplace.

As opposed to the

official feast,

one might

say that carnival celebrated

temporary liberation from the prevailing truth and from the established order;

it

marked the suspension of

all

and prohibitions. Carnival was the true change, and renewal.

It

hierarchical rank, privileges, norms, feast

was hostile to

of time, the

all

that

feast

of becoming,

was immortalized and

completed.

The

suspension of

all

hierarchical precedence during carnival time

was

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

88

of particular significance.

LOOK

Rank was

LIKE POLITICS

especially evident during official feasts;

everyone was expected to appear in the

of his

full regalia

calling, rank,

merits and to take the place corresponding to his position. secration of inequality.

On

carnival. Here, in the

town

contact reigned caste, property,

the contrary,

all

It

was

a

and

con-

were considered equal during

form of

square, a special

free

and familiar

among people who were usually divided by the barriers of profession, and age. The hierarchical background and the

extreme corporative and

caste divisions

of the medieval social order were

exceptionally strong. Therefore such free, familiar contacts were deeply

and formed an

essential

element of the carnival

speak, reborn for new, purely

were not only enced.

human

spirit.

felt

People were, so to

relations. These truly

human

relations

of imagination or abstract thought; they were experi-

a fruit

The Utopian

ideal

and the

merged

realistic

in

carnival

this

experience, unique of its kind.

This temporary suspension, both ideal and

real,

of hierarchical rank

created during carnival time a special type of communication impossible in

everyday

and

life. This

led to the creation of special forms of marketplace speech

gesture, frank

came

in contact

and

free,

permitting no distance between those

who

with each other and liberating from norms of etiquette and

decency imposed

at

other times.

A

of expression was formed which

special carnivalesque, marketplace style

we

find

abundantly represented

in

Rabelais' novel.

During the century-long development of the medieval pared by thousands of years of ancient comic Saturnalias, a

carnival, pre-

including the primitive

ritual,

idiom of forms and symbols was evolved - an

special

extremely rich idiom that expressed the unique yet complex carnival experience of the people. This experience, opposed to all that w as readymade and completed, to all pretense at immutability, sought a dynamic expression; it demanded ever changing, playful, undefined forms. All the

symbols of the carnival idiom are

filled

with

this

pathos of change and

renewal, with the sense of the gay relativity of prevailing truths and authorities.

We

find here a characteristic logic, the peculiar logic of the "inside out"

(a Venvers),

from front

of the "turnabout," of a continual shifting from top to bottom, to

profanations,

rear,

of numerous parodies and

comic crownings and uncrownings.

world of folk culture

is

the extracarnival

a

life,

thus constructed;

it is

travesties,

A

second

humiliations, lite,

a

second

to a certain extent a parody of

"world inside out."

Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, Helene Iswolsky ington: Indiana University Press, 1965/ 1988, pp.

4— II.

(trans.),

Bloom-

JAMES

SCOTT, FROM WEAPONS OF THE WEAK

C.

JAMES

89

SCOTT,

C.

FROM WEAPONS OF THE WEAK The anthropologist James C. Scott politics that

that a

doesn't look

form of

politics

is

like politics.

one of the most eloquent defenders of Studying peasants

a

Malaysia, Scott realized

in

was being performed each day between the Malay peasants

and landowners. These were not the open and episodic

or violent revolutions, but continuous

more

activities

politics of land seizures

subtle and nuanced

-

grumbling and gossip, laughter and laziness, stupidity and sabotage - a culture of resistance by which peasants rebel against the psychic and material superiority of

forms of resistance." That these

their "betters." Scott calls these acts "everyday acts

occur every day and often out of sight of authorities ("hidden transcripts" of

them

"infrapolitics" Scott calls

tance (1990)), lends

down

power

the

rehearsal for

open

them

work Domination and

in his later

their strength. Such practices slowly

the Arts of Resis-

and

silently

wear

of the powerful, and perhaps even serve as an off-stage assault.

What

follows

Scott's original study of resistance

a passage

is

among Malay

from Weapons of the Weak,

peasants,

which he reveals

in

traces of these everyday forms of resistance throughout history.

The

fact

that, for all their

is

importance

when

they do occur, peasant rebel-

alone peasant "revolutions," are few and far between.

lions, let

Not only

are

the circumstances that favor large-scale peasant uprisings comparatively rare,

when

but

they do appear the revolts that develop are nearly always

crushed unceremoniously. To be sure, even something:

a

few concessions from the

from new and painful

relations

or landlords,

of production and, not 1

and courage that may

resistance

a failed revolt

state

may

least, a

memory Such

in wait for the future.

lie

achieve

brief respite

a

of

gains,

however, are uncertain, while the carnage, the repression, and the demoral-

of defeat are

ization

even

all

too certain and

real. It

those extraordinary historical

at

is

worth

recalling as well that

moments when

a

peasant-backed

revolution actually succeeds in taking power, the results are, at very best, a

mixed it

blessing for the peasantry. Whatever else the revolution

almost always creates

one

that

before

is

it.

a

more

often able to batten itself

on the

a ruling

all

state

apparatus -

rural population like

and collectivization

group whose plans

are very

which peasants had imagined they were For

hegemonic

achieve,

no other

All too frequently the peasantry finds itself in the ironic position

of having helped to power taxation,

coercive and

may

these reasons

it

occurred to

much

me

odds with the goals for

at

fighting.

for industrialization,

2

that the emphasis

on peasant

LOOK

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

90

w as misplaced.

rebellion

stand what we might

Instead,

LIKE POLITICS

seemed

it

far

more important to under- the prosaic

everyday forms of peasant resistance

call

but constant struggle between the peasantry and those labor, food, taxes, rents,

and

who

struggle takes stop well short of collective outright defiance.

mind

the ordinary

weapons of

seek to extract

from them. Most of the forms

interest

Here

this

have in

I

relatively powerless groups: foot dragging,

dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson,

These Brechtian forms of class struggle have certain

sabotage, and so forth.

common. They

features in

they often represent a

require

little

form of individual

or no coordination or planning; self-help;

and they

any direct symbolic confrontation with authority or with understand these commonplace forms of resistance

much of the it

typically avoid elite

norms. To

to understand

is

peasantry does "between revolts" to defend

its

what

interests as best

can. It

would be

a grave mistake, as

with peasant rebellions, to overly

is

it

They

romanticize the "weapons of the weak."

are unlikely to

do more than

marginally affect the various forms of exploitation that peasants confront.

Furthermore, the peasantry has no monopoly on these weapons, can easily

who

attest

anyone

as

has observed officials and landlords resisting and dis-

rupting state policies that are to their disadvantage.

On

the other hand, such Brechtian

modes of

resistance are not trivial.

Desertion and evasion of conscription and of corvee labor have undoubtedly limited the imperial aspirations of many a or, for that matter, in

nowhere

Europe.

The

better captured than in

process^

monarch

and

From

the

yearV

returned return

home and

living there unmolested. Better

home; they had never

severed fingers of right hands

left it in

-

the

the

authorities,

early Empire:

first

a

from

still,

a

given canton having

many of them

did not

place ... In the year VII too the

commonest form of self-mutilation - begin

to witness statistically to the strength

movement of

draft resistance

to the year VII, there are increasingly frequent reports,

Departments ... of every conscript from

3

potential impact are

its

R.C. Cobb's account of

and desertion in postrevolutionary France and under the

variety of

in Southeast Asia

of what might be described

as

a

vast

collective complicity, involving the family, the parish, the local

whole cantons.

Even the Empire, with

a vastly more numerous and reliable rural police, did more than temporarily slowing down the speed of the hemorrhage which from 1812, once more reached catastrophic proportions. There could have been no more eloquent referendum on the universal unpopularity of an oppressive regime; and there is no more encouraging spectacle for histo-

not succeed in .

.

.

.1

rian than a people that has decided

it

will

no longer

fight

and

that,

without

fuss,

JAMES

returns

home

respect,

had

.

.

the

.

SCOTT, FROM WEAPONS OF THE WEAK

C.

common

people, at

their fair share in bringing

I

Shooting an Elephant,

least, in this

down

9

George Orwell

France's

most appalling regime. 4 glanced round at the crowd that

I

The

collapse of the Confederate

the course of the Civil

War

army and economy United

in the

States

is

had followed me.

in a

further example of the decisive role of silent and unde-

was an immense

It

crowd, two thousand

the least

at

and growing every minute.

blocked

It

the road for a long distance on

clared defections. Nearly 250,000 eligible whites are

either side.

estimated to have deserted or to have avoided con-

yellow faces above the garish clothes

scription altogether.

5

The

reasons appear to have been

-

faces

one might expect. Poor

as

whites, especially those from the nonslaveholding

hill

country, were deeply resentful of fighting for an insti-

whose

tution

principal

beneficiaries

excluded from service by law.

what was

the

called

6

were

often

Military reverses and

"subsistence

crisis

of 1862"

to desert

pressed families.

On

and return

the plantations themselves, the

shortage of white overseers and the ity

with the North s objective, gave

flight

on

a

massive

to their hard-

scale.

As

trick.

They

like

me, but with

rifle in

my

hands

realized that

I

people expected it;

a social

pressing

And

as

my

I

it

was

white man's dominion

certainly

no Leninist conspiracy behind

In a similar fashion, flight

a coali-

and

Here was

I,

in

I

in

World

— whether

and evasion of taxes have

precolonial, colonial, or inde-

pendent.

native

persistent efforts

front of the

of the colonial government

and fro by the

will

perceived

that

I

restriction

and markets

is

a case in point.

7

Various

schemes and land use laws were tried from

modresistance. The

1922 until 1928 and again in the 1930s with only est results

it

is

because of massive peasant

of peasants

in self-styled socialist states to

prevent

and then to mitigate or even undo unpopular forms of

in this

man own freedom He becomes a sort the white

his

of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For is

the condition of

shall

spend

impress the crisis

his

his rule

life in

'natives',

it

that he

trying to

and so

in

every

he has got to do what the

'natives'

efforts

was

I

of those yellow

when

in

rubber that would compete with the plantation

leading

in reality

faces behind.

that he destroys.

sector for land

his

unarmed

only an absurd puppet pushed to

turns tyrant

Malaya to discourage the peasantry from growing and selling

East.

with

crowd - seemingly the

moment

The

the

it.

curbed the ambition and reach of Third

states

grasped

of the

man

actor of the piece; but

classically

forward,

first

futility

the white

gun, standing

two

stood there with the

by an unlikely coalition of slaves and yeomen -

leadership,

me

had

I

at this

hands, that

the hollowness, the

no

The

all.

and

feel their

avalanche of petty acts of insubordination carried out

organization,

should have

me

of

it

could

I

wills

irresistibly.

rifle in

no name, no

I

to shoot the elephant after

moment,

tion with

was

I

momentarily worth watching. And

thousand

one could claim

did not

the magical

and

undone by

they would

as

watch a conjurer about to perform a

got to do

in France,

here too that the Confederacy was

me

were watching

slaves' natural affin-

rise to shirking

certain that the ele-

all

phant was going to be shot. They

suddenly

prompted many

the sea of

at

happy and excited over

all

of fun,

this bit

both moral and material,

looked

I

expect of him.

mask, and

his face

He wears

grows to

fit

had got to shoot the elephant.

it.

I

a I

had

committed myself to doing sent for the

rifle.

act like a sahib;

definite things.

way,

people marching then to

trail

when

I

two thousand

my

heels,

in

the

East,

life,

laugh at me.

by

equally massive and often far

more

style

Essays,

New 1

by massive and

of each pair

effective. is

is

8

perhaps best

is

less at

the same objective. The

first

"everyday" resistance, in our meaning of

life

the term; the second represents the

struggle

York: Harcourt Brace

open defiance

that

dominates the study of peasant and working-class

at.

950, pp. 7-8

a quiet evasion that

of resistance in question

each aimed more or

And

Shooting an Elephant and Other

World,

less

described by contrasting paired forms of resistance,

In

politics.

From

marked

is

defiant confrontations than

The

done

every white man's

was one long

not to be laughed

Again the struggle

antry.

and

feebly away, having

nothing - no, that was impossible.

my whole

example of

collective agriculture represent a striking

defensive techniques available to a beleaguered peas-

own mind and To come all that

at

The crowd would

LIKE POLITICS

his

hand, with

rifle in

it

sahib has got to

he has got to appear

know

resolute, to

do

A

LOOK

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

92

&

one sphere,

for example, lies the

quiet,

piecemeal process by which peasant squatters have often encroached

on

plantation and state forest lands; in

the other a public invasion of land that openly challenges property relations. In terms of actual occupation

and

use, the

encroachments by squatting may accom-

more than openly

plish

defiant land invasion,

the de jure distribution of property rights

though

never pub-

challenged. Turning to another example, in one

licly

sphere

lies a

rash of military desertions that incapaci-

an army and, in the other, an open mutiny aiming

tates at

is

eliminating or replacing officers. Desertions may, as

we

have noted, achieve something where mutiny

fail,

precisely because

it

aims

at

self-help

drawal rather than institutional confrontation. the massive withdrawal of compliance

more tution

radical in

its

implications for the

is

army

And

lies

as

an

insti-

a

final

the pilfering of public or

private grain stores; in the other an

markets or granaries aiming

yet,

in a sense

than the replacement of officers. As

example, in one sphere

may

and with-

at

open

attack

on

an open redistribution

of the food supply.

What

everyday forms of reuistance share with the

more dramatic

public confrontations

is

of course

they are intended to mitigate or deny claims

that

made by

superordinate classes or to advance claims vis-a-vis

Such claims have ordinarily do with the material nexus of class struggle - the

those superordinate to

classes.

appropriation of land, labor, taxes, rents, and so forth.

JAMES

Where everyday resistance

is

in

is

with immediate, de facto

from other forms of

Where

informal, often covert, and concerned largely

is

gains.

9

reasonably clear that the success of de facto resistance

directly proportional to the symbolic

Open

93

formal, overt, concerned with systematic, de jure

change, everyday resistance

is

strikingly departs

implicit disavowal of public and symbolic goals.

institutionalized politics

It

most

resistance

its

SCOTT, FROM WEAPONS OF THE WEAK

C.

conformity with which

that

masked.

more

insubordination in almost any context will provoke a

and ferocious response than an insubordination

often

is

it is

may be

rapid

pervasive

as

but never ventures to contest the formal definitions of hierarchy and

power. For most subordinate have had has

which,

classes,

prospect of improving their

little

matter of sheer history,

as a

been the only option. What may be accomplished

straitjacket

is

form of

status, this

within this symbolic

human

nonetheless something of a testament to

and inventiveness,

as

this

resistance

account of lower-caste

persistence

resistance

in

India

illustrates:

Lifelong indentured servants most characteristically expressed discontent about their relationship inefficiently.

with their master by performing their work

They could

carelessly

and

intentionally or unconsciously feign illness, ignorance,

or incompetence, driving their master to distraction. Even though the master

could still

retaliate

by refusing to give

obliged to maintain

him

at a

his servant the extra fringe benefits,

subsistence level if he did not

investment completely. This method ofpassive as open defiance,

was nearly unbeatable,

resistance,

provided

was not expressed

little

recourse to

10

Such forms of stubborn vast literature

documented

resistance are especially well

on American

largely a history

of foot dragging,

false

compliance,

flight,

rance, sabotage, theft, and, not least, cultural resistance.

which

rarely if ever called into question the

theless

achieved

far

more

in their

than the few heroic and brief

been written. The

slaves

in the

where open defiance was normally

slavery,

foolhardy The history of resistance to slavery in the antebellum is

he was

to lose his

reinforced the Haviks' stereotype con-

it

cerning the character of low caste persons, but gave them action.

it

want

unannounced,

armed

limited,

uprisings about

South

feigned igno-

These

system of slavery

US

practices,

as such,

never-

and truculent way

which

so

much

has

themselves appear to have realized that in most

circumstances their resistance could succeed only to the extent that

behind the mask of public compliance.

One

from

their

hid

imagines parents giving their

children advice not unlike advice contemporary tions in Indonesia apparently hear

it

own

wage

laborers

parents:

on planta-

LOOK

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

94

I

tell

who

them buys

wants to

when he

Two

specific observations

resistance beliefs

is

are there.

emerge from

permanent

dismissal or

are

look

11

the nature of

retaliation.

Where

the conse-

be catastrophic in terms of

to

likely

work

the

jail,

he's

you always

this perspective. First

about the probability and severity of strike

work when

sure

by the existing forms of labor control and by

greatly influenced

quences of an open

so

it,

make

goes away, but

working when the inspectors

you're

your labor and the one

selling

he gets something for

see that

around, then you can relax like

remember, you're

[the youngsters] it

LIKE POLITICS

may

force

rest to a

slowdown or

to

shoddy work on the job. The often undeclared and anonymous nature of such action makes

it

"Italian" strike;

it is

under martial law

used particularly

in 1983.

12

slowdown

when

weaving

day.

repression

is

be called an

to

Poland

feared, as in

Piece-work has of course often been used

Where piece-work which

to

prevails, as

Germany,

in nineteenth-century

sion not in slowdowns,

come

has

means of circumventing forms of resistance open by the hour or

blame

particularly difficult for the antagonist to assess

or apply sanctions. In industry, the

it

resistance

who

workers did in

is

silk

as a

are paid

and cotton

likely to find expres-

are self-defeating, but in such

forms

as

the

"shortweighting of finished cloth, defective workmanship, and the purloining of materials." 13 Each form of labor control or payment

other things equal, to generate

its

own

is

thus

likely,

forms of quiet resistance

distinctive

and "counterappropriation."

The second

observation

that resistance

is

is

not necessarily directed

at

the immediate source of appropriation. Inasmuch as the objective of the resisters

land, or line

of

is

typically to

meet such pressing needs

income, and to do so in least

relative safety,

resistance. Prussian peasants

as physical safety,

they

may

food,

simply follow the

and proletarians

in the

1830s,

beleaguered by dwarf holdings and wages below subsistence, responded by emigration or by poaching wood, fodder, and

game on

pace of "forest crime" rose

as

expensive, and

207,000 offenses.

wages declined,

where emigration was more

prosecutions 14

as

in

Prussia,

They were supported by

150,000 a

a large scale.

provisions

difficult; in

1836 there were

of which were

mood

The

became more for

forest

of popular complicity

that

originated in earlier traditions of free access to forest, but the poachers

cared

little

whether the

rabbits or

firewood they took came from the land

or their particular employer or landlord. Thus, the reaction to an appropriation in

one sphere may lead

elsewhere that are perhaps

its

more

Such techniques of resistance teristics

of the peasantry. Being

victims to exploit small openings available accessible

and

less

dangerous. 15

are well adapted to the particular characa diverse class

of "low classness" scattered

JAMES

SCOTT, FROM WEAPONS OF THE WEAK

C.

95

across the countryside, often lacking the discipline

and leadership

that

would encourage opposition of a more organized

the peasantry

best

sort,

is

suited to extended guerrilla-style campaigns of attrition that require

little

or no coordination. Their individual acts of foot dragging and evasion are often reinforced by a venerable popular culture of resistance. Seen in the light

of

supportive subculture and the knowledge that the risk to any

a

single resister is

involved,

however, leaders,

it

is

generally reduced to the extent that the

becomes

plausible to speak of a social

whole community

movement. Curiously,

movement with no formal organization, no formal no dues, no name and no banner. By virtue of their

this is a social

no

manifestos,

on anything

institutional invisibility, activities

they are noticed

at all, rarely

less

than a massive scale

are, if

accorded any social significance.

many thousandfold, such petty acts of resistance by peasants may in the end make an utter shambles of the policies framed up by their would-be superiors in the capital. The state may respond in a variety of ways. Policies may be recast in line with more realistic expectations. They may be retained but reinforced with positive incentives aimed at encouraging voluntary compliance. And, of course, the state may simply choose to employ more coercion. Whatever the response, we must not miss the fact Multiplied

that the

action of the peasantry has changed or narrowed the policy

options available to the

state. It is in this

fashion,

and not through

revolts, let

made

alone legal political pressure, that the peasantry has classically political

presence

felt.

Thus any

attempts to do justice to the peasantry

come this

to grips

with what

reason alone

it

is

I

its

history or theory of peasant politics that as a historical

have chosen to

call

actor must necessarily

everyday forms of resistance. For

important to both document and bring some con-

ceptual order to this seeming welter of human activity.

Everyday forms of resistance make no headlines. 16 Just anthozoan polyps

create, willy-nilly, a coral reef, so

millions of

as

do thousands upon

thousands of individual acts of insubordination and evasion create cal

or economic barrier reef of their own. There

confrontation, any

moment

is

typically directed to the

of petty

acts that

made

it

particularly newsworthy.

And whenever, a reef, attention

is

shipwreck possible.

itself

It is

and not to the

vast aggregation

only rarely that the perpetrators of

these petty acts seek to call attention to themselves. Their safety

anonymity.

It

is

also

extremely rare that

publicize the insubordination. To is

unpopular, and, above

the countryside

all,

a politi-

any dramatic

rarely

of state runs aground on such

that

to pursue the simile, the ship

is

to

do

so

officials

would be

to

of the

lies in

state

their

wish to

admit that their policy

expose the tenuousness of their authority

- neither of which the sovereign

state finds in

its

in

interest.

LOOK

96

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

The

nature of the acts themselves and the self-interested muteness of

LIKE POLITICS

the antagonists thus conspire to create a kind of complicitous silence that all

but expunges everyday forms of resistance from the historical record.

James C.

New

Weapons of

Scott,

Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant

the

Haven: Yale University

Resistance,

Press, 1985, pp. 29-36.

ROBIN

D.G. KELLEY,

FROM RACE REBELS As the following personal makes

Kelley

clear,

narrative by historian and cultural theorist Robin D.G.

the everyday forms of resistance that Scott identifies are not

or to past

limited to the fields of Malaysia

among

history. Resistance can also

Chicano youth working, and clowning,

black and

McDonald's. While not hostile to

political

organizations

-

his first

and the Hoe (1990), was a study of the Communist Party ends

this essay

with a

call

a

in

in

be found

Los Angeles

book,

Hammer

Alabama -

Kelley

what we understand to be

for rethinking and redefining

front of) mainstream institu-

authentically political, looking past (or perhaps

in

tions like unions and political organizations, and

toward

activities that

have often

been considered on the margins of the "real struggle." Important skirmishes can take place like

in

whose

arenas

"McDonald's

is

working there franchise,

like

corporate

a

happy place!"

in 1978. For

food restaurants, by teenagers, over issues

Mickey

I

meant food,

D's actually

me

when

really believed that slogan

many of us employed

objective was funds. Don't get ester

fast

definition of culture will prevail.

folks,

at

I

began

the central Pasadena

and fun, though our main

wrong; the work was

tiring

and the poly-

The swing managers, who made slightly more ass to move fast and smile The customers treated us as if we were stupid, probably

uniforms unbearable.

than the rank-and-file, were constantly on our

more

frequently.

because 90 percent of the employees

Americans or Chicanos from poor compensate. Like virtually

all

my

at

families.

our franchise were African-

But we found inventive ways

fellow workers,

I

liberated

to

McDonaldland

cookies by the boxful, volunteered to clean "lots and lobbies" in order to talk to

my

and apple

friends,

and accidentally cooked too many Quarter Pounders

pies near closing time,

home whatever was

left over.

knowing

Sometimes we

nology to our advantage. Back in the

full

well that

we

could take

(mis) used the available tech-

day, the shakes did

not

come

ready

ROBIN

FROM RACE REBELS

D.G. KELLEY,

97

mixed. We had to pour the frozen shake mix from the shake machine into paper cup, add flavored syrup, and place couple of minutes.

If

it

was not attached

it

on an

a

electric blender for a

correctly, the

mixer blade would

cut the sides of the cup and cause a disaster. While these mishaps slowed us

down and

created a mess to clean up, anyone with an extra cup

shake out of

little

handy got

a

Because we were underpaid and overworked, we

it.

accepted consumption

compensation - though in hindsight eating

as just

Big Macs and Fries to make up

for

low wages and mistreatment was prob-

ably closer to self-flagellation.

That we were part of the "working gles

class"

engaged

workplace strug-

in

never crossed our minds, in part because the battles that were dear to

most of us and the

strategies

what most people think of as anyone

we adopted

fell

outside the parameters of

traditional "labor disputes." I've never

our McDonald's to argue about wages;

at

if

demanded

some of us occa-

rather,

our friends to punch our time cards before we arrived,

sionally asked

especially

known

we were running

that

late.

management extend

And no one our break; we

my

to

knowledge

simply operated on

"CP" (colored people's) time, turning fifteen minutes into twenty-five. What we fought over were more important things like what radio station to play. The owner and some of the managers felt bound to easy listening; we turned to stations like K-DAY on AM or KJLH and K-ACE on the FM dial so we could rock to the funky sounds of Rick James, Parliament, Heatwave, the Ohio Players, and — yes — Michael Jackson. Hair was perhaps the most contested

battle

ground. Those of us without closely cropped cuts

were expected to wear hairnets, and we were simply not having course, the kids late seventies

time.

But

who

identified with the black

had no problem with

it.

Of

and Chicano gangs of the

this rule since

they wore hairnets

all

the

permed doo was with amazing tenacity - and won most

to net one's gheri curl, a lingering Afro, a freshly

outrageous. We fought those battles

of the time.

We

even attempted to

alter

our ugly uniforms by opening

buttons, wearing our hats tilted to the side, rolling

up our

sleeves a certain

way, or adding a variety of different accessories.

Nothing was

sacred, not

even the labor process.

our share of slowdowns and deliberate

of

undoubtedly had

carelessness, but

what

I

way many of us stylized our work. We ignored and manuals and turned work into performance. Women on the

remember the films

acts

We

the most was the

cash register

maneuvered

and four finger

effortlessly

rings. Tossing trash

with long, carefully manicured

became an opportunity

nails

to try out

our best Dr. J moves. The brothers who worked the grill (it was only brothers from what I recall) were far more concerned with looking cool than

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

98

ensuring an equal distribution of reconstituted onions on each all-beef

imagine

patty. Just

toaster

and the

phone.

And

a

brandishing a spatula like

grill,

while

young black male "gangsta limpin'" between

all

of

this

was going on,

walking

folks

stick or a

the

micro-

were signifying on one

mommas,

another, talking loudly about each other's girlfriends,

a

daddys, boyfriends,

automobiles (or lack thereof), breath, skin color, uniforms; on

occasion describing in hilarious detail the peculiarities of customers stand-

ing on the other side of the counter. Such chatter often drew in the customers,

who

found themselves entertained or offended — or both — by

our verbal circus and collective dialogues.

1

The employees at the central Pasadena McDonald's were constantly new ways to rebel, ways rooted in our own peculiar circumstances. And we never knew where the struggle would end; indeed, I doubt any of us thought we were part of a movement that even had an end other inventing

than punching out

a

time card (though

McDonald's, the introduction of

and more

efficient, has a lot to

new

do with management's struggle

these acts of resistance and reaction). part of the overall story; the terrain dignity,

and fun. We

do think the "Taylorizing" of

I

technology to make service simpler

tried to turn

2

But what we fought

was often

work

to

for

cultural, centering

minimize

is

a crucial

on

identity,

into pleasure, to turn our bodies into

instruments of pleasure. Generational and cultural specificity had a good deal to

do with our unique forms of resistance, but

a lot

of our actions were

linked directly to the labor process, gender conventions, and our

Like most working people throughout the world,

Mickey D's were neither

my

class status.

fellow employees

total victims

of routinization, exploitation,

sexism, and racism, nor were they "rational"

economic beings driven by the

at

most base

utilitarian concerns. Their lives

complicated. If

we

than dismiss them

are to

we must begin

union pronouncements,

classes so

the complicated

these kinds of actions rather

lives, cultures,

much more

false

and organized

than people

maze of experience

to break

only redefine what

what I

away from is

are "authentic"

who

mean

move-

that

work. We have to step into

renders "ordinary" tolks

traditional notions

"political" but question a lot

movements and

of trade

social

and communities which make the

extraordinarily multifaceted, diverse, and complicated.

we need

consciousness, or

to dig beneath the surface

political institutions,

ments, deep into the daily

working

make meaning of

manifestations of immaturity,

as

primitive rebellion,

and struggles were so much more

strategies

of

Most

politics.

We

of common

so

importantly;

must not

ideas about

of resistance. By "authentic

the assumption that only certain organizations and ideologies can

truly represent particular

group

interests (e.g., workers' struggles

must be

ROBIN

D.G. KELLEY,

FROM RACE REBELS

99

located within labor organizations, or African-American concerns are most clearly articulated in so-called

NAACP

the

as

and

civil rights

organizations such

Urban League). Such an approach not only

or the

regards diversity

"mainstream"

conflict within groups, but

it

dis-

presumes that the only

struggles that count take place through institutions.

we

If

going to write

are

where do we place the

of black working-class

a history

vast majority

of people

who

either "working-class" organizations or black political

resistance,

did not belong to

movements?

A lot

of

black working people struggled and survived without direct links to the

of organizations that dominate

kinds

US

American or

whether

struggle,

working-class it

authority or social

movements thought

of the "community's

tive

Robin D.G.

"WHY

IS

Others are

be

No

of

to

be inauthentic or unrepresentafundamental part of the

Politics,

and

the Black

Working Class,

Press, 1994, pp. 1-4.

ADOLPH REED JR., THERE NO BLACK POLITICAL MOVEMENT?"

less

convinced than Scott and Kelley

Black Political

and popular

entist

margins

interests," are really a

"everyday forms of resistance."

There

of African-

so-called

told.

Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture,

New York: Free

accounts

The

the unorganized, often spontaneous battles with

is

larger story waiting to

historical

resistance.

In this

Movement?" Adolph Reed

journalist,

in

the political efficacy of

short selection from Jr.,

his

essay

"Why

an academic political

Is

sci-

vehemently rejects the notion that such practices

lead to social justice. Sure, he argues, people resist every day, but "that and a

buck

fifty will

get you on the subway." Reed identifies this so-called culture of

resistance as merely normal forms of survival for the powerless.

way to worst,

At

best,

it is

a

mitigate the everyday degradation and humiliation of subservience; at it's

an escape valve for

might change the system. What

political

passions that, acted out

we need

instead, he argues at a later point,

other ways,

in

is

old-

fashioned, self-consciously political, broad-based social organizations.

Sure there's infrapolitics

-

there always

is,

and there always

will be;

when-

ever there's oppression, there's resistance. That's one of the oldest slogans on the

left.

But

it's

also a simple fact

of life. People don't

like

or exploited, and they respond in ways that reflect that

being oppressed fact.

That and

a

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

100

buck

are the

of

you on the subway. "Daily confrontations"

get

fifty will

movements

cal

carbon, water, and oxygen are to

as

on

are to politi-

this planet.

They

raw material for the movements of political change, and expressions

dissatisfaction that reflect the

need

for change, but their presence says

nothing more about the potential for such its

life

a

movement

to exist,

much

less

actuality.

At

best, those

who

romanticize "everyday resistance" or "cultural poli-

movements

evolution of political

tics" read the

teleologically; they

presume

that those conditions necessarily, or even typically, lead to political action.

They

Not any more

don't.

than the presence of carbon and water necessar-

the evolution of

ily leads to

Homo

ubiquitous, developed political

sapiens.

movements

Think about

it:

At worst, and more commonly, defenders of infrapolitics ically

consequential in

romantic confusion, but

no

real

its

own

it's

also

is

treat

it

as polit-

may stem from

a

an evasive acknowledgement that there

is

This idealism

right.

popular political movement. Further,

the missing

infrapolitics

are rare.

a

it's

way of pretending

movement is not a problem - that everyday, apolitical maybe even more "authentic," form of politics.

that

social

practices are a new,

The only

possible successful strategy

is

one based on genuinely popular,

and concrete, interest-based organizing

deliberative processes

that connects

with people's daily

lives.

Adolph Reed

Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the

Jr.,

American Scene,

New York: The New

Press, 2000, pp. 3-4, 9.

JEAN BAUDRILLARD, "THE MASSES: THE IMPLOSION OF THE SOCIAL IN THE MEDIA" For

critics like

Reed, promoting a

signals a disastrous retreat

from the

politics that doesn't always political stage.

post-modernist Jean Baudrillard, the disappearance of

commonly perceived here

in

its

is

something to applaud.

look

In

political struggle

vidual, the natural

history. This,

demand

however,

is

is

one of

-

as

change to

system that excludes or represses the inclusion: to

not the world

we

it's

the following essay, printed

entirety, Baudrillard argues that strategies of resistance

reflect strategies of control. Against a

like politics

But for the always provocative

become

live in. In

indi-

a citizen, a subject of

the capitalist democracies

JEAN BAUDRILLARD, "THE MASSES

..."

101

people are bombarded with appeals to their representation and participation: "This Bud's for you," "Vote!," "Speak your Mind," yet choice, vote or voice matters

tence by the consent (or consumer purchases) of those solution

simple:

is

meaning and the

now

to

our

realize that

justifies its exis-

governs, Baudrillard's

withdraw your consent. Cultivate disengagement, apathy, the refusal of

is

refusal of speech." Or, as the faux religion/conspiracy cabal,

SubGenius Foundation (see sidebar), puts

(as

it

detachment, and silence: "the strategic resistance

ironic

Up

we

still

Against such a system which

little.

it:

been two great versions of the

there have

the

celebrate slack.

analysis

of the media

indeed that of the masses), one optimistic and one pessimistic. The opti-

one has assumed two major

mistic

another. There the electronic

is

tonalities,

very different from one

McLuhan:

the technological optimism of Marshall

media inaugurate

and should conduct

beyond the atomizing

rationality

him

generalized planetary communication

a

by the mental

us,

for

effect alone

of

new

technologies,

of the Gutenberg galaxy to the global

- an achieved transparency of information and communication. The other version, more traditional, is that of

new

village, to the

dialectical

electronic tribalism

optimism inspired by

media constitute

a

progressivist

and Marxist thought: the

new, gigantic productive force and obey the dialectic of

productive forces. Momentarily alienated and submitted to the law of capi-

monopoly. "For the

and

mass participation in

a

socialized, a participation

whose

a

productive process

practical

means

of the masses themselves." These two positions more or nological, the other ideological, inspire the

It is

particularly to the

optimism of Enzensberger

a resolutely pessimist vision in

described the mass media izes

less,

analysis

once hands

one tech-

the

and the present

of the media. 2

more

opposed

whole

at

are in the

1

practice

this

time in history," writes Hans Enzensberger, "the

first

media make possible social

development can only eventually explode

intensive

their

talism,

the mass media

is

as a

they fabricate noncommunication as

and thus of

responsibility.

an exchange,

as

opposed

-

if

finally forbids response,

(except in the shape of

a

is

formerly I

to mediation, intransitive, that

the reciprocal space of speech and response,

In other words, if

media

I

one accepts the definition of comone defines

than the simple emission/reception of information. architecture of the

that

for the Media." In that

"speech without response." What character-

that they are

munication

"Requiem

founded on

it

anything other

as

Now the whole present

this last definition:

they are what

what renders impossible any process of exchange simulation of

a

response,

which

is

itself

integrated

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

102

"Slack

freedom

like

is

.

.

.,"

The SubGenius Foundation

into the process of emission, and this changes nothing

And

true abstraction. Slack

is

like

freedom

it

freedom, but unlike

no

brings

"Bob does not worry"

One the

thing

evil

we

Bozo

have cult

understand properly the term

common with we wish to One might

habitual half-gallon-a-day

nent; he

may

this.

But

it

is

do whatever you damn

all

ciate

one must appre-

him who gives and can be made. To give, and to do it

no return

to

such a way that no return can be made,

own

exchange to one's

Among

stress,

monopoly: the

to in

to break

is

and to

profit

to

well please for

Without Drawbacks,

Without Remorse.

TRUE SLACK IS SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.

contrary,

tionship and to restore

institute

a

out of balance. To make

is

to break this

is

on the

basis

power

applies in the sphere

way

in such a

The

no

is

possibility

this possibility

whole present

upsetting the

media"

of

same

of the media: there speech occurs

that there

restitution

rela-

of an antagonistic

reciprocity the circuit of symbolic exchange. The

started to

From The Book of the SubGenius, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987,

social process

on the

a return,

Apologies, Side-Effects, Spoilage,

p.

response,

once strong, symbolic, and

at

power belongs

primitive:

whom

meaning

in a

it

perma-

absolutely

"free" time, devoid of

"eternity,"

wino has

isn't

die for years.

otherthings, Slack

is

and power. To

social control

responsibility.

suggest that a devoted alcoholic, a

ascended to

their

is

in this abstraction that

is

(Philo's History).

that

be Not Responsible.

it

founded the system of

in

is

of communication). That

in the unilaterality

a return.

70s),

it

entails

even better

structure;

occur in 1968 and the

of

of response

entails

(as

an "anti-

struggle.

In reality, even if

I

did not share the technological

64

optimism of McLuhan,

I

always recognized and con-

sidered as a gain the true revolution

about in media analysis

On

in France).

has

(this

which he brought

been mostly ignored

the other hand, though

also did

I

share the dialectical hopes of Enzensberger, truly pessimistic, since

I

not

was not

I

believed in a possible sub-

version of the code of the media and in the possibility

of an alternate speech and

a radical reciprocity ot

sym-

bolic exchange.

Today

all

pret in the

that has changed.

the mass media. passivity

I

challenge; and

would no longer

a vision

will take the

themselves

a

basis

of

of things which

pessimistic, but ironic I

see in

original response in

on the

is

inter-

silence of the masses in it

a

sign ot

and of alienation, but to the contrary an

nal strategy, an

you

would no longer

I

same way the forced

this reversal

no longer

origi-

form

the I

ot

.1

suggest to

optimistic or

and antagonistic.

example of opinion

mass medium.

It is

polls,

said that

w hich

opinion

arc

polls

JEAN BAUDRILLARD, "THE MASSES

constitute a manipulation of democracy. This

than that publicity

is

certainly

no more the

manipulation of need and of consumption.

a

is

103

."

.

.

case

too

It

produces demand (or so it claims) and invokes needs just as opinion polls produce answers — and induce future behavior. All this would be serious if there

were an objective truth of needs, an objective truth of public opinion.

we need

obvious that here

It is

of opinion

publicity,

of

polls,

extreme

to exercise

all

care.

The

influence of

the media, and of information in general

if we were certain that there exists in opposition to it an human nature, an authentic essence of the social, with its needs, its own will, its own values, its finalities. For this would set up the problem of its radical alienation. And indeed it is in this form that traditional cri-

would be dramatic authentic

tiques are expressed.

