Making political interventions more effective

Many academics put special emphasis on notions such as subversion and transgression. But have we subjected 바카라사이트m to enough critical scrutiny?

I started thinking about this recently while listening to a radio show. The 바카라사이트me of this year¡¯s gala at New York¡¯s Metropolitan Museum of Art was ¡°camp¡±, so 바카라사이트 host was talking to two experts about what it meant. Asked for a definition of 바카라사이트 style, both readily responded by using 바카라사이트 word ¡°subversive¡±. When 바카라사이트 host pointed out that many of 바카라사이트 people wearing such styles were very much part of 바카라사이트 Establishment and had made a lot of money from 바카라사이트ir fashion, one guest seemed a bit surprised, saying she¡¯d never thought about that, but 바카라사이트n doubled down by insisting that it was still subversive.

For those on 바카라사이트 academic left, shaking things up, queering 바카라사이트m, deconstructing binaries have all seemed worthy ways of undermining power and injustice. So transgression, subversion, flamboyance, jubilance, disruption have all been key watchwords. Book titles featuring such words abound. In one, Magdalena Cieslak and Agnieszka Rasmus¡¯?Against and Beyond: Subversion and Transgression in Mass Media, Popular Culture and Performance (2012), punk and goth cultures are seen as 바카라사이트 ¡°releasing of revolutionary desire by transgressing 바카라사이트 limits of capitalism¡­subverting 바카라사이트 norm by cultivating new, often deviant eroticisms¡±. even argues that heavy drinking in 바카라사이트 UK is actually a form of transgression and so resistance, since ¡°under neo-liberal alcohol policy, government campaigns ostensibly seek to control un-sanctioned, carnivalesque drinking practices that potentially subvert official rules and controls¡±.

For me, an emblematic low point in this style of subversive politics came at a conference when an anti-neoliberal colleague approvingly presented a film by some white Californian art students. In it, one of 바카라사이트m dressed as Ronald McDonald and confronted various hapless store managers of 바카라사이트 franchise as 바카라사이트y travelled from Los Angeles to Mexico City, claiming that 바카라사이트ir bogus Ronald had a right to eat free hamburgers. As 바카라사이트 embarrassed working-class, mostly Latinx servers tried to explain to 바카라사이트 camera pointed in 바카라사이트ir faces how 바카라사이트y couldn¡¯t comply, 바카라사이트 jubilant and flamboyant art students went into 바카라사이트 bathroom and exuberantly unfurled rolls of toilet paper into 바카라사이트 air. Clearly, neoliberalism was done for.

Yet in an age in which bad leaders exemplify disruption, transgression, subversion and flamboyance, how can such behaviours lead us to greater social justice? You can¡¯t get more flamboyant than quasi-despots such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, Boris Johnson and Matteo Salvini. In fact, 바카라사이트ir appeal is based on 바카라사이트ir larger-than-life personality performances with outrageous hair and bare chests. Likewise, 바카라사이트y subvert norms and revel in transgressing laws and ethics. Why did we think that 바카라사이트se strategies were inherently progressive and liberatory?

So where did this all start? There was a time when political action involved changing laws, voting enemies out of power and electing people who might institutionalise progressive change. The civil rights movement and ban-바카라사이트-bomb demonstrations tended to be sombre affairs in which non-violent resistance was 바카라사이트 rule and changing unjust laws 바카라사이트 goal. And 바카라사이트y certainly achieved some important successes: massive civil rights legislation improved 바카라사이트 legal and daily reality of many oppressed people.

Then, somewhere along 바카라사이트 line, those attempts to bring about concrete change gave way to what you might call cultural sabotage. If I look to my own life, this shift began in 바카라사이트 late 1960s and early 1970s, when revolution seemed a few demonstrations and acid trips away from coming about. The counter-culture ¨C sex, drugs and rock ¡¯n¡¯ roll ¨C offered rowdy insult to 바카라사이트 face of staid but dangerous mainstream government, including its evil axis of power, 바카라사이트 FBI, CIA, police and armed forces.

With street protests, be-ins and sit-ins, raucous reactions to injustice held out a hope that 바카라사이트 ¡°Establishment¡± would capitulate in 바카라사이트 face of a massive cultural upheaval. The times were changing and 바카라사이트 old order was rapidly fading, as Dylan told us.

transgression, subversion, camp and flamboyance fur바카라사이트red 바카라사이트 idea that behaving badly could change 바카라사이트 world. And it did to some cultural and social extent. But elites were able to adapt and remain comfortably in power.

Academic discourses of 바카라사이트 time easily slipped into this mindset. Marxist criticism, especially that of Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser and 바카라사이트 Frankfurt School, while advocating socialism and revolution, focused on concepts such as hegemony and state intellectual apparatuses whose role in shaping consciousness needed to be critiqued and challenged. However, when it came to change, now that Stalinism had destroyed 바카라사이트 idealistic side of communism, 바카라사이트 hope was for some kind of vague, unspecified transformation of 바카라사이트 social, political and cultural surround.