Now

the matter

is

once

at

less

more

serious and

serious than

this.

The

uncertainty which surrounds the social and political effect of opinion polls (do they or

like that which surrounds of publicity, will never be completely relieved —

do they not manipulate opinion?),

the real

economic

and

just as well! This results

it is

efficacy

from the

fact that there

is

a

compound,

a

mixture of two heterogeneous systems whose data cannot be transferred

from one to the other.

An

operational system

tion-based, and simulational

onto

a

there

is

no

who

between

and opinion

and claimed to do

so,

it is

who a

polls

do not

where judgment

quite impossible for

is

praise the beneficial use

system of meaning and

would be

Publicity and opinion polls

of the media,

a

system of simu-

to

throw any

do not

light at

all

on public opinion or

act in a public space, it,

on the

It

and representative

this lack

plunges us into

of

in general

a

it.

can only be imagined;

the basis of a disappearance, the disappearance from the

they cannot restore is

stage

and indeed they wish to dismantle

and the media

as

it

was enacted in

can be reassured: they cannot destroy sions:

at all,

of will and of repre-

public space, from the scene of politics, of public opinion in a theatrical

We

incapable, even if they wished

act in the time-space

public space. They are strangers to

on

collage, this collu-

useless polemic.

formed. For the same reason, though reversed,

them

individual will, since they

they only exist

and

of alienating the will or the opinion of anybody

for the reason that they

sentation

informa-

scream about manipulation, for the simple reason that

relationship

lation. Publicity

and opinion. This

will,

gives rise to an indefinite

should agree neither with those

nor with those

statistical,

is

projected onto a traditional values system,

system of representation,

between the two,

sion

is

which

it

it.

form

earlier epochs.

at

once

Thus we

But we should not have any

illu-

either.

of relationship between the two systems which today

a state

of stupor. That

is

what

I

said: stupor.

To be more

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

104

objective

our

own

one would have

to say: a radical uncertainty as to

own

choice, our

own

opinion, our

This

will.

own

our

desire,

the clearest result

is

of the whole media environment, of the information which makes

demands on

We real

us

from

on

influence

all

and which

sides

know

will never

as

individual or collective wills, but

what would have happened

either

good

as

is

blackmail.

an advertisement or opinion poll has had

if

we

know

will never

had been no opinion

if there

a

poll or

advertisement.

The a

situation

no longer permits us

fundamental variable. The

result

is

information or to shed any light on will never in future

to isolate reality or

human

nature

as

therefore not to provide any additional reality,

be able to separate

we

but on the contrary, because

reality

from

its statistical,

simulative

projection in the media, a state of suspense and of definitive uncertainty

about

And

reality.

I

repeat:

of uncertainty, which information itself

itself

which produces

uncertainty,

we

itself,

no

of information.

resolved, polls,

are

this

permanent

other, the scene

of the other,

Each individual

is

There

of

as in that

some unwritten law of redundancy of the

thinks,

of

like that

which

is

is

itself: it

publicity.

its

move-

no longer

politics

Now, where and of

there

society, has

in this a positive absorption into

must its

Not because a will,

at all

alienation.

this

vice,

least

needs,

autoinformation, its

own

they might betray the

or because they might violate

this

this

of continual voyeurism of the group

times

know what

its

it

wants,

social

its

own

becomes obsessed with

is

the real obscenity.

feedback, this incessant anticipated accounting, the

social

it

in

itself;

becomes

Through Loses

it

on

temperature chart,

permanent autointoxication,

perversion. This

in

know what

least quivers, see itself continually

of hypochondriacal madness. The

own

are

the private being, but because they exhibit

social, this sort

be told about

through

We

will.

something worse than

the videoscreen of statistics, constantly watch a sort

refraction of our least

forced despite himself or herself into the

of an opinion, the intimacy of

relation to

of

statistical verification

an obscenity in the functioning and the omnipresence of

is

opinion polls secret

unlike the tradi-

necessary for the subject to be divided

undivided coherency of statistics. There the transparency of computers,

information

information, publicity, sta-

confronted with the other, to be contradictory.

disappeared.

It is

irreparable.

is

no longer confronted with our own it is

species

of information but from

this uncertainty,

our destiny: subject to opinion

is

even alienated, because for that

is

and so

which could always be

our behavior, and absorbed by ments,

in

excess

lack

constantly confronted with the anticipated

tistics;

new

question here of a completely

not from the

and even from an

tional uncertainty

This

a

it is

results

its

this

own

JEAN BAUDRIL LARD, "THE MASSES

scene.

It

no longer enacts

no more time

has

itself; it

longer occupies a particular space, public or

with

its

own

control screen. Overinformed,

For everything which loses

scene

its

105

."

.

itself; it no becomes confused

to enact

political;

it

develops ingrowing obesity.

it

the obese body)

(like

.

becomes

for that

very reason obscene.

The silence of the masses is also in a sense obscene. For the masses are also made of this useless hyperinformation which claims to enlighten them, when all it does is clutter up the space of the representable and annul itself of the masses

larity

And we

much against this obscene circuand of information. The two phenomena fit one

in a silent equivalence.

another: the masses have

cannot do

no opinion and information does not inform

them. Both of them, lacking

a

scene where the meaning of the social can

be enacted, continue to feed one another monstrously

which information as

-

as

the speed with

revolves increases continually the weight of the masses

such, and not their self- awareness.

So

if

one

takes opinion polls,

about the principle of social

pornography confront

then

itself,

things. sort

all

It

which they

to

—

if

we

take

does not shed

much more

credit

all

that seriously, if

of information and of the

finalities

seems very dramatic. But there

all

it

and the type of obscenity, of statistical

reality,

attract us

with the claimed

that

and the uncertainty which they induce

is

another way of taking

on opinion

polls,

of status to them, in terms of derision and of play. In

sider the indecisiveness

of their

results,

unconscious humor, which

their

facts

or tendencies); or again the casual

behavior

chances). That Statistics, as

them

(no is

and

privately

one accepts

at

way

in

more than

a capital, the

obstinate denial of statistical chance reassure you,

we

metro twice

a

Now

there

is

evaluation

statistical

of

his

have calculated

is

that,

is

why, deep down,

the gambler believes in chance,

equivalent of Grace, not with lower

the equivalent of probability).

is

uses them,

especially if they verify exactly one's

perfect

a

which everybody

an objective computation of probabilities, obviously elimi-

believes in them, any

which

can con-

the real problem of the credibility accorded to them.

but only in Luck (with case,

restores a

the same time contradictory

nate any elective chance and any personal destiny. That

none of us

it

we

rather similar to that of meteorology

is

example, the possibility of verifying

own

but

effect

the uncertainty of their effects, and

(for

disagreeing with

we

social

An amusing example

given by

this

of

news item: "If this

this

will

of every 50 people who catch the is in danger of being attacked.

day for 60 years, only one

no reason why

it

should be yow!"The beauty of

statistics

is

never in their objectivity but in their involuntary humor.

So

if

one

takes opinion polls in this way,

one can conceive

that they

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

106

could work for the masses themselves

of deriding both the

social

and the

meaning, precisely through the

as a spectacle, as a

effect

opinion

and representation, the

their best to destroy the political as will

fact

game,

as a

political. The fact that

means do

polls

political as

of simulation and uncertainty —

this

can only give pleasure to the ironic unconscious of the masses (and to

our individual

unconscious,

political

if

I

may

use this expression),

deepest drive remains the symbolic murder of the political bolic

murder of

polls in their

and

political reality,

own

way. That

is

why

I

wrote

which have always provided an

masses,

murder

this

is

class,

whose

the sym-

produced by opinion

in Silent Majorities that the

alibi for political representation,

take their revenge by allowing themselves the theatrical representation of

the political scene. 3

The people have become

themselves the luxury of enjoying day by day, fluctuations of their

own

They even

public.

as in a

home

allow

cinema, the

opinion in the daily reading of the opinion

polls.

only to

It is

them,

we

as

this

extent that they believe in them, that

believe in a

game of malicious

the green baize of the political scene.

opinion polls recover

game of chance; equifinality

of

a

all

It is,

foretelling, a

paradoxically, as a

A

of legitimacy.

a sort

we

game of

all

believe in

double or quits on

game

that the

the undecidable; a

game of the

undecidability of the political scene, of the

tendencies; a

game of

questions and answers. Perhaps

we

can see here the apparition of one of

game which

these collective forms of

truth effects in the circularity of

Caillois called alea

A

- an

irruption

into the polls themselves of a ludic, aleatory" process, an ironic mirror for

we all belong to the masses) of a political scene own trap (for the politicians are the only ones to

the use of the masses (and

which

is

caught in

its

believe in the polls, along with the pollsters obviously, as the only ones to believe in publicity are the publicity agents).

In this regard, one

would be

may

restore to

contemporary

part of a

them

a sort

of positive meaning: they

cultural mutation, part

of the era of sim-

ulation.

In selves

view of this type of consequence, we

on the very

failure

are forced to congratulate our-

of polls, and on the distortions which make them

undecidable and chancy. Far from regretting there

is

a sort

which throws

of

fate or evil

this

we must

consider that itself?)

too beautiful machine out of gear and prevents

from achieving the objectives distortions, far

this,

genius (the evil genius of the social

which

it

claims.

We

must

it

also ask if these

from being the consequence of a bad angle

of retraction of

information onto an inert and opaque matter, are not rather the conse-

quence of a

resistance

of the

social itself to

its

investigation, the shape taken

JEAN BAUDRILLARD, "THE MASSES

by an occult duel between the information and the people This

it?

fundamental: people are always supposed to be willing partners

is

game of

in the

receive

107

."

.

and the object polled, between

pollsters

who

.

game of information.

truth, in the

object can always be persuaded of

truth;

its

it

It

agreed that the

is

inconceivable that the

is

object of the investigation, the object of the poll, should not adopt, generally

speaking, the strategy of the subject of the analysis, of the pollster.

There may certainly be some

difficulties (for instance, the object

understand the question;

not

it's

its

business;

undecided;

it's

does not replies in

it

terms of the interviewer and not of the question, and so on), but

admitted that the poll analyst

is

capable of rectifying what

lack of adaptation to the analytic apparatus.

gested that

far

all this,

from being

The

hypothesis

marginal, archaic residue,

a

an offensive (not defensive) counterstrategy by the object; there exists

somewhere an

it

is

basically only a

is

is is

never sug-

the effect of

that, all in

all,

of

original, positive, possibly victorious strategy

the object opposed to the strategy of the

subject (in this case,

the pollster or

any other producer of messages). This

is

what one could

of the masses, the

evil

of the

failure in the truth

the evil genius of the object, the evil genius

call

genius of the social

and

social

in

its

itself,

constantly producing

and for

analysis,

that reason

unacceptable, and even unimaginable, to the tenants of this analysis.

To

reflect the other's desire, to reflect

anticipate

it: it is

is

the

like a mirror,

word, of subtle revenge - there

a

the

way

those simulative devices

way

demand

the masses escape as

which

are designed to capture

very mirror, in

While the mirror and screen of alienation was

(the

imaginary subject),

disappearance. individual, its

strategy;

ing,

and

is

But disappearance

for forced identification.

individual or the mass reply are they;

is

condemned way of response

not only

it is its

what do they

do,

by

new

this a

screen

is

Or

them.

that events have

a

is

ficial

screen in such

a

way

a

mode of producits mode of

simply

very complex mode: the object, the

to disappearance, but disappearance to this device for capture, for

To

no

no longer

this cathodic surface

a parodic

is

also

network-

of recording, the

What screen? They

behavior of disappearance.

what do they become behind

this

turn themselves into an impenetrable and meaningless surface,

method of disappearing. They

again, the

television screen, or

probable existence except on this deflective screen, which mirror).

of

in this type

is

reality, in this

in which events themselves disappear behind the more general screen of information (for it is true

tion

even to

hard to imagine what powers of deception, of absorption,

of deviation - in response. This

its

which

is

a

eclipse themselves; they melt into the super-

that their reality

and

that

of their movement. just

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

108

like that of particles

of matter, may be radically questioned without making

any fundamental change to the probabilistic analysis of their behavior. In fact,

behind

"objective" fortification of networks and models

this

believe they can capture them, and

and expert observers believe derision, of reversal,

There

is

them, there passes a wave of

that they capture

and of parody which

parodic enactment by the object

and there always

which

where the whole population of analysts

itself

will

the active exploitation, the

is

mode of disappearance.

of its

be major

difficulties in

media and the whole sphere of information through the

analyzing the

traditional cat-

egories of the philosophy of the subject: will, representation, choice, liberty, deliberation, knowledge,

and

desire.

For

it

quite obvious that they are

is

absolutely contradicted by the media; that the subject

ated in

sovereignty. There

its

is

a distortion

of information, and the moral law which decree

your

is:

you

shall

know

yourself,

desire. In this respect the

us nothing at

shall

dominates us and whose

know what

is

your will and

media and even technics and science teach

they have rather restricted the limits of will and represen-

all;

disposal of his or her this

still

have muddled the cards and deprived any subject of the

tation; they

But

you

absolutely alien-

is

of principle between the sphere

own

body, desire, choice, and liberty.

idea of alienation has probably never

been anything but

philosopher's ideal perspective for the use of hypothetical masses.

It

a

has

probably never expressed anything but the alienation of the philosopher himself; in other words, the

subject

Hegel

is

one

of the Enlightenment, the one despises

thinks himself or herself other.

On

this

who

denounces the "empire of error" and

it.

Reason wants It

who

very clear in his judgment of the Aufklarer, of the philosophe

seeks to

make

despot to live

to enlighten the superstitious mass it

understand that

it is

itself,

by revealing

the mass,

and not the despot which makes

it live,

as

trickery.

which enables believes

it

obeys him. For the demystifier, credulous consciousness

is

the

when

it

mistaken about

itself.

The Enlightenment

speaks

as if juggling priests

away the being of consciousness

for

absolutely foreign and other; and, at the this

foreign thing

which

There

is

trusts

it,

is

a

which

obviously

had, by sleight of hand, spirited

which they

substituted

being of consciousness, which believes seeks to please

something

same time, the Enlightenment

says that

in consciousness,

5 it.

a contradiction, says

Hegel: one cannot confide oneself to

another than oneself and be mistaken about oneself, since confides in another, one demonstrates the certainty that one

is

when one

safe

with the

JEAN BAUDRILLARD, "THE MASSES

other; in consequence, consciousness,

very well where a

and where

safe

it is

which

it is

not. Thus there

mistake which only exists in the Aufklarer himself.

.

109

."

be mystified, knows

said to

is

.

is

no need

It is

not

to correct

consciousness,

it is the Aufklarer who common man whom he endeavown stupidity. "When the question is asked if it is

concludes Hegel, which takes

another, but

itself for

takes himself for another, another than this

make aware of his

ors to

allowable to deceive a people, one must reply that the question

because

So

it is

enough

it is

whole technical is

to reverse the idea

how much

evaluate

is

is

to say, to

secret form

a

mass alienated by the media to

of the refusal of will,

which was demanded of the

rationality

all

of

which

the result of a secret strategy of this mass

claimed to be alienated, of a

that

worthless,

whole universe of the media, and perhaps the

the

universe,

challenge to everything

-

is

6 impossible to deceive a people about itself"

of choice and to

of an in-voluntary

subject by philosophy all

exercise of will, of

knowledge, and of liberty. In

one way of

devolution,

would be no longer

it

of

of these

all

things.

desire,

of choice, of

to apparatuses either political or intellectual,

either technical or operational, to

will,

of revolution but of massive

power of

massive delegation of the

a

responsibility, a delegation

care

a question

A

whom

has devolved the duty of taking

massive de-volution, a massive desisting from

but not through alienation or voluntary servitude (whose mystery,

which

is

the

modern enigma of

because the problem slavery,

which

fact

is

politics,

is

unchanged

put in terms of the consent of the subject to his

no philosophy

will ever

be able to explain).

argue that there exists another philosophy of lack of antimetaphysics

not have to

whose

make

since La Boetie

secret

a decision

is

will, a sort

own

We

might

of

radical

that the masses are deeply aware that they

do

about themselves and the world; that they do

not have to wish; that they do not have to know; that they do not have to desire.

The

deepest desire

someone strategy sion,

else.

A

is

perhaps to give the responsibility for one's desire to

strategy of ironic investment in the other, in the others; a

toward others not of appropriation but, on the contrary, of expul-

of philosophers and people

in

power, an expulsion of the obligation of

being responsible, of enduring philosophical, moral, and

political

cat-

egories. Clerks are there for that, so are professionals, the representative

holders of concept and desire. Publicity, information, technics, the intellectual

and

political class are there to tell us

masses what they want transfer

— and

basically

we

what we want,

thoroughly enjoy

of responsibility because perhaps, very simply,

what we want; because perhaps, very simply,

it

is

it is

to

this

whole tell

the

massive

not easy to want

not very interesting to

I

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

10

know what we want even the need to

Choice

is

to decide, to desire.

desire, unless

Who

imposed

has

a strange imperative.

Any

philosophy which assigns

the exercise of his will can only plunge

him

more

know what

flattering to consciousness than to

nothing

trary

-

unconscious?)

on the

more

is

— than not

choice and diverted from

some

purpose. Before

toward

own

objective will.

"Which

him:

would

publicity

who

on the apparatus of

as

Brummel

Whom it

it

does

wants, to be relieved of

It is

much

better to rely

be dependent on one's

I

on

own

a servant for that

prefer?"

desire.

Not only do people

tells

at all.

weak hypo-

certainly not

them not

to

it,

want and

to

it is

Faced with such inducements,

want anything and

them

on the

(or to rely

it

to rely finally

political class to

this trap close

on? The mass knows that

does not want to know. The mass knows that

does not want to achieve anything.

Brummel

(the

order things)

did with his servant.

mark of stupidity and acts as

is

publicity or of information to "persuade" them, to

construct a choice for

and

it

what they wish, but they certainly do not want to know

their evil genius

-just

do

lake

not even sure that they want to wish is

to

on the con-

wants,

find an advantage in discarding the

of personal will and

told

man

nothing

consciousness

Brummel had

of choice. Beau

if

splendid landscape dotted with beautiful lakes, he turns

a

his valet to ask

Even be

its

us,

which makes happiness depend

know what

to

it

other

the

to

For

in despair.

insignificant or powerful instance than to

will or the necessity

thesis

seductive

the obscure and vital one

despair of will

on

all this

be the philosophers?

it

passivity.

did and delegates in

choice to someone

else

by

It is

But not

a sort

it

knows nothing,

can do nothing, and

violently reproached with this

at all: a

it

the mass

is

very snobbish:

manner

sovereign

it

the faculty of

of game of irresponsibility, of ironic chal-

lenge, of sovereign lack of will, of secret ruse. All the mediators (people of

the media, politicians, intellectuals,

all

the heirs of the philosophes of the

Enlightenment in contempt for the masses)

are really only adapted to this

purpose: to manage by delegation, by procuration,

power and of will,

to

unburden the masses of

greater pleasure and to turn

would

show

this

whose

will

would

transcendence for then-

everyone,

all

that, subjectively, in the

this

who condemns

1

Icarious: this

of these so-called

be, in a way, diverted against

toward the secret ends of the very masses

We live

tedious matter ot

for their benefit.

be, to repeat Thorstein Veblen's concept, the status

privileged classes, selves,

into a

it

this

whom

them-

they despise.

most paradoxical mode,

since in us,

m

mass coexists with the intelligent and voluntary being it

and despises

consciousness, unless

it

may be

it.

Nobody knows what

is

truly

opposed

to

the repressive unconscious which psycho-

JEAN BAUDRILLARD, "THE MASSES

imposed on

analysis has

us.

But our true unconscious

..."

Ill

perhaps in

is

this

power of nonparticipation, of nondesire, of nonknowledge, of

ironic silence,

of absorption of

powers, of expulsion of

all

powers of

all

all wills,

of all knowledge, of all meaning onto representatives surrounded by

Our

of derision.

whose

destiny

made of

is

a

halo

unconscious would not then consist of drives, of pulsions, sad repression;

this joyful expulsion

it

would not be

of

all; it

would be

encumbering superstructures of

the

all

repressed at

being and of will.

We

have always had a sad vision of the masses (alienated),

the unconscious (repressed).

Even

tion.

if only for a

On

change,

all

it

our philosophy weighs

would be

a sad vision

this sad correla-

interesting to conceive the mass,

the object-mass, as the repository of a finally delusive, illusive, strategy, the correlative

of an

ironic, joyful,

of

and

allusive

and seductive unconscious.

About the media you can sustain two opposing hypotheses: they are the strategy of power, which finds in them the means of mystifying the masses

own truth. Or else they are the strategic territory of masses, who exercise in them their concrete power of the

and of imposing the ruse of the

its

the media are nothing else

of

than

marvelous instrument for destabilizing the

a

truth,

of the denial of

Now

refusal

torical or political truth (there

media:

it is

reality.

no

thus

is

contradiction in terms).

a

it is

not

a result

of

true,

all

his-

possible political strategy of the

And

the addiction that

the media, the impossibility of doing without them,

phenomenon:

and the

real

a

is

deep

we

have for

result

of this

communication, and

a desire for culture,

information, but of this perversion of truth and falsehood, of this destruction of meaning in the operation of the desire for simulation,

This

is

which

a vital reaction. It

is

a

is

at

medium. The

desire for a show, the

the same time a desire for dissimulation.

spontaneous, total resistance to the ultimatum

of historical and political reason. It is

essential

today to evaluate

meaning by the masses and and the challenge

ance), their

fascination. All

meaning

are

Obviously there masses that

is

and the media:

double challenge: the challenge to

(which

is

not

this.

paradox is

it

in the inextricable

the

media

that

the messages in the

entanglement of the

neutralize

produce the "formless" (or informed) mass; or

victoriously resists the

at all a passive resist-

meaning which comes from the media and

marginal alternative endeavors to resuscitate

the

a

their silence

to

secondary to

this

is

it

meaning and

the mass

which

media by diverting or by absorbing without reply

which they produce? Are the mass media on the

side

manipulation of the masses, or are they on the side of the masses

the liquidation of meaning, in the violence

done

to

meaning?

all

of power

Is

it

in

the

I

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

12

media into

that fascinate the masses, or

showmanship? The media

manipulate in every sense

media

at

is

it

once.

the masses

No

which

media

divert the

one can control

which belongs

are the vehicle for the simulation

for the simulation

who

around sense and nonsense; they

toss

this process: the

to the system

and

destroys the system, according to a circular logic,

- and it is just as well. There is no alternative to this, no logical resolution. Only a logical exacerbation and a catastrophic resolution. That is to say, this process has no return. In conclusion, however, I must make one reservation. Our relationship to this system is an insoluble "double blind" - exactly that of children in exactly like a

Mobius

strip

their relationship to the

demands of the

time told to constitute themselves

and conscious, and

as

demands he or she

replies

resists

by

a

child to be object, he or she opposes revolt,

They

are at the

same

subjects, responsible, free,

to constitute themselves as submissive objects, inert,

obedient, and conformist. The child dictory

adult world.

autonomous

of emancipation; in

on

all levels,

double

and

strategy.

is

ask the

the practices of disobedience, of

all

short, the strategy

of a subject. When

child to be subject, he or she opposes just as obstinately resistance as object; that

to these contra-

When we

and

we

ask the

successfully

a

to say, exactly the opposite: infantilism, hyper-

conformity, total dependence, passivity, idiocy. Neither of the two strategies has

more

objective value than the other. Subject resistance

-

is

today given

same way

a

unilateral value

and considered to be positive

political sphere

only the practices of liberation, of emancipation, of expres-

sion,

of self-constitution

and subversive. This

is

as a political

take

in the

as in

the

subject are considered worthwhile

no account of the equal and probably superior

impact of all the practices of the object, the renunciation of the position of subject and of meaning

-

exactly the practices of the mass

with the disdainful terms

and

alienation

passivity.

The

- which we bury

liberating practices

correspond to one of the aspects of the system, to the constant ultimatum

we

are given to constitute ourselves as pure objects; but they

spond

at all to

the other

demand

liberate, to express ourselves at

do not corre-

to constitute ourselves as subjects, to

any price, to vote, to produce, to decide, to

speak, to participate, to play the game: blackmail and ultimatum are just serious as the other, probably

ment

is

more

of the subject. But

phase of the system; and even a

strategic

maximize speech, tion.

To

a

And

if

this

we

seems rather to

are

territory: the present

to

is

to

demand

is

that

the

reflect an earlier it

is

no

argument of the system

is

to

still

confronted with

maximize the production of meaning, of

so the strategic resistance

as

system whose argu-

oppression and repression, the strategic resistance

liberating rights

longer

serious today.

of the

refusal

it.

participa-

of meaning and the

JEAN BAUDRILLARD, "THE MASSES

refusal

113

of speech; or of the hyperconformist simulation of the very mecha-

nisms of the system, which is

..."

another form of refusal by overacceptance.

is

It

the actual strategy of the masses. This strategy does not exclude the other,

but

it

the winning one today, because

is

it

is

the most adapted to the

present phase of the system.

Jean Baudrillard, "The Masses:

Marie Maclean

New

(trans.),

The Implosion of the

Social in the Media,"

Literary History, vol. 16, no. 3

(Spring 1985),

pp. 577-89-

HAKIM

FROM The

politics of

TAZ:

BEY,

THE TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE

disappearance are taken a step further by Hakim Bey

TAZ

ential essay TAZ.

stands for Temporary

Autonomous Zone, an

medieval carnivals or contemporary Reclaim the Streets

unlike

hastily

of cultural resistance

These Utopias are not

Bakhtin, Jordan).

- not protests -

area

assembled as fly-by-night

wherein transitory "pirate Utopias" can be (cf.

in his influ-

sites

built to last.

Haunted by specters of revolutions leading to police states and acutely aware of the ease

in

which consumer capitalism can turn the most rebellious idea into

consumer product, Bey counsels permanent temporality: "As soon

named (represented, mediated), because undefinable

ble

rebellions to

end

in

.

.

.

this

is,

a

vanish,

it

will

vanish

.

.

.

once again

is

invisi-

as

or

in

a shopping mall this strategy of

Bey admits, a "counsel of

despair."

It

is

impermaalways a

never a permanent revolution.

time however

world into

must

TAZ

terms of the Spectacle." Given the propensity for

at the guillotine

nence makes sense, but fleeting uprising,

it

as the

holiday

.

.

I

.

come as the victorious Dionysus, who Not that I have much time.

Nietzsche (from

his last

will turn the

"insane" letter to Cosima Wagner)

Pirate Utopias

The

Sea-rovers and Corsairs of the 18th century created an "information

network"

that

spanned the globe: primitive and devoted primarily to grim

business, the net nevertheless functioned

the net were islands, remote hideouts

admirably Scattered throughout

where

ships could be watered and

provisioned, booty traded for luxuries and necessities.

Some of these

islands

I

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

14

supported "intentional communities," whole mini-societies living con-

and determined to keep

sciously outside the law

merry

short but

Some

up, even if only for a

life.

years ago

hoping to find

it

looked through

I

of secondary material on piracy

a lot

of these enclaves - but

it appeared as if no historian them worthy of analysis. (William Burroughs has mentioned as did the late British anarchist Larry Law - but no systematic

a study

has yet found

the subject, research has

essay.

been carried

my own

structed

theory,

out.)

some

retreated to primary sources

I

aspects of

will

and con-

be discussed in

this

called the settlements "Pirate Utopias."

I

Recently Bruce

one of the leading exponents of Cyberpunk

Sterling,

romance based on the assumption

science fiction, published a near-future that the decay

of political systems will lead to

experiments in

Zerowork

to

a decentralized proliferation

of

worker-owned corporations, independent

giant

living:

devoted

enclaves

"data

Green-Social-Democrat

piracy,"

enclaves,

enclaves, anarchist liberated zones, etc. The information

which supports title)

which

this diversity

is

called the Net; the enclaves

economy (and the books

are Islands in the Net.

The medieval

Assassins

of remote mountain

founded and

valleys

a "State"

castles,

strategically invulnerable to invasion,

secret agents, at

war with

which consisted of a network

separated by thousands of miles,

connected by the information flow of

government, and devoted only to knowledge.

all

Modern

technology, culminating in the spy

autonomy

a

romantic dream.

technology — freed from entire

all

world of autonomous

cisely science fiction

Are we

who

— pure

live in the

never to stand for one

No

more

satellite,

— could make

political control

zones.

makes

this

kind of

pirate, islands! In the future the

But

for

now

same

possible an

the concept remains pre-

speculation.

present

moment on

doomed a bit

never to experience autonomy,

of land ruled only by freedom? Arc

we reduced either to nostalgia for the past or nostalgia for the future? Must we wait until the entire world is freed of political control before even one of us can claim to know freedom? Logic and emotion untie to condemn such a supposition. Reason demands that one cannot struggle for what one does not know; and the heart revolts injustices

To free"

on

say that "I will not is

be

free

universe so cruel

as to visit

such

till all

humans

(or

all

sentient creatures) are

simply to cave in to a kind of nirvana-stupor, to abdicate our

humanity, to define ourselves I

at a

our generation alone of humankind.

as losers.

believe that by extrapolating from the past and future stones about

"islands in the net"

we may

collect evidence to suggest that a certain kind

HAKIM

BEY,

FROM TAZ

115

research and speculation has crystallized around the concept of the

my TEM-

PORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE

TAZ).

of "free enclave"

Despite the

my own

synthesizing force for

its

TAZ

not only possible in our time but also existent. All

is

to

be taken

as

more than an

abbreviated

(hereafter

thinking, however,

I

don't intend

essay ("attempt"), a suggestion,

almost

a

poetic fancy. Despite the occasional Ranterish enthusiasm of my language

I

am

not trying to construct political dogma. In

refrained

TAZ -

from defining the

exploratory beams. In the end the

became current

phrase

TAZ

is

fact

I

have deliberately

around the subject,

circle

I

would be understood without

it

firing off

almost self-explanatory. If the difficulty

.

.

.

understood in action.

Waiting for the Revolution

How

is

itself?

Why

it

that "the

world turned upside-down" always manages to Right

does reaction always follow revolution,

like seasons in Hell?

form insurrection, are words used by historians to - movements which do not match the expected

Uprising, or the Latin label failed revolutions

curve, the consensus-approved trajectory: revolution, reaction, betrayal, the

founding of a stronger and even more oppressive State - the turning of the wheel, the return of history again and again to

on the

face of

humanity

its

highest form: jackboot

forever.

By failing to follow this curve, the up-rising suggests the possibility of a movement outside and beyond the Hegelian spiral of that "progress" which is secretly nothing more than a vicious circle. Surgo - rise up, surge. Insurgo -

rise

A

up, raise oneself up.

bootstrap operation.

wretched parody of the karmic round,

A

goodbye

to

historical revolutionary futility.

that

The

slogan "Revolution!" has mutated from tocsin to toxin, a malign pseudo-

Gnostic fate-trap, a nightmare where no matter

how we

we

struggle

never

escape that evil Aeon, that incubus the State, one State after another, every

"heaven" ruled by yet one more If

History IS "Time,"

that springs IS

as

it

evil angel.

claims to be, then the uprising

up and out of Time,

History, as

it

violates the

claims to be, then

is

"law" of History.

the insurrection

moment, an unforgivable

denial of the dialectic

and out of the smokehole,

a

is

a

the

forbidden

- shimmying up

shaman's maneuver carried out

at

moment

If the State

the pole

an "impossi-

ble angle" to the universe.

History says the Revolution attains "permanence," or

while the uprising

experience"

as

is

"temporary" In

opposed

this sense

to the standard

at least

an uprising

is

duration,

like a

"peak

of "ordinary" consciousness and

experience.

Sheena Bizarre

- otherwise they would not be "nonordinary" But such moments of intensity give shape and meaning to the entirety of a life. The shaman returns — you can't stay up on the roof forever - but things have changed, shifts and integrations have occurred - a differ-

meet

Christopher Street

line,

red,

come I

red!

It's

It's

you see confused

If

people wearing to

"Be there

Wear

bring red treats!

Valentine's Day!

NYC

ence

is

will argue that this

beat minute,

subway

into the

return for

station, holding

Then the

rolled

in.

We

stepped

the train was already decorated. harsh white

every pore and smile

covered with red

subway car

The

that

hope

in

The

point

is

accept this

as a fair criticism. I'd

nevertheless;

revolution

first,

make two has

re-

never yet

The vision comes to - but as soon as "the

moment of uprising

in the

Revolution" triumphs and the State returns, the dream

and the

bathing the

an eerie dream-state

in

free

resulted in achieving this dream. life

were

lines

gels,

I

joinders

show your

that

lights

some

Coma

duration,

not to change consciousness but to change the world.

red

train

to find that

in

counsel of despair. What

Stateless state, the

Are we to abandon

ran.

I

red were pouring

balloons, lollipops.

a

existentialist acte gratuit?

society, a free culture?

seconds-skimming town.

in

cannot

mune, the autonomous zone with

Half the fun was getting there.

People decked

is

of the anarchist dream, the

running out of time, so typical for this

uprisings

festivals,

made.

You

encourage them

with you!"

did the

Like

every day

the

at

station.

point, at said time.

the red

happen

"Train Parties",

We were told to on

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

16

I

like light.

ideal are already betrayed.

I

have not given up

hope or even expectation of change - but

word

I

distrust the

Revolution. Second, even if we replace the revolu-

There was a brass band on one and

side,

a

boy with

around.

was

I

We

given cups

smoked

pot,

one another. The City

of red

full

a

particular historical situation

immediately started to dance

wine.

with

and smiled

concept

of

insurrection

own

blossoming spontaneously into anarcliist culture, our

We

other.

approach

tionary

boom box

a

pumping techno on the

a at

vast undertaking.

martyrdom could

is

not propitious for such

Absolutely nothing but

possibly result

now from

that has

collision

with the terminal

State, the

a

a

futile

head-on

megacorporate

trained us to avoid eye contact and clutch

our personals was

hosting the exact opposite. ing.

There was

you weren't

And then in

New

information

now

A

bless-

accept

the

Yorkers

first stop,

who

it.

There are two kinds of

who

Those who

The

hate.

first

passenger was a

in his fifties.

said,

"This

is

at us,

nothing to aim

at

while our meager but a hysteresis,

a

Spook capable of smothering every

spark in an ectoplasm of information, a society ot capitulation ruled by the

image of the Cop and the

In short, we're not touting the

end

in

tactics,

itself,

and

replacing goals.

all

TAZ

as

an exclusive

other forms of organization,

We recommend

it

because

it

cm

I

I

I

pointed

absorbent eye of the TV screen.

New

love and those

He turned to me why love New York. I've been in LA for a few years now, and this is why came back! love NY" could only imagine this man

and

all

had no idea

there could be a party on the MTA.

Yorkers:

finds

rigid vacuity, a

ushering

empire of Spectacle and Simula-

State, the

guns are

weaponry

candy offered and

afraid to

tion. Its

provide the quality of enhancement associated with the uprising without necessarily leading to violence and

I

martyrdom. The TAZ

is

like

an uprising which ^ioes not

HAKIM

engage directly with the

operation

guerilla

State, a

BEY,

which liberates an area (of land, of time, of imagination) and then

dissolves itself to

the State can crush

before

cerned

TAZ

and carry on

tinely

Because the State

with

primarily

substance, the

reform elsewhere/elsewhen, it.

Simulation

purposes for quite

lifetimes because they

- because

billy enclaves

than

can "occupy" these areas clandesits festal

in relative peace. Perhaps certain small

whole

con-

is

rather

TAZs

a

while

have lasted

FROM TAZ

being a tourism commercial for the city. In

its

its

-

invisibility

TAZ

its

LET

behind

may

perfect

tactic

it

into

it.

As soon it

as

because

it

the

TAZ

must vanish,

it

is

will

an empty husk, only to spring

else,

once again

invisible

because

TAZ

is

thus

an era in which the State

is

omnipresent and all-powerful and yet simultaneously

And

riddled with cracks and vacancies.

TAZ

is

culture,

a

because the

microcosm of that "anarchist dream" of a

I

free

can think of no better tactic by which to

work toward

that goal while at the

same time experi-

encing some of its benefits here and now. In

sum, realism demands not only that

waiting for "the

wanting

even

at

it.

Revolution" but

"Uprising," yes

-

as

also that

we we

give up give up

often as possible and

the risk of violence. The spasming of the

lated State will

best

and most

be "spectacular," but

radical tactic will

in

most

Simu-

cases the

be to refuse to engage

in spectacular violence, to withdraw

from the area of

simulation, to disappear.

The TAZ strike

even

is

an encampment of guerilla ontologists:

and run away. Keep moving the entire if

it's

BURN, LET his

only data in the Web.

I

IT

BURN!" He

bag to reveal wine

He my

and passed them around. is

We were

the best day of

lead off the train,

had a mini-parade

in

and

the under-

The

happy

kids

in

red, skipping, laughing,

and wondering where

we would end

involve tactics

undefinable in terms of the Spectacle. The for

IT

opened

up.

the State cannot recognize

up again somewhere

a

come

can

greatest strength lies in

(represented, mediated),

vanish, leaving

is

be!

ground. Brass band followed by

TAZ

started

History has no definition of

named

which

life

abstractions for realities; precisely

existence. Getting the

would

like hill-

of Simulation.

of violence and defense, but

it

"THE ROOF/ THE ROOF/ THE ROOF IS ON FIRE/ WE DON'T NEED NO WATER,

they never intersected with the

margin of error the

within this

world,

unison singing,

life!"

Babylon takes

ideal

MC with a drunk transient type. We sang aloud, the train car in

stated, "This

Spectacle, never appeared outside that real invisible to the agents

my

played

bottles

went unnoticed,

117

TAZ

tribe,

must be

from "Train Parties" by Azoteas, unpublished manuscript, 2001

I

18

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

capable of defense; but both the "strike" and the "defense" should, if possible,

evade the violence of the

violence. The strike

defense

made

is

State,

"invisibility," a martial art,

is

which

at structures

no longer

is

of control,

a

meaningful

essentially at ideas; the

and "invulnerability" — an "occult"

art

The "nomadic war machine" conquers without being noticed and moves on before the map can be adjusted. As to the future - Only the autonomous can plan autonomy, organize for it, create it. It's a bootstrap operation. The first step is somewhat akin to satori - the within the martial

realization that the

Hakim

Bey,

Terrorism,

arts.

TAZ

begins with a simple act of realization.

TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone:

New York:

Autonomedia,

Ontological Anarchy Poetic

1985, pp. 97—102.

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY It's

hard to pinpoint exactly

when and where

heavy dance music arose out of reinterpreted

warehouse England

in

German

the black suburbs of Detroit

parties

in

came from the depressed

Manchester (aka Madchester)

like

raves began.

in

temporary autonomous zone

you can loose yourself

a state of

in

and former senior editor

below with

a literary trip

at Spin

on

Simon explores the Utopian you come down

-

The

(cf.

is

what

all-night

towns of Northern

the late 1980s and a rave

is:

1990s, then

an

all

encom-

where just maybe chemical - ecstasy. Author

Bey), a place

mental, physical,

magazine Simon Reynolds begins the selection

Ecstasy. His

second part

politics of rave culture

off the high the

electronic beat-

970s, remixed and

1

the early 1980s.

industrial

spread across the world. What's easier to assert passing party, a

The

art rock of the late

a bit

is

- and

its

more

sobering.

limitations:

world looks pretty much the same

when

as before

you

left.

The. Ecstasy

trip

divides into three distinct phases.

emptiness of your stomach, the senses light up,

you

start

it

take approximately an

Depending on hour

which

lasts

"come

the

up":

"rushing," and for a short while the experience

can be overwhelming, with dizziness and mild nausea. plateau stage,

to

Then

about four hours, followed by

a

there's the

long, gentle

comedown and an afterglow phase that can last well into the next day. What you experience during the plateau phase is highly dependent on "set and setting" (the early LSD evangelists' term for the mind-set of the drug

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY and the context in which the drug

taker

is

taken). In a

one-on-one

and analyzed) the emphasis

(lovers, close friends, analyst

is

I

19

session

on the breaking

down of emotional defenses, the free flow of verbal and tactile affection. The first time I took Ecstasy was in a romantic, private context. The expewould be sacrilegious to repeat was over two years before I did it again.

rience was so intense, so special, that it lest it

At a

become

a rave the

routinized,

and

it

I

felt it

emotional outpouring and huggy demonstrativeness

major part of the

MDMA experience

(which

is

why

is still

ravers use the

term

is dispersed into a generalized bonhomie: you came with, but also with people you've never met. Anyone who's been to a rave knows the electric thrill of catching a stranger's eye, making contact through the shared glee of knowing that

"lovedup"), but the intimacy

bond with

the gang you

you're both buzzing off the

same drug/music synergy. Part of what makes

the classic rave experience so rewarding and so addictive are the "superficial"

but

someone

The

literally

a tad

touching

of sharing water, shaking hands, having

worse for wear lean on you

of noise and

blitz

rituals

lights at a rave

tilts

as if

the

you were bosom buddies.

MDMA experience toward

the drug's purely sensuous and sensational effects.

prehallucinogenic sensations

tile

chewing

gum

a

indication that you've

(a classic

tastes

horribly

sensation that's hard to describe: an feel like

All music sounds better

engulfing in

its

tacthat

The experience combines

oozy yearn,

a bliss-ache, a

crisper

and more

trembly effer-

distinct,

on texture and timbre enhances the seem

but also

drug's mildly

to caress the listener's skin. You feel

dancing inside the music; sound becomes

which you're immersed. Ecstasy has been celebrated it

is

you've got champagne for blood.

on E -

synesthetic effects so that sounds

way

and

immediacy. House and techno sound especially fabulous.

music's emphasis

like you're

tastes,

"come up"

limpid radiance. Ecstasy also has a particular physical

vescence that makes you

The

artificial).

mildly trippy,

its

Ecstasy makes colors, sounds, smells,

vivid

suddenly

with

crisp clarity

feel,

more

With

as

a fluid

medium

in

the flow drug for the

melts bodily and psychological rigidities, enabling the dancer to

move with

greater fluency and "lock" into the groove.

notic beats

and sequenced loops

also

make

it

Rave

music's hyp-

perfectly suited to interact

with another attribute of Ecstasy: recent research suggests that the drug stimulates the brain's ib receptor,

which encourages

repetitive behavior.

Organized around the absence of crescendo or narrative progression, rave music

instills a

pleasurable tension, a rapt suspension that

the sustained preorgasmic plateau of the

These Ecstasy-enhancing aspects

fits

perfectly with

MDMA high.

latent in

house and techno were un-

intended by their original creators and were discovered accidentally by the

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

120

who mixed

people

first

the music and the drug. But over the years, rave

music has gradually evolved into

MDMA's

of intensifying

a self-conscious science

House and techno producers have developed

sensations.

determined repertoire of

effects,

textures,

and

that

riffs

are

a

drug-

expressly

designed to trigger the tingly rushes that traverse the Ecstatic body. Processes

EQ-ing, phasing, panning, and

like

filtering are

used to tweak the frequen-

harmonics, and stereo imaging of different sounds, making them leap

cies,

out of the mix with an eerie three-dimensionality or glisten with natory vividness. Today's house track

of glow-pulses and

move

influence of

MDMA,

tantalizing the lent ear, is

whose

flicker-riffs, a teasing tapestry

take turns to

and out of the sonic

in

the effect

is

spotlight.

synesthetic

—

mosaic

different strands

Experienced under the tremulous fingertips

like

back of your neck, or the simultaneously

of a shimmer. In

a halluci-

a forever-fluctuating, fractal

is

aural/tactile equiva-

body

a sense, Ecstasy turns the entire

surface into an

an ultrasensitized membrane that responds to certain frequencies. Which

why

the

more

drug determined forms of rave music

functionalist,

arguably are really "understood" (in a physical, nonintellectual sense) only by the drugged and really "audible" only realizes the

Beyond rarely

on

a big club

sound system

its

used by

musical applications, Ecstasy a solitary individual,

is

above

all

because the feelings

a social drug. Its

unleashes

it

would

have nowhere to go. (A friend of mine, bored, once took some leftover

home and Rave

empathy

E

at

spent the night kissing the walls and hugging himself.) In the

rave context, Ecstasy's urge to

cism.

that

sensurround, immersive potential of the tracks.

theorists talk

of

merge can

spill

over into an oceanic mysti-

tribal consciousness,

that shades into the telepathic.

"morphic resonance."

Writing about

his

an

memories of

London's most hedonistic gay club, Trade, Richard Smith came up with the brilliant phrase "a

.

.

communism of the

.

to a mystical experience occurred, funnily

emotions."

The

enough,

Trade.

at

closest I've

Borne

the cradling rush of sound, swirled up and away into a cloud of ing, for the first

There's a

Rave

By

time

whole hour

as

I

for

truly grasped

which

I

what

it

was

to

be

had

aloft in

unknow -

"lost in music."

can't account.

Counterculture and Spiritual Revolution

the mid-nineties, the British media had

woken up

to the fact that the

nation contained two societies: the traditional leisure culture of alcohol and

entertainment (spectator sports, TV) versus the more participatory, effusive culture of all-night dancing and Ecstasy. The clash

between old

Britain and

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY young

Britain was dramatized to hilarious effect in an episode of Inspector

Morse entitled "Cherubim and Seraphics."

The

plot concerns a series of

mysterious teenage deaths that appear to be connected to called Seraphic. Despite

works

and used by

partner — "it's

a rave,

new drug

a

the episode mostly insofar as

(Literally,

Lewis!" — was sampled

a pirate station.)

This collision of old and

place.

slant,

an exhilarating advert for Ecstasy culture.

as

duo

no"

overt "just say

its

Morse's remark to his detective

tive

121

new Englands reaches its peak when the home where a rave called Cherub is

arrive at the stately

Morse drones on about

kids have transformed

it

detectaking

the noble history of the building; inside, the

into a future wonderland. Sure, the crooked lab

comeuppance. But the

researcher responsible for the Seraphic drug gets his

episode ends by allowing the sixteen-year-old girlfriend of one Seraphic casualty to utter a paean to Ecstasy:

want

to

touch everyone." because

themselves

the

And

it

"You

love everyone in the world,

drug unbalanced

minds; rather, having

their

glimpsed heaven on earth, they decided that returning to

comedown. Who wouldn't want

to give

E

booze and

would be

reality

a try after that?

possibly side with decrepit Morse, with his against the shiny

you

transpires that the teenagers didn't kill

a

And who would

classical

music CDs,

happy people of Generation E?

This episode of Inspector Morse signaled a dawning awareness in the

media

that recreational

drug culture had become firmly

now

during the early nineties and was banality.

installed in Britain

omnipresent almost to the point of

Every weekend, anywhere from half

million to two million

a

people under the age of thirty-five were using psychedelics and stimulants. This geographically dispersed but spiritually connected network of Loveins,

Freak-Outs, and All Night Raves constituted

rather side

Woodstock and Altamont

was

itself a

tional

weekly Woodstock

a

starting to reveal itself). The question, then,

form of mass bohemia, or youth

leisure,

is

it

merely

is

has rave proved

this:

a futuristic

update of tradi-

where the fun-crazed weekend redeems the drudgery

of the working week?

Among

(or

rolled into one, given that Ecstasy's dark

What

are the politics

Ecstasy's social effects, the

of Ecstasy culture?

most obvious

is

the

way

it

has utterly

transformed youth leisure in Britain and Europe. Because alcohol muddies the

MDMA

high, rave culture rapidly developed an antialcohol taboo.

could be argued that Ecstasy's net effect has actually been to save reducing the

number of alcohol-fueled

fights

and drunk-driving

Like alcohol, Ecstasy removes inhibitions. But because

it

lives,

It

by

fatalities.

also diminishes

aggression (including sexual aggression),

E has had the

transforming the nightclub from

market" and comb.it zone into

a "cattle

salutary effect of a

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

122

place

where

women come

and bonding with

own and men

into their

their mates to get into fights.

are too

busy dancing

These benign

with football fans turning onto E and house, by

spilled outside clubland:

1991-2 soccer hooliganism in Britain was

at its

lowest level in five years.

Generally speaking, Ecstasy seems to promote tolerance. delights

of the rave scene

across lines its

of class,

cliqueishness

race,

and

side effects

height was the

at its

and sexual preference.

way

it

One

of the

allowed for mingling

MDMA rid club culture of

sectarianism; hence drug culture researcher

stylistic

Sheila Henderson's phrase "luvdup and de-elited". Rave's explosive impact in the

UK, compared

to

something to do with the class-stratified

wasn't is

as

its

slower dissemination in America,

may

have

remains one of the most rigidly

fact that Britain

counties in the Western world. Perhaps the drug simply

needed in

America

as it

was in the UK. For

in

many

ways,

MDMA

an antidote to the English disease: reserve, inhibition, emotional constipa-

tion, class consciousness.

Yet for remains a

all

the rhetoric of spiritual revolution and counterculture,

moot

domain of leisure. From

early on,

MDMA

hedonism of the

commentators noted

experience

is

much more

that the controlled

compatible with a

Norman

basically

normal, conformist

called

"the yuppie psychedelic"; others have compared

it

it

point whether Ecstasy's effects have spilled outside the

lifestyle

than other drugs.

it

"The

vacation," an intense burst of "quality time." In his essay

Zinberg

to a "mini-

Ecstasy of

Disappearance," Antonio Melechi uses the historical origins of rave in Ibiza as

the foundation for a theory of rave as a

from everyday

life

form of internal

and from your everyday

self.

tourism: a holiday

At the big one-shot

raves,

some kids spend - on drinks, drugs, souvenir merchandise, travel - as much as they would on a short vacation. Rejecting the idea that this is simply escapism, a safety valve for the tensions generated by capitalist work parterns, Melechi argues that rave supersedes the old model of subcultural activity as resistance through rituals. Where earlier style-terrorist subcultures like mod and punk were exhibitionist, a kick in the eye of straight society, rave is a form of collective disappearance, an investment in pleasure that shouldn't be written off as mere retreat or disengagement. Melechi's theory of rave - as neither subversive nor conformist but more than both - appeals to the believer in me. From a more dispassionate perspective, though, rave appears

There

is

more

like a

actually a striking continuity in the

of working-class

leisure,

ern Soul's speed-freak

new

twist

on

a

very old idea.

work hard/play hard

structure

from the mods' sixty-hour weekends and North-

stylists,

jazzfunk's All-Dayers and Soul

to disco's Saturday-night fever dreams and

Weekends.

When

I

listen to the Easybeats'

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY

My

1967 Aussie-mod anthem "Friday on the lyrics

—

a thrilling

123

Mind," I'm stunned by the way

anatomy of the working-class weekender

-

drudgery, anticipation, and explosive release

still

lifecycle

of

resonate. Thirty years on,

we're no nearer to overhauling the work/leisure structures of industrial society. Instead,

all

that rage

and

weekend ("Tonight,

on the

I'll

frustration

is

my

spend

vented through going mental

bread / Tonight,

I'll

lose

my

head"), helped along by a capsule or three of instant euphoria.

From

the

Summer of Love

UK acid house evangel-

rhetoric of the early

San Francisco's cyberdelic community, from the neopaganism of

to

ists

Spiral Tribe

the transcendentalism of the Megatripolis/Goa Trance

to

scene, rave has also

been home

been embraced

as

to another "politics

of Ecstasy," one

much

behind Timothy Leary's phrase. Ecstasy has

closer to the original intent

one element of a bourgeois-bohemian version of rave,

which the music-drugs-technology nexus vague hippy-punk-anarcho

politics to

form

is

in

fused with spirituality and

would-be counter-

a nineties

culture.

The

fact that the

of ecstasy" - raving

same drug can be

traced back to the double nature of

The

psychedelic

and an

at

least

at

the core of two different "politics

valve versus raving as opting out

as safety

component of

MDMA

- can be

amphetamine.

as a psychedelic

the experience lends itself to utopianism

implicit critique of the

way

things are.

Amphetamine,

though, does not have

a reputation as a consciousness-raising chemical.

While they popped

many

as

regarded amphetamine

pills

as

other

as a straight person's

and being prescribed in

amounts

vast

strata

of

society, the hippies

drug: after

all, it

was

to tired housewives,

still

legal

overworked

businessmen, dieters, and students cramming for exams. Amphetamine's

ego-boosting and productivity-raising psychedelic creed of

when

the spread of

selfless

effects ran totally

surrender, indolence, and

counter to the

Zen

passivity.

methamphetamine poisoned Haight-Ashbury's

and-peace vibe, the counterculture responded with the "speed campaign.

The

hippies' hostility toward

amphetamine

is

So

lovekills"

one reason the

punks embraced the chemical. In their 1975 classic

America, Lester

The Speed Culture: Amphetamine Use and Abuse

Grinspoon and Peter Hedblom draw an invidious compari-

son between marijuana and amphetamine, arguing that pot smoking values that run counter to capitalist norms, while all

in

amphetamine

instills

amplifies

the competitive, aggressive, and solipsistic tendencies of Western indus-

trial life.

like

Terence McKenna, an evangelist for Gaia-given plant psychedelic :s

magic mushrooms,

drugs," alongside cocaine

classes

and

amphetamine

caffeine.

as

one of the "dominator

Chemically programmed into

what

LOOK

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T

124

starts

little

out

as

cheaper,

more

is

of less-is-more

a sort

in

least

at

terms of

glow cools through overuse,

amphetamine. Both these syndromes - excessive

reliable

-

of rave subcultures to mutate into speed-freak scenes this

all

nent of the

we might conclude

when

that

the

explain the tendency

couple of years.

after a

amphetamine compo-

MDMA experience comes to the fore, rave culture loses much

of its "progressive" edge. At one end of the class

When

effects.

its

often turn to the

ravers

intake of E, the use of amphetamine as a substitute

From

effect:

an empathy enhancer degenerates, with repeated use, into

more than amphetamine,

MDMA's warm

MDMA

LIKE POLITICS

weekender

MDMA

where

scenes,

amphetamine and the subcultural

spectrum are the working-

class

used

is

raison d'etre

is

tandem

in

with

limited and ultimately

conformist: stimulants are used to provide energy and delay the need for sleep, to intensify

end of

and maximize

MDMA

rave culture,

leisure time.

At the

other,

more bohemian

LSD

and other con-

used in tandem with

is

sciousness-raising hallucinogens, as part of a subcultural project of turning

on, tuning in, and dropping out.

But the picture

is

a bit

more complicated than

in working-class rave scenes, although arguably in

this.

LSD

is

widely used

ways that break with the

Timothy Leary/Terence McKenna model of enlightenment through altered states. Hallucinogens appeal as another form of teenage kicks, a way of making the world into blotter like

a

cartoon or video game. (Hence brands of acid

Super Mario and Power Rangers.)

doses or with prolonged use, can have effects.

Like

hyperacousia

MDMA,

its

own

And amphetamine,

in high

hallucinatory and delusory

speed makes perceptions more vivid;

of

effect

its

can escalate into fullblown auditory hallucinations. The

sensory flood can seem visionary, pregnant with portent. Serious speed freaks often have a sense

occult

power

of clairvoyance and gnosis,

feel

plugged into

sources, believe they alone can perceive secret patterns and

conspiracies.

Nonetheless, there

a

is

tension in rave culture between consciousness

raising

and consciousness razing, between middle-class technopagans

whom

MDMA

is

just

one chemical

revolution and weekenders for

ing" the history.

whom E

boredom of workaday

life.

is

pharmacopoeia of

a

who

wrote about

zine in 1957, only to be appalled

just another tool for "obliviat-

This class-based divide has quire

synthetic equivalent,

his psilocybin visions for Life

when

descended on the magic mushroom

tor

spiritual

Witness the snobbish dismay of highbrow hallucinogen fiends

R. Gordon Wasson,

its

in the

a

like

maga-

thrill-seeking "riff-raff" promptly

fields

of Mexico, or w

LSD. Wasson refused

to use the

orse,

pop

turned to

culture term

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY more ungainly and

"psychedelic," preferring the

"entheogen" linguistic

overtly transcendentalist

substance that puts you in touch with the divine). Such

(a

games and terminological

niceties often

seem

like the

only

way

of drugs from

that intellectuals can distinguish their "discriminating" use

the heedless

125

hedonism of the masses.

Wasson's writings are one of the sources for John Moore's brilliant 1988

monograph Anarchy and historical rites

evidence,

Using shreds of

Ecstasy: Visions of Halcyon Days.

Moore

imaginatively reconstructs prehistoric pagan

dedicated to Gaia worship; he argues for the contemporary revival of

these "Eversion Mysteries," insisting that a ritualized, mystical encounter

with Chaos (what he

calls

"bewilderness")

is

an essential component of any

truly vital anarchistic politics.

Anarchy and Ecstasy, written in the mid-eighties, reads

and program for rave

like a

culture. Crucial preparations for the

prophecy

Mystery

rites

down "inner resistwilderness." The rites

include fasting and sleep deprivation, in order to break

ances" and

facilitate

possession

by the "sacred

themselves consist of mass chanting, dancing ("enraptured abandonment to a

syncopated musical beat" that "flings aside

be they postural,

rigidities,

behavioral or characterological"), and the administering of hallucinogenic

drugs in order that "each of the senses and faculties [be] sensitized to fever pitch prior to

derangement into

The worshippers

are led into

a liberatingly integrative synaesthesia."

murky, mazelike caverns, whose darkness

is

illuminated only by "mandalas and visual images." All this sounds very like

any number of clubs with their multiple

levels

and corridors decorated with psychotropic imagery. As for the "hierophants" with their intoxicating poisons,

"Es and

trips."

Moore's description of the peak of Mystery

very like the effect of

unconcerned with the total

could be the dealers touting

this

saturation,

MDMA:

"The

initiate

of gender

artificial distinctions

individuals

transcend

their

rites also

sounds

becomes androgynous, .

.

.

Encountering

ego boundaries and their

mortality in successive waves of ecstasy."

Hardly surprising, then, that organized religion has noticed the way rave culture provides "the youth of today" with an experience of collective

communion and rituals,

transcendence. Just

as

the early

Church co-opted heathen

there have been attempts to rejuvenate Christianity by incorporating

elements of the rave experience: dancing,

lights,

mass fervor, demonstrative

and emotional behavior. Most (in)famous of these was the Nine O'clock Service in Sheffield, the brainchild of "rave vicar" Chris Brain,

whose

innovations were greeted with keen interest and approval on the part of the

Anglican hierarchy until

it

was discovered

that the reverend

was loving

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

126

some of his female

parishioners a

too much. Despite

little

ment, rave-style worship has spread to other

cities

embarrass-

this

UK,

in the

such

as

Gloucester and Bradford (where the Cathedral holds services called Eternity).

There have

also

been

a

number of attempts

and confused

to lure lost

youth into the Christian fold via drug-and-alcohol-free rave

X

in

nights:

Bath (organized by Billy Graham's Youth for Christ) and

Bournemouth

Club

Bliss

(a

night started by the Pioneer Network).

None of these

quasi-rave clubs administer Ecstasy as a holy sacrament.

But perhaps they should,

for if any

drug induces

a state

of soul that approx-

- overflowing with trust and goodwill to all men — then surely it's MDMA. While rave behavior is a little outre for the staid Church of England, it chimes in nicely with the more ecstatic and gesturally demonstrative strains of Christianity. Indeed, Moby, techno's imates the Christian ideal

most the

and outspoken Christian, claims

visible

Ark of Covenant was brought

and danced

But the

like crazy

that "the first rave

into Jerusalem,

and tore off all

was when

and King David went out

his clothes."

rave experience probably has

more

common

in

with the goals

and techniques of Zen Buddhism: the emptying out of meaning mantric repetition; nirvana Saunders's

E

raving as a

form of

as

the paradox of the

For Ecstasy quotes a Rinzai

Is

active meditation,

full

via

void. Nicholas

Zen monk who approves of moment and

of being "truly in the

not in your head." Later in Saunders's book, there's an extract from an

memoir

Ecstasy

in

which the anonymous author

MDMA

depthless quality of the

empty.

I

seemed

to have

describes the peculiar,

experience: "There's no inside"; "I was

become pure

presence."

At

its

most

intense, the

Ecstasy rush resembles the kundalini energy that yoga seeks to awaken: "liquid fire" that infuses the nervous system and leaves the consciousness

"aglow with

light."

What makes

rave culture so ripe for religiosity

is

its

understood only by

direct,

unmediated experience, and the way

an outflow of all-embracing but peculiarly asexual interesting

and "subversive"

aspects are also If

ence,

one word it's

what makes

it is

attributes

"intransitive"

-

Rave

of the

it

releases

love. Clearly the

MDMA

most

experience, these

rave fraught with a latent nihilism.

crystallizes this

objective or object.

the "spirituality" of the

sense of access to a wonderful secret that can be

Ecstasy experience:

ambivalence

at

the heart of the rave experi-

insofar as the music

culture has

and the culture lack an

no goal beyond

its

own

propagation:

about the celebration of celebration, about an intensity without pretext

or context.

Hence

the urgent "nonsense" of

radio. Witness the following

Index

FM

MCs

at raves

and on

pirate

phone-in session on Christmas Eve

.

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY

1992, with

extreme

MC

affective charge.

Sounds of the Dominator, Index FM.

1:

tonight, Caller

combination of semantic impoverishment and

strange

its

127

London. Rrrrrrush!!!

my

out to the Car Park posse, yeah? There's

my

there's

And

getting busy

it's

mate?

very out-of-it) Elio, London,

(giggly,

1:

'Ello

I'd like to

give a big shout

my

brother, Eli, and

friend,

friend over there called Anthony, and he's, like, smasher, he's

hard -

MC

MC

Like you, mate!

1:

Caller 1

Innit,

1:

Caller

of course!

You sound wrecked.

:

Yeah, I'm totally wrecked, mate.

1:

[UPROAR, chants Caller

MC

Make some

1:

Caller

MC

01!

Oi, 01!"]

noise!

know

Believe you me, mate, 'ardkore you

1:

the score!

Respect, mate! 'Ardkore noise!

1:

Caller

of "Oi,

My bruwa my bruvva my bruwa my bruwa my bruwa.

1:

Oi, can you

1:

gimme gimme gimme

"Confusion," mate? 2 Bad

Mice.

MC

(getting emotional, close to tears) Yeah, we'll sort that

1:

you. Last

Hold send

it

caller,

down,

last caller,

one out

this

one out

for

we're gonna have to go. Respect going out to you, mate! rude boy

to you, last caller!

out to you, mate.You're

a

FOR YEEEE AAARS From

the Dominator!

!

Believe me,

Send

this

one

bad boy, BELIEF!!! 90-3, the Index, comin' on

strong, belief!!!

MC

Don't

2:

forget,

people -

throwing

a free rave in

rrrrrave!!!!

Three mental

you know the

MC

go.

floors

of mayhem,

Oh goshhhh!!! Keep

OOOOOOH goshhhhh!! We're

believe

.

.

Crew,

caller,

wants to go

1:

the pagers rushing]

.

.

.Yeah,

I

wanna

Believe

it,

Come

and

London Town, we've

give a big shout to

Brockley crew, Pascal, Bassline, Smasher

and we're rocking, you be shocking, for

MC

—

live!

(sounding rehearsed) Hi, all

the works

comin' on, we're comin on strong,

Deeper! Deeper into the groove

got another Caller 2:

lasers, lights, all

score.

(gasping feyly)

1:

New Year's Eve, Index FM are going to be UAC Promotions. Rrrrrave,

conjunction with

'92, mate!!

mate!

Caller 2:

'ARD-KORE, you know

MC

Where you coming

the score!!!

from, mate?

.

.

.

Were

all

Gathall

in the

house

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

128

Caller 2:

South London, mate.

MC

Wicked. Shout

1:

London, you're

to the

South London crew. Respect! Index! Yeah,

in tune to the live line,

Rapt then and now by phone-in

MC's

fervent salutations and the

and

zeal

"Get

FM,

Index

runnin' tings in London

now.T\\z one and only.

right 'bout

of the utterances: "Rushing!

intransitive nature

by the

sessions like this one,

listeners'

invocations, I'm struck by the crusading .

.

.

Buzzin' hard!,"

busy!," "Come alive, London!," "Let's go!," "Time to get hyper, helter-

skelter!

.

Hardcore's

.

.

Index-at-Xmas Gnosis

and,

firing!,"

especially

prominent

the

in

session, the near-gnostic exhortation "Belief!"

the esoteric knowledge of spiritual truth that various pre-

is

Christian and early Christian cults believed could be apprehended directly

only by the

initiate, a

truth that cannot be mediated or explained in words.

you know the score" or "you know the

In rave, catchphrases like "hardcore,

key"

are

code

for the secret

people" are privy.

induced by

MC's

And

Ecstasy,

this

is

ate that secret

amphetamine, and the

without ever translating

-

inclusion/ exclusion device

The tricity

the

a

know what

transcript

rest

it.

The

MC

is

is

is

ceaselessly to reiter-

an encryptor;

down with

for if you're not

that idiot

at

a

potent

the program,

raving about.

of the Index-at-Xmas exchange

currents pulsing across the

home. Listening

felt intensities

of the pharmacopoeia. The

can't

of everyone in the studio coming up on their Es

NRG

buzzing

was

which only "the headstrong

to

master of the sacra-mental ceremonies,

role, as

you'll never

knowledge

drug knowledge, the physically

the same time, of

cellular-phone ether from kids

phone-in

to pirate

at

convey the elec-

sessions like this,

I

felt

there

feedback loop of ever-escalating exultation switching back and forth

between the

station

and the raving "massive"

at

mechanism designed

culture resembled a giant

home. The whole sub-

to generate fervor without

aim.

The

rave

and the

pirate radio

show

(the "rave

on

the air") are exemplary

real-world manifestations of two influential theoretical models. Bey's "temporary

autonomous zone" (TAZ) and

Guattari's "desiring machine."

makes

me

think of

Hakim

surge" against normality, revolution.

A

national electrical grid. living death

opposed

what

it

to a

"Come

doomed

feels like

The audience

of normality:

DJ's interminable

is

alive,

is

TAZ

-

like

as a

Hakim

Deleuze and

The feedback loop of the phone-in

Bey's vision of the

as

power surge

Gilles

Felix

sessions

temporary "pow er

attempt

at

permanent

being plugged into the

galvanized, shocked out of the

London!" The combination of

metamusic flow and the MC's variations on

a

the

small set of

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY themes has the

of abolishing narrative in favor of a thousand plateaus

effect

MC affirm "we're here, we're

of crescendo. Again and again, the DJ and the now,

this

is

you and

the place to be,

I

are

weV This

radical

Hakim

Bey's anarcho-mystical creed of "immediatism," so

cate

antagonism to

its

129

all

immediacy

named

forms of mediated, passivity-inducing

fits

to indi-

leisure

and

culture.

The

Deleuze and Guattari's model of the

rave also corresponds to

"desiring machine": a decentered, nonhierarchical assemblage of people

and technology

characterized

by

without-meaning. The rave works a series

and

frame

effect creates a as

visually,

a

rave

by

the

expression-

sonically,

and above

by the music's

repetitive

the strobe (whose freeze-

all

concatenated sequence of ultravivid tableaux).

can't

function without ravers, similarly the "desiring

human components - what Deleuze and Guattari "body-without-organs." The opposite of the organism - which is

machine" depends on call

lights, lasers,

and

flow-without-goal

an intensification machine, generating

of heightened here-and-nows -

loops,

Just

as

its

oriented around survival and reproduction

composed out of all

the potentials in the

-

the body-without-organs

human nervous

ure and sensation without purpose: the sterile

drug experiences,

play,

bliss

is

system for pleas-

of perverse

sexuality,

dancing, and so forth. In the rave context, the desir-

ing machine and the body-without-organs are fueled by the same energy source:

MDMA.

Plugged into the sound system, charged up on E, the

body-without-organs simply buzzes, bloated with unemployable

raver's

MC

energy: a feeling of "arrested orgasm" captured in pirate like

ejaculations

"oooooh gosh!"

Described by Deleuze and Guattari

as

"a continuous, self-vibrating

region of intensities whose development avoids any orientation toward a

culmination point or external end," the body-without-organs

of Freud's notion of polymorphous perversity:

is

an update

a diffuse eroticism

that's

connected to the nongenital, nonorgasmic sensuality of the pre-Oedipal infant.

The body-without-organs

Uncarved Block,

a

also

echoes age-old mystical goals: Zen's

inchoate flux preceding individuation and

blissful,

gender; the "translucent" or "subtle body," angelic and androgynous, whose resurrection was sought by the gnostics and alchemists. In

Omens

of Millennium

-

a

book about

the contemporary resurgence of

gnostic preoccupations with angels and near-death experiences

Bloom

argues:

"To be drugged by the embrace of nature

most natural

in us,

ant and an

unhappy

androgynous and

our sleepiness and our sexual fate,

sleepless."

since

desires,

into is

what remains immortal

MDMA,

at

- Harold

what we once

in

us

a is

call

pleas-

both

an "unnatural" designer drug w hose

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

130

and insomniac, might be

effects are antiaphrodisiac

recovering our angelhood.

a synthetic shortcut to

remember one time on E enjoying

I

a radical

sensation of being without gender, a feeling of docility and angelic gentleness so novel effeminate?

and exquisite

The

subliminal

could only express

I

clumsily: "I feel really

it

hormonal "hum" of masculinity was suddenly

silenced.

Such sensations of sexual indifference have everything

MDMA's as

removal of aggression, especially sexual aggression.

more

the "love drug" has

tality

than secretions.

orgasm

E

is

do with cuddles than copulation, sentimen-

notorious for making erection

virtually impossible;

therapist suggests that

to

do with

to

E's reputation

women

fare rather better,

on Ecstasy "the

difficult

and male

although one female

particular organization

and particular

focusing of the body and the psychic energy necessary to achieve orgasm [are]

.

.

very difficult" Despite

.

aphrodisiac

-

partly because

tion, intimacy,

MDMA

this,

still

has a reputation as an

enhances touch, and partly because affec-

it

and physical tenderness

are, for

many

people, inextricably

entangled and conflated with sexual desire.

Unaware of

many

Ecstasy's effects,

commentators were quick

early

ascribe the curiously chaste vibe at raves to a

But one of the most

sexuality.

aspects of rave culture not based

on the notion

sixties rhetoric

pop

is

of sexual

radically novel

precisely that that sex

is

liberation,

the

it's

and arguably subversive

first

transgressive.

youth subculture Rejecting

pacifiers

and teddy bears

drug originally designed

effect.

Anorexia has long been diagnosed

and

all

its

accompanying

intensifies the pleasure

that tired

Hence

the garish

satchels, the lollipops

the fairground sideshows.

that a

as

all

that's

and recoiling from our sex-saturated

and baggy clothing, the backpacks and

- even

to

from adult

retreat

culture, rave locates bliss in prepubescent childhood.

colors

rity

post-AIDS

It's

intriguing

an appetite suppressant should have as a refusal

and

this

of adult sexual matu-

hassles. Ecstasy doesn't

negate the body,

it

of physical expression while completely empty ing

out the sexual content of dance. For men, the drug/music interface

acts to

body and open it up to enraptured, abandoned, "effemiBut removing the heterosexist impulse can mean that

de-phallicize the

nate" gestures.

women

are rendered dispensable.

mods (who

As with

mate), there's a homosocial aura to

many

autoerotic/autistic quality to rave dance.

express the sentiment

The and

that earlier speed-freak scene, the

dressed sharp and posed to impress their mates, not to lure

"it's

and club

scenes.

Recent converts

Hence

a

the

to raving often

better than sex."

samples that feature in

sighs, soul

rave

diva beseechings

much

rave music

— induce

a

- orgasmic w himpers

feverish state ot intransitive

SIMON REYNOLDS, FROM GENERATION ECSTASY

amorousness.

woman, but with and

The (as

ecstatic

female vocals don't signify

in gay disco) a

13

desirable/desirous

a

hypergasmic rapture that the male identifies

The "you" or "it" in vocal samples refers not to a With E, the full-on raver lifestyle means literally every weekend, then (with the inevitable midweek crash)

aspires toward.

person but

a sensation.

falling in love

having your heart broken. Millions of kids across the globe are riding

emotional

roller coaster.

Always looking ahead to their next

addicted to love, in love with

.

.

.

as a child

she

this

with E,

tryst

nothing?

memoir Nobody Nowhere,

In her

how

1

the autistic

would withdraw from

Donna Williams

describes

threatening reality into a private

a

preverbal dream-space of ultravivid color and rhythmic pulsations; she

could be transfixed for hours by iridescent motes in the could perceive. With culture

is

its

arguably a form of collective autism.The rave

nal etymological sense: a

So perhaps the best term it's

a

classification for Ecstasy

seem

you," freed from contains the

realer; all

word

Utopia in

is

only she

origi-

its

R. Blums

heaven on Earth. Because

like

the drug also feels like

"utopiate,"

is

hallucinogen but a sensation intensifier,

the world

air that

sonic pulses, rave

its

nowhere/ nowhen wonderland.

LSD. The Ecstasy experience can be

for

not

dazzling psychotropic lights,

MDMA

it's

makes

actually

bringing out the "real

the neurosis instilled by a sick society. But "utopiate"

"opiate," as in "religion

is

the

opium of

the people."

sacrament in that secular religion called "rave," Ecstasy can just counterrevolutionary force

as

it

can fuel

hunger

a

be

as easily

for change. For

tempting to take the easy option: simply repeating the experience,

it's

A a

too

installing

yourself permanently in rave's virtual reality pleasuredome.

Simon Reynolds, Culture,

Generation

New York: Routledge,

Ecstasy: Into

World of Techno and

the

Raw

1999, pp. 83-6, 237-48.

"HUGE MOB TORTURES NEGRO .," LYNCHING ACCOUNT FROM 100 YEARS OF LYNCHING, RALPH GINZBURG, ED. .

.

There

is

a temptation to consider any and

as "cultures of resistance"

temper that enthusiasm and warn us to be resistance. state of

It

is

all

popular and unofficial celebrations

worth celebrating.This following selection careful

about

an account of a lynching of a black

man by

Georgia on June 21,1 920. Put together out of

thetic press reports of the time by

how we a

local

amateur historian and

white

and

civil

will,

I

hope,

define cultural

mob

largely rights

in

the

sympa-

advocate

132

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

Ralph Ginzburg, this festive occasions.

a fairly typical

is

account of that period. Lynchings were

Thousands of people showed up to watch the

brutal displays,

dancing and singing and eating out of the picnic baskets they had brought. The

and fingers and more private extremities were cut

victim's toes

and

off as souvenirs,

photographers would often memorialize the event and

local

images on postcards. Lynchings were not state sanctioned local Sheriffs

Home Guard

and the

later sell the

Sometimes

affairs.

would look the other way, but other times

they used tear gas to disperse crowds or were shot trying to defend the lynching victim. Lynchings like the

one recorded below were genuine

rebellious expres-

sions of the popular culture of white racism.

Huge Mob Tortures Negro

to

Avenge Brutal Slaying June

21,

Within

ig20

in Bulloch

few hours

a

after

he had been captured near Stilson

county yesterday Philip Gathers, the negro

who

brutally

mur-

dered Miss Anza Jaudon near Rincon ten days ago, was lynched on the spot

where the body of the young

The murder of that

ought to

woman

the beautiful

strike terror to those

similar crime. After his

was found.

young woman was avenged

who

body had been

might be tempted

manner commit a

in a to

mutilated, while he was alive, the

negro was saturated with gasoline and burned, and while he was burning his

body was

literally

riddled with bullets

The mob numbered

women

several thousand,

and buckshot. and was composed of

men and

from Effingham, Bulloch, Chatham and Screven counties. The

crime was committed in Effingham about three miles from Rincon.

was there

that the black brute paid the

supreme penalty

And

it

for the crime.

The execution of the negro was witnessed by hundreds of persons, and many thousand who were in the crowd literally fought to get close enough to see the actual details.

seemed

that every

Almost every person

one carried

the man's prostrate body.

He

hold

itself in

check no longer.

signal for a

gun or

until

One

After

all

a firearm,

and

it

he had been mutilated and infuriated

mob

could

shot was fired from a revolver and

it

thousand shots which made mince meat of the body.

and emptied

fingers, toes

had

emptied the weapon into

match touched. The

Four young women from the crowd pushed the circle

who

a pistol,

was not shot

saturated with gasolene and a

was the

a

and other

rifles

parts

their

way through

into the negro. They stood

the outer run of

by while other men cut

of the body and passed them around

as

off

souvenirs.

of the ammunition had been used more wood w as piled on the

"HUGE MOB TORTURES NEGRO remains and gasolene poured on the tied to the

the

limb of a tree and

body hung

The News.

first

It

left

was telegraphed from Stilson by

correspondent

Statesboro,

at

constantly since Saturday

133

."