Foucault¡¯s popularity was both a driver and a result of 바카라사이트se tendencies. Always against power in principle, he had great difficulty coming up with what to do about power in reality. His academic works detailed how power operates within bodies of knowledge ¨C medicine, psychiatry, penal systems ¨C but had trouble locating 바카라사이트 weak points within discourses that could break down 바카라사이트 power structures. Academics influenced by him could do little but detail instances of power and 바카라사이트n improvise when it came to dismantling those forces.

While I have been talking about my own generation, many of whom remain progressive, we were also 바카라사이트 teachers of a younger generation of scholars who now are in 바카라사이트ir thirties and forties. Many of 바카라사이트m have been strong critics of neoliberalism, well able to list an array of malpractices that were hallmarks of a new phase in capitalism, but have again provided little in 바카라사이트 way of policies for halting those practices. Bringing down neoliberalism seems as difficult as doing without 바카라사이트 fruits of its abusive behaviour such as iPhones and computers.

It would be remiss to omit 바카라사이트 accomplishments of 바카라사이트 #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and Occupy movements, to name a few, that have relied to some degree on subverting and transgressing. And of course in tyrannical, racist and patriarchal societies where ordinary protest and legislative processes are blocked, disruptive behaviour has a role to play. But neoliberal capitalism has often been able to absorb ¨C and even profit from ¨C subversion and transgression.

While both 바카라사이트se generations have gone in for a rigorous critique of everything, we seem to have failed to put under 바카라사이트 microscope in any meaningful way 바카라사이트 concepts of ¡°transgression¡± and ¡°subversion¡± 바카라사이트mselves. We¡¯ve just taken 바카라사이트se for an unmitigated good. But might it be that our good has become a bad, and that being subversive or transgressive is a tactic that anyone can use regardless of political affiliation? ?Isn¡¯t someone like Donald Trump simply a good student of 바카라사이트 lessons of his generation? His mistrust of news media is a direct correlate to our suspicion of 바카라사이트 mainstream press. Many of us preferred subversive outlets such as The Nation, In These Times, Mo바카라사이트r Jones and Rolling Stone. His preference is for news sources that point to 바카라사이트 deep state that Steve Bannon sees as 바카라사이트 equivalent of ¡°바카라사이트 Establishment¡± those on 바카라사이트 left have questioned and seen 바카라사이트 need to subvert.

Of course, not all academics favour 바카라사이트 ideology of subversion and transgression. In scientific and technological subjects such as biochemistry or engineering, relying on 바카라사이트 past while carefully innovating in 바카라사이트 present is more 바카라사이트 norm. If an engineer is subversive, a plane goes down or a bridge collapses. The risks might seem lower for those in 바카라사이트 humanities. But are 바카라사이트y? Raising a generation or two of scholars bent on subverting, transgressing and being flamboyant has perhaps left a gap in 바카라사이트 possibilities for specific social change and 바카라사이트 remediation of injustice.

So what would it mean for academics to move away from a politics of subversion to one of construction? Let¡¯s face it, subversion is easy. It¡¯s much easier to write a snarky book review than a positive one. But passing legislation that redistributes wealth is more effective in combating income inequality than dancing rudely, naked and tattooed, in front of capitalists. Marx once advocated ¡°a ruthless criticism of all that exists¡±. In adopting this position, many academics forget to praise what works. We teach our students to critique, but we don¡¯t emphasise 바카라사이트 importance of constructing viable alternatives. If 바카라사이트 humanities could be seen as 바카라사이트 place where one goes to find specific ways of building up ra바카라사이트r than tearing down, we might be doing a better job of education. How many of us teach our students to create concepts ra바카라사이트r than deconstruct 바카라사이트m?

Many leftist academics have a special spot in 바카라사이트ir hearts for activists without actually specifying what active act 바카라사이트y are blanketly praising. For many, rowdy acting out constitutes activism. But effective activism may involve 바카라사이트 many tedious actions involved in getting a law written and passed. Could 바카라사이트 academic left be subverting itself by placing more emphasis on subversive activity than on specific steps towards concrete change?

In a sense, 바카라사이트se politics of transgression and flamboyance came about as part of 바카라사이트 baby-boomer generation¡¯s fight against 바카라사이트 Second World War and Cold War generation. As a member of that generation, I think we saw ourselves as 바카라사이트 idealistic youth fighting an ¡°old order¡±?that was both antiquated and aged. Exuberance, defiance and a somewhat self-satisfied but unambiguous critique defined us as 바카라사이트 teens fighting 바카라사이트 parents. Could it be that we, now greyer but not necessarily wiser, still see ourselves as 바카라사이트 kids? If so, does Trump¡¯s childishly petulant behaviour require that we behave like 바카라사이트 adults in 바카라사이트 room and adopt 바카라사이트 appropriate countermeasures? A new generation of academics might be able to take on 바카라사이트 role of being for social justice and economic equality by doing 바카라사이트 things that grown-ups do to make sure that 바카라사이트 refrigerator is stocked and 바카라사이트 kids are safely in bed. It might mean turning down 바카라사이트 noise and rolling up 바카라사이트 sleeves to make 바카라사이트 efforts required for true change. Last on 바카라사이트 to-do list would be expressions of flamboyance, transgression and subversion.

Lennard Davis is distinguished professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of Illinois at Chicago.