Later the charred remains were

pile.

for automobiles to clear

news of the capture was received

who

.

dangling over the road. The lower part of

low there was hardly room

so

.

in

J.S.

it.

Savannah by the Morning

Kenan, the Morning News

had been with the Bulloch posse almost

morning when Gathers was

first

discovered in

Bulloch.

The news the

spread rapidly. Chief Harley of the county police sent around

Company and borrowed

corner to the Grantham Motor

Apperson

car,

O'Neal and

a

driven by George Waters. In

this

Morning News reporter, made

a

new

a

he and County Policeman

quick

trip to the

scene of the

murder.

Mr. Kenan telegraphed that Gathers had been captured

from Stilson and

that

home

he would be taken to the

mile and

a

a half

of Miss Jaudon's

mother, three miles from Rincon. This automobile went to Rincon and

was directed via McCall's road to the Jaudon home.

None of the

captors

had arrived so the party drove into the narrow road through the swamp to the scene of the murder. There they found the exact spot

where the body

of Miss Jaudon was found. Two other machines were already

there.

Shortly afterward cars began arriving from every direction. Within an

hour there were nearly 500 machines rapidly swelling.

lonely road

An hour and

in the

swamp and

ten minutes after the

first

the

crowd was

car arrived

on

this

where Miss Jaudon was murdered, the posse from Bulloch

arrived with the negro.

His arrival was heralded with

a shout,

but there was really no disorder

Older heads commanded the hot-bloods

that time.

to

at

be careful and not

shoot.

Among

those waiting were a brother and

was forced back and they were allowed to

The

begged the negro

sister

to

tell

sister

of the victim. The crowd

talk to Gathers.

her what her

sister's last

words were,

but he refused to admit that he committed the crime. The brother had said

he hoped

a

confession

would be obtained before the lynchers did

work, but he said afterwards that he was absolutely certain the right

their

man

had been punished.

A pile ered a

of wood had been placed on the spot where the body was discov-

week ago

shoved along

men

yesterday.

As Gathers was being dragged, pushed and

reached over the shoulders of comrades and struck the

negro on the head with the butts of their guns. Others slashed him with knives.

One man

stabbed him several times. While he was being chained to

A POLITICS THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE POLITICS

134

wood

a small tree

over the

ment below

the belt. Through

A

match was applied

pile

he was treated to further surgical punishhe never murmured.

it all

he had been chained around the chest and

after

The wood was wet and soggy and burned so slowly the mob became impatient and somebody called for gasolene. Up to this time

legs to the sapling.

not

a

shot had been fired and the

crowd was remarkably quiet under

the

circumstances.

Two

quarts of gasolene were

drawn from an automobile.

It

was poured

over the negro. The blaze enveloped the body and caused the crowd to

fall

back. With a yell the negro lunged forward and broke the chains that held

him

to the tree. The force with

feet away.

As he

fell a

machine guns had cut

fast as

over

as

men

it

sounded

for cover,

and

it

was remarkable

standing in a complete circle about the

they could pull the trigger and reload. After

was discovered

it

He

bullet.

ankle. Dr.

was

like a

home

so Mrs.

Jaudon could

trip

The

see him, but this

captors

left

firing as

hit

by

a stray

about half way between the knee and

program of the searchers was

almost prostrated.

many were

of the shooting was

of Oliver had been

that H.J. Haterick

hit in the left leg

all

that

Usher examined and bandaged the wound and

original

ten

hundred

body were

said the bullet

had glanced off the bone and come out without doing serious

The

him

tore himself free carried

loose.

There was scrambling not shot,

which he

shot was fired, and then

was not done

Stilson about 9 o'clock

around by Oliver, and Springfield.

injury.

to take the negro

No -effort

as

by the she was

and made the

was made to

interfere

with them.

The lynching took

place at 12.15 o'clock.

Just before the prisoner

was delivered to the scene of the lynching

reported that the Savannah

Home

Guard had been

cause the crowd a great deal of concern

before the military could arrive.

The

first

And

as

it

was

called out. This did not

they expected to finish their task

they did.

of the Guard reached Montieth in time to meet the crowds

returning from the lynching.

looYears of Lynching, 1962, pp. 132-5.

Ralph Ginzburg

(ed.),

Baltimore: Black Classic Press,

FOUR

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

Ravers, rastas,

mods and

skins. Punks, hippies, beats

and b-boys. Zoot-suiters,

hotrodders, lowriders, drag queens and drag kings. Headbangers and deadheads,

and rude-boys, Bowery b'hoys and Bowery

riot grrrls

g'hals,

fops and flappers,

gangsters and gangstas. Bohemians. For as long as there has been a "mainstream" culture there have been those fashion their always,

own

identities

who

have staked their position outside. There they

and communities, customs and

coming together around "Culture"

through these lens they

artifacts

like

styles, often,

construct a "culture" of their own. Through this cultural

view the world, dividing

into

it

good and

bad,

system of values and norms distinct from, and often

in

in

the process creating a

opposition

to,

greater society. These are subcultures; micro-worlds created by those

they don't belong

in

but not

music or clothing or even cars, and

those of

who

feel

the world at large: the young, the passed over, the outcast.

This cultural space offers great political potential, for subcultures provide a place to test out

new

and

identities, ideas

activities that deviate

from the status quo.

And, because they are self-constructed, subcultures grant their constituents the

power

of creation and then a sense of ownership over

These are key ingredients of any

become an escape from tions to real-world

is

politics; a safe

what they have created.

formation. But subcultures can also

space to dream up magical cultural solu-

who

problems and a place to lock yourself away from those

don't see the world the

question

political

where does

same

as you. Subcultures are cultural resistance.

The

this resistance lead?

E.J.

HOBSBAWM,

SELECTIONS FROM PRIMITIVE REBELS Nearly everyone knows of Robin Hood, the hero of Sherwood Forest

from the

rich to give to the poor.

The story perseveres because

it

who

stole

speaks to

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

136

enduring conditions of inequality and

injustice,

and equally enduring fantasies of

righteous rebellion. This myth of the social bandit

is

part of our cultural heritage

next section the historian Eric Hobsbawm, better known for

(cf.

Kelley). In this

his

grand sweeping narratives of revolution and industrial empire, examines the

lives

and

politics of

obscure

These "primitive rebels" protest the

social bandits.

wrongs of the world by conjuring up and

acting out a culture of resistance,

removing themselves from society and

according to their

Hobsbawm

bandit

living

locates a "pre-political" figure, a "people

found, or only begun to find, a specific language

He

tions about the world."

in

which to express their

the yet

aspira-

argues, however, that these aspirations often remain

just that: aspirations. While their causes are

commonly

just,

are usually fantastic and frequently

politically speaking,

own code. In who have not

these pre-political responses

the rebel's responses,

Nonetheless,

futile.

in

more mature,

the seeds, perhaps, of later and

lay

political fruit.

The

movements

history of social

sions.

We know

revolts, social heresies

and

them

possess a 'history' of

been treated

is

two

generally treated in

separate divi-

something about the ancient and medieval ones: sects, is

peasant risings, and the

like.

To

slave

say that

we

perhaps misleading, for in the past they have

largely as a series

of episodes, punctuating the general story of

humanity, though historians have disagreed on their importance in the historical process

modern

and

debate their precise relationship to

still

it.

So

far as

times are concerned such agitations have been regarded by

who

except anthropologists

imperfectly capitalist societies, simply the other

hand 'modern'

Europe from the

social

all,

obliged to deal with pre-capitalist or

are

as

'forerunners' or

movements,

later 18th century,

that

is

odd

survivals.

and those of increasingly

On

of Western

to say those

large sectors

of the world in subsequent periods, have normally been treated according

and reasonably sound scheme. For obvious reasons the

to a long-established

historians have concentrated

other movements

commonly eties

on labour and

socialist

have been fitted into the

as

regarded

as

socialist

having their 'primitive' stages

movements, and such framework. These

— journeymen's

are

soci-

and Luddism, Radicalism, Jacobinism and Utopian Socialisms - and

eventually as developing towards a

modern

pattern

which

varies

from one

country to the next but has considerable general application. Thus labour

movements develop

certain forms of trade

zation, certain types

of

political

certain types of programme

The belong

subjects

of

this

union and co-operative organi-

organization such

and ideology, such

book

to the first division.

fit

as

mass

as secularist

into neither category. At

At any

rate

parries,

and

Socialism. first

nobody would be

sight they

surprised to

E.J.

HOBSBAWM, FROM

encounter Vardarelli and bodies such in the

as

PRIMITIVE REBELS

Mafia, or millennarian

European Middle Ages. But the point about them

is

137

movements,

do

that they

not

occur in the Middle Ages, but in the 19th and 20th centuries, and indeed

them

the past 150 years have produced reasons discussed in the text.

Nor

abnormally large numbers, for as

mar-

or unimportant phenomena, though older historians have often

ginal

tended to do because,

as

movements

so,

hope

I

is

vative,' partly

out of rationalist and 'modernist'

partly

to show, the political allegiance

often undetermined, ambiguous or even ostensibly 'conser-

made

are unlike themselves. For,

hoods of the Carbonaro

type,

often because they are

anybody except

selves.

and

understand people

phenomena

ritual brother-

studied in this

book

many books — known by name to

neither write nor read

— who

are rarely

,

and then often only by nickname,

rarely

Moreover, they are

the

all

illiterate

their friends,

inarticulate,

sufficient effort to

with the exception of the

who

belong to the world of people

normally

partly

bias,

and character of such

because historians, being mainly educated and townsmen,

have until recently simply not

who

in

can they be simply written off

who

are

when they express themwho have not yet found, or

understood even

pre-political

people

only begun to find, a specific language in which to express their aspirations

about the world. Though their movements are thus in

and

groping,

by

the

unimportant nor marginal.

book

deals

form the

of modern

standards

Men

and

women

such

cares

is

fate

of men, but

The

highwaymen preoccupy

occupy the

social historian.

form of organized

him

many

For

in

societies

it is

into a myth: Robin

one sense banditry

him

Hood

in

as

not himself a conscious

champion,

England, Janosik

who

a rather

is

primitive

most primitive we know. At

such by the poor,

as their

in

are probably

transmuted. In return, the bandit himself is

made our

reason the study of their

the police, but they ought also to pre-

regarded

Diego Corrientes in Andalusia,

when he

this

of practical importance.

also

social protest, perhaps the

quently protect the bandit, regard turn

this

Social Bandit

Bandits and

kia,

whom

not merely curious, or interesting, or moving for anyone

about the

any rate in

neither

are

those with

political consciousness has

century the most revolutionary in history. For

movements

as

respects blind

they

large majority in many, perhaps in most, countries

even today, and their acquisition of

who

many

ones,

tries to live

conse-

and

Poland and Slova real figures thus

all

up

social rebel. Naturally

who

idealize him,

to his role even

Robin

1

lood, the

.

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

138

archetype of the social rebel 'who took from the rich to give to the poor

and never his kind.

killed but in self-defence or just revenge',

The tough man, who

common man

of the

is

not the only

man

of

unwilling to bear the traditional burdens

is

and meekness, may escape

in a class society, poverty

from them by joining or serving the oppressors

as

well as by revolting

against them. In any peasant society there are 'landlords' bandits' as well as

mention the

'peasant bandits' not to

bandits,

State's

though only the

peasant bandits receive the tribute of ballads and anecdotes. Retainers,

policemen, mercenary soldiers are thus often recruited from the same material as social bandits. Moreover, as the experience of Southern Spain

between 1850 and 1875 shows, one sort of bandit can easily turn into another - the 'noble' robber and smuggler into the bandolero, protected by the local rural boss or cacique. Individual rebelliousness

phenomenon, and consequently mirrors

neutral

within society

.

what

distinct

Duca

- do even

To describe the standardization.

from Europe Italy.

an ideal type of social banditry

The

as

of

it. Still,

by no means

is

social banditry

its

is

cases

some -

one looks

like

Angelo

as

For the most

unrealistic.

comes almost wholly

and indeed mainly from South-

at are so similar,

though drawn from

the mid- 1 8th and the mid-20th centuries

independent of one another

as Sicily

and Carpatho-Ukraine,

one generalizes with very great confidence. This uniformity

both to the bandit myths - that people — and

by the

A few

this

history, as

remarkable uniformity and

material used in this chapter

in the 18th to 20th centuries,

widely separated as

to

and

exists,

that.

bandit

'ideal'

But the

1

and places that

like

from legend, correspond completely

(Angiolillo)

periods

the divisions and struggles

propose to discuss, even though few bandits of recorded

I

startling characteristic

ern

itself a socially

.

However, something is

is

is,

to the part for

applies

which the bandit

is

cast

to his actual behaviour.

examples of such parallelism may

illustrate

the point. The popula-

tion hardly ever helps the authorities to catch the 'peasants' bandit,' but on

the contrary protects him. This

so in the Sicilian villages of the [940s as

Muscovite ones of the 17th century. 2 Thus

in the

he makes too will

is

much of a

his standard

end -

for

it"

nuisance of himself almost every individual bandit

be defeated, though banditry

may remain endemic -

is

by

betrayal.

Oleksa Dovbush, the Carpathian bandit of the 18th century, was betrayed

by c.

his

mistress;

Nikola Shuhaj,

1918-20, by his friends.

3

who

Angelo Duca

is

supposed to have nourished

(Angiolillo),

c.

1760-84. perhaps

the purest example of social banditry, of whose career Benedetto Croce has

given

a

masterly analysis, 4 suffered the same

fate. So, in ioso.

did Salvatore

HOBSBAWM, FROM

E.J.

Giuliano of Montelepre,

139

the most notorious of recent bandits,

whose

been described

career has lately

Robin Hood

did

Sicily,

PRIMITIVE REBELS

himself.

in a

But the

moving book. 5

So, if

comes

it

law, in order to hide

its

to that,

impotence,

claims credit for the bandit's capture or death: the policemen shoot bullets into Nikola Shuhaj's dead

Maxwell there

is

is

Corsican proverb to describe

a

many

they did,

kill, as

6

And

is

so

Gavin

if

common

that

'Killed after death, like a

it:

the peasants in turn add invulnerability to the

other legendary and heroic qualities. Angiolillo was sup-

posed to possess

magic ring which turned away

a

-

invulnerable because

he waved aside

made him

to claim the

be believed, into Giuliano's.The practice

to

even

bandit by the police.' bandit's

body

or because a

bullets,

them; that

resist

Shuhaj was

bullets.

- he had a green twig with which witch had made him drink a brew that

theories diverged

why

is

he had to be

killed

with an

Oleksa

axe.

Dovbush, the legendary 18th-century Carpathian bandit-hero, could only be killed with

a silver bullet that

wheat, blessed by

which twelve myths

a priest

priests

are part

had been kept one year in

a dish

of spring

the day of the twelve great saints and over

had read twelve masses.

I

have no doubt that similar

of the folklore of many other great bandits. Obviously none

of these practices or ferent places

on

beliefs are derived

from one another. They

and periods, because the

societies

and

arise in dif-

which

situations in

social banditry arises are very similar.

may be convenient to sketch the standardized picture of the social bandit's career. A man becomes a bandit because he does something which It

is

not regarded

as

criminal by his local conventions, but

the State or the local rulers. Thus Angiolillo took to the

over cattle-straying with

known of the

Romeo

a field-guard

is

so regarded

hills after a

by

quarrel

of the Duke of Martina. The best-

current bandits in the Aspromonte area of Calabria, Vicenzo

of Bova (which

ancient Greek),

is,

incidentally, the last Italian village speaking

became an outlaw

after

abducting

married, while Angelo Macri of Delianova killed

a girl a

he subsequently

policeman

who

had

shot his brother. 7 Both blood-feud (the faida) and marriage by abduction are

common

reported forty

in this part

at large in

who

man becomes hills

hills

The

because

in 1955,

most of the

for 'homicide' are locally regarded as 'hon-

its

some minor

how

Reggio Calabria

State mixes in 'legitimate' private quarrels

a 'criminal' in

peasant because of the

the province of

took to the

ourable' homicides.

of Calabria. s Indeed, of the 160-odd outlaws

does he

eyes.

The

State

shows an

infraction of the law,

know what

a

and

a

interest in a

and the man

takes to

system which does not

know

or understand peasants, and which peasants do not understand, will do to

him? Mariani Dionigi,

a

Sardinian bandit of the 1890s, went because he

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

140

was about to be arrested for complicity in

Moni

homicide. Goddi

a 'just'

Giovanni, another, went for the same reason. Campesi (nicknamed Piscimpala)

was admonished by the police

1896, arrested a

in

later for

little

'contravention of the admonition' and sentenced to ten days and a year

under surveillance;

on

also to a fine

of 12.50

for letting his sheep pasture

lire

He

the grounds of a certain Salis Giovanni Antonio.

the

attempted to shoot the judge and killed

hills,

supposed to have shot marketing

who

a

a

as

more

Giuliano

him up

to beat

of

'career'

a

be

certainly

what has been observed of Sardinia almost

some

bandit almost always begins with

man

brought against the

him

incident,

into outlawry: a police charge for

which

is

not

some offence

rather than for the crime; false testimony; judicial error

or intrigue; an unjust sentence to forced residence

(conjino),

or one

felt

to be

as

'hon-

10

important that the incipient social bandit should be regarded

It is

is

for black-

generally:

in itself grave, but drives

unjust.

9

which would

to bribe him; an act

'honourable'. In fact,

certainly applies

The

his creditor.

couple of bags of wheat while letting off another smuggler

had enough money

regarded

who wanted

policeman

preferred to take to

ourable' or non-criminal by the population, for

he was regarded

if

as a

criminal against local convention, he could not enjoy the local protection

on which he must issue

rely completely.

Admittedly almost anyone

with the oppressors and the State

hero or both.

Once

a

man

on the run,

is

by the peasants and by the weight of 'our'

and

therefore, he

of the

is

who

joins

as a victim, a

naturally protected

which stands for against 'theirs', might be

local conventions

law - custom, blood-feud or whatever

'our' justice against that

be regarded

likely to

is

it

he

rich. In Sicily

will, unless

very trou-

blesome, enjoy the goodwill of Mafia, in Southern Calabria of the so-called Onorata Societal everywhere of public opinion. Indeed, he

perhaps mostly will

—

Romeo,

normally

for instance,

live

near or in his village, lives in

Bova with

has built a house there. Giuliano did the

same

in his

Indeed, the extent to which the ordinary bandit generally that of his birth and lived

and died

Montelepre

in

bandits, Valvo,

is

to

is

in Sciacca.

become

a

criminal

12

The

supplied.

town of Montelepre.

tied to his territory -

very impressive. Giuliano

among

lived

and

Sicilian

died

in

worst thing that can happen

his local sources

steal, that is to steal

who may

is

and children and

territory, as his predecessors

be cut off from

genuinely forced to rob and therefore

people -

is

Lo Cicero and Di Pasquale had

Montemaggiore or Capraro to a bandit

'his'

whence he

his wife

may - and

of supply,

from

for then be

his people,

is

and may

be denounced. The phrase

of the

E.J.

Corsican

official

who

HOBSBAWM, FROM

regularly left

PRIMITIVE REBELS

wheat and wine

141

for bandits in his

country cottage, expresses one side of this situation: 'Better to feed them in this

way than

them

to oblige

to steal

what they

13

need.'

The behaviour of

the brigands in the Basilicata illustrates the other side. In this area brig-

andage died out during the winter, some brigands even emigrating to

work, because of the

became

food

difficulty

of getting food for outlaws. In spring, the

again,

available

Lucanian cut-throats knew

why

brigandage

as

began. 14 These

season

they did not force the poor peasants to

would certainly have done had they been an occupying The Spanish government in the 1950s ended Republican guerilla

feed them, as they force.

activity in the

pathizers

Andalusian mountains by moving against Republican sym-

and suppliers

in the villages, thus obliging the outlaws to steal

who

food and alienate the non-political shepherds, willing to inform against them.

A

few remarks may complete our sketch of the mechanics of the

bandit's

life.

Normally he

because

it is

much

Basilicata

will

harder for a

once he has family

be young and single or unattached,

man

to revolt against the apparatus

responsibilities:

and Capitanata

in the

commits

a

return to

full legality (as

traditional 'crime'

Of the

committed

them by

may be

is,

in 1897

(I

to a certain

economic

known -

the usual

amount of robbery,

sixty are reported

it

is

e.g.

the three

say,

among

its

men who were

by treachery).

17

thus economi-

will rarely

be very

very small

caught in the

Maremma

the Andalusian bandoleros of the 19th century, but

who

used them

when bands become

of some hundreds occurred, but

virtual in

guerilla

Southern

as retainat all.

normal picture of even brigand-guerilla bands smaller units,

combining

is

one of

a

like

In

Italy these also

The

multiplicity oi

for operations. In the Capitanata

Joachim Murat there were something

18

even

units,

enjoyed financial and other support from the Bourbon authorities.

much

is

Some

leader.

reason perhaps they do not belong in this chapter

larger groups

large,

band

Extremely large bands of up to

they enjoyed the support of local lords (caciques)

periods of revolution,

their

from them by

reasons, partly for organizational ones; for the

need hardly

ers; for this

The

man

a

on the margin of

individuals living

threads of kin or support, kept

held together only by the personal prestige of

bands are

16

which may, by custom, allow an eventual

enmities and the police. If he joins or forms a band, and cally

of power

1860s were under 25 years old.

in vendetta or abduction) this

this sort; that

attached to

partly for

only

160 or so existing South Calabrian outlaws most are said to be

lone wolves of villages,

if

of the bandits in the

two-thirds

may of course remain alone — indeed, in cases where

outlaw

case.

became

therefore

13

under

seventy bands, in the Basilicata of

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

142

the early sixties thirty-nine, in Apulia ship

the Basilicata

in

computed from of thirty, such

the

as

given

is

as

some

thirty.

Their average member-

'from twenty to

statistics as fifteen

to sixteen.

but can be

thirty',

On may

guess that a band

Giuseppe de Furia led for many years in Napoleonic and

Restoration times, represents about the limit which can be dominated by

an average leader without organization and discipline such chieftains

were capable of maintaining,

may be observed

that this

parous Protestant

sects,

averaged thirty-three

How

long

imagines,

a

band

is

Country Bible

members per chapel

19

lasted

we do

on how much of

social situation, or

as

a

not

nuisance

how complex

in the 1870s.)

know

exactly.

Christians,

who

would depend, one

It

made of itself,

it

(It

like the figure in tiny fissi-

the West

such

few brigand

larger units leading to secessions.

something

also

as

how

or

tense the

-

the international situation was

in the

period from 1799 to 18 15 Bourbon and British help to local bandits might

make

it

easy to survive for

many

years

— and how much ,

Giuliano (with heavy protection) lasted six years, but

Hood

protection

at a

guess a

it

had.

Robin

of some ambition would be lucky to survive for more than two

to

four years: Janosik, the prototype bandit of the Carpathians in the early 1

8th century, and Shuhaj lasted for

after

tenacious

Bourbon brigands

years, Sergeant

in the South.

without great pretensions, such fines

two

as that

However, an

in Apulia

retire

(c.

who

considered his

activities criminal.

does not greatly matter whether

political reasons like Giuliano,

a

stereotype in

He

respects; that

is,

he will

was only the

let

for

State

his career for quasi-

grudge against the police and

a

will almost certainly try to

some

it

life,

2"

man began

who had

government, or whether he simply robs because outlaw to do.

band

1870-90). If the State

into ordinary peasant

the ex-bandit was easily integrated into society, since

and the gentry

isolated small

of Domenico Tiburzi on the con-

of Latium, could carry on for twenty years

him, the bandit might well survive and

It

Romano

i860 for thirty months, and five years broke the back of the most

it is

a natural

conform

try to

be

'a

to the

thing for an

Robin Hood

man who

took from

the rich to give to the poor and never killed but in self-defence or just revenge'.

He

is

virtually obliged to, for there

than from the poor, and

mate'

he

is

killer,

he

if

forfeits his

free-handed with

is

more

most powerful

his gains,

it

may

asset,

And

if

only be because

he himself does not regard

a

man

its

It

in his posi-

power and

status

by

his actions as a social protest, the

public will, so that even a purely professional criminal

pander to

'illegiti-

public aid and sympathy.

tion in a society of pre-capitalist values shows his largesse.

from the rich

to take

he takes from the poor or becomes an

may come

to

view. Schinderhannes, the most famous, though not the most

E.J.

HOBSBAWM, FROM who

remarkable of the gang-leaders 1790s, a

21

was in no sense

PRIMITIVE REBELS

Rhineland

infested the

a social bandit. (As his

143

in the late

name shows, he came from

low-caste trade traditionally associated with the underworld.) Yet he

found

advantageous for

it

he

his public relations to advertise the fact that

and moneylenders, and

robbed only Jews, that

is,

dotes and chap-books

which multiplied around him, gave him many of the

attributes

dealers

Hood

of the idealized Robin

hero: the open-handedness, the

humour, cunning and

righting of wrongs, the courtesy, sense of

amounting

the ubiquity

-

to invisibility

in return the anec-

valour,

bandits in anecdotes go about

all

the countryside in impenetrable disguises -, and so on. In his case the tributes are totally undeserved, St

and one's sympathies

member of

Andre, the old

may

these gangsters low. Nevertheless, he

of the time

as a 'protector

are entirely

Committee of Public

the

well have

about some things. So characteristic

whose autobiography

study than

it

himself at

felt

are sentimental Hill,

money

workers in not,

laid

least part

more

is

Camden Town. Robin Hoodism, whether

need

of

to various families

as

sociological

has received, lapses into the usual maudlin self pity

to 'his' people, that

crook

a professional

(1955) deserves

explains his continued career as a thief and gangster by the

ute

who

of the poor'. Criminals come from the poor and

Mr

Billy

with Jeanbon

Safety,

when he

to distrib-

Irish unskilled

they believe in

it

or

useful to bandits.

is

However, many do not need to have the

upon them. They take to it spontaneously, as did Pasquale Tanteddu of Sardinia whose views (somewhat influenced by communism) are more fully set out [elsewhere]. Again,

I

am

role thrust

told that a leading Calabrian bandit of pre-1914 vintage gave

regular donations

known. Gaetano

to

the

Vardarelli

then betrayed and killed by

Socialist

of Apulia,

him

booty to the poor, distributing

Systematic

Party.

who

in 18 18, salt free,

was pardoned by the King and

ordering

bailiffs to

give bread to

workers on pain of massacre, and commanding the local landed

estate

tional in his systematic pursuit

achieved by casual village'

it is

gifts

of

a

more

nounced sentence and

fields.

Angiolillo was excep-

general justice than could be

and individual interventions. 'When he arrived

reported 'he had a tribunal

set up,

fulfilled all the offices

supposed to have prosecuted

common-law

of

heard the

pro-

He

even

a magistrate.'

offenders.

He

distributed

them

to the poor. In other words,

in the peasants' interest.

village

wanted

to

name

the

It is

main

he acted

in

litigants, is

ordered grain-

prices to be lowered, confiscated the grain-stores held by the rich

ment

are

was always distributing part of his

bourgeoisie to allow the poor to glean their

any

Robin Hoods

as a parallel

and

govern-

hardly surprising that as late as 1884 his

street after

him.

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

144

more

In their

way

primitive

the Southern brigands of the 1860s, like

those of 1799-18 15, saw themselves

as

the people's champions against the

gentry and the 'foreigners'. Perhaps Southern

(Not

social bandits.

war of

nothing has 'bandit' become

for

governments use to describe revolutionary

periods pro-

Italy in these

vides the nearest thing to a mass revolution and

liberation led by

a habitual

guerillas.)

term foreign

Thanks

scholarly literature the nature of these epochs of brigandage

now

understood, and few students

still

who

Liberals

class

barbarism

found

Norman

in

memory of the

racial inferiority,

and

real,

22

And

well

bandit heroes

is

among

Carlo Levi,

how profound

Christ Stopped at Eboli

in

the

among the Southern peasants, for whom among the few parts of history which are

is

the 'years of the brigands' are alive

now

an incomprehension which

Douglas' Old Calabria.

reminded us

others, has

is

share the incomprehension of middle-

saw in them nothing but 'mass delinquency', and

not Southern

if

to a large

because, unlike the kings and wars, they belong to them. In

Bourbon more gorgeous apparel, were avengers and champions of the people. If their way was a blind alley, let us not deny them the longing for liberty and justice which moved them. their

way

the brigands, dressed in torn peasant costume with

rosettes, or in

Consequently essential

also the characteristic victims

enemies of the poor. As recorded

those groups

which

and DickTurpin),

are particularly hated

prelates

and

idle

of the bandit

are the quint-

in tradition, they are always

by them: lawyers (Robin

monks (Robin Hood and

Hood

Angiolillo),

money-lenders and dealers (Angiolillo and Schinderhannes), foreigners and

who

others

upset the traditional

life

of the peasant. In pre-industrial and

prepolitical societies they rarely if ever include

the sovereign,

w ho

is

remote and stands for justice. Indeed, the legend frequently shows the sovereign pursuing the bandit, failing to suppress him, and then asking

court and making his peace with him, thus recognizing that in sense his and the sovereign's interest, justice,

Hood

the same.

is

a

him

to

profound

Thus with Robin

and Oleksa Dovbush. 23

The

fact that the bandit, especially

when he was

strong sense of mission, lived well and

mally put the public

off.

showed

not himself filled with

off his

a

wealth did not nor-

Giuliano's solitaire ring, the bunches of chains and

decorations with which the anti-French bandits of the 1790s festooned

themselves in Southern

Italy,

would be regarded by the

of triumph over the rich and powerful, bandit's

power

to protect

bandit was, and for the failure

is,

that

he

as

well

as,

peasants as symbols

perhaps, evidences of the

them. For one of the chief attractions is

the poor boy

of the mass to

lift

itself

who

out of

has

its

made good,

own

a

of the

surrogate

poverty helplessness

HOBSBAWM, FROM

E.J.

PRIMITIVE REBELS

145

and meekness. 24 Paradoxically therefore the conspicuous expenditure of the bandit, like the gold-plated Cadillacs and diamond-inlaid teeth of the

who

slum-boy

has

become world boxing champion, serves him from them; providing

admirers and not to separate

his

does not step too cast

him

to

always that he

which the people have

outside the heroic role into

far

to link

him.

The fundamental

pattern of banditry, as

have tried to sketch

I

almost universally found in certain conditions. peasant societies in

which

occurs

it

know

It is

rich

it

here,

not urban.

rural,

is

The

and poor, powerful and

weak, rulers and ruled, but remain profoundly and tenaciously

traditional,

An agricultural society such as that of 19thcentury East Anglia or Normandy or Denmark is not the place to look for social banditry. (This is no doubt the reason why England, which has given and

pre-capitalist in structure.

Robin Hood,

the world

no

the archetype of the social bandit, has produced

notable example of the species since the 16th century. Such idealization of criminals as has figures like ers

become

part of popular tradition, has seized

DickTurpin and MacHeath, while the miserable

have risen to

more than

little

upon urban

village labour-

the modest admiration for exceptionally

daring poachers.) Moreover, even in backward and traditional bandit societies,

the social brigand appears only before the poor have reached political

more effective methods of social agitation. The phenomenon, and his strength is in inverse propor-

consciousness or acquired bandit tion

is

to

a pre-political

of organized

that

agrarian

and

revolutionism

or

Socialism

Communism. Brigandage in the Calabrian Sila went out before the First World War, when Socialism and peasant leagues came in. It survived in the Aspromonte, the home of the great Musolino and numerous other popular heroes for zation

is

places in

whom

the

women

prayed movingly. 23 But there peasant organi-

developed. Montelepre, Giuliano's town,

less

is

one of the few

Palermo province which lacked any peasant league of importance

even during the national peasant rising of 1893 26

ar,

d where even today

people vote

much

much more

for lunatic fringe groups like monarchists or Sicilian separatists.

less

than elsewhere for the developed political parties and

In such societies banditry is

most

likely

equilibrium

is

to

become

upset: during

famines and wars, or

modern world

at

is

a

endemic. But

and

the

seize the static

after periods

classical

the

seems that Robin Hoodism

communities

19th or 20th centuries,

age of the social bandit.

We

as

the jaws of the dynamic

in order to destroy

in the history

our age

observe

traditional

of abnormal hardship, such

moments when

form them. Since these moments occurred, societies, in

it

major phenomenon when their

his

is

111

and trans-

of most peasant

sonic respects the

upsurge -

at least in

the

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

146

minds of the people -

Southern

in

Southern

policy.

27

In Calabria and Sardinia the major

brigandage began in the 1890s,

when

modern economy

the

made

and emigration)

depression

tural

the end of the 18th century; in

at

fanned by the introduction of

Italy after Unification,

law and economic

and the Rhineland during the

Italy

Revolutionary transformations and wars

impact.

their

In

capitalist

epoch of

(and agriculthe

remote

Carpathian mountains banditry flared up in the aftermath of the

First

World War,

both

which Olbracht

for social reasons

has, as usual, described

accurately and sensibly.

But

this

very fact expressed the tragedy of the social bandit. The peasant

him and

society creates

upon him, when

calls

pion and protector - but precisely then he social banditry,

though

a protest,

a

is

it

is

wrongs and prove

down. that

men

few, have

none

mines, or

fills

at all; that drives

make

tion.

will

He

at best to

a traditional society,

does not even

it

would be

if

It

world of equality. They can only

is

happening

to Sardinian villages

who

used to have

fulfill

a

Calabrian villagers into American coal-

impose certain

that very well, as a that,

he

is

The

limits to traditional

on pain of lawlessness, murder and

convince the observer. Beyond

derful

a

the Carpathian mountains with armies, guns and debt. is

For

poor and oppressed, but

have plenty of cattle and others,

bandit's practical function

oppression in

it.

protest.

sometimes oppression can be turned upside

that

can they understand what

Still less

makes some

cham-

sometimes excessively poor and oppressed.

Bandit-heroes are not expected to right

the need for a

modest and unrevolutionary

protests not against the fact that peasants are

against the fact that they are

feels

incapable of helping

extor-

walk through Montelepre

merely

a

dream of how won-

times were always good. 'For seven years he fought

111

our country,' the Carpathian peasants say about Dovbush, 'and while he lived things

went well with the people'.

why myths form power and the past

who

which I

WW

who

powerful dream, and that

is

of immortality enjoyed by the great just kings of the

have not really died, but are asleep and will return again. Just so

earth's surface

justice,

a

about the great bandits which lend them superhuman

sort

Oleksa Dovbush sleeps while

hero will

It is

his

buried axe moves every year nearer to the

by the breadth of a poppyseed, and when

arise, a

it

emerges another

friend to the people, a terror to the lords,

an avenger of

injustice. Just so,

even in the

USA

a

fighter for

ot yesterday in

men fought - if necessary by terror like the of big men and corporations, there were some

small and independent

-

against the victory

believed that the bandit Jesse James had not been killed but had gone

to California.

For what would happen to people

irrevocably dead?

28

if their

champions were

HOBSBAWM, FROM

E.J.

Thus the bandit

is

helpless before the forces

he cannot understand. At most he can

hammer

to avenge injustice, to

have robbed and with

common for fear

That

warning

the bandit

and becomes

is

often destructive and savage

mainly on

insists

not simply

beyond the range of

a

nihilistic

never indiscriminate.

thus the Southern brigands

but a

For banditry

simple, stable, peasant

jails,

burning

as

a

social

movement

archives, sacking the houses

of

to the people: harsh,

so

called

it

such situations was and

is

that

is,

is

incapable even of effective

Bourbon

a

genuine bandits, not simply

by their opponents. But when

Borjes, attempted to resisted

in

succeeded in launching

Northern conquest —

partisans

Bourbon soldier, movement, they

For destruc-

helpless.

guerilla organization. Bandits certainly

political

is

that

What is useful for poor men is spared. 31 And who conquered Lucanian towns in the 1860s,

inefficient in every way. First, because

rising against the

all

community: the

fair dealing.

what they did not want

the rich and distributing

and

attempt to eliminate

futile

enemy of justice and

swept through them, opening

savage, heroic

matter

destruction, as Olbracht has correctly seen,

release,

products of luxury, the great

in killing.

a private

blood, and the sight of iniquity in ruins

would prevent the construction of a

is

- and perhaps

and moderation

his justice

a class matter, requires

make men drunk. 30 And

tion

cannot serve the

for future ages

Vengeance, which in revolutionary periods ceases to be

can

which

it

them the wealth they that

all

society

to destroy

147

of them. 29

myth, which

his

the lords, to take from

as a

new

of the

and seek

it

and sword to destroy

fire

good: for joy, for vengeance,

why

is

fight

PRIMITIVE REBELS

form them

Spanish

a

into an effective guerilla

and threw him out: 32 the very structure of the

spontaneous band precluded more ambitious operations, and though the thirty-nine Lucanian bands could continue to

some

years to

make

the country unsafe for

come, they were doomed. Second, because

debarred them from making revolt generally traditionalists in politics

—

effective.

Not because

for their first loyalty

their ideology

bandits were

was to the peas-

— but because the traditional forces whose side they took were either doomed, or because old and new oppression coalesced, leaving them isoants

lated

and

helpless.

The Bourbons might promise

the gentry to the peasants, but they never did; at

bandits commissions in the army. killed

More

to distribute the land

most they gave

likely than

become

few ex-

not they betrayed and

them when they had done with them. Giuliano

thing of political forces he did not understand,

a

of

when he

bec

ame

the play-

allowed himself to

the military leader of the (Md/ia-dominated) Sicilian Separatists.

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

148

The one obvious is

his,

which was

he massacred

assist

was very

Sicily

different

from

whose

the Portella della Ginestra in 1947.

at

champions of

effective

bandits; that

indeed

used him and threw him away

certainly closer to that of the organized peasants

May Day meeting To be

men who

about the

fact

conception of an independent

that their

had

their people, bandits

to stop being

modern Robin Hoods. They could these mass movements it is generally the

the paradox of the

is

peasant risings, for in

smallish band, rather than the vast crowd,

which prepares the ground

effective action outside the actual village,

33

for

and what better nucleus

for

such shocktroops than the existing bands of the brigands? Thus in 1905 the peasant activities of the Ukrainian village of Bykhvostova were largely initiated

by the cossack

Pyotr

Cheremok

Potapenko

Vassili

(his 'minister')

and

(the

'tsar'

their band,

of

his band), the peasant

two

men who had been

formerly expelled from the village community for crimes —

know whether

voluntarily or under pressure

other villages, these bands the sense of the later killed

by

community

could

be

at best

later re-admitted.

against the individualists

form of organization

a lasting a

we do

not

As

in

represented poor and landless peasants, and

counter-revolution of the

a village

band could not be ants. It

who

- and

and enclosers, were

kulaks."'

4

However, the

for revolutionary peas-

temporary auxiliary for otherwise unorganized

ones.

Thus

who

the romantic poets

idealized the bandit, like Schiller in The

them to be the real 'rebels'. The them more systematically because of their very destructiveness, and who believed that they could harness them 35 They might to their cause, were wasting their and the peasants' time. succeed from time to time. There is at least one case in which a primitive Robbers,

were mistaken

who

Bakuninist anarchists,

peasant

movement

in

strong bandit streak' force.

But

who

believing

in

idealized

which

became

a

anarchist doctrine was

major

really believes that,

if

with

combined with

all its

chief's genius for irregular

warfare, the 'Makhnovshchina' of the Southern Ukraine 1918—2]

have faced anything but defeat, whoever

Russian lands?

'a

temporary regional revolutionary

won

ultimate

power

w ould 111

the

36

The future lay with political organization. Bandits who do not take new ways of fighting for the peasants' cause, as many ot them do

the

to .is

individuals, generally converted in jails or conscript armies, cease to be

champions of the poor and become mere criminals or lords'

for

and merchants'

parties.

which they fought, and

retainers ot land-

is no future for them. Onlv the ideals which men and women made up songs

There for

about them, survive, and round the

fireside these

still

maintain the vision ot

E.J.

the just society, stags,

HOBSBAWM, FROM

whose champions

PRIMITIVE REBELS

and noble

are brave

149

eagles, fleet as

as

the sons of the mountains and the deep forests.

E J. Hobsbawm,

Forms of Social Movement

Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic

and 20th Centuries,

in the lgth

New York: W.W.

Norton, 1959/ 1965, pp. 1-3,

13-28.

ROBIN D.G. KELLEY, "OGS IN POSTINDUSTRIAL LOS ANGELES: EVOLUTION OF A STYLE" The

glorification

of the "gangsta" has deep roots

American culture being no exception

(cf.

historian Robin D.G. Kelley explores the in

contemporary rap music.

to

political,

many

In

social

it is

cultures, African-

the following selection,

meaning of the OG,the

Like social banditry, gangsta rap

economic, and

swinging omnipotence. But

in

Hobsbawm).

is

original gangsta,

a magical response

degradation: a fantasy of gun-blazing, dick-

also, Kelley argues,

an indigenous cultural

medium

with which rappers and their listeners navigate and critique capitalism and racism

new

(see sidebar). The culture of social banditry, however, takes a

when

of the twentieth century

twist at the end

the message of poor, urban black rage

and sold by multi-national corporations and eagerly consumed

by,

is

bought

among

others,

white, middle- class, suburban teenagers. Given gangsta rap's popular and mercial appeal, Kelley touches

upon an important question:

resistance reporting and reflecting

merely perpetuating and profiting by

LA

upon the rough

home

were part of the whole hip hop scene from

of the gangsta

New York,

classic

the rap

stepped on stage decked out in white "pimp-style"

as part

of the

in the film are "strapped" act.

The

rap,

but black

and

lyrics

origins in the South

its

during the mid-1970s. In Charlie Ahearn's

guns

ghetto or

it?

might be the self-proclaimed

guns galore. Others

this culture of

injustice of the

Angelenos didn't put the gangsta into hip hop. Gangsta

about the early hip hop scene in

is

com-

1982 film

style

Bronx

Wild Style

duo Double Trouble

suits,

(armed)

matching

as well,

hats,

waving

scene seems so contemporary, and yet

it

and real

was

shot over a decade before the media paid attention to such rap songs

Onyx's "Throw Ya (inns

in

the Air."

But to find the roots of gangsta and outright irreverence, Lightin'

Rod

(akajalal

we need

Undin of the

as

1

rap's violent

to

images, explicit language,

go back even

Last Poets)

further.

performed

Back before

toasts (narrative

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

150

"Squeeze the Trigger,"

poetry from the black oral tradition) over

Ice-T

Squeeze the

a

trigger

Rampage on

my crews

stage,

in

rage

my

2 gauge

1

Maniac, I'm a rhyme brainiac,

on

livin'

the edge of a razor

Remember that

even before Screamin'

Hawkins recorded

me

that pussy, let

Claus." In other words, ain't

blues, to

none bigger

About to unload the ammo,

baaadman

the

and

we want

to discover the roots

go back to the

of the

tales

century,

to

to the age-old tradition

nineteenth

late

of "signifying"

if

of the "gangsta" aesthetic

been

a central,

component

of black expressive vernacular culture, which

say I'm violent, they should

TV

violence and sex have been

say I'm brutal, they should

PD You made me, now me

get in your drawers /

we need

in hip hop. Irreverence has

They

me

"E"

squeeze the trigger

watch their

a

number of profane and violent songs out of the black vernacular, including "The Murder Ballad" and "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor." Morton's lyrics rival the

I'm gonna make you think you fuckin' with Santa

lobster and steak

mino's a riot gun, there

Morton performing

recorded Jelly Roll

bitch, give

quake

on bread and water or

can't live

They

comedy

sexual

explicitly

his

worst of today's gangsta rappers: "Come here you sweet

rollm' thick as a shake, I'm

rockin' hard as a

My

narrative, "Stagger Lee", in 1958;

Lomax

posse, found the Uzi

but missed the

I

classic

"rap" "Alligator Wine." Indeed, in 1938 folklorist Alan

Searched

Cold

black baaadman

before Lloyd Price recorded the

Jay

a

music on

live

popular album called Hustlers' Convention in 1973;

as

is

why

important to toasting and

signifying as playfulness with language.

Many

of these

check their

I

rap about the streets gave

your

narratives are about power.

kids rave

trickster

Both the baaadman and

me

whom justice

somebody must ers the pleasures

is

a rare

imaginary upside-down world where

thing), creates an

the oppressed are the powerful, and Murder; intrigue,

the

a challenge to virtually all authority

(which makes sense to people for

that the city

life

embody

it

reveals to listen-

And

and price of reckless abandon.

in

bleed

Miami Vice

is

small time, LA's the big

world where male public powerlessness

turned inward on

league

From the

a

rollin'

60s to the nickerson

"G"

stories

women

is

what

often

and children, misogyny and

of sexual conflict are very old examples ot the

"price" of being baaad.

Pueblos, grape street, this

is

2

I

Nevertheless, while gangsta rap's roots are very old.

see

The

jungle, the 30s, the

Life in

LA

ain't

VNG

no cup of tea

it

does have an identifiable

respects

style

of its own, and

particular product of the mid-1980s. The

it is a

inspiration for the specific style Squeeze the

trigger

rap seems to have

come from

who made Smoke Cops kill

hate

kids, kids

hate cops, cops

rapper kids with warnin' shots

What crime and what What is justice? think is

I

is

I

not?

forgot

KRS

Productions,

in sonic

1

Sonic

we now

call

Kill,

and the Bronx-based

and Scott La Rock of Boogie

who

released Criminal Minded.

both albums appeared

gangsta

Philadelphia's Schooly P.

in 1987. these rappers

Down

Although had been

ROBIN

D.G. KELLEY,

"OGS

developing an East Coast gangsta

who

Ice-T

N DUSTRI AL LA

IN POSTI

some

style for

time.

with the technopop wave asso-

started out

Radio and Uncle Jam's Army (recording single, "The Coldest Rap", in 198 1), moved

We

when he

gangsta rap to the West Coast the

Mornin'"

recorded "6 in

in 1986. Less than a year later,

Ice-T was not only the

belong

drag

West Coast gangsta-style

first

OG

or drawn from things he had witnessed or heard on

the street.

A

native of

New Jersey who moved

"T"

Marrow) joined

Angeles

as a child,

while

Crenshaw High School and began

at

Crenshaw, attended cally

no job

a

(Tracy

a

to Los

While

a

eventually graduated from

become

armed

services.

rapper and starred in

a

a

called Breaking and Entering,

which

captured the West Coast break dance scene.

When

called

though Ice-T's and

boasts

tales

of the film

a fictionalized version

Ice-T also made an appearance. Al-

Breakin',

early

much

as

fact as fiction. In

"Squeeze the Trigger" he leads off with

a brief autobio-

graphical, composite sketch of his gangsta background, insisting

all

along that he

callous, brutal society.

is

merely

product of

a

Even before Rhyme Pays

ing in city

hit

record

the

its

stores

explicit

an underground hip hop community was form-

Compton,

a

predominantly black and Latino

south of Los Angeles, that would play

in the early history

pants

a

4

(though banned on the radio because of lyrics),

of gangsta

was Eric Wright -

better

rap.

a pivotal role

Among

known

as

the partici-

Eazy E -

subsequently launched an independent label

Ruthless Records.

Dre and

Yella,

He

both of

city streets

rich politicians

soak their feet

No

one had

a choice

in

the race

we

were placed

A

brother

in

Queens was beaten

Murdered cold

godamn Just

in

the streets, a

disgrace

because of

his race, his

life

went

to waste

And no one went

to

jail

when

the

court heard the case Justice

How I

or corruption? interlaced

can you swallow

this?

can't stand the taste

ranged from humorous

lyrics

of crime and violence to outright mis-

ogyny, they were clearly

know

the pools at their ten million buck

It's all

Hollywood made

all

retreats

junior college, and, with practi-

prospects, turned to the

documentary film

we

People hate people for color of face

After four years in the service, he pursued his high

school dream to

lies

Waitin' to die with nothin' to eat

gang

very short

and the

and chased

He

career as a criminal.

thick

who's wrong

were occasionally semi-autobiograph-

narratives

is

strong

But no matter the

In

whose

is

Homeless sleep on the

rapper on wax, but he was himself an experienced

ical

1

buy weapons to keep us strong

The controversy

he released

debut album, Rhyme Pays?

his

15

."

.

Reagan sends guns where they don't

ciated with his first

.

eventually teamed

whom

had

left

who

known

is

up with Dr.

the rap group

Squeeze the

trigger

From "Squeeze the Pays, Sire Records,

Trigger,"

1987

Rhyme

152

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

World

Class

Wreckin Cru, and

Ice

Cube,

who

was formerly

a

member

of a

group called The CIA. Together they formed Niggas With Attitude and

moved duced Posse,

gangsta rap to another level.

Eazy

Between 1987 and

1988, Ruthless pro-

of records, beginning with their twelve-inch

a string

Duz

album, Eazy

E's solo

NWA and the NWA on

and the album which put

It,

the map, Straight Outta Compton. 5 Dr. Dre's brilliance as a producer

drum

introduction of hard, menacing beats, sparse

with slower tempos - and Ice Cube's genius

on

the most compelling groups

A

distinctive

West Coast

the hip

style

as a lyricist,

hop scene

of gangsta

6

and heavy

made

his

bass

NWA one of

in years.

known

rap,

over heavy funk samples

tive storytelling laid

tracks,

-

for

from the

its

rich descrip-

of George

likes

Clinton and the whole Parliament-Funkadelic family, Sly Stone, Rick

Ohio

White Band, Cameo, Zapp and, of course, the Godfather himself James Brown - evolved and proliferated rapidly soon after the appearance of Ice-T and NWA. The frequent use of ParliamentFunkadelic samples led one critic to dub the music "G-Funk (gangsta 7 attitude over P-Funk beats)." Within three years, dozens of Los Angelesbased groups came onto the scene, many produced by either Eazy E's

James,

Players, Average

Ruthless Records, Ice-T and Afrika Islam's

Rhyme

Syndicate Productions,

post-NWA project, Street Knowledge Productions, or Dr. Die's Deathrow Records. The list of West Coast gangsta rappers includes Above the Law, Mob Style, Compton's Most Wanted, King Tee, The Rhyme Syndicate, Snoop Doggy Dogg, (Lady of) Rage, Poison Clan, Capital PunIce Cube's

ishment Organization (CPO), the predominantly Samoan Boo-Yaa Tribe, the

DOC, DJ

Quick, AMG, Hi-C,

Low

South Central Cartel, Compton Cartel, 2nd

II

(Minority Alliance

of Anti-Discrimination)

Chicano rappers

Kid

like

Frost

drew both

has generated

praise

and

Circle,

ire

from

larger hip

rap

is

and

hop community, gangsta

much of this

not. First,

the hip

hop world

debate, especially in the

media, has only disseminated misinformation. Thus,

what gangsta

Hill,

their colleagues. Indeed, gangsta rap

more debate both within and without

than any other genre. 8 Unfortunately,

clarify

Cypress

and Proper Dos.

Although they shared much with the rappers

Nu Niggaz on the Block. None,WC and the MAAD

Profile,

it

is

important to

gangsta rappers have never merely cel-

ebrated gang violence, nor have they taken a partisan position in favor of

one gang over another. Gang bangin' (gang even been

a central

intended to be

theme

literal.

in the music.

participation)

Many

itselt

of the violent

has never

lyrics are not

Rather, they are boasting raps in which the imagery

of gang bangin' is used metaphorically microphone - an element common to

to challenge competitors all

hard-core hip hop.

on the

The mic

ROBIN

becomes

a

D.G. KELLEY,

"OGS

POSTINDUSTRIAL LA

."

153

Tech-o or AK-47, imagined drive-bys occur from the

stage,

IN

.

.

examples are Ice Cubes

become hollow-point humorous song that describes sampling other artists and producers as outright armed robbery, and Ice-T's "Pulse of the flowing lyrics

shells. Classic

"Jackin' for Beats," a

Rhyme"

"Grand Larceny" (which brags about stealing a show), Capital Punishment Organization's aptly titled warning to other perpetrating rappers,

or

NWA's "Real

"Homicide,"

Ice Cube's,

"Now

Niggaz", Dr. Dre's "Lyrical Gangbang,"

Gotta Wet'cha," Compton's Most Wanted's "Wanted"

I

and "Straight Check

N 'Em." Sometimes, as in the case of Ice-T's "I'm Your

Pusher," an antidrug song that boasts of pushing "dope beats and lyrics/no

beepers needed," gangsta rap lyrics have been misinterpreted by journalists

and

show

talk

This

is

and violence. 9

hosts as advocating criminality

not to say that

all

descriptions of violence are simply metaphors.

Exaggerated and invented boasts of criminal regarded

Rhyme on

as

acts

should sometimes be

part of a larger set of signifying practices. Performances like

Syndicate's

"My Word

Is

Bond"

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted

Ice Cube's

to a certain extent, unbelievable.

supposed to be humorous and,

are

Growing out of a much older

set

of culover

tural practices, these masculinist narratives are essentially verbal duels

who

the "baddest motherfucker around."

is

The

or J.D.'s storytelling between songs

They

are not

meant

as literal

descriptions of violence and aggression, but connote the playful use of lan-

guage

itself.

So when

J.D. boasts

about

how

he used to "jack them

motherfuckers for them Nissan trucks," the story se

way

than about the

When

is

less

about stealing per

his bodaciousness.

10

gangsta rappers do write lyrics intended to convey

work

social realism, their racist institutions first

which he describes

in

person.

and

Whether

social practices,

but told more often than not in the

-

that

of the "hood" - the important thing to remember it is

sense of

gangsta rappers step into the character of

banger, hustler, or ordinary working person

into character;

a

loosely resembles a sort of street ethnography of

gang

a

is,

products and residents

is

that they are stepping

for descriptive purposes rather than advocacy. In

some

ways, these descriptive narratives, under the guise of objective "street journalism," are

no

less

polemical (hence

slave narratives in defense

he explained, "We

how we It

do

see

it,

would be

call

than nineteenth-century

of abolition. When Ice Cube was

ourselves

underground

nothing more, nothing

still

street reporters.

with

We

NWA

just tell

not, in turn, magnify

what they describe - but

is

is

it

less.""

naive to claim that descriptive lyrics, as an echo of the

claiming that the purpose of rap rappers' reality

political)

to say so

to advocate violence.

is

a far

And,

c

ity,

cry from

ot course,

hardly "objective" in the sense of being detac hed; then

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

154

standpoint

of the ghetto dweller, the criminal, the victim of police

that

is

repression, the teenage father, the crack slinger, the

female dominator.

Much

like the

gang banger, and the

old "baaadman" narratives that have played

an important role in black vernacular folklore, the characters they

create, at

glance, appear to be apolitical individuals only out for themselves;

first

MelvinVan

like the protagonist in

Peebles's cinematic classic, Sweet Sweet-

Baaadass Song, they are reluctant to trust anyone.

back's

the influences of urban toasts and

during the

late

"pimp

1960s and early 1970s. In

almost identical, and on occasion rap

by

oral poetry

and

narratives,"

many

artists

It is

hard not to miss

which became popular

instances the characters are

pay tribute to black vernacular

"sampling" these early pimp narratives. 12

lyrically

For other consumers of gangsta

rap,

such

middle-class white males,

as

the genre unintentionally serves the same role as blaxploitation films of the

1970s or, for that matter, gangster films of any generation.

whom

for

fantasy,

the "ghetto"

a place

is

It

attracts listeners

of adventure, unbridled violence, erotic

and/ or an imaginary alternative to suburban boredom. White music

NWA

because they "dealt in evil as fantasy: John Leland once praised killing cops, smoking hos, filling quiet nights with a flurry of senseless critic

buckshot." This kind of voyeurism partly explains

lowing and soon

as it

common

why

was

released.

with

a

As one

members have even admitted starring

Tom

Stallone and Kurt Russell.

While I'm and

fully

put

it,

"in

reality,

should

it

folas

NWA have more in

PBS documentary on

be otherwise? After

some of their

hood" but

white

of the charts

all,

the

NWA

recent songs were not rep-

inspired by popular films like

Selleck and Tango and Cash starring Sylvester

13

aware that some rappers are merely "studio gangstas

that the primary

rhymes" for our

why

that

resentations of reality "in the

Man

critic

Charles Bronson movie than a

plight of the inner-cities." And

Innocent

NWA's huge

their album, Efifyzaggin, shot to the top

purpose of

this

listening pleasure,

Coast gangsta rap originated

in,

music

to

is

we cannot

produce "funky dope

ignore the tact that West

and continues

to maintain ties to. the

streets

of LA's black working-class communities. The generation

of age

in the 1980s

was the product of devastating

urban economy that date back

at least to

,"

that

came

structural changes in the

the late 1960s. While the city

as a

whole experienced unprecedented growth, the communities of Watts and

Compton

faced increased economic displacement, factory closures, and an

unprecedented deepening of poverty. The uneven development postindustrial

space

and

economy meant an expansion of high-tech

Lockheed,

and

manufacturing firms, many

the

disappearance

of

ot

1

A.'s

firms like Aero-

rubber

of which were located in or near

and

Compton

steel

and

ROBIN

D.G. KELLEY,

"OGS

IN

POSTINDUSTRIAL LA

.

.

155

."

Watts. Deindustrialization, in other words, led to the establishment of high-

tech firms in

less

populated regions

and Orange County.

like Silicon Valley

Developers and local governments helped the suburbanization process while simultaneously cutting back expenditures for parks, recreation, and

Thus

affordable housing in inner-city communities.

conditions in Watts deteriorated

on

A

1965.

is

in

economic

than in any other

a greater scale

community, and by some estimates Watts

since 1980

worse shape

now

LA

than in

1982 report from the California Legislature revealed that South

unemployment while purchasing power dropped by one-third. The median income for South Central LA's residents was a paltry $5,900-$2,500 below the median Central neighborhoods experienced a 50 percent rise in

income

for the black population a

Youth were the hardest ployment

rate

hit.

few years

For

all

of Los Angeles County, the unem-

of black youth remained

with concentrated poverty the

rate

earlier.

at

about 45 percent, but in areas

was even higher. As the composition of

LA's urban poor becomes increasingly younger, programs for inner-city

youth are being wiped out

at

an alarming

rate.

Both the Neighborhood

Youth Corps and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act

(CETA) have been

dismantled, and the Jobs Corps and Los Angeles

Summer Job Program

have been cut back substantially. 14

Thus, on the eve of crack cocaine's

youth

in

arrival

on the urban

landscape, the

employment opportunities and growing immiseration of black

decline in

LA

led to a substantial rise in property crimes

niles

and young

song

titled

adults.

Even

committed by juve-

NWA recalls the precrack

"The Dayz of Wayback,"

in

illicit

economy

in a

which Dr. Dre and M.C. Ren wax

nostalgic about the early to mid-1980s,

when

criminal activity consisted

primarily of small-time muggings and robberies. 15 Because of its unusually

high crime

rate,

LA

had by

that time gained the

dubious distinction of

having the largest urban prison population in the country. When the crack

economy made

presence

its

intensified as various gangs

felt in

inner-city black communities, violence

and groups of peddlers battled

for control over

markets. In spite of the violence and financial vulnerability that

with peddling crack, for

many

black youngsters

it

went along

was the most viable

economic option. 16 While the have put

rise in

money

crime and the ascendance of the crack economy might

into

some

people's pockets, for the majority

greater police repression. Watts,

North Long Beach, and

Compton, Northwest

were turned into war zones during the midcopters,

complex

Pasadena,

several other black working-class

electronic

surveillance, even

to late

small

it C

meant 'arson.

communities

1980s. Police heli-

tanks

armed with

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

156

became

battering ranis

During

part of this increasingly militarized urban landscape.

same period, housing

this

such

projects,

Imperial Courts, were

as

renovated along the lines of minimum security prisons and equipped with fortified fencing

now

LAPD

and an

substation. Imperial

Court

residents

were

required to carry identity cards and visitors were routinely searched.

As popular media coverage of the inner

city associated

drugs and violence

with black youth, young African-Americans by virtue of being residents in

LA

South Central

some

cases, feared

and Compton were subject by older

to police harassment and, in

17

residents.

All of these problems generated penetrating critiques

M.C. Ren,

for example,

who

blamed "the people

by gangsta

rappers.

are holding the dollars in

the city" for the expansion of gang violence and crime, arguing that

would not need

black youth had decent jobs, they

economy. "It's

illicit

people.

no good

defines as

and each time,

after job

down?" 18 Ice-T blames much more than alienating wage

reason, you're turned

which he

employ black

their fault simply because they refused to

How would you feel if you went for job

if

to participate in the

for

capitalism entirely, labor; the market-

place itself as well as a variety of social institutions are intended to exercise

you must have an

social control over African- Americans. "Capitalism says

upper

class, a

middle

antee a lower

class,

class, is to

and

keep

lower

a

.

.

.

Now the

uneducated and

y'all

According to Ice-T the ghetto

class

is,

as

only way to guar-

high

title

song "Escape from the Killing

Gangsta rappers construct

how

social

and economic

a variety

and

between what

In gangsta rap there in

which

rappers I

LA

narratives

affect

may

-

is

Cube

rooted in

is

social scientists call "structure"

almost always

in particular

paraphrase Marx,

-

a relationship

illustrate

black

long

tradi-

a

young urban black men make

New York:

own

Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture,

Free Press, 1994, pp. 187-94.

a

com-

and "agency."

between the conditions

are especially brilliant at

but not under circumstances of their

Robin D.G.

for the

the use of "I" to signify both personal

these characters live and the decisions they make. Ice

this

young

collective experiences also enables gangsta rappers to navigate

plicated course

is

uses the

metaphor

of first-person narratives to

men. Although the use of first-person 21

as a

which

20

realities in late capitalist

tion of black aesthetic practices,

Nowhere

Fields,"

of a recent film about the conflict in Cambodia

warlike conditions in today's ghettos.

19

worst, the product of deliberately

at

oppressive policies, at best, the result of racist neglect. clearer than in his

as possible."

Some

gangsta

showing how,

their

own

it

history

choosing.

Politics,

and

the Black

Working Class,

STUART COSGROVE, "THE ZOOT-SUIT

157

..."

STUART COSGROVE, THE ZOOT-SUIT AND STYLE WARFARE Style

the most intimate of media.

is

The

clothes you wear,

how you

speak, and

even the way you walk telegraph your individual identity and group allegiance.

In

sixteenth-century England sumptuary laws restricted what each class could and

could not wear, keeping the visual lines of power clearly demarcated. "Silke of purple color are forbidden

and Knights of the Garter

garments, save those of Earls and above that rank

in in

their purple mantles"

1597 read. Working class Irish-American youth, 1

one such proclamation of

known

as

G'hals, signified their presence in early nineteenth-century

costume. The B'hoy wore

his front locks

New York

with garish

grown long and greased

topped with a shiny black broad-brimmed hat pushed

wore an open

Bowery B'hoys and

far back.

into a

roll,

Below the neck he

collared shirt, colorful satin vest and a black frock coat extending

low to the knee. The G'hal dressed "high" according to one observer

at the time,

wearing dress and shawl that contrasted "bright yellow with a brighter red, and a green with a dashing purple." 2

War, young Chicanos class invisibility

in

more recent

In

Second World

times, during the

Los Angeles defied war-time sobriety and their second-

by dressing

in

elaborate "Zoot-suits," an outlandish sartorial style

of "a killer-diller coat with a drapeshape, reat-pleats and shoulders padded lunatic's cell." Implicitly

lenge, white

like

a

understanding that such dress symbolized a status chal-

serviceman on leave

in

LA went on

a rampage, beating

stripping Zoot-suiters. In the following section the historian Stuart

up and

Cosgrove

describes these "zoot-suit riots" and analyzes this open skirmish of a larger cultural war.

The

What about and

silent

Noise of

Silent

Clowns

Sinister those fellows waiting

still

and

silent there

on the platform,

their very silence; harsh as a cry

three boys,

coming now along

swinging shoulders

of terror

in their quietness?

the platform,

in their well-pressed,

tall

and

What about

slender,

too-hot-for-summer

though

I'd

never seen their

like before:

these

suits, their collars

the crowns of their heads with a severe formality above their as

still

walking with

high and tight about their necks, their identical hats of black cheap

was

so

they clash with the crowd in their very immobility, standing noisy in

felt set

conked

upon

hair?

It

walking slowly, their shoulders

swaying, their legs swinging from their hips in trousers that ballooned upward

from

cuffs fitting

snug about their ankles; their coats long and hip-tight with

shoulders far too broad to be those of natural western men. These fellows whose

bodies seemed

— what had one of my

teachers said of

me? - "You're

like

one

of

I

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

58

those African sculptures, distorted in the interest of design." Well, what design

and whose? 3

Ralph

The

zoot-suit

statement,

it is

is

Man

more than an exaggerated costume, more than a sartorial complex and contradictory history. When the

the bearer of a

nameless narrator of Ellison's

Man

Invisible

confronted the subversive sight

of three young and extravagantly dressed blacks, cination not of

parading the

Ellison, Invisible

city's secret

uncomfortable',

4

was one of fas-

his reaction

These youths were not simply grotesque dandies

fear.

underworld, they were 'the stewards of something

a spectacular

reminder that the

The

contain their energy and difference.

social order

zoot-suit was

had

failed to

more than

the

drape-shape of 1940s fashion, more than a colourful stage-prop hanging

from the shoulders of Cab Calloway,

emblem of

ways, an

ethnicity

and

was, in the most direct and obvious

it

way of

a

negotiating an identity

7 .

The

zoot-suit was a refusal: a subcultural gesture that refused to concede to the

manners of subservience. By the

late 1930s, the

circulation within urban jazz culture.

formed

in an extravagant style,

term

'zoot'

was in

common

Zoot meant something worn or

and since many young blacks wore

persuits

with outrageously padded shoulders and trousers that were fiercely tapered at

the ankles, the term zoot-suit passed into everyday usage. In the sub-

world of Harlem's

cultural

the

nightlife,

language

succinctly described the zoot-suit's unmistakable style:

with

a drapeshape, reat-pleats

The

and shoulders padded

killer-diller coat

like a lunatic's cell".

study of the relationship between fashion and social action

notoriously underdeveloped, but there riots that

found

of rhyming slang 'a

is

every indication that the zoot-suit

erupted in the United States in the

effect

on

a

is

summer of

1943 had a pro-

whole generation of socially disadvantaged youths.

was

It

young zoot-suiter that the Chicano union activist Cesar Chavez first came into contact with community politics, and it was through the experiences of participating in zoot-suit riots in Harlem that during

his

period

as a

young pimp 'Detroit Red' began a political education that transformed him into the Black radical leader Malcolm X. Although the zoot-suit the

occupies an almost mythical place within the history ofjazz music,

and

political

tainty

its

social

importance has been virtually ignored. There can be no

about when, where or

what

is

coat'

was the uniform of young

certain

is

that

during

cer-

why the zoot-suit came into existence, but the summer months of 1943 'the killer-diller rioters

and the symbol of

a

moral panic

about juvenile delinquency that was to intensify in the post-war period

At the height of the Los Angeles

riots

of June 1943. the NewYork Times

STUART COSGROVE,"THE ZOOT-SUIT

159

which claimed without reservation that the first been purchased by a black bus worker, Clyde Duncan, from a

carried a front page article zoot-suit had tailor's

shop in Gainesville, Georgia. 5 Allegedly, Duncan had been inspired

by the film Gone with

the

Wind and had

set

out to look

This explanation clearly found favour throughout the press

forwarded countless others.

Some

was an invention of Harlem night

Rhett Butler. national

reports claimed that the zoot-suit

others suggested

life,

like

USA. The

culture and the exhibitionist stage costumes of the

grew out of jazz

it

band

leaders,

and some

argued that the zoot-suit was derived from military uniforms and imported

from

Britain.

The

alternative

and independent

press, particularly Crisis

and

Negro Quarterly, more convincingly argued that the zoot-suit was the 6 product of a particular social context. They emphasized the importance of

Mexican-American youths, or

pachucos, in the

emergence of zoot-suit

and, in tentative ways, tried to relate their appearance

on the

style

streets to the

concept of pachuquismo. In his pioneering book, The Labyrinth of Solitude, the social

commentator Octavio Paz throws imaginative

and indirectly

establishes a

Mexican poet and

light

on pachuco

style

framework within which the zoot-suit can be

understood. Paz's study of the Mexican national consciousness examines the changes brought about by the

movement of labor, particularly

the gen-

who migrated northwards to the USA. This new economic and social patterns it implies, has,

of Mexicans

erations

movement, and the

according to Paz, forced young Mexican-Americans into an ambivalent

experience between two cultures.

What distinguishes them, think, is their furtive, restless air: they act like persons who are wearing disguises, who are afraid of a stranger's look because it could I

strip

them and

spirit,

leave

them

stark

has given birth to a type

the most part of Mexican origin,

.

as

.

are instinctive rebels,

them more than once. But

.

This spiritual condition or lack of

who form

gangs in southern

as

cities;

they can be

well as by the clothing they affect.

and North American racism has vented the pachucos

a

the pachuco.The pachucos are youths, for

by their language and behavior

identified

They

naked

known

do not attempt

its

wrath on

to vindicate their race or

the nationality of their forebears. Their attitude reveals an obstinate, almost fanatical will-to-be,

nation

Pachuco

.

.

.

not to be

youth

but

this will affirms

like those

embodied

all

nothing specific except their determi-

around them. 7

the

characteristics

of second

generation

working-class immigrants. In the most obvious ways they had been stripped

of their customs,

beliefs

and language. The pachucos w ere

eration within a disadvantaged sector of

a

disinherited gen-

North American

society;

and

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

160

predictably their experiences in education, welfare and

them from

ated

the

aspirations

assumptions of the society in which they

lived.

The

employment

alien-

and the dominant

of their parents

pachuco subculture was

defined not only by ostentatious fashion, but by petty crime, delinquency

and drug-taking. Rather than disguise ity to

their alienation or efface their hostil-

the dominant society, the pachucos adopted an arrogant posture. They

became the means by which

flaunted their difference, and the zoot-suit difference was announced.

purpose was

'to

Those 'impassive and

sinister

that

clowns' whose

8 cause terror instead of laughter', invited the kind of atten-

tion that led to both prestige and persecution. For Octavio Paz the pachuco\

appropriation of the zoot-suit was an admission of the ambivalent place he

occupied.

'It is

world

is

heroes.'

9

The

more

vital relationship

with

he can become one of

zoot-suit riots of 1943 encapsulated this paradox.

They emerged out of the a

establish a

antagonizing. As a victim he can occupy a place in the

that previously ignored him; as a delinquent,

wicked

its

way he can

the only

the society he

dialectics

of delinquency and persecution, during

period in which American society was undergoing profound structural

change.

The major ment

in the

social

change brought about by the United

war was the recruitment

to the

armed

million civilians and the entrance of over five million

States' involve-

forces

of over four

women

into the war-

time labour force. The rapid increase in military recruitment and the radical shift in

the composition of the labour force led in turn to changes in family

particularly the erosion of parental control

life,

scale

and prolonged separation of millions of

unprecedented increase in the the

summer of

own

1943

it

rate

and authority. The families

precipitated an

of juvenile crime and delinquency. By

was commonplace for teenagers to be

initiatives whilst their parents

involved in war work.

The

large

were either on

increase

in

night

left to their

active military service or

work compounded the it became

problem. With their parents or guardians working unsocial hours, possible for

many more young people

urban centres or simply on the

to gather late into the night at major

street corners.

The rate of social mobility intensified during the period ot the zoot-suit riots. With over 15 million civilians and 12 million military personnel on the move throughout the country, there was a corresponding increase in vagrancy. Petty crimes became more difficult to detect and control; itinerants became increasingly common, and social transience put unforeseen pressure on housing and welfare. The new patterns of social mobility also led to congestion in military

and

industrial areas. Significantly,

overcrowded military towns along the

Pacific

coast

and the

it

was the

industrial

STUART COSGROVE, "THE ZOOT-SUIT

towns of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles violent outbreaks of zoot-suit rioting.

..."

16

most

that witnessed the

10

from the dictionary of new sociology

'Delinquency' emerged

1

to

become an everyday term, as wartime statistics revealed these new patterns of adolescent behaviour. The pachucos of the Los Angeles area were particularly vulnerable to the effects of war. Being neither Mexican nor American,

whom

the pachucos, like the black youths with

simply did not

style,

own

In their

fit.

they shared the zoot-suit

terms they were '24-hour orphans',

having rejected the ideologies of their migrant parents. As

war

the

furthered the dislocation of family relationships, the pachucos gravitated

away from the home streets

open

to the only place

and bars of the towns and

to a

life

where But

if

own

style

of dress, their

was

their status

visible,

the

the pachucos laid themselves

of delinquency and detention, they

with their

identity,

cities.

also asserted their distinct

own way

of life and

a

shared set

of experiences.

The Zoot-Suit

Riots: Liberty, Disorder

and the Forbidden The

zoot-suit riots sharply revealed a polarization

between two youth

groups within wartime society: the gangs of predominantly black and

Mexican youths who were the predominantly white

at

the forefront of the zoot-suit subculture, and

American servicemen stationed along the

Pacific

coast.

The

issue

seems to have been patriotism and attitudes to the war. With the

had

riots invariably

racial

and

social resonances

entry of the United States into the war in to

come

March

a direct effect

the

War Production

1942, the

a

The

Esquire

magazine

all

first

rationing act

clothing containing

26 percent cut-back in the use of fabrics,

War Production Board drew up what

Board's

on the manufacture of suits and

wool. In an attempt to institute

ture of

1941, the nation had

to terms with the restrictions of rationing and the prospects of

conscription. In

had

December

but the primary

regulations for the wartime manufac-

called, 'streamlined suits

by Uncle Sam'."

regulations effectively forbade the manufacture of zoot-suits and

most

legitimate tailoring companies ceased to manufacture or advertise any suits that

fell

demand

outside the

War Production

Board's guidelines. However, the

for zoot-suits did not decline

based in Los Angeles and ments. Thus

immediately

the

New York

polarization

visible: the

chino

and

between shirt

a

network of bootleg

tailors

continued to manufacture the garservicemen

and

pachucos

was

and battledress were evidently uni-

forms of patriotism, whereas wearing

a

zoot-suit was a deliberate and

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

162

way of

public

moral and it

flouting the regulations of rationing.

social scandal in the eyes

The

zoot-suit was a

of the authorities, not simply because

was associated with petty crime and violence, but because

snubbed the laws of rationing. In the

fragile

it

openly

harmony of wartime

society,

the zoot-suiters were, according to Octavio Paz,

'a

symbol of love and

joy or of horror and loathing, an embodiment of liberty, of disorder, of the forbidden'. 12

The

zoot-suit riots,

which were

initially

confined to Los Angeles, began

few days of June 1943. During the first weekend of the month, over 60 zoot-suiters were arrested and charged at Los Angeles county jail,

in the

first

and well publicized

after violent

fights

between servicemen on shore

leave

and gangs of Mexican-American youths. In order to prevent further outbreaks of fighting, the police patrolled the eastern sections of the

rumours spread from the military bases

that

servicemen were intending

vigilante groups. The Washington Posfs report of the incidents,

form

morning of Wednesday 9 June 1943, of view of the servicemen.

clearly

fists

campaign

men

passed the

in force

central

jail,

efforts to halt

on Friday

where

word

quietly

among

weighted ropes,

belts

the

themselves and opened their

jammed

the sidewalks and police

made no

auto loads of servicemen openly cruising in search of zoot-suiters,

from bar rooms, pool

halls

became the major means by which over the pachucos.

It

ambush

zoot-suiters, strip

helpless

in

o*f

the cells after being snatched

and theaters 'and stripped of their

During the ensuing weeks of rioting, the

drunken

to

the

night.

spectators

the youths streamed gladly into the sanctity

status

tire irons,

employed by overwhelming numbers of the youthful hoodlums,

uniformed

At

on

saw the events from the point

Disgusted with being robbed and beaten with

and

city, as

attire.

ritualistic stripping

13

of zoot-suiters

the servicemen re-established their

became commonplace for gangs of Marines to them down to their underwear and leave them

the streets. In one particularly vicious incident,

sailors

rampaged through

a

cinema

after discovering

a

gang of

two zoot-

They dragged the pachucos onto the stage as the film was being screened, stripped them in front of the audience and as a final insult, urinated on the suits. The press coverage of these incidents ranged from the careful and cautionary liberalism of the Los Angeles Times to the more hysterical hatemongering of William Randolph Hearst's west coast papers. Although the suiters.

practice of stripping

prompted by the

and publicly humiliating the zoot-suiters was not

press, several reports did little to

discourage the attacks:

STUART COSGROVE, "THE ZOOT-SUIT

.

.

.

earlier in the

Searching parties of soldiers,

them out

men

.

.

The

into the

open

like bird

make good

Trim the 'Argentine Ducktail'

A

sailor

.

.

.

them up or burn them. 14

the worst incidents of rioting and

was slashed and disfigured by

a

pachuco gang; a

tried to question a car load

young Mexican was stabbed

trainload of sailors

their boasts

haircut that goes with the screwy costume.

down when he

policeman was run

every cop'

dogs flushing quail. Procedure was standard:

The second week of June witnessed public disorder.

who

zooters,

'kill

and Marines hunted them out and drove

sailors

grab a zooter. Take off his pants and frock coat and tear

suiters; a

.

day had spread boasts that they were organized to

they could find, showed no inclination to try to

63

I

where they had been

zoot-suits smoldered in the ashes of street bonfires

tossed by grimly methodical tank forces of service

..."

were stoned by pachucos

of zoot-

party by drunken Marines; a

at a

as their train

approached Long

Beach; streetfights broke out daily in San Bernardino; over 400 vigilantes toured the uals

streets

from both

of San Diego looking for zoot-suiters, and many individ-

factions

As the zoot-suit

were

arrested.

riots spread

throughout California to

new dimension began Los Angeles. On a day when 125 Arizona, a

and armed police had

in Watts

attacks

was that the

assailants

and threatening to

carrying, girls

were

of the

were

girls.

woman

The

mother, Betty

press related the incident to

zoot-suiter

who

use, a brass knuckleduster.

activities

was charged with

The

revelation that

of two female gangs: the Slick Chicks and the Black latter

gang took

its

name from

dress, black zoot-suit jackets, short black skirts .

a local

incident from hundreds of comparable

active within pachuco subculture led to consistent press coverage

Widows. 15 The

.

riots in

Boyle Heights, the Los

to quell riots in

this

the arrest of Amelia Venegas, a

Texas and

of the

zoot-suited youths clashed with Marines

Angeles press concentrated on a razor attack on

Morgan. What distinguished

cities in

to influence press coverage

.The Black Widows

society: playing

no

members'

the

clearly existed outside the orthodoxies

part in the industrial

war

distinctive

and black fish-net stockings

effort,

of war-time

and openly challenging

conventionl notions of feminine beauty and sexuality.

Towards the end of the second week of June, the

were dying out. Sporadic incidents broke out Detroit,

New York

in a station for

costumes; but these, like the residual events

The

proffered in

riots in

other

Los Angeles

cities, particularly

and Philadelphia, where two members of Gene Krupa's

dance band were beaten up

seriously.

in

authorities

failed

to

two separate incidents

read

wearing the band's zoot-suit

in

the

Los Angeles, were not taken inarticulate

in California: in

one

a

warning

signs

zoot-suitcr was

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

164

arrested for throwing gasoline flares at a theatre;

was arrested for carrying

become

a

and in the second another

tomahawk. The zoot-suit

riots

had

public and spectacular enactment of social disaffection.

The

a

silver

authorities in Detroit chose to dismiss a zoot-suit riot at the city's

High School

as

Within three weeks Detroit was 17

history.

The United

violent events

Cooley

an adolescent imitation of the Los Angeles disturbances. 16

was

States

on the home

in the midst still

of the worst race

riot in

its

involved in the war abroad

when

new

era in

front signalled the beginnings of a

racial politics.

The Mystery of the The

pachuco

is

deny.

The

Monkey

the prey of society, but instead of hiding he adorns himself to

attract the hunter's attention. his salvation

Signifying

Persecution redeems

him and

breaks his solitude:

depends on him becoming part of the very society he appears

zoot-suit was associated with a multiplicity of different

ditions.

It

traits

was simultaneously the garb of the victim and the

persecutor and the persecuted, the

But the

to

18

central opposition

'sinister

clown' and the grotesque dandy.

was between the

of the disinherited. To wear

of the delinquent and

style

was to

a zoot-suit

and con-

attacker, the

that

risk the repressive intoler-

ance of wartime society and to invite the attention of the police, the parent generation and the uniformed

members of

the

armed

forces.

For main

pachucos the zoot-suit riots were simply high times in Los Angeles

momentarily they had control of the that they

were outcasts in

streets; for

a society that

others

was not of

it

their

was

a realization

making. For the

black radical writer, Chester Himes, the riots in his neighbourhood

unambiguous: 'Zoot Riots

are

Race

Riots.'

19

when

w ere

For other contemporary

commentators the wearing of the zoot-suit could be anything from uncondandyism

scious

were not

to a conscious 'political'

engagement. The zoot-suit

political riots in the strictest sense,

but for

were an entry into the language of politics, an 'straight It is

suit

world' and

remarkable

its

riots

participants they

inarticulate rejection ot the

organization.

how many

post-war

activists

were inspired by the zoot-

disturbances. Luis Valdez of the radical theatre company. El Teatro

Campesino, allegedly learned the 'chicano' from Billy

many

Miranda. 20

conveyed

The

a literary

novelists

and

Ralph

his cousin the zoot-suiter

Ellison and Richard

political fascination

Wright both

with the power and potential

STUART COSGROVE/'THE ZOOT-SUIT

165

."

.

.

One of Ellison's editorials for the journal Negro Quarterly own sense of frustration at the enigmatic attraction of zoot-

of the zoot-suit. expressed his suit style.

A

third

major problem, and one

direction of power

is

that

abound among the Negro

how

matter

correct

its

that

is

indispensable to the centralization and

of learning the meaning of myths and symbols which masses. For without this knowledge, leadership,

program, will

fail.

Much

in

Negro

life

remains

no

mystery;

a

perhaps the zoot-suit conceals profound political meaning; perhaps the symmetrical

frenzy of the Lindy-hop conceals clues to great potential powers,

leaders could solve this riddle.

Although

remarks are undoubtedly compromised by their

Ellison's

only

if

21

own

mysterious idealism, he touches on the zoot-suit's major source of interest. in everyday rituals that resistance can find natural

It is

and unconscious

expression. In retrospect, the zoot-suit's history can be seen as a point of intersection,

between the

of ethnicity and

related potential

zoot-suit's political

and ethnic associations

reference point for subsequent generations.

Monk

and Kid Creole

inherited

to the jazz-poetry

new meanings and new

that have

From

other. it

a tapestry

of meaning, where music,

merged. The zoot-suit became

a

symbol

such

the

a rich

of Larry Neal, the zoot-suit has

mysteries. In his

book Hoodoo as

for the

Hollerin'

the symbol of Black

cultural resistance. For Neal, the zoot-suit ceased to

and became

It is

the music of Thelonious

Bebop Ghosts, Neal uses the image of the zoot-suit

America s

made

on the

politics

one hand, and the pleasures of identity and difference on the

politics

and

be

a

costume

social action

enigmas of Black culture

and the mystery of the signifying monkey: But there Its I

own

hear

is

Billie sing,

Porkpie hat whisky,

Stuart

rhythm here

special substance:

I

no Good Man, and dig

tilted at the correct angle;

Prez,

wearing the Zoot

suit

of life, the

through the Harlem smoke of beer and

understand the mystery of the Signifying Monkey. 22

Cosgrove, "The Zoot-suit and Style Warfare," History Workshop

Journal, 18, Autumn 1984, pp. 77-85, 89-90.

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

166

DICK HEBDIGE, "THE MEANING OF MOD," AND JOHN CLARKE, "THE SKINHEADS AND THE MAGICAL RECOVERY OF COMMUNITY," FROM RITUALS OF RESISTANCE Begun by Richard Hoggart and

Contemporary

later directed

by Stuart

the Centre for

Hall,

made

Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham

with studies of subcultures

in

been investigated before, the Chicago sociologists

in

the 1970s

(cf.

Hoggart and

classic studies of street

the 1930s

come

Hall).

name

its

Subcultures had

gangs by University of

to mind, but the scholars of the

CCCS

pioneered an approach which examined subcultures not as a problem to be solved, but as a culture of resistance to be respected.What follows are

studies

drawn from

a collection of the

reassign meanings of

mod

style,

common commodities

short

hair,

a fine suit, and a

in

a type of semiotic jujitsu.

motor scooter

mods from

insults hurled at

the straight world: laziness, arrogance, and vanity, are reappropri-

ated as badges of honor. Looking at skinheads, John Clarke observes utilize

Thus

are transformed from

markers of respectability into symbols of subversion. Likewise the

classic

how mods

oping a key concept of subcultural analysis. Dick Hebdige explores

within

two

working papers of the CCCS, each devel-

such, the skinhead's exaggerated

attempt to resurrect the working-class fathers

in

- and

violent

- territorial machismo

they

is

a fantastic

and community of their white

privileges,

dignity,

how

resolution" of real world problems. As

their subculture as a "magical

the face of immigration and deindustrialization.

The Meaning of Mod Its

appearance

Like most primitive vocabularies, each

Pop Newspeak,

a

is

prime symbol and

functions of communication. styles,

being

word of Wolverine,

essentially

the universal

dozen or

serves a

Thus 'mod' came

1

a

hundred

to refer to several distinct

an umbrella-term used to cover everything which

contributed to the recently launched myth of 'swinging London".

Thus groups of art-college and developing

a

'mods' 2 and Lord

students following in

taste for the

Mary Quant's

Snowdon earned

when

the epithet

lie

appeared

polo-necked sweater and was hastily grouped with the 'new 'important people' like Bailey and Terence Stamp disregard for certain dying conventions. limit the definition

But

of the mods to working

mainly in London and the

footsteps

outrageous in clothing were technically

new towns of

who showed

for

a

in

.1

breed' of 'swinging'

our purposes, we must

class

teenagers w ho lived

the South and

who

could be

DICK HEBDIGE, "THE MEANING OF MOD"

readily identified

Melly,

3

by

characteristic hairstyles, clothing etc.

167

According to

the progenitors of this style appear to have been a group of

working-class dandies, possibly descended from the devotees of the ianate style

to clothes

and

the music).

Soho and

By

1963, the

central

the trad world as

Ital-

mods who were dedicated

London. Only gradually and with popularization did

lives in

group accumulate other

this pills,

in

known throughout

symbols (the scooter, the

distinctive identity all

night

R and B clubs held this group firmly

London, whilst around the ring roads the Ton up boys

thundered on unperturbed, nostalgically clinging on to rock and

and

roll

the tougher working-class values.

Whether

the

mod/ rocker dichotomy was and

totally disparate goals

life styles

of the two groups

mods and

Clacton, in which hostilities between

main

entertainment

targets for aggression

facilities

mod

at

being the pathetically inadequate

setting the stage for the

Hastings during the August bank holiday. 4

clashed before the camera with the rocker

two groups. The mods

deeply

really

is, I

felt

The fact that the more indicative

suspect,

antagonism between the

rejected the rocker's crude conception of masculin-

the transparency of his motivations, his clumsiness, and

obvious

which

style,

parent culture.

What

in turn

was

less easily

distinguished the

visible

but the public debut of presence

at

bank holidays of 1964 from

this style at

(this

to

constitute a threat

resorts). The

was something

They seemed

a less

a

fairly

all

the

regular

The

very

Margate, Brighton, and Hastings of thousand of dis-

colonels, the tourist-oriented tradesmen

South coast

was

the coastal resorts.

turbingly ordinary, even smart teenagers from

somehow seemed

embraced

ridiculed or dismissed by the

previous bank holidays was not the violence feature)

at

Margate and Brighton during the Easter

at

of the mod's vanity than of any

ity,

room

little

no impor-

rockers played

between the two groups,

which occurred

weekend and

very

left

and small shopkeepers), the media accentuated and

rigidified the opposition conflicts

suggests that the

of any kind. After the disturbances of Whitsun 1964,

for interaction

tant part (the

ever really essential to the self-

The evidence

definition of either group remains doubtful.

in the

London and

its

environs

the old order (the retired

to

who dominated

the councils of the

mods, according to Laing, 'looked

way they moved which

alright but there

adults couldn't

make

out'.

5

to consciously invert the values associated with smart dress, to

deliberately challenge the assumptions, to falsify the expectations derived

from such sources. As Stan Cohen puts by the impression they gave of I

shall

go on

now

'actors

it,

they were

who

all

the

more

disturbing

are not quite in their places'.

6

to analyse the origins of this style in the experience

of the mods themselves by attempting

to

penetrate

and decipher the

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

168

mythology of the mods. an overtly inoffensive

Finally,

The mod's adoption of a

to

by

to project

an explanation of why

menace

so effectively.

Paradise on the Piccadilly Line

sharp but neat and visually understated style can

be explained only partly by partly explained

like to offer

could manage

style

Halfway

should

I

his reaction to the

his desire to

do justice

rockers grandiloquence.

It is

to the mysterious complexity of

the metropolis in his personal demeanour, to draw himself closer to the

Negro whose very metabolism seemed with that of the

city. It is

to have

partly explained

by

his

grown

and kept pace

into,

unique and subversive

atti-

tude toward the commodities he habitually consumed (more of this second point

later).

The

life style

and

clubs

to

mod

which the

city centres

around night

ideally aspired revolved

which demanded

a certain exquisiteness

of dress. In

order to cope with the unavoidable minute by minute harassments, the

minutiae of highspeed interactions incumbent upon an active night-life in the

city,

the

and

tional

mod

had to be on the

intellectual

ball at all times,

functioning

frequency high enough to pick up the

at

an emo-

slightest insult

make the most of the precious 7 night. Thus speed was needed to keep mind and body synchronized perfectly. His ideal model-mentor for this ideal style would be the Italian or joke or challenge or opportunity to

New York

Mafiosi-type so frequently depicted in crime films shot in step above

London

in the

mod

hierarchy).

The Brooklyn

(one

sharp kid had

been emulated by the wartime black marketer, the 'wide boy' and the post

war

'spiv'

worked

style

was

familiar, readily accessible

image was projected by the Jamaican hustler

able

the

and the

mod

could see with increasing regularity

ing with an enviable

savoir-faire

from every

pork-pie hat and dark glasses were the grey people

held

a

and could be

easily

more

desir-

up. Alternatively, an equally acceptable, perhaps even

at

monopoly on daytime

action of the night hours.

Thus

the

mod accessories. both mod and Negro")

essential

constricted

whom

wore on operat-

available street-corner.

one time

(who oppressed and

(or later 'rudie')

as the decade

business, the blacks held

It

more

shares in the

8

Another and perhaps more pervasive influence can be traced the indigenous British gangster

style,

the evolution of

to that of

which coincides

With the introduction of the London had become a kind of European Las Vegas

almost exactly with that of the mods/'

Gaming Laws

in 1963,

and offered rich rewards and

more

a previously unattainable status to Britain's

enterprising criminals. The famous protection gangs of the Krays and

the Richardsons (from East and South

London

respectively; both

major

DICK HEBDIGE, "THE MEANING OF MOD"

169

breeding grounds of mod) began converging on the West End, and

many

working-class teenagers followed their elders into the previously inviolable citadels

of Soho and Westminster to see what

and updated by the new

centre, transfigured

tunities for adventure

fruits

were

and excitement to the more

The city more oppor-

offered.

nightlife, offered

affluent working-class

youth; and the clandestine, intergang warfare, the ubiquitous, brooding

menace, provided

a

more

As the gangsters stuck

suitable

background of the mod's

faithfully to their classic

Capone

in sober suits, adopting classic

Hollywood

poses, using

ideal life-style. scripts, dressing

sawn off shotguns on

each other, petrol bombing each other's premises, being seen in whispered consultation with bespectacled 'consiglieres',

on which and

was the

this

steeped.

10

It

which the

stuff for

was

as

the

if

mod

acquired power

it

the perfect soil

lived

and in which

thrive;

his culture

was

whole submerged criminal underworld had

surfaced, in 1965, in the middle of

own submarine world

Soho became

and subterranean intrigue could

thriller fiction fantasies

of popular

London, and had brought with

fiction, sex

and violence

it

As

fantasy.

its it

explored the possibilities for realizing those fantasies -

the results were often bizarre and frequently terrifying. The unprecedented

marriage between East and South London criminal cultures and West high

life

and the Chelsea

one of its most exquisite

jet sets

creatures

A

bore some strange and exotic

fruit,

End and

was the Soho mod.

Mugshot of the

Ideal

Mod

In a Sunday Times magazine of April 1964, Denzil, the seventeen-year-old

mod all

interviewee

fulfils

the ideal

mod

role,

'looking excruciatingly sharp in

the photographs and describing an average

week

in the

life

of the ideal

London mod'. Monday

night meant dancing at the Mecca, the

Hammersmith

Palais,

the

Purley Orchard, or the Streatham Locarno.

Tuesday meant Soho and the Scene club.

Wednesday was Marquee

night.

Thursday was reserved for the

ritual

washing of the

hair.

Friday meant the Scene again.

Saturday afternoon usually meant shopping for clothes and records, Saturday night was spent dancing and rarely finished before 9.00 or 10.00 Sunday

morning.

Sunday evening meant the Flamingo ening, could be spent sleeping.

or,

perhaps, if one

showed

signs

of weak

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

170

Even allowing even approximate at

most

for exaggeration the

few thousand. In

a

stamina (even with

would be required

a

fact

to get a

mod

mod

every

down and onto

this

kind of schedule but the

down.

the side

everybody meanwhile,

that if the opportunity

would be

ready.

City should be

Every

mod

was

only amounted to a draughty Parker anorak, a

if reality

and chips out of a greasy bag.

fish

Snapshot of the Standard

of

that

And

world of gangsterism, luxurious clubs and beautiful

beaten-up Vespa and

reality

life

Welwyn Garden

into Piccadilly Circus, he

existing in a ghost

even

there, if

fact

has pushed the group-

the indelible printed page.

the money was

metamorphosed

The

He

was preparing himself psychologically so

arise, if

women

let

alone the hard cash which

pills), let

through

image of the impossible good

fantasy, projected the

should

to

probably no one possesses the super-human

ready supply of

remains that Denzil did not

needed, right

number of mods who managed

kind of life could not exceed a few hundred, perhaps

this

mod

life

was somewhat

less

Mod

glamorous.

The

mod,

average

according to the survey of the 43 Margate offenders interviewed by Barker

and

Little" earned

more

about

typically an office

Another

fifteen.

11

pounds

worker

large section

who

a

week, was either

had

left

of mods were employed

as

department

West End. The mods

upward option, but rectly

from the mod's

when

'There's a lot of lying in the

mod, would, viewed

become

I

fanatical

this has

been deduced incor-

devotion to appearance, and the tendency

blocked or amphetamine-induced

in a

go out with

are often described as exploring the

seems probable that

it

boast

state.

As Denzil

when you're blocked about the number ot girls you how much your suit costs, etc' The archetypal

think, be

more

likely to

be the eighteen-year-old

inter-

whose only articulated ambition - to Mayfair drinking-club — towered so high above his

in the Barker-Little sample

the

but had

('more or

owner of a

realistically if resentfully less

manual —

The

his leisure-time.

about the

mod

that's all

I

no longer

seriously entertained

accepted society's appraisal of his worth

am'), and existed purely tor and through

bell-boy hero in Pete Townshend's new rock opera

experience -

Quadrophrenia

-

is.

apparently similarly

resigned to an insignificant and servile role during the day but

in Wolfe's

is

all

the

make up for it at night. Like the fifteen-year-old office 12 whose clothes are essay 'The Noonday Underground'

more determined

more

to

says:

week,

present occupation as a meat porter that he

boy

at

store

messengers, and occupied menial positions in the various service

clerks,

industries of the

it;

or

a semi-skilled

secondary-modern school

to

exquisitely tailored than the bosses', the

mod

was determined

to

DICK HEBDIGE, "THE MEANING OF MOD"

compensate for

his relatively

low position

daytime status-stakes over

in the

which he had no control, by exercising complete dominion over estate - his appearance and choice of leisure pursuits.

The wide gap between contained and

by

lit

daunting, and loaded in

Through

made

life

was under control,

mod

possible, kept

stresses

gonna get what I'm

-

and

up anything also

risk

relief rather

ideal, the goal,

than release. The Who's

the importance of the search-as-end-in-itself:

after / Till the

day

I

substantial

'I

die'.

Speed suspended the disappointment when the search

ducing

the

one going on the endless round of con-

rather than the attainment of the goal

It

hostile,

achieved a magical omnipo-

tolerable, 'blocked' one's sensory channels so that action

song 'The Searcher'

again.

was

movements were magnified,

his

sumption, and confined one's attention to the search, the

to turn

all

of action multiplied, their purposes illuminated. Amphetamine

and excitement were

ain't

his private

was bridged by amphetamines. 13

'their' favour,

the alchemy of 'speed', the

possibilities

all

and the outer world, where

whereby the dynamics of

tence,

where

the inner world

self-love,

171

failed, inevitably,

and gave one the energy to pick up and

start

tended to retard mental and emotional development (by pro-

working

dependency, by

against

communication, stimulating

incessant vocal at the expense of aural activity) whilst accelerating physical deterioration.

The mod

lived

now and

certainly paid later.

As the

mod

was

swept along the glossy surface of the 60s hopelessly attempting to extend himself through an endless succession of objects, he would realize

at

some

point that his youth (perhaps the unstated and impossible goal) was by no

means

everlasting.

Tommy,

great reluctance, face

up

were never any

that there

the pinball wizard,

mod

eventually,

and with

game was limited by time and Hence the mid-6os obsession with the songs of The Who and the Rolling Stones

replays.

process of ageing apparent in the

(both

would

to the fact that the

heroes).

From The Who's

My

Generation, the

theme song of the

battlefields

of

1964:

Things they do look awful cold

From

/

Hope

I

die 'fore

the Rolling Stones record Mother's

I

get old.

Little Helper,

which

deals with

middle-aged amphetamine-addiction, an understandably predictable

mod

nightmare.

What

And

a

drag

it is

thus, finally

getting old.

we come

to the elaborate

consumer

their apparently insatiable appetite for the products

rituals

of the

of the mods,

capitalist society

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

172

in

which they

lived, their

fundamental and inescapable confinement within

that society.

Whilst not suggesting that the

mod style

flaw in the monolith of capitalism,

did handle the commodities

manner. It

did

If it

at least

found no flaws

it

it

I

shall

took to

had stumbled

now

itself in a

did at least

come

any serious

across

attempt to indicate

how

it

unique and subversive

few

across a

hairline cracks.

beat against the bars of its prison. Conspicious Consumption and the

Transformed Commodity

The mods

are often

like this

- being

typically alienated

the latest brand of to

charged by the self-styled commentators of pop with

a

tendency to multiple addiction. The argument goes something

debilitating

spend the

in order to

pills

maximum amount

consumers, the mods eagerly swallowed

borrow enough energy

of time consuming the

to enable

them

maximum amount

of commodities, which, in turn, could only be enjoyed under the influence of speed. However, despite

was never

his

consumer,

a passive

overwhelming need

to

consume, the

mod

hedonistic middle-class descendant

as his

The importance of style can never be overstressed — mod w as unadulterated STYLE, the essence of style. In order to project style it

often was. 14 pure,

became necessary

to appropriate the

first

at

meaning within

a totally different

to the semantic

rearrangement of

which the

mod

style required,

every level of the mod- experience and served to preserve

part at least of the mod's private dimension against the passive role

it

seemed

Thus

in

its

later phases

the scooter,

a

consumer

ready to adopt.

formerly ultra-respectable means ot transport, was

a

appropriated and converted into a pills,

its

its

those components of the objective world

was repeated

to redefine

which amounted

use and value and finally to relocate context. This pattern,

commodity, then

weapon and

a

symbol of solidarity. Thus

medically diagnosed for the treatment of neuroses, were appropriated

and used

as

capabilities

an end-in-themselves, and the negative evaluations of then-

imposed by school and work were substituted by

assessment of their personal credentials in the world of play qualities

which were

assessed negatively

laziness, arrogance, vanity etc.

— were

by

their

(i.e.

a

positive

the same

daytime controllers -

e.g

positively defined by themselves and

their peers in leisure time).

Thus, the mods learned to make their criticisms obliquely, having learned by experience

where

(at

age, experience,

told against them.

The

school and work) to avoid direct confrontations

economic and

style

civil

power would

inevitably have

they created, therefore, constituted

a

parody

DICK HEBDIGE/'THE MEANING OF MOD"

the

consumer

society in

situated. The

which they were

mod

173

blows

dealt his

distorting the images (of neatness, of short hair) so cher-

by inverting and

ished by his employers and parents, to create a

which while being

style,

overtly close to the straight world was nonetheless incomprehensible to

The mod triumphed with symbolic

victories

theatrical but ultimately enigmatic gesture. The

the 5th

November 1966

remembered and

mods

largely unreported event

incidents,

Palace

(a

and

scarcely

of major importance to the

involved) whilst holding a certain retrospective fascination for the

social historian

took

bank holiday

Buckingham

scooter-charge on

it.

and was the master of the

and

calling forth

mod

eighteen-year-old there ...

The

It

was

basis

could say

we were

like

of style

is

who

an Agincourt-like pride in those

permanently

part, fail to impress us as

at

significant events,

and yet an

the time about Margate: 'Yes,

taking over the country'.

I

was

15

the appropriation and reorganization by the subject

of elements in the objective world which would otherwise determine and constrict him. The mod's cry of triumph, victory, a victory

quoted above, was for

a

romantic

of the imagination; ultimately for an imagined victory.

The mod combined

previously disparate elements to create himself into a

metaphor, the appropriateness of which was apparent only to himself. But the

mods underestimated

the ability of the

dominant culture

to absorb the

subversive image and sustain the impact of the anarchic imagination.

The

magical transformations of commodities had been mysterious and were often invisible to the neutral observer and

had been produced. The

how many of Her

no amount of stylistic incanta-

economic mode by which they

tion could possibly affect the oppressive

continued to function perfectly no matter

state

Majesty's colours

were defiled and draped around the

shoulders of skinny pill-heads in the form of sharply cut jackets.

Autopsy Report on One White Negro

Now I

Deceased

have already emphasized the positive values of the mod's relative exclu-

siveness, his creation

not only with meanings.

I

like to

whole supportive universe which provided him music,

etc.

Negro of Mailer's

movement. For the

essay,"' living

fierce

but also with

conclude by suggesting that

same retreatism which led

decline of mod as a

work only by

a

a distinctive dress,

should

tericism, this

of

it

a

to the eventual

mod

was the

complete

was

first

this

set

and inevitable

all-British

White

on the pulse of the present, resurrected

devotion to

leisure,

of

same eso-

after

and creating through the dynamics

of his personality (or more accurately through the dynamics of the collective personality

of the group),

a total style

armed,

albeit inadequately, against

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

174

a patronizing adult culture, its

justifications

and

ethics.

and which need look no further than

Ultimately

led to the mod's self-betrayal.

Noonday Afternoon,

it

was

this

very self-sufficiency which

Being determined

own

alienation

good

mesmerized by music,

life

stultified

artificial

mod

by speed,

of

without ever its

own

and

styl-

and to look merely to

created and increasingly commercialized (and therefore ized) image,

womb

to cling to the

the smokefilled clubs and the

facing the implications of its

itself for

was bound

eventually to succumb; to be cheated and exploited at every level. The con-

sumer

rituals

were refined and multiplied ad infinitum and came to involve

mod market by a rapidly expanding pop industry. Dress was no longer innovative - nobody 'discov-

the use of commodities directed specifically at a

items

ered'

like

Levi jeans

Hush Puppies any more.

or

was

Style

manufactured from above instead of being spontaneously created from within. When a a

'NEW

mod

magazine could declare authoritatively that there was

MOD WALK:

feet out,

head forward, hands

then one had to acknowledge, reluctantly, that had,

somewhere along

Resistance through Rituals: Youth

and Tony Jefferson

Subcultures in Post-war Britain, Stuart Hall

Routledge, 1993, pp. 87-94. Fi rst published in 1975 Studies,

no.

white negro

the line, keeled over and died.

Dick Hebdige, "The Meaning of Mod,"

Cultural

in jacket pockets',

this particular

(eds.),

London:

Working Papers

as

in

Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.

7/8,

University of Birmingham. m

The Skinheads and

the Magical Recovery

of Community

Our

basic thesis about the skinheads centres

nity.

We

would argue

around the notion of commu-

that the skinhead style represents an

re-create through the 'mob' the traditional working-class

substitution for the

real

decline of the

for the style, in this light,

working

class,

is

latter. The underlying

social

as a

dynamic

the relative worsening of the situation of the

through the second half of the 60s, and especially the more

rapidly worsening situation of the lower

within

attempt to

community,

that). This, allied to

working

class

(and of the

the young's sense of exclusion from

'youth subculture' (dominated in the public arena by the music and

derived from the 'underground') produced

'Us-Them' consciousness among

return

to

an

a

styles

intensified

the lower working-class young,

being excluded and under attack from deal with this sense of exclusion

a

young

the existing

a

sense of

variety of points. The resources to

were not

to

be found w

ithin cither the

JOHN CLARKE, "THE SKINHEADS

emergent or incorporated elements of youth subcultures, but only images and behaviours which stressed

Everywhere there do

.

.

.

what you

we

live in,

who

tell

do,

and leave and

that, aren't ya?

and

they can

there's the 'old bill'

you what

all

that

treat

The

.

are

all

But the skinheads

.

.

work or

finish at

of it.

I

all

hate

who

a

badge on,

at

school,

who

on our

They

they even

you but

think they

social

had pretensions to

they're told

.

.

.

defensive, in

they're the

poor

in

them slums

on your

workers and people should

live.

side

their side. With

all

.

.

.

they're

and by talking

like that,

they

on

ain't

They're really authority if

this lot against us,

you don't we've

still

2

the middle' of this variety of oppressive and

'in

exploitative forces produces a essentially

false

social

backs':

to 'elp the

got the yids, Pakis, wogs, 'ippies on our backs.

of being

at

that.

know how you

do them, they've got the law on

sense

goes

'as

go to the clubs and the

pretending to be your friends. They try to get you to do things and

The

all

wardens and

traffic

on and 'give themselves

who

what

always do

them do-gooders who come

side.

flats,

you

at school,

tried to get

being coppers and

nicely find out about

Then

part of authority. Official and

all

nice and sweet and kind, they pretend to be

your

to get out

young and they pay you

oppressed by more than just the obvious authority

felt

dummoes

who end up

you're

1

superiority; they resented the 'people

ones

do and you're glad

to

people from within the neighbourhood

All these

the

it. It's

they like and say what they want.

they're

.

Anyone with

just a part

structure; they resented those airs',

to

teachers and the headmaster, they're the

yeah, even the caretaker at the

.

Then when you

youth leaders

do and make sure you do

you what

how

you

and courts

.

to

They think because

kinds of people in uniforms.

council and

you what

go, they're always there. People in

the governer system.

it's

Schools, you 'ave to go, doncha?

that, that

of oppression:

illustrates this sense

where you

authority, ain't they? They're telling

you.

more

in those

form of collective

traditional

are fucking bosses, they're always trying to tell

don't matter

authority, the people

system

a

Material from The Paint House

solidarity.

175

..."

need

for

group

solidarity,

the skinheads was coupled

which though

with an aggressive

content, the expression of frustration and discontent through the attacking

of scapegoated outsiders. The content of

this solidarity, as

our consideration of the elements of the skinhead traditional content excellence,

style,

we

shall see in

derived from the

of the working-class community - the example, par

of the defensively organized

However, the skinhead sense; the post-war decline

style

collective.

does not revive the community

in a real

of the bases of that community had removed

it

.

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

176

source of solidarity; the skinheads had to use an image of what that

as a real

community was

the basis of their

as

They were

the 'dispossessed

which had been deprived of

inheritors'; they received a tradition social bases.

style.

The themes and imagery

still

persisted, but the reality

its

real

was

in a

We would suggest that this dislocated community accounts for the exaggerated and

of decline and disappearance.

state

relation to the traditional

form which the values and concerns of

intensified

form of the skinhead

received in the

Rather than

community

a

spirit,

own

tradition

.

.

.

The gang

of the

being tough, humorous and

as

sees itself as a natural

They

community that:

class

parents and

as their

believe that they have the

of

a subculture

continuation of the working

with the same attitudes and behaviour

area,

grandparents before them.

that

Daniel and McGuire claim

the Collinwood gang tends to have an affinity

with an image of the East Enders, their

style.

same stereotyped

prejudices against immigrants and aliens as they believe their parents have and

had, but they play these their parents.

These observations selves

are reinforced

about the gang and

When

its

It's

a

when

they're talking about the story

a

gang,

isn't

into

it, it's

cially that part

It is

its

.

.

it?

only another word for community,

kids,

4

kids inherit the oral tradition of the area

solidarity,

of us

the East End, this has happened for generations before, past

community,

thugs, whatever.

The

by comments from the skinheads them-

relation to the locality:

mean where does skinhead come

I

of the context of the community experienced by

people kept saying skinheads,

coming up from

on.

roles outsides

3

which

refers to the

from the parent

community's self-image,

conception of masculinity,

its

culture, especollective

its

orientation to 'outsiders' and so

perhaps not surprising that the areas with which the skinheads arc

most associated should be the East End, which from point has been seen

as

a sociological stand-

the archetypal working-class community.

Its

internal

self-image has always been a particularly strong one, and has been strength-

ened by

its

public reputation as a 'hard' area, a reputation

which

in the

mid

60s was further intensified by the glamorous careers of the Krays. Finally,

we would

like to

exemplify

this relation

between the skinheads

and the image of the community through some of the the skinhead torial

style.

One

of the most crucial aspects

is

central elements of

the emphasis on terri-

connections for the skinheads - the 'mobs' were organized on

territorial

basis,

locality (e.g. the

identifying

themselves with

Smethwick Mob,

etc.).

and through

a

a

particular

This involved the mobs

in

the

JOHN CLARKE, "THE SKINHEADS

.

.

177

."

demarcation and defence of their particular 'patch', marking boundaries

with painted slogans ('Quinton

Mob

rules here', etc.)

boundaries against infractions by other groups. This

community, has

its

own

and maintaining those the

territoriality, like

around which interaction

focal points

articulates

—

the street corner meeting place, the pub, and the football ground. Although the football

own local provided

ground did not

identification

a particular focal

Football,

and

necessarily coincide with the mob's patches,

and the already existent point for the

mobs

to organize around.

especially the violence articulated

around

it,

also

one arena for the expression of the skinheads' concern with collective,

face of 'trouble'.

ness

-

was

5

The

violence also involved the mobs'

and mutual support in times of

solidarity

provided

a particular,

masculine self-conception, involving an identification of mas-

with physical toughness, and unwillingness to back

culinity

its

of the East Enders

activities

also involved in the

'need'. This

stress

down on

in the

collective

concern with tough-

two other most publicized skinhead

activities

'Paki-bashing' and 'Queer-bashing'. Paki-bashing involved the ritual and

and cultural homogeneity of the commumost obviously scapegoated outsiders - partly because of

aggressive defence of the social nity against

its

neighbourhood

their particular visibility within the

ownership patterns,

terms of shop

(in

by comparison with West Indians, and

etc.)

also

because of their different cultural patterns (especially in terms of their unwillingness to defend themselves and so on)

-

again by comparison with

West Indian youth. 'Queer-bashing'

may be

read

tionally available stereotypes

as a

reaction against the erosion of tradi-

of masculinity, especially by the hippies. The

skinhead operational definition of 'queer' seems to have extended to those males

who by

their standards

Smethwick skinhead may Usually

odd -

who

it'd

be just

like this

a

looked 'odd',

solidarity

statement from

bunch of

us

who'd

find

somebody they thought looked

one night we were up by Warley Woods and we saw frills

on

this

bloke

his trousers.

see these three interrelated elements of territoriality, collective

and 'masculinity'

as

being the way in which the skinheads

attempted to recreate the inherited imagery of the community in

a

indicate:

looked odd — he'd got long hair and

We may

as this

all

in a

period

which the experiences of increasing oppression demanded forms of

mutual organization and defence.

And we might

violence connected with the style

community' being indeed

a

as

finally see the intensive

evidence of the 'recreation of the

'magical' or 'imaginary' one, in that

created without the material and organizational basis of

th.it

it

was

community

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

178

and consequently was

less

mechanisms of

subject to the informal

we

control characteristic of such communities. In the skinhead style

both the elements of community discontinuity (in terms of

its

(in

terms of the

social

can see

content), and

style's

form), between parent culture and youth

subculture.

John Clarke, "The Skinheads and the Magical Recovery of Community", Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-war Britain, Stuart Hall

and Tony Jefferson published in 1975

(eds.),

London: Routledge, 1993, pp. 99-102. Originally

Working Papers

as

Contemporary Cultural

in Cultural Studies,

Studies, University

no. 7/8, Centre for

of Birmingham.

RIOT GRRRL, "RIOT GRRRL IS

.

.

."

Riot Grrrl arose out of the punk and alternative rock subculture early 1990s.

Bound together through

network of women, who,

- out

written out

What

follows

is

in

fanzines and music shows,

the

it

US

was

in

the

a loose

the words of one zine editorial, were "tired of being

in

of history, out of the 'scene,' out of our bodies" (see sidebar).

the oft reprinted Riot Grrrl manifesto, "Riot Grrrl

Is

.

.

."

The

manifesto demonstrates an important aspect of subcultures: using culture to create a

communal

identity, often in

outside world. Creating this identity soul force that can, and

manifesto reads

(cf.

world, Riot Grrrl,

will,

opposition to the identities offered up by the is

all

political act, "a

However,

in

policing

In

Kathleen Hanna, lead singer for the band

mother of Riot

that

living in

we

Kill

in

the zine

and founding

and books and fanzines

wanna make

it

our

own

that speak ro

US.

ways.

easier for girls to see/hear each other's

w ork

can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.

BECAUSE we own

an interview Bikini

an old world.

us girls crave records

BECAUSE we

our

while

WE feel included in and can understand in

so that

subcultural identity than

Grrrl, raises this issue, addressing the contradictions of creating a

new community

BECAUSE

of the

defining oneself against the

reaching out to engage, and change, the outside world. Planet,

line

subcultures, faces the danger of self-ghettoization,

becoming more concerned with tending - and

Punk

revolutionary

change the world for real" as the closing

Radicalesbians).

like

considered a

must take over the means of production

meanings.

in

order to create

RIOT GRRRL, "RIOT GRRRL

BECAUSE

viewing our work

our girlfriends-politics-real

gonna

figure out

reflects,

is

essential if

how what we are DISRUPTS the

"Letter from the Editors," Riot Grrrl #3

as impractical lies

The

Macho

meant

to

keep us

AND

THUS seek to

every

our

create revolution in

own

by envisioning and creating

lives

alternatives to

way of doing

the bullshit christian capitalist

Start:

we

do know

want and need

encouraged, in the face of

our

all

encourage and be

to

the face of beergutboyrock that

own

tells

our instruments, in the face of The

insecurities, in

we

us

can't play

Man who

claims the only reason

says

our

even

exist

to profit

is

from

wanna

assimilate

(Boy) standards of what

is

or

isn't

to

someone

"good" music

punk rock or "good" writing AND THUS need to create forums where we can recreate, destroy and

own

BECAUSE we we

visions.

are unwilling to falter

are reactionary "reverse sexists"

punkrocksoulcrusaders that

BECAUSE we know and

ical survival

under claims

that

and not the true-

WE KNOW we really are.

that life

are patently

"you can do anything" idea

is

much more

than phys-

aware that the punk rock is

crucial to the

coming

angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural

lives

where, according to their

BECAUSE we

are

of

girls

own

and

women

every-

terms, not ours.

interested in creating

non

hier-

AND

making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations. archical

ways of being

BECAUSE

doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things

that validate

it.

a lot of

women

that we're

out of

history,

ways

We

also

we

and

know

that

out of the "scene,"

out of our bodies

.

.

.

for this reason

have created our zine and scene. following pages are an essential

means of expression zine

is

about

us.

for us

and

and be proud of the is

this

Please think hard as

you read, be proud of being a grrrls

grrrl

you know.

for you!!!

Jen

Devosby and Suzanne,

and Jong, from

don't

in

progress. But

Allie,

Jenna, Sara, Margaret, Jessica, Colette

or

define our

in

seen and

bandwagon hype.

BECAUSE we else's

we

he's

work

quite proud of

This

bands and zines are "the worst" things

girlzine

are not quite sure

we're tired of being written out -

we

things.

are a

The

BECAUSE we

we

what we're about -

simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams

single day

179

."

.

are

status quo.

recognize fantasies of Instant

Revolution

we

.

making impacts,

perpetuates, or

BECAUSE we Gun

being connected to

as

lives

IS

and challenge us can help us gain the

1992, Amherst,

Riot Grrrl #3,

MA

May

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

180

strength and sense of community that

we need

racism, able-bodyism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism,

bullshit like

sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our

BECAUSE we kinds

how

in order to figure out

and supporting

see fostering

girl

own lives.

scenes and girl

artists

of all

as integral to this process.

BECAUSE we

hate capitalism in

sharing information and staying

all

its

forms and see our main goal

making

instead of

alive,

as

being

profits or

cool according to traditional standards.

BECAUSE we Girl

are

angry

= Dumb,

at a society that tells us Girl

Girl

= Bad,

= Weak.

BECAUSE we

our

are unwilling to let

real

and

valid anger

and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism girl/girl jealousies

BECAUSE

as

be diffused

witnessed in

and self-defeating girltype behaviors.

self defeating

behaviors

(like

fucking boys without condoms,

drinking to excess, ignoring truesoul girlfriends, belittling ourselves and

would not be so easy loved and wanted and valued.

other felt

girls, etc.)

BECAUSE

i

believe with

my

if

we

lived in

communities where we

holeheartmindbody

that girls constitute a

revolutionary soul force that can, and will, change the world for

"Riot Grrrl

Is

.

.,"

.

real.

Riot Grrrl #6%, December^iooi, Arlington VA.

KATHLEEN HANNA, FROM AN INTERVIEW IN PUNK PLANET Daniel Sinker: Let's talk about capitalism in relation to Bikini Kill and Riot Grrrl for a second. Both of those

amount of media lost control

attention.

of your

you and mutated went wrong

own

At

phenomena caught an

a certain

point,

representation.

It

became

into something really different

there?

Do

you ever wish

seemed

it

.

.

like

incredible all

of

you

larger than any of

.What do you

think

that things could have played

themselves out differently? Kathleen Hanna:

ent

I

I

don't wish anything was different. If anything was differ-

wouldn't be where

I

am and

I

wouldn't have the friends

wish certain people hadn't died, but other than

that,

I

I

have.

1

don't have any big

KATHLEEN HANNA, FROM PUNK PLANET As

regrets.

far

one point

that at

sound

But

bite.

world and

I

felt really

it

was

in time

fucked up.

important to you turned into

really

from

When

know

didn't

I

a

over the

girls all

of the media attention.

didn't have access to fanzines.

I

started

first

it

scary to see something

It's

get a lot of really cool mail

still

that's definitely a result

growing up,

when

the mainstream media goes,

as

happening of course

181

was

I

about punk.

Growing up in DC, it seemed like most of the people who were into punk were private school people. The public school kids had no fucking idea - we feathered our hair and listened to Molly Hatchet. I can't change the

fact that

I

didn't have access to

"You heard about

asshole by saying

it

so

it,

don't want to be an

I

through Rolling Stone, so you're

not really blah blah."

But

it's

product.

when

gross

know

everyone will

about

go about things because still

saying,

"Here

you and you're

Whether

in as

it

it." I

are the

many magazines

reproducing

managers

that

consumers

know

that are

a

the product that's best for

supposed to consume

you're using those marketing concepts, you're they're idiots feelings

Do

and you're

about

still

to

market economy. That's

feminism or that product

is

way

the

that's

a

then

as possible so

don't necessarily think

that's still

just stupid

that product

become

things like Riot Grrrl or feminism

like "Let's get

It's

Colgate,

is

as

treating people like

still

reinforcing capitalism.

it."

long

as

I

have

a lot

of mixed

it.

you remember the show Night

Flight?

Daniel Sinker: Yeah, they showed Another State of

Mind

like

every three

weeks.

how

Kathleen Hanna: Yeah! That's

my main

when

influences

for years, but

I

knew

it

I

I

learned about punk. That was one of

was younger.

I

do anything about

didn't

was there and just knowing

it

was there made

it

my

life a little easier.

Daniel Sinker:

It's

a

never-ending argument about access to information.

now

I'm stuck in the middle of that argument right

barcode on the cover of Punk

Kathleen Hanna: I've had a similar problem.

fucking broke and

how major

rock

helped pay

my

I

was

a

rent.

big sellout.

pissed off and they

don't pay their

when

thought

I

stars

1

it

made rock

I

was

in

videos.

Anyway,

I

rent!

I

care

video.

this

would be fun because

I

wanted

I

was

to see

got 200 bucks, which

People were really pissed off at figured out

were people

own

because of the

Planet.

me

about

it

and

said

who most of the people were who were who live at home with their parents and what

kids think, but

it's

a different

you're out in the world and you have to pay your

bills.

thing

I'm not

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

182

saying that I'm going to sellout to Sony. I'm just saying cut

some

you have such

to nourish yourself, too.

big fucking deal?

a

work

really

some people

putting something nourishing out in the world,

slack. If you're

Who

what the big

don't see

I

gives a shit?

Why

deal

is!

is

barcode

a

What

if

you

hard to put out your fanzine and you spend a lot of time on

the writing and you can't afford to give

your money on printing

you

a zine,

it

away

for free? If you

can't really afford to

spend

all

not get paid.

who has the dad whose secretary xeroxed them all show and give them away for free. That could make you feel really fucked up if you can't afford that. All I'm saying is that certain people can afford to be more generous than other people and it's important to look at that. In second- wave feminism, there was a similar Meanwhile, the kid can go to

a

problem. There's

of really good stuff in

a lot

how

There's this concept about

and

I've

being

ments stem from possible for

with

what is.

it.

a

punk thing or

I

think the basis that both of these argu-

power

is

That's a really pessimistic idea.

can't

we

take over the

Why

day in Western society? businesses and

have to be like systems.

that.

We

scares

It

revolutionary action.

word

It

that

not

allows the oppressors to define

I I

we change

Lego ones

success

make

us really

happy without

I'm not saying that everybody should

capitalists

and fuck people

over.

It

doesn't

can try to create alternative models for ecobecause

I

don't want to be reformist.

don't just want

my

piece of the pie.

I

I

don't

believe in

don't believe in trying to change the system

we need

a

as

n

way, I'm contradicting

to earn a living, but the ultimate goal

the entire system.

in

on what

success and have different forms of

because the whole system has to change. In

small

it's

sacrificing yourself the highest order of the sick!

me

myself because I'm saying is

is

It's

become

believe in reformism.

is

always corrupt and that

think there are a thousand variations

is. I

sacrificing ourselves?

nomic

earn a

if you're trying to

,

success that are about doing things that

start

Be Bad.

anyone to have any kind of power without being an asshole

success

Why

to

you're being "male"

with

it

the idea that

is

book Daring

"capitalist."

always equated

living, you're

this

if you're successful,

But

unless

we

build models

our houses — we're not going to figure out

- even

how

that's

going to go about. Kathleen Hanna, Punk Also included in

Daniel Sinker

Planet,

We OweYou

(ed.),

#27

(1998), interviewed

Nothing,

New York:

Punk Plana: The

Akashic Books, 2001.

by Daniel Sinker. Collected Interviews,

BERTOLT BRECHT, "EMPHASIS

ON

SPORT"

183

BERTOLT BRECHT, "EMPHASIS ON SPORT'' Stepping away from subcultures and into the mainstream, the radical playwright Bertolt Brecht makes a case for embracing ing to his artistic

who

contemporaries

- and

using

complain of a

- popular

German

culture. Speak-

would

public that

rather watch soccer games than attend the theatre, Brecht argues that radical artists

need to leave their (subcultural) garrets and walk the

mass entertainment how to create

mean making

popular. This, however, does not public or contest the

way

have the prevailing wind

your

like.

which

art that

from

street, learning

and fun

lively

.

.

.

and

does not challenge the

To borrow Brecht's metaphor: once you

you can tack

sails,

is

right,

or

jibe left;

But without any wind you are at a

you can use

standstill,

speak-

no one but yourself and the other miserable souls becalmed around you.

ing to

We

things are.

in

your art to say what you

a culture

pin our hopes to the sporting public.

Make no bones

about

ognomy, the

it,

we

have our eye on those huge concrete pans,

men and women

with 15,000

filled

of every variety of

find 15,000 persons paying high prices,

class

and physi-

There you

will

and working things out on the

basis

and shrewdest audience

fairest

in the world.

of a sensible weighing of supply and demand. You cannot expect to get

conduct on

a

sinking ship.

The demoralization of our

springs from the fact that neither theatre nor audience has any idea

supposed to go on tickets they

know

there.

When

exactly

fair

theatre audiences

what

is

people in sporting establishments buy their

what

what does take place once they

going to take place; and that

is

is

exactly

are in their seats: viz. highly trained persons

developing their peculiar powers in the way most suited to them, with the

of responsibility yet in such

greatest sense

they are doing theatre

is

it

primarily for their

nowadays quite lacking

There seems 'sport'. If

them

as

now

more or

temporary public

contemporary It

way

as to

make one

feel that

fun. Against that the traditional

in character. its

own form

of

only someone could take those buildings designed for theatrical

less

standing eating their heads off in interest, and

empty spaces a

way

earns

real

then they would be used in

see

a

to be nothing to stop the theatre having

purposes which are treat

own

may be

that

for the successful pursuit

might mean something

contemporary money and

of

'sport',

to a

con-

eats

real

beef.

objected that there

something other than

single piece

that

of evidence

is

also a section

'sport' in the theatre.

to prove

of the public that wants

But we have never seen

that the public at present

filling

to a

the

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

184

The

public's

up those

two old

theatres wants anything at

attempt to

make

give

it

all.

grandpa should not be misinterpreted

But

public demands.

believe that an

I

sion in the traditional garret

wind

prevailing in his

nothing to say that tion

no doubt an today

if

he

to

is

play's relevance

work

don't

A

theatre

sail

sits

And

some

would be

It

or lack of relevance by

is

unlikely to

wind

has to be

future wind.

maximum

quite

The

it

reason

that

is

it

no

has

once could, and

why

There

if

what

idea

could do

it

stubbornly goes on doing what

a nonsense.

is

judge

to

theatre

It

today that could invite one or two of those persons

way of getting any is

no

it.

They can

fun out of this.

sums of money,

on

that goes

who

wind

no

is

will

actors, for instance.

up band of actors to

I

wouldn't

seem

as ours.

And

be fun for anybody

The people

at

like to say that

to have been, but

nobody who

theatre

no

feel

an

possible here.

sails

fails to

is

the harmless garret.

The

no good. To

that

against the garret; the plays are

they have been fun to write they are

them on and

unrecognizable once

it

I

we

worse

are

doubt

whipped-

artificially

getfun out of his

oft

there has

if

activities

can

else.

the top naturally blame the people

favourite scapegoat

that puts

is

go into anyone's

ever been such an overworked, misused, panic-driven,

as

their

inside

'sport'.

for talent than other periods

expect them

is

are alleged to find

see at a glance that there

No

can no

with their excellent heating

contain five pennyworth offun. There

urge to write a play for

is

would no longer wish

fun in writing plays to one of its performances and expect them to

Take the

a

present no

no longer can do and what

it

All those establishments

this doesn't

Our at

wanted of it.

is

it it

imposing exteriors, together with the entire business

There

is

effectiveness

wrong

the theatre has

systems, their pretty lighting, their appetite for large

all

this

current effectiveness. Theatres

its

which makes no contact with the public

no longer wanted.

them:

in strictest seclu-

or with tomorrow's wind), and

at all

short of achieving his

with today's wind.

contact with the public

it

he

that way.

longer do what

But

if

his sails.

period, and not

with no wind

accordingly a nonsense.

to.

even

wind must be used for travel in any particular direca wind one can naturally sail against it; the only

artist will fall far sails

will.

its

this

(once one has

impossibility

own

inherited from

for future generations,

produce anything without some wind in the

it

assertion of

mustn't simply produce what the

artist,

working

which

stalls

brand-new

as a

we

People are always telling us that

well-padded resistance to any

bound

at

the bottom, and the

people's wrath it

to

must be

is

directed

said that so

long

be better than the theatre

the public that goes to see them.

A

play

is

has passed through this sausage-machine.

simply It

we

BERTOLT BRECHT, "EMPHASIS

ON

SPORT"

185

come along and say that both we and the public had imagined things differently - that we are in favour, for instance, of elegance, lightness, dryness, - then the

objectivity

have singled out,

As

chest.

if

even

elegant and, as

Behind

a

it

my

sir,

do not beat beneath any dinner-jacket's manly

a play like Vatermord

a simple,

were, classically rounded way!

and therefore worth seeing. In get

could not be performed in

feigned intensity you are offered a naked struggle in lieu of

competence. They no longer

real

which you

theatre replies innocently: those passions

dear

away the actor

most natural thing

is

know how

his

to stage anything remarkable,

obscure anxiety not to

let

the audience

immediately so steamed up that he makes

in the

world

can be seen that acting takes strains himself on the stage

is

a

tremendous

bound,

if he

is

lot

out of him.

any good,

it

seem the

At the same time

to insult one's father.

And

to strain all the

it

man who

a

people sitting

in the stalls.

cannot agree with those

I

tion to prevent the

such

a

lessons

who

complain of no longer being in

imminent decline of the

I

a posi-

believe that there

is

wealth of subjects worth seeing, characters worth admiring and

worth learning

that

have to build theatres

if

once

a

good sporting

they did not already

element, however, in the present-day theatre

both ends of the building

Bertolt Brecht, 6,

west.

after the

"Mehr guten

is

The most hopeful

the people

performance. They are

Sport,"

from

1926; reprinted in Brecht on Theatre

,

one would

spirit sets in

exist.

who pour

Berliner Borsen- Courier,

John Willett

(ed.

out of

dissatisfied.

and

February

New

trans.),

York: Hill and Wang, 1964, pp. 6-8.

STUART HALL, "NOTES ON DECONSTRUCTING 'THE POPULAR'" Stuart Hall, famed director of the

CCCS, makes another

case for popular culture

- with

qualifications. Yes,

culture

is

reflects

genuine popular dreams and aspirations, struggles, and discontent, and

fact

must

he concedes to the

critics,

contemporary popular

commercial, produced as a means to the ends of

if

it

is

to open the public's purse.

transition. Yesterday's rebellious subculture

is

In

culture, that

is:

also in

in

today's commercial pap and today's

Frank, and Hebdige). Within this shifting terrain

what you do with

it

addition, cultures are forever

pap can become the basis for tomorrow's culture of resistance

is

But

profit.

what matters most,

(cf.

Cowley,

Hall argues,

the political uses to which culture,

all

culture,

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

186

employed. "That," he concludes

is

Otherwise, to

I

want

you the

tell

to say

truth,

of them

all

meaning: the things which

it."

useful.

are said to

number of

a

Take the most common-sense

be 'popular' because masses of people

them, buy them, read them, consume them, and seem to enjoy

listen to

them

'popular culture' matters.

damn about

something about 'popular'. The term can have

different meanings: not

to the

the one

why

this essay, "is

don't give a

I

This

full.

is

which brings

the 'market' or commercial definition of the term: socialists

out in spots.

quite rightly associated

It is

with the manipulation and debasement of the culture of the people. In one sense, I

the direct opposite of the

it is

have,

way

I

have been using the word

earlier.

though, two reservations about entirely dispensing with

meaning, unsatisfactory First, if

it is

as

it is.

true that, in the twentieth century, vast

consume and even indeed enjoy then

tural industry,

numbers of people

the cultural products of our

follows that very substantial

it

this

modern

do

cul-

numbers of working

people must be included within the audiences for such products. Now. the forms and relationships, cially

if

participation in this sort of commer-

on which

provided 'culture' depend, are purely manipulative and debased, then

the people

who consume and

debased by these sciousness'.

being fed

is

may make

or else living in

activities

They must be

enjoy them must either be themselves

'cultural dopes'

permanent

a

who

'false

con-

what they

arc

an up-dated form of the opium of the people. That judgement

us feel right, decent

and

self-satisfied

about our denunciations of

the agents of mass manipulation and deception industries: but

I

know

don't

that

it is

-

the capitalist cultural

view which can survive

a

an adequate account of cultural relationships: and even perspective

of

state

can't tell that

on the

culture and nature of the

notion of the people

as a

working

purely passive, outline force

less

class.

is

a

for

as

a

Long

as

socialist

Ultimately the

deeply unsocialist

perspective.

Second, then: can inevitable

we

get around this

and necessary attention

to the manipulative aspect of

of commercial popular culture? There are so,

adopted by

radical critics

think, are highly dubious. 'alternative' culture

the

'real'

class

This

a

what

is

is

is

a

theorists

a

number of strategics

great deal tor

doing

of popular culture, w hich.

to counterpose

to

it

another,

w

I

hole,

the authentic 'popular culture"; and to suggest that

working

substitutes.

Basically

-

and

One

problem without dropping the

(whatever that

is)

isn't

taken in by the commercial

heroic alternative: but not

wrong with

it

is

that

it

a

very convincing one.

neglects the absolutely essential

STUART HALL,".

.

DECONSTRUCTING

.

'THE POPULAR'*'

187

of cultural power — of domination and subordination — which

relations

an intrinsic feature of cultural that there

is

relations.

I

want

to assert

autonomous 'popular

no whole, authentic,

outside the field of force of the relations of cultural

Second,

greatly underestimates the

it

a tricky point to

charge that one

make, for

soon

as

culture'

which

lies

power and domination.

power of cultural implantation. This

as

it

is

made, one opens oneself

is

to the

subscribing to the thesis of cultural incorporation.

is

is

on the contrary

The

study of popular culture keeps shifting between these two, quite unacceptable, poles:

pure 'autonomy' or

Actually,

don't think

I

total incapsulation.

necessary or right to subscribe to either. Since

it is

ordinary people are not cultural dopes, they are perfectly capable of recognizing the

way

the

realities

of working-class

and reshaped by the way they tion Street.

The

are reorganized, reconstructed

life

are represented

(i.e.

re-presented) in,

and reshape what they represent; and, by repetition and

and implant such definitions of ourselves of the dominant or preferred cultural

as fit

That

culture.

more

is

rework

selection, to

impose

easily the descriptions

as if

we

of the few -

in the heads

These definitions don't have the power

minds; they don't function on us

Corona-

to

what the concentration of

power - the means of culture-making

actually means.

say,

do have the power constantly

cultural industries

to

occupy our

are blank screens.

But they do

occupy and rework the interior contradictions of feeling and perception in the dominated classes; they do find or clear a space of recognition in those

who

respond to them. Cultural domination has

are neither all-powerful

nor

all-inclusive. If

imposed forms have no influence,

it

— even

real effects

we were

if these

to argue that these

would be tantamount

to arguing that

the culture of the people can exist as a separate enclave, outside the distri-

bution of cultural power and the relations of cultural force. that.

Rather,

I

think there

a

is

I

do not believe

continuous and necessarily uneven and

unequal struggle, by the dominant culture, constantly to disorganize and reorganize popular culture; to enclose and confine

within

more

a

inclusive range of

resistance; there are also

cultural struggle. In

moments of

our times,

of resistance and acceptance, of culture

a sort

of constant

victories are obtained but

won and The

it

its

definitions and forms

dominant forms. There supersession. This

is

of

goes on continuously, in the complex lines

refusal

and capitulation, which make the

battlefield.

where there

A

battlefield

field

where no once-for-all

are always strategic positions to be

lost.

first

definition, then,

is

not

a

useful

one

for

our purposes; but

might force us to think more deeply about the complexity tions,

are points

the dialectic of

about the

reality

it

oi cultural rela-

of cultural power and about the nature

of cultural

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

188

implantation. If the forms of provided commercial popular culture are not

purely manipulative, then

it

is

because, alongside the false appeals, the

foreshortenings, the trivialization and shortcircuits, there are also elements

of recognition and identification, something approaching

of

a recreation

recognizable experiences and attitudes, to which people are responding.

The danger

because

arises

we

tend to think of cultural forms

whole and

as

coherent: either wholly corrupt or wholly authentic. Whereas, they are

when

deeply contradictory; they play on contradictions, especially

they

function in the domain of the 'popular'. The language of the Daily Mirror neither a pure construction of Fleet Street newspeak' nor

which

working-class readers actually speak.

its

of linguistic nalism

ventriloquism in

directness

highly complex species

a

some elements of

intricated with

and vivid particularity of working-class language.

without preserving some element of its roots in popular'.

It

is

the language

which the debased brutalism of popular jour-

combined and

skilfully

is

It is

is it

wouldn't get very

far unless

it

It

cannot get by

vernacular

a real

the

—

in 'the

were capable of reshaping popular

elements into a species of canned and neutralized demotic populism.

The second

definition of 'popular'

descriptive one. Popular culture

have done. This culture, mores, 'distinctive First,

putting

I

it

is

the

close to an 'anthropological' definition of the term: the

is

I

have two

suspicious of

mildly. Actually,

Virtually anything

easier to live with. This

is

those things that 'the people' do or

customs and folkways of

way of life'.

am

all

is

which

it

difficulties

with

precisely because

it is

What

'the people'.

defines their

this definition, too.

it is

too descriptive. This

is

based on an infinitely expanding inventory.

'the people'

have ever done can

fall

into the

list.

Pigeon-fancying and stamp-collecting, flying ducks on the wall and garden

gnomes. The problem descriptive way,

But the second

made

earlier.

is

how

to distinguish this infinite

from what popular culture

We

difficulty

is

more important — and

can't simply collect into

one category

'the people' do,

without observing that the

not from the

itself- an inert category

list

to the central

and the culture of the 'periphery'. structures the

domain of

any but

a

point

relates to a

all

the things

activities

the key opposition: the people/not of the people. That

between what belongs

in

w hich

real analytic distinction arises,

of things and

turing principle of 'the popular' in this sense

list,

not.

is

is

is

- but from

to say, the struc-

the tensions and oppositions

domain of elite or dominant culture, this opposition which constantly

It is

culture into the 'popular' and the 'non-popular'.

But you cannot construct these oppositions

in a purely descriptive

way

of each category changes. Popular forms become enhanced in cultural value, go up the cultural escalator For,

from period

to period, the contents

STUART HALL,

formed

.

.

DECONSTRUCTING

on the opposite

find themselves

and

cultural value,

".

'THE POPULAR'"

89

Others thing cease to have high

side.

are appropriated into the popular,

in the process.

I

becoming

trans-

The structuring principle does not consist of the - which, I insist, will alter from one period to

contents of each category another. Rather

consists

it

of the forces and relations which sustain the

tinction, the difference: roughly,

between what, more,

is

a

whole

institutional processes are required to sustain each

mark

dis-

an

as

or form, and what does not. These categories remain,

elite cultural activity

though the inventories change. What and

any time, counts

at

set

of institutions

— and

to continually

the difference between them. The school and the education system

one such

-

institution

be transmitted, from the

tural heritage, the history to

literary

is

distinguishing the valued part of the culture, the cul-

and scholarly apparatus

is

'valueless' part.

The

another — marking-off certain kinds of

The important fact, then, is not a mere - which may have the negative effect of freezing popular culture into some timeless descriptive mould - but the relations of power which are constantly punctuating and dividing the domain of valued knowledge from others. descriptive inventory

culture into

So

I

its

preferred and

its

residual categories.

settle for a third definition

of 'popular', though

it is

a rather

uneasy

one. This looks, in any particular period, at those forms and activities

which

have their roots in the social and material conditions of particular

classes;

which have been embodied sense,

it

retains

to insist that relations

what

what

is

essential to the definition

which define 'popular

ship, influence

and antagonism)

of culture which

looks

at

the relations

dominant

to the

It

others can be dethroned.

relation

It

looks

has at

of force which define the

and

its

many

goes on

it

culture.

is

the

at

the process by

forms.

treats the

It

changing

field.

It

which these

them

treats

Then

dominant relations

as a process:

are actively preferred so that

centre the changing and uneven

its

field

conception

It is a

structure this field into

means of which some things

cultural struggle

But

of popular culture

activities as a constantly

of dominance and subordination are articulated.

relations

practices. In this

culture' in a continuing tension (relation-

which constantly

and subordinate formations.

the process by

and

polarized around this cultural dialectic.

is

domain of cultural forms and it

in popular traditions

valuable in the descriptive definition.

is

of culture - that Its

is,

the question of

main focus of attention

is

the

between culture and questions of hegemony.

What we have

to be

concerned with,

in this definition,

is

not the ques-

tion of the 'authenticity' or organic wholeness of popular culture. Actually, it

recognizes that almost

sense,

composed of

all

cultural

forms

will

be contradictory

antagonistic and unstable elements.

in

The meaning

this ol

.1

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

190

cultural

inside

form and

its

form.

symbol or slogan it

will

place or position in the cultural field

its

Nor

be neutralized into next

will

be the object of

The meaning of a

into

which

made

it is

on

symbol

cultural

What

nostalgia. Today's

is

matters

given in part by the social field

which

form — what counts

in an over-simplified

and

articulates

it

is

not the intrinsic or historically fixed

is

objects of culture, but the state of play in cultural relations: to put

and

rebel

maga-

the cover of The Observer colour

incorporated, and practices with

to resonate.

not inscribed

year's fashion; the year after,

profound cultural

a

folksinger ends up, tomorrow, zine.

is

position fixed once and forever. This year's radical

is its

is

bluntly

it

the class struggle in and

over culture.

Almost every fixed inventory

will betray us.

form? The answer can only be novels? For

whom? Under what

This provides us with

a

the novel a 'bourgeois'

Is

historically provisional:

conditions?

warning

against those self-enclosed approaches

own

to popular culture

which, valuing

in an a-historical

manner, analyse popular cultural forms

'tradition' for

unchanging meaning or

value. The relationship

and aesthetic value

an important and

culture.

But the attempt

its

moment of

tained within themselves, from their

is

When? Which

sake,

origin,

between

and treating

it

as if

they con-

some

fixed and

historical position

question in popular

difficult

develop some universal popular aesthetic,

to

founded on the moment of origin of cultural forms and certainly profoundly mistaken.

What

practices,

is

almost

could be more eclectic and random

than that assemblage of dead symbol's and bric-a-brac, ransacked from

which, just now, many young people have

yesterday's dressing-up box, in

chosen to adorn themselves? These symbols and foundly ambiguous.

A

thousand

up through them. Every that sign cultural

which, above

now and

all

- but not

Its

-

entirely

signification

This terrifying sign

may

is

rich,

forever: the swastika.

cut loose from

'fascist'

because they

does

profound it

politics

symbolism of the thing

The

.

.

in

itself,

on the

it

is

it

certainly unstable. it

streets are full

less

its

cultural ref-

no guar-

carries

of kids w ho

.

of youth culture,

in

yet there

mean? What

and richly ambiguous:

itself.

And

may wear a swastika on a chain. On What this sign means will

hand, perhaps they could be

depend, in the

What

its

delimit a range of meanings but

antee of a single meaning within

not

are pro-

summoned trinkets, we find

then, amongst the other

erence in twentieth-century history. signifying?

and pieces

could be

other signs, ought to be fixed - solidified -

meaning and connotation

dangles, partly

bits

lost cultural causes

the other ultimately

intrinsic

and more on the balance

arc

cultural

ot

forces

DECONSTRUCTING

STUART HALL,

'THE POPULAR'

191

between, say the National Front and the Anti-Nazi League, between White

Rock and the Two Tone Sound. Not only is there no intrinsic itself.

There

no guarantee

is

pertinent struggle,

an airing

it

because

at

one time

it

was linked with

be the living expression of

will always

it

every time you give

guarantee within the cultural sign or form

that,

it

will 'speak the language

cultural expressions register for socialism,

it

a

a class: so that

of socialism'.

If

because they have been

is

linked as the practices, the forms and organization of a living struggle,

which have succeeded

in appropriating those

connotation. Culture

socialist

is

symbols and giving them

a

not already permanently inscribed with

the conditions of a class before that struggle begins. The struggle consists in the success or failure to give 'the cultural' a socialist accent.

The term 'popular' has very complex relations to the term 'class'. We know this, but are often at pains to forget it. We speak of particular forms of working-class culture; but we use the more inclusive term, 'popular culture' of enquiry.

to refer to the general field

been saying would make and to

terms

between

'class'

But

struggle.

class

relationship

little

and 'popular'

interchangeable.

The

it

a class

It's

is

and

clear that there

also

a particular cultural

is

- although

More

oppressed, the excluded classes: this

to

accurately,

and forces which constitute the 'popular

refers us.

And

class,

constitute

-

fixity, to

and overlap in the

somewhat

displaced

refers to that alliance

The

is,

of

culture of the

which the term

'popular'

power

by definition, not another

strata

and

not 'the people' and not the 'popular

is

no wholly sepa-

the side with the cultural

but that other alliance of classes,

what

it

this

classes'.

the area to

is

the opposite side to that

decide what belongs and what does not —

'whole'

The

there are clearly distinct and variable

of struggle. The term 'popular' indicates

relationship of culture to classes. classes

practice.

of historical

class-cultural formations. Class cultures tend to intersect field

no one-to-one

form or

obvious. There are

is

rate 'cultures' paradigmatically attached, in a relation

same

I've

are deeply related but they are not absolutely

reason for that

specific 'whole' classes

what

perfectly clear that

sense without reference to a class perspective

social forces classes':

which

the culture

of the power-bloc.

The people

versus the power-bloc: this, rather than 'class-against-class',

the central line of contradiction around polarized. Popular culture especially

is

which the

terrain

of culture

is is

organized around the contradiction:

the popular forces versus the power-bloc. This gives to the terrain of cultural struggle

its

own

kind of specificity. But the term 'popular', and even

more, the collective subject to which problematic.

It

is

made problematic

it

must

refer

'the people'

by, say, the ability

-

is

highly

of Mrs Thatcher

to

SUBCULTURES AND PRIMITIVE REBELS

192

pronounce

a

sentence

because that there

is

no

is

like,

what the people

as

if

if,

only

that

that, just as

much

their culture

on

untouched, their

against the

liberties

Norman yoke

or

can 'discover' them and bring them back on

constitute classes

and individuals

as a

popular force

the nature of political and cultural struggle: to make the divided and the separated peoples - divided and separated by culture as

by other factors -

as

We people'

popular-democratic cultural force.

into a

can be certain that other forces also have as

something

ruled better,

more

else: 'the

alternatives inside each

of

us.

against the power-bloc: that to construct a culture

which

engaged:

struggle for

this

it is

also the stake to

of consent and

resistance.

It is

is

some

the historical opening in

is

to

be pro-

part of both those

which

as a

it is

we

will

be constituted into

power. Popular culture

and against

won

be

partly

its

we

if

opposite: an is

one of the

culture of the powerful

a

or lost

force

possible

genuinely popular. But, in our society,

effective populist force, saying 'Yes' to

where

to be disciplined more,

whose way of life needs

Sometimes we can be constituted

is

are not constituted like that,

defining 'the

a stake in

who need

people'

effectively policed,

tected from 'alien cultures', and so on. There

in

that struggle.

where hegemony

arises,

It is

is

the arena

and where

it

—

It is not a sphere where socialism, a socialist culture already formed - might be simply 'expressed'. But it is one of the places

secured.

fully

no

is

is

classes

is

me

to

people'. 'The people' are not always back

struggling

still

we

counted. The capacity to

sites

trade unions

they will always stand up in the right, appointed place and be

stage,

—

- 'the

it

their instincts intact,

whatever:

power of the

That suggests

want.'

where they have always been,

there,

to limit the

fixed content to the category of 'popular culture', so there

fixed subject to attach to

and

'We have

where socialism might be Otherwise, to

Stuart Hall,

tell

you the

constituted. That truth,

I

is

why 'popular culture' damn about it.

"Notes on Deconstructing 'The Popular',"

Socialist Theory,

Raphael Samuel

1981, pp. 231-5,237-9.

matters.

don't give a

(ed.),

People's History

and

London: Kegan Paul—Routledge,

FIVE

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S

Culture has been used as a

was made the Indians

official

weapon throughout

history. In

modern

times, English

language of India and other British colonies. American

were forced to abandon

arriving in the Americas,

their religion and

were deprived of

way of

life,

and Africans, upon

their traditions as well as their

freedom. Partly out of a chauvinism that believes one culture naturally superior,

conquerors impress their

partly as part of a pragmatic strategy of social control,

culture

upon those they conquer. Thus any

struggle for liberation

must

also

include a fight for cultural independence. But the campaign for an independent culture,

uncontaminated by the oppressor,

ble. For, unlike

armies or laws, culture

shoot or tear up, instead

it

is

is

exceedingly

internalized.

part of the self

is

autonomy. As the anti-colonialist writer Albert to throw the colonizer out of your country, nizer within yourself.

1

failure (Gandhi's India

ment) or

a

It

difficult,

isn't

if

not impossi-

something you can

- the very same self-demanding

Memmi

it is still

points out:

it is

one

thing

another to expel the colo-

Given that the struggle for a purified culture often ends is

now

a global center for high-tech

in

computer develop-

bloodbath (the massacre of the Sioux at Wounded Knee, or Cambodia

under the victorious Khmer Rouge) other strategies of cultural resistance have been developed. The most successful among these are hybrid cultures which use the tools of the master, carefully reshaped, to dismantle the master's

own

house.

ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN, "THE GHOST DANCE WAR" FROM SISTER TO THE SIOUX In

1888 a Paiute Indian named

bringing

peace,

resurrecting

Wovoka had dead

a vision: the

ancestors,

and

Messiah was coming,

returning

the

American

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

194

continent and her buffalo to the Indians.The Messiah, Wovoka revealed, could be

hastened by communal dancing and singing - the "ghost dance." Offering hope to a population

whose

land had been taken

assault by white settlers and the

away and whose ways of

US government,

life

were under

the ghost dance spread rapidly

through the Great Plains to a dozen reservations. The dance took a particularly

among

strong hold

the Dakota Sioux

disease, and reduced

for war, the

government

US government

who

had been devastated by drought,

rations. Interpreting the

dances as preparation

dispatched troops to the Pine Ridge reservation. The

in the "Battle" of Wounded when the 7th Cavalry Division massacred 146 (400 by Sioux estimates) men, women, and children. It was the end of the ghost dance and the last

confrontation between Sioux and soldiers ended

Knee

in

1890

military battle against the Indians in the US.

account of the ghost dances, and the

official

What

Eastman, a white teacher and Indian advocate then tion. "The

Ghost Dance War"

hope and strength to government. But

no match for

it's

dollars

is

follows

is

an eyewitness

reaction to them, by Elaine Goodale

a story of the

living

power

on the Sioux reserva-

of cultural resistance, giving

a decimated Plains Indian population and frightening the

also a cautionary tale. For

in

US

the end songs and dances were

and guns.

The Buffalo Are Coming! The Pratt commission of 1888 had been followed in the next year by a more successful effort, directed by General Crook, to purchase nearly halt of the

vast wastelands

formerly reserved to the Sioux. At about the same

time the huge Territory of Dakota had been cut in two and two

new

admitted to the Union. However, the rush to homestead claims short of expectations, aroused to a high pitch by the tremendous

states

fell

boom

far

in

more fertile and inviting "Cherokee Strip." The Sioux had naturally hoped for immediate benefit from the reluctant sale of more than nine million acres to which they had clung from sentiment and tradition, although as a matter of fact it was of little use to them without the bison herds that had once covered it. They expected to receive cows, farm tools, and (most pressing at the moment) an increased beet ration. Instead, the issue of beef at the two western-most agencies w as cut the

from one

to

two million pounds, causing

consent to the act had been so

lately

real privation.

courted with

fair

The men whose

words were ignored

and snubbed.

To make matters worse, years, so familiar today.

A

that

summer of 1890 was one

veritable

ot

a

cycle of dry

"Dust Bowl" extended from the Mis-

souri River almost to the Black Hills. In the persistent hot winds the pitiful

EASTMAN, "THE GHOST DANCE WAR"

little

was

195

gardens of the Indians curled up and died. Even the native hay crop a failure.

much

had never before seen so

I

sickness.

The appearance of

the people shocked me. Lean and wiry in health, with glowing skins and a

many now

look of mettle,

deep-sunken

Not

displayed gaunt forms, lackluster faces, and sad,

eyes.

until

came

I

to Standing

Rock,

so far as

I

remember, did

again the fanciful story told one evening by Chasing Crane, twelve

on the road

earlier,

upheaval

among

to the sand

hills.

We

hear

I

months

should not lay the Ghost Dance

the Dakotas solely to the wrongs suffered by them.

touching legend of a Messiah did not originate with them, but crept

The

like a

way from Mason Valley in Nevada. The story was wonderingly repeated in many tongues beside hundreds of distant campfires, even as far south as Oklahoma. It was more or less seriously accepted in several tribes, but it is true that nowhere except among the wilder bands of Sioux did credulity lead to disaster. The special conditions that existed at Rosebud, Pine Ridge, and Standing Rock - drought, unwise reduction of the grass

fire in

and

rations,

all

thrilling

A

with the results of the last agreement, which end - these made the Dakotas a ready prey to a

dissatisfaction

many had fought dangerous

the

to the

illusion. They

promise

were the dry

—

grass

party including Short Bull, Kicking Bear,

commissioned

in the spring

where

for several

to

look into

at

their return

was

dis-

Pine Ridge to the point of putting one of their

Kicking Bear was

in the guardhouse.

Sitting Bull

or

been

this strange

months and on

of 1890 immediately began an active crusade, though

couraged by the agent

number

either volunteered or

journey over the mountains

to

man!

Good Thunder, and one

two more from Rosebud and Pine Ridge had

rumor of a Messiah. They were away

match was the

tinder dry; the

of supernatural help, a Savior for the red

living,

summoned

to

Grand River,

sometime during the summer and about the

time of my arrival had begun to instruct the people in the mysteries of the "Spirit Dance."

On

the high plateau overlooking

Oak

Creek, two hundred tents of

Christian Indians had been pitched in horseshoe form, almost surrounding the

little

mission of Saint Elizabeth. Since the chapel could scat only

of the assembled worshipers, most services were held under freshly cut green

boughs. Each evening

a

ring was formed

native fashion, for the impressive sunset service,

many Sioux clergymen Bishop

Hare's seventeen

in

their

snowy

when

a in

several

a tithe

rude arbor of the open, in

white and

robes, facing representatives

hundred communicants from

all

the

.is

of

Dakota

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

196

agencies, filled the clear air of the high plains with sweetly ordered sounds

of praise and prayer.

Meantime,

very different scene was being enacted on the Grand River,

a

forty miles away.

inaugurated chapel, ferred

to

as

if a

religious

rival

moment and by

ceremony had been

No

deliberate design.

Christian

was ever disturbed by the Ghost Dancers, but they pre-

believe,

I

seemed

It

dramatic

at a

their "sacred

plant

near

tree" as

possible

as

to

church or

schoolhouse. They steadily maintained that they, too, worshiped the Christ in this his

From

second appearing!

Saint Elizabeth's

drove to the nearest day school and found half

I

the children absent with their parents, celebrating the strange rites taught

them by Kicking craze, treating

Bear.

At the agency everyone was

as a folly

it

men

most experienced

the steadiest and

new

talking of the

soon to be forgotten. Agent McLaughlin, one of in the service, sent his Indian

police to forbid the dance and order Kicking Bear to leave the reservation.

The prophet

left,

dance. Merely this

but the people were in a defiant

as a

excitement might

tions in a season

At our

last

hung

that

have served

easily

meal on the

as

He

prairie before reaching Pine

nearly to his waist, and the soft voice and ingratiating

conversation,

made on

the spot.

I

"With

still

us

-

look

a

We could not

my

a

We

Good Thunder

crossed Indian reservations and

broad prairie covered with Indians

yellow

hair, clad in a

blue robe.

He

said that

on

his

hands and

I

before

did not

or speak, but read our thoughts and answered without speech.

the prints of the nails

1

saw

feet.

he had come upon the earth once before. Then he had appeared

to the

white people,

to red

men

only.

He

who

had scorned him and

said their crying

finally killed

had sounded loud

him.

Now

had thought

to

he came

in his ears. They

dying of starvation and disease.The Messiah said that he had come

He

manner

penciled notes ot the

whence he came. Suddenly he appeared

man of surpassing beauty, with

at us

He

tell

On

have

three others," said

traveled a long time to find the Christ.

passed through white men's towns. at last

I

Good Thunder, one of the messengers returned man of winning appearance, with hoary locks

of many old-time Sioux.

saw him

Ridge agency,

was an old

characteristic

I

continued to

of gloom and depression.

talked for a long time with

from Nevada.

mood and

charm of the forbidden, an outlet for suppressed emo-

passing novelty, with the added

ro save

were them.

come in three days (explaining to me that meant three years) moved him to pity that he would come tomorrow

but their cries had so

(meaning next summer).

He would

gather together the souls ot

had died and they would be with the

living in Paradise,

all

Indians

\\

ho

once more hunting the

EASTMAN, "THE GHOST DANCE WAR"

and dwelling in skin

buffalo, dressing in skins,

tobacco pouch, and moccasins.

He handed

the

eagle, a

hawk, and

a

dance songs

wait for pipe,

a

two

first

to others standing by, but kept the moccasins. Three birds

- an

Arapaho and Sioux ghost

of

tents as

The souls of thieves and murderers must some time outside. The people offered him old.

dove - attended him.

My I

I

have

Father,

am

story

is

obviously in large part an invention,

learned later that the original "dreamer" was an ate Paiute Indian,

known

Wovoka

as

as

dying of thirst -

-

and blue robe, the

and hint of Purga-

tory are clearly reflected from Christian teaching.

and other accessories

which were

The

are typically Indian. All the

related with a convincing air of buffalo, so necessary

of the plains people. There

to the primitive existence

was no hint of violence or of contemplated war, and

no weapons were carried leaving the land once

of the

in the dance.

wave of earth" would

that "a

first

more

Arapaho

A

nation

is

is

coming

coming, a nation

roll

Some

declared

over the

cities,

The

Eagle has brought the message

to the tribe.

The

father says so, the father says so.

Over the whole earth they The

buffalo are coming, the buffalo

are coming,

The Crow

has brought the message

to the tribe,

The

father says so, the father says so.

Sioux

From The Ghost-Dance

Religion

the Sioux Outbreak of

890, James

Mooney,

The Ghost Dance War

1

The Sioux had been thoroughly "conquered"

I

had never considered the pos-

of another Indian war.

sibility

part,

in the

knew, must be only

Any

resistance

on

a short-lived revolt led

their

by

a

handful of hopeless and desperate men. Yet there was a

growing sense of sides. Futile

fear,

suspicion,

and anxiety on

who

the flame. Those

did not dance

became gradually

infected with a contagious excitement.

enced agent losing

all

all

attempts to forbid the dancing only fanned

at

Pine Ridge,

control,

a

The

inexperi-

recent political appointee,

grew more and more nervous.

There was no secrecy about the dance which had caused such frantic alarm. neither

fire

for a day

nor

or

It

light, after

was held

in

the open, with

the participants had fasted

two and passed through

the purifying

ington:

1

and

4th Annual Report of the

Bureau of Ethnology,

I

are

in undisturbed possession

inhabitants.

eighteen-seventies and

is

coming,

coming.

of the

sincerity, stressed the return

gone!

The whole world a

hair

stories,

is

illiter-

or Jack Wilson

subject to trances, possibly a cataleptic. The yellow

birds

eat,

we

man

nail prints,

on me!

pity

have nothing to

Everything

The

197

GPO,

I

896

I

892-3, Wash-

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

198

Anyone might look

ordeal of the sweat-lodge.

ber night

joined

I

who

only person

a

crowd of

was not

on

on, and

Novem— the

a bright

spectators near Porcupine Tail Butte

a Sioux.

Under the soft glow of the hunter's moon perhaps a hundred men, women, and children, with clasped hands and fingers interlocked, swung in a great circle about their "sacred tree," chanting together the monotonous Ghost Dance songs. The hypnotic repetition of the words: "Once more we shall hunt the buffalo - Our Father has said it!" alternated with short invocations by prophet or priest and occasional intervals of wailing by the

women -

that musical heart-piercing

forgotten.

No

sound which, once heard,

one with imagination could

religious ceremony, a faith

which, illusory

is

never

fail

to see in the rite a genuine

as it

was, deserved to be treated

with respect.

"You have your churches; why can we not have ours?" was

the natural

reaction of the people.

hour or two, one of the worshipers would break

In the course of an

abruptly from the ring, rush wildly about, and for

some time

One

motionless.

old

have touched her. Presently she

woman

stirred,

fall

fell

in a trance or faint, lying

me

so near

that

I

could

got to her feet unaided, and

addressed the gathering in a strong voice:

"My

children,

I

have seen those dear ones

we

long ago!'

lost

"Ah-h-h! He-ye-ye!" responded the people.

"They

are living in a

most beautiful country covered with buffalo!"

"He-ye-ye! Ate heye lo!" (Our Father has said

"Their happy!"

tipis are

(After

of skins. They

each

statement

are feasting

the

it.)

and playing. They

people

intone

are perfectly

deep-voiced

their

response.)

"Here everything looks

hateful to

me - how

The congregation responds with

groans and

repeats that the Messiah will appear "with the

vision will

come

true for

all

can

new

I

bear

cries.

or

rite

The

the

grass" in spring

priest

and the

believers.

After listening to this strange litany for half the night, tent quite

it!"

Then

worn out with sympathetic excitement. The

I

down

lay

spell,

in

my

or incantation,

continued with increasing fervor until dawn. prophets of the Messiah

now began

to instruct their converts that

they should throw away everything brought by the white man. wear only native dress,

and revive the

old, obsolete customs. While there

able trend in this direction,

it

kettles, cotton, cloth, blankets,

w as

a

notice-

was impossible to conform strictly. Knives, and flour - to mention only a few items

had long since become indispensable. Some bows and arrow

s

w ere made.

EASTMAN, "THE GHOST DANCE WAR"

One woman, recovering from of a garment that

her trance, announced that she had been told

must wear.

all

199

It

was

a shirt for

men,

robe for

a

women,

fashioned of coarse unbleached muslin, heavily fringed and painted in symbolic figures.

was supposed to be sewed with sinew for thread. This

It

tawdry imitation of the departed skin clothing was typical of the whole delusion. After troops had

pitiful

come

was asserted

it

that the "sacred

were bullet-proof.

shirts"

Moving on ceived a

to

Medicine Root, some

from the wife of

call

defended the

new

miles from the agency,

fifty

Wound,

re-

I

the local chief. Excitedly she

which her husband had become

cult, in

which was opposed by

Little

leader and

a

strong party of native Christians headed by the

a

Reverend Amos Ross.

On

this

same evening

Little

Wound

himself approached the day school

demanded of him why soldiers were coming. The demanded by the agent had in fact reached Rushville

teacher and indignantly troops so insistently

night

An

seventy miles from Medicine Root) that very evening.

(at least

march brought them

to the

all-

agency by daybreak the next morning.

But neither of us had heard of this nor could we guess

how

Little

Wound

knew.

employees in the outlying

All

immediately

to report

I

my

slept quietly in

The

received peremptory orders

tent within a

While we ridden

all

fright

as

in

There was

a

why

without being sent

way

soon found that

in

this

feet

who

had

which

I

native policeman

a

note from the agent, requesting an

a polite

never learned

the safety of an independent

resented the casual I

I

the open,

the others. Possibly Mr.

and come

sible for

me

night brought

many moccasined

dreams.

sat at breakfast in

immediate interview.

same time

my

there was dancing again

few rods of hundreds of excited

worshipers. Thrilling cries and the dull beat of

mingled strangely with

had not been recalled

I

Royer supposed for.

that

Perhaps he did not

government

officer.

Or

feel

the

at

would

I

take

respon-

he may have

mingled with the people.

time the whole population had been ordered

commotion - ponies hurriedly caught,

great

my

teacher taught half a day for

on horseback. That night

benefit before setting out

and

now

districts

the agency.

at

tents

razed,

goods packed, and the roads were soon black with long convoys moving

two

different directions.

camp. Reluctantly

I

There was nothing

gave the order and

for

me

we covered

to

the

do fifty

in

a

in.

in

deserted

miles before

sunset.

Now order to

that troops

"come

were actually quartered

in" had divided the Sioux.

.it

the agency the unexpected

Many

families

were broken up

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

200

and feeling was intense. Submission was easy for the "church

Ghost Dancers

who

party,"

but the

had defied police authority, fearing summary punish-

fled in terror to the Bad Lands. From that seventeenth day of November on, the thousands encamped close about the agency were known as the "friendlies." Those poor creatures who retreated in despera-

ment,

on such

tion to their natural fortress, subsisting miserably

government herd

as

committed no

tiles"— although they had

was merely

flight

a

part of the

they had been able to carry away, were dubbed "hoshostile act.

stampede and there were no

The

raids

truth

that their

is

whatever outside the

reservation. It

was

waiting

-

seems to uation,

a

time of grim suspense.

as if in

me

We

seemed

some horrid nightmare,

today that

where nations armed

among

Elaine Goodale Eastman, Sister

1978, pp. 136-41,

helplessly

for the inevitable catastrophe.

to the teeth confront

Christmas season of 1890

Eastman, 1885-gi,

—

have already lived once through the European

I

dread and mutual menace. Something like tragic

to be waiting

Kay Graber

on

one another

in

a far smaller scale,

mutual

was

that

the Sioux.

Sioux: The Memoirs of Elaine Goodale

to the

(ed.),

it,

It

sit-

Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,

H3-5, 148-52.

M.K.

GANDHI,

FROM HIND SWARAJ Written

- and

as a

pamphlet

definition of

in

1910, Hind Swaraj

- home

rule for India.

is

He

a

young Mahatma Gandhi's

argues that

if

call

for

the Indian people are

to be free of English political and economic rule they must also free themselves

from

British,

interlocutor,

and modern European, culture. As Gandhi asks of

"Why do you

their presence at

all

possible?"

If

the master's house

cannot be done with the master's tools.

makes in

his

his

imaginary

forget that our adoption of their civilization makes

famous appeal for

India to

It

weave

is

its

from

own

this

is

to be dismantled,

it

vantage point that he

cloth, Khaddar, to "establish

thousands of households the ancient and sacred handlooms," not only to

break the

more

classic

economic dependency that binds the colony to

importantly, to free oneself mentally and spiritually from

and materialism. Gandhi, however, also understands the asking,

acknowledging

him to disseminate

in

closing that

his ideas

it

is

a

Western

colonizer, but

Western machines

difficulty

of

what he

is

printing press that allows

of doing away with printing presses.

GANDHI, FROM HIND SWARAJ

M.K.

How Can Reader:

I

Editor:

I

duty

is

do the

I

cannot take in

would you suggest

do,

Free?

appreciate your views about civilization.

over them.

you

Become

India

rest.

We

will have to think

I

once. What, then, holding the views

for freeing India?

my

do not expect

to place

all at

201

views to be accepted

of

all

a

My

sudden.

readers like yourself. Time can be trusted to

them before

have already examined the conditions for freeing India,

we have done so indirectly; we will now do so directly. It is a worldknown maxim that the removal of the cause of a disease results in the

but

removal of the disease

account for

observed that that

wanting,

is

outlives

its

become

enslaved. Because

to

is

who

we

we

are in

we

can see

thought you have rule ourselves. this

we

Swaraj

I

of Swaraj.

therefore, in the

Swaraj to be like a dream.

it,

we

will

But

we

it is

free,

its

strength

if

so,

we

India

to

civiliza-

own

there

is

me

no is

but

it is

bear in

as

well

mind

the

free. And in this when we learn to

Do

not consider

idea of sitting

such

is

is

palm of our hands.

Hence

is

think the whole of

not

Swaraj

It is

wish to picture before you and

once realized

civilization

think the whole universe

matter of fact,

we become

a definition

It is,

That

be

to

is

measure the universe by our

are slaves,

a

that, if

it

Moreover, the whole of India

an abject condition,

As

in that condition.

fact,

how do you

have been affected by western

We

enslaved.

trail.

in jeopardy.

impute our slavery to the whole of India. But

above

all,

Because the sons of India were found

ability to survive the shock.

miserable foot-rule. When

India

the best of

say,

have been on their

it.

not touched. Those alone

tion have

you

been placed

civilization has

its

be seen in

as

unquestionably the best, but

is

civilizations

all

permanent

is

is,

India's slavery?

This civilization

Editor:

be

India's slavery

free.

If Indian civilization

Reader:

of

Similarly, if the cause

itself.

removed, India can become

that, after

still.

we

The have

endeavour to the end of our lifetime to per-

suade others to do likewise. But such Swaraj has to be experienced by

each one for himself. ourselves,

you sion

it

of the

is

mere pretension it is

English.

civilization, there

Pleader:

a

will have seen that

accommodate them. state

One drowning man

would be

If

If

will never save another. Slaves

to think

not necessary to have the

English

become

of freeing others. as

Now

our goal the expul-

Indianized,

we

can

they wish to remain in India along with their

no room

for

them.

It

lies

with us to bring such

of things. It

is

impossible

tli.it

Englishmen should ever become Indianized

a

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

202

To

Editor:

say that

humanity

become are

And it is really beside If we keep our own house

so or not.

to live in

fit

equivalent to saying that the English have

is

them.

in

who

in order, only those

will remain, others will leave

it

no

the point whether they

on

their

own

accord.

Such things occur within the experience of all of us.

But

Reader:

To

Editor: at all

is

believe that

what has not occurred

to argue disbelief in the dignity

what appeals

to try

tioned.

We

has not occurred in history.

it

The

rate, it

behoves us

our reason. All countries are not similarly condi-

to

condition of India

need not,

not occur

in history will

of man. At any

unique.

is

Its

therefore, refer to the history

strength

immeasurable.

is

of other countries.

when other civilizations cumbed, the Indians have survived many a shock. Reader: I cannot follow this. There seems little doubt that we drawn attention

by force of arms. So long

to expel the English

we

cannot

happiness.

One

rest.

We

of our poets

Our

of the English.

have

shall

they are in the country,

says that slaves

cannot even dream of

by day becoming weakened owing to the presence

are day

men. The English

as

have

I

have suc-

to the fact that,

greatness

are in the

is

gone, our people look like terrified

country

like a blight

which we must remove

by every means. In your excitement,

Editor:

ering. that

We

brought the English, and

our adoption of their

possible?

all

you have forgotten

Your hatred

we

have been consid-

we keep them. Why do you

civilization

against

all

makes

forget

their presence in India at

them should be

transferred to their

civilization.

Machinery

When

Reader:

you

will also say that

By

Editor:

received. I

you speak of driving out Western

When

think of

it

ished India.

done

we want no

raising this question

to us.

I

It is

is

due

to

suppose

machinery.

Mr Dutt's Economic History of India, my heart sickens. It is machinery that

difficult to

I

you have opened the wound

read

again, It

civilization.

I

as

has impover-

measure the harm that Manchester

Manchester

had

1

wept: and.

that Indian handicraft has

all

1

has

but dis-

appeared.

But

I

make

Manchester

when

I

a mistake.

cloth,

How

and that

is

can Manchester be blamed?

why Manchester win e

it.

1

We

w ore

w as delighted

read about the bravery of Bengal. There are no cloth-mills

in that Presidency.

They

were, therefore, able to restore the original

GANDHI, FROM HIND SWARAJ

M.K.

hand-weaving occupation. of Bombay.

try

goods,

would have been much

it

Machinery has begun ing

at

the English gates.

civilization;

Bengal encourages the mill indus-

true,

It is

had proclaimed

If Bengal

203

boycott of all machine-made

a

better.

Ruination

to desolate Europe.

Machinery

now knock-

is

the chief symbol of

is

modern

represents a great sin.

it

The workers

in the mills

of Bombay have become

slaves.

The condi-

women working in the mills is shocking. When there w ere these women were not starving. If the machinery craze grows

tion of the

no in

mills,

our country,

heresy, but

will

it

become an unhappy

am bound

I

to say that

Manchester and use flimsy Manchester India.

By

land.

was better

it

It

may be

considered

for us to send

money

cloth, than to multiply mills in

we would only waste our money, India, we shall keep our money at

using Manchester cloth

by reproducing Manchester

in

but the

price of our blood, because our very moral being will be sapped, and call in

those

support of

who

my

a

to

statement the very mill-hands

as

witnesses.

I

And

have amassed wealth out of factories are not likely to be

better than other rich

men.

would be

It

folly to

assume that an Indian

Rockefeller would be better than the American Rockefeller. Impoverished India can be free, but

it

be hard for an India made rich

will

fear that we will have to men support British rule; their interest is bound up Money renders a man helpless. The other thing is as

through immortality to regain

its

freedom.

I

admit that moneyed with their

harmful

stability.

as

sexual vice.

Both

are poison.

A

snake-bite

lesser

is

poison

than these two, because the former merely destroys the body, but the latter destroy

body,

mind and

soul.

We

need not,

therefore, be pleased

with the prospect of growth of the mill industry. Reader:

Are the

Editor:

That

established.

is

mills, then, to difficult. It

We,

It

be closed down?

no easy

therefore, say

supreme wisdom. them.

is

We

cannot

would be too much

may implore them not

do away with

a

thing that

the non-beginning of a thing

that

condemn

to expect

to increase

would gradually contract

task to

mill-owners;

them

them.

their business.

If

to give

we

up the

is

is

can but pity mills,

but

we

they would be good, they

They can

establish in

thousands

of households the ancient and sacred hand-looms, and they can buy out the cloth that

may be

thus woven.

not, people can cease to use

Reader:

You have

Whether

the mill

owners do

this

or

machine-made goods.

so far spoken about

machine-made

innumerable machine-made things. We have either introduce machinery into our country.

to

cloth, but there are

import them or

to

204

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE Indeed, our gods even are

Editor:

made

speak of matches, pins and glassware?

in

My

Germany. What need then

to

answer can be only one. What

did India do before these articles were introduced? Precisely the same as we cannot make pins without we do without them. The tinsel splendour of glassware we will have nothing to do with, and we will make wicks, as of old, with home-grown cotton, and use hand-made earthen saucers for lamps. So doing, we shall save our eyes and money, and will support Swadeshi, and so shall we attain Home Rule. It is not to be conceived that all men will do all these things at one time, or that some men will give up all machine-made things at once. But, if the thought is sound, we will always find out what we can give up, and will gradually cease to use this. What a few may do, others will copy, and the movement will grow like the coconut of the mathematical problem. What the leaders do, the populace will gladly follow. The matter is neither complicated nor difficult. You and I shall not wait until we can carry others with us. Those will be the losers who will not do it;

should be done to-day. As long

machinery, so long will

who

and those

will not

do

it,

although they appreciate the truth, will

deserve to be called cowards. Reader:

What, then, of the tram-cars and

Editor:

This question

is

without the railways,

Machinery hundred

like

is

snakes.

where there

now too late. It we shall have

Where

there

cial

is

nothing. If we are to do

do without the tram-cars.

to

snake-hole which

a

may

contain from one to

machinery there

light.

Honest physicians

are large cities;

and

are large cities, there are tram-cars

only does one see electric these things.

electricity?

signifies

railways;

when

that,

money, the

receipts

doctors, single

will tell

you

that,

where means of artifi-

a

European town there was

to demonstrate Is

it

a

a

suffered.

scarcity-

of the tram- way company, of the lawyers and

went down, and the people were

good point

Reader:

in

and there

English villages do not boast any of

locomotion have increased, the health of the people have

remember

a

and

less

unhealthy.

I

cannot

I

of

of the recall a

connection with machinery. Books can be written

in

its evils.

good point or bad one

that

all

you

are saying will be

printed through machinery? Editor:

poison

This is

is

one of those instances which demonstrate

used to

kill

ing machinery. As

poison. This, then, will not be

it

expires, the

machinery,

as

a it

that

sometimes

good point regardwere, says to

us:

'Beware and avoid me. You will derive no benefit from me. and the benefit that

may

accrue from printing will

avail

only those

who

arc

M.K.

GANDHI, FROM HIND SWARAJ

infected with the machinery-craze.' thing.

It is

do away with

whereby we may

it.

Home

Indian

boon,

a

is

bad.

We

shall

then be

Nature has not provided any way

reach a desired goal

coming machinery as would ultimately go.

main

not, therefore, forget the

necessary to realize that machinery

able gradually to

M.K. Gandhi,

Do

205

all

of a sudden.

If,

we would look upon

Ganesh

Rule, Madras:

&

instead of welit

an

as

Co. (Nationalist

evil,

it

Press),

1919.pp.71-5, 118-24.

C.L.R.

JAMES,

FROM BEYOND

BOUNDARY

A

This next selection further complicates the debate of cultures of resistance

versus cultures of oppression.

renowned Marxist

Growing up

fanatic.

in

from a memoir of sorts by C.L.R. James, the

It is

critic, radical

historian,

West

Indian nationalist, and cricket

Trinidad, at the time a British colony,

at an English school, read English authors,

James was educated

and played English sports.

education, the literature, the cricket, reinforced the English

All this:

the

way of seeing the

world; as James writes: "everything began from the basis that Britain was the

source of learn."

culture,

all

and leading, and our business was to admire, wonder, imitate,

light

was the culture of imperialism. But

It

it

racism determines the selection of the

West

more

in

becomes

all

the

sportsmanship and ironically,

West

was

also James's

- and Trinidad's -

something they identified with and held dear. And so when

through

evident for flying

"fair play" that

the face of the cultural norms of

the English themselves have

British culture itself that the early

Indian nationalism expresses

British

Indies cricket team, the injustice

instilled.

It

is,

rumblings of anti-British

itself.

Against the Current

We know

nothing, nothing

My

father

had given

was

.1

the

at all, of the results of what we do to children. me a bat and ball, had learnt to play and at eighteen good cricketer. What a fiction! In reality my life up to ten had laid

powder

for

mittently for

a

war

I

that lasted

some time

without

afterwards

-

a

respite for eight years,

and

inter-

war between English Puritanism,

English literature and cricket, and the realism of West Indian

life.

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

206

now

only

It is

as

all

- and

there were

to

know

that

I

when

January 191 1

I

stood for and

write that

put

I

my

carried within all

I

that

to

my

me,

a catastrophe

me.

so interested in

on the

to

in

it?

My

my

teachers and

family.

My

effort,

done

credit to

stood

it. I

have

a

mastery over

my mother

myself.

it

said,

with

I

my own

and Aunt Judith

could not explain

understand I

blush to

I

my own

mastered thoroughly the principles of cricket and of English

I

and attained

ature,

it

if

character

a gratitude that

at that little

liter-

which would have

only they could have under-

to their often tear-stained faces for

look back

was

scholastic

the same time, almost entirely by

at

formally

all it

scholastic career

shortcomings were accompanied by breaches of discipline which think of even today. But

for

they

of the college building in

steps

do

was

I

How were

the seeds of revolt against

was supposed

I

one long nightmare

foot

me

what

fully realize

many - who were

did not

I

boy with amazement, and,

grows every

day.

But

as

for his unshakable

defiance of the whole world around him, and his determination to stick to

own

his

ideas,

me

nothing could have saved

becoming an Honourable Member of the

my whole The

On

the

from winning

Legislative

a scholarship,

Council and ruining

life.

first first

temptation was cricket and

I

succumbed without

a struggle.

you wanted

to play, to

day of the term you were invited,

if

name on a paper pinned to the school notice-board. I wrote down mine. The next day the names appeared divided up into five elevens. The college had its own ground in the rear of the building and with a little crowding there was room for five elevens. That afternoon the elevens met

write your

and elected cricket

their captains. Later, as

and soccer elevens,

took

I

We

managed our own

became the elevens, a

secretary

wrote

I

affairs

kept

a

grew older and won

my

the secretaries and the committees. did.

I

A

my

place in the

part in the elections of the captains,

master presided, but that was

from the

fifth

eleven to the

first.

check on the implements used

down what was wanted on

a sheet

of paper, had

it

all

he

When

in

all

I

the

signed by

master and went off to buy them myself for over two hundred boys. We

own teams, awarded colours ourselves, obeyed our captains implicitly. For me it was life and education. I began to study Latin and French, then Greek, and much else. But parlearnt and obeyed and taught a code, the English ticularly we learnt, chose our

I

public-school code. Britain and her colonies and the colonial peoples.

What do the British people know of what they have done there? Precious little. The colonial peoples, particularly West Indians, scarcely know themselves as yet.

One

It

has taken

me

a

long time to begin to understand.

afternoon in 1956, being

at that

time deep

in this

hook.

I

sat in a

FROM BEYOND

C. L.R.JAMES,

Manchester, listening to

hall in

under much

He

critics.

Mr

Aneurin Bevan.

BOUNDARY

A

Mr

207

Bevan had been

criticism for not playing with the team', and he answered his

them and brought

devastated

audience to

his

a

pitch of high

and continuous laughter by turning inside out and ripping

receptivity

holes in such concepts as 'playing with the team', 'keeping a

and the

'playing with a straight bat'

rest

of them.

stiff

too had had

I

upper

my

lip',

fun with

them on the public platform often enough, but by 1956 I was engaged in a more respectful re-examination and I believe I was the solitary person among those many hundreds who was not going all the way with Mr

Mr Bevan had had enough of it Mr Michael Foot. 'Michael is knows more about these things than Mr

Bevan. Perhaps there was one other. When

he tossed the

ball lightly to his fellow speaker,

an old public-school boy and he

Foot smiled, but

if

I

not mistaken the smile was cryptic.

Mr

smiled too, but not whole-heartedly. In the midst of his fireworks

I

Bevan had dropped the

am

I.'

Labour

Party,

I

a single

sentence that tolled like

was brought up

in

And

it.'

I

a bell.

'I

did not join

had been brought up

in the

public-school code. It

came

from the masters,

doctrinally

who

for

two generations, from the

foundation of the school, had been Oxford and Cambridge men. The striking thing was that inside

the

we

lied

Sneaking was taboo, but

know

By common understanding did not cheat. Otherwise we

did.

I

classrooms the code had

scholarships

success.

little

and cheated without any sense of shame.

I

the boys sitting for the valuable

submitted, or did not submit, to

moral discipline, according to upbringing and temperament.

But

as

soon

as

we

stepped on to the cricket or football

ticularly the cricket field,

some white

children of blacks

was changed.

all

We

were

a

field,

more

par-

motley crew. The

and white business men, middle-class

officials

and mulattos, Chinese boys, some of whose parents

still

spoke

broken English, Indian boys, some of whose parents could speak no English at

all,

who

and some poor black boys

parents had starved and toiled

ing their hard-earned

we

rapidly

however

learned

irrational

plots

money on

to

had

won

exhibitions or

giving the eldest boy an education. Yet

We

learned to play with the team, which meant

subordinating your personal inclinations, and even interest, to the the whole. fortune. easily to

on

We

We

kept a

did not

our

vic tories,

lips.

even

stiff

upper

denounce

We

whose

of agricultural land and were spend-

obey the umpire's decision without question,

was.

it

on

lip in that

failures,

were generous

when we knew

to

we

good of

did not complain about

ill-

but 'Well tried' or 'Hard luck' came

opponents and congratulated them

they did not deserve

worlds. Inside the classrooms the heterogeneous

it.

We

lived in

two

jumble of Trinidad was

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

208

down

battered and jostled and shaken

we

playing field

into

some

observe every rule. But the majority of the boys did. respected boys were precisely the ones

ance of youth, from

all

sides

Harrow had nothing on

and, with the cruelty and intoler-

fierce,

self-imposed discipline were the magazines

from hand

us

to hand.

magazine called The Captain, annual of which only one: Young England, the

tively.

To

The books we all this

took

I

remember

I

read in class meant

many

twice

as

done.

One

name of

the

by P.G.Wodehouse and scores of lived by, the

the pores and practised instinc-

little

most of us.

to

The

in water.

of teams, the keeping of

real people.

any other boy.

when

day

overs',

with

life

as

from England

maiden

young duck

as a

Paper, a

organizing of boys into

scores,

all

that

had been

I

second-hand with Grace and Ranjitsinhji and Trump er

at

practised in real

fresh

stories

we absorbed through

elevens, the selection

doing

Mike

Own

The Boy's

books and magazines. These we understood, these we

similar

principles they taught

and most-

best

our denunciations poured in on him. Eton or

among

that passed

The

us.

Another source of this and books

I

I

said to

now

I

read the boys' books and magazines,

I

knew what was done and what was

bowled three maiden overs

and

in succession

a

not

boy

me, 'James, you must take yourself off now, three

was disturbed.

I

the

always kept them. When a boy

who

knew what he had done

broke them he

On

of order.

sort

did what ought to be done. Every individual did not

had not heard that one before,

I

boy was

this

from England and so he probably knew. Before very long Puritan.

I

never cheated,

the batsman was out,

defeated opponent, stretch

I

I

I

never appealed for

My

as

From

it I

I

took

It

as stoically as

has never

life this

left

me.

I

it

as a boy,

I

West

and people

enough, but lenged

my

years

was

I

a cricket

having to write about myself,

Indies,

friends,

many

I

was

as

integrity.

who Thus

it

as

was

my own

the Angel Gabriel, and that

I

I

I

again.

it

it

and

my

club, I

it

as

times,

at

cared.

I

correspondent

hated me. Mistakes in judgment

righteous

could. If

do

to

I

couldn't care more. For

I

to a

have obeyed

I

I

I

a

code became the moral framew ork learnt

I

try not to

man and now can no longer laugh at it. failed to live up but when did knew and that is what matters. had a clue a

at

pulled up. If afterw ards

I

took an inward decision to

the eight years of school

of my existence.

never jeered

belonging to an enemy or

caught myself complaining or making excuses,

remembered doing

I

is

thought

I

never gave to a friend a vote or a place which by any

and disappointments

defeats

decision unless

a

never argued with the umpire,

of imagination could be seen

stranger.

name

acquired a discipline *for which the only

I

m

I

the

intimate

made

no one ever

often chal-

could not join whole-heartedly

in

FROM BEYOND

C. L.R.JAMES,

Mr

the laughter at

acquire this code

continuous

ness,

My

and even

lies,

Nobody

stealing.

do

did not

much

I

me, punished me, flogged me.

one term and

from grace

fall

if

prizes

wanted

I

and ultimately to

could. The

I

might

fell

I

below

could keep up in school, but an

Government money and had

My

it.

again. Then

came

a

resolutions,

do well

resounding scandal.

I

reported to the Board of Education and threatened with the loss of exhibition.

who

appeared in the public Press and

It

to

distracted father lectured

would make good

I

be,

better if he tried'.

difficulty

exhibition winner was being paid for by

maintain a certain standard.

win

lessons,

reports 'Bad' or 'Good', as the case

Without any

try.

my

every doubted that

my

regularly in

but usually added, 'Could do I

209

Bevan's witticisms. Particularly so because in order to

scholarship.

masters wrote

BOUNDARY

was driven to evasions, disobedience, open rebellious-

I

business at school was to

win the

A

for

was

my

the teaching fraternity,

all

always read the reports of the meetings of the Board, read

and thus

it,

learned what was happening to the prospective scholarship winner and

Honourable ings, the I

Member

whole

of the Legislative Council. There were family meet-

me and make me see the error of my ways. my own chances. My godfather was a teacher, teacher, my sister's godfather was a teacher. The status in the teaching profession, my father was an

family, to talk to

was not only ruining

husband was

Judith's

James clan had

acknowledged grace

a

a

proud

star in that

upon him and

all

firmament and here was

was given orders to stop playing and get

I

couldn't do

it. I

would

one

last

over and then

excuses which

When

I

calculate that

Then

to catch the train.

it

I

it

I

would think

was too

would allow

home by a certain train. just take me twenty-five minutes I

could do

I

late to try

me

to stay

borrowed

smashed them.

letters,

flannels,

borrowed

tested.

lived normally.

clothes,

on

anyway.

live

I

invented beforehand late train.

I

borrowed money

life,

me

finally

me

to pay

my

fare,

I

devised

I

to perform,

forged

I

borrowed

and borrowed money to repair them when entangled in such

and borrowed money as a sort

a

that

it

web of lies, forged was no wonder that

of trial from heaven sent to

my

father

test

them

relented

and

as I

But then bad reports would come, the prohibitions would

wanted was the

I

then just

in twenty,

and play and take the

There were periods when

be re-imposed and All

was

I

the family looked

Job was

it

got into the eleven there were matches on Saturdays.

bicycles to ride to the matches I

bringing public dis-

would

Saturday duties which the masters had asked letters,

I

of them.

I

would plan

to play cricket

to evade them.

I

was not

a vicious boy.

and soccer, not merely to play but to

and nothing could stop me.

When

all

my

tricks

and plans

DISMANTLING THE MASTER'S HOUSE

210

and evasion

failed,

went and played and

just

I

said

to

with the

hell

consequences.

Two cipline

people lived in me: one, the rebel against

and order; the other,

a

family and school dis-

all

who would

Puritan

have cut off

a finger

sooner than do anything contrary to the ethics of the game.

To complicate

my

troubled

life

my

with

Royal College fed the other of my two obsessions, English I

entered the school

ties

at

ten

my

offered completed

it

considered to be

my

was already primed for

I

duty.

it,

literature.

its

my

classrooms.

Latin with Virgil, Caesar and Horace, and wrote Latin verse.

Greek with Euripides andThucydides. ematics, French

and French

I

modern European

same school

to the

for

some

system from within. As schools go,

would have been more

What

did

all

that besides

this

suitable to

it

volumes

I

I

at a time,

came

to

a

and read them in 1932

for

I

studied

history.

I

I

literature.

took certain

I

and so saw the

very good school, though

it

of Spain.

to Port

discovered in the college library

Thackeray had written

England

studied

was fortunate enough to

Portsmouth than

most of them with pictures by himself?

when

I

years as a teacher

was

me when

matter to

Vanity Fair

and English

English

examinations which were useful for getting jobs.

go back

father

I

did elementary and applied math-

literature,

English history, ancient and

When

and the opportuni-

ruin for what the school and

spent eight years in

I

Queen's

distracted family the

read

thirty-six other volumes,

them through

twenty years

and read him only

after.

(I

straight,

two

stopped only

sporadically.

Recently

have started again.) After Thackeray there was Dickens, George Eliot and

the

whole bunch of English

novelists.

Then followed

the poets in

Matthew

Arnold's selections, Shelley, Keats and Byron; Milton and Spenser. But in the public library in

Don Juan.

I

town

there was everything, Fielding, Byron, with

discovered criticism: Hazlitt,

and Gosse, The Encyclopaedia

me

to the speeches:

bly

remember

all

essay or a passage

the time

I

Britannica,

Lamb and

I

read then, and every

and find

that

had read

I

read the boys' books,

ot

Chambers' Encyclopaedia. Burke led

Canning, Lord Brougham, John Bright.

that

all

Coleridge, Saintsbury

it

now and before

Eric, or Little

by

I

then

I

I

cannot possi-

still

look up an

was eighteen.

Little.

Sr Winifred

And '