March 28, 2004
Cultural Struggle
I found a good post (non-permalink? in which case archive at March 18 "the urban experience") at a blog called Living on Less. It's a review of a book by David Harvey called "The Urban Experience" outlining the contradictions inherent in trying to create progressive autonomous communities within capitalism. I think it nicely summarizes the stalemate of urban theory. There can be no progressive theory unless this stalemate is overcome.
It outlines why "cultural" struggle is difficult -- culture is basically about consumption, the rules of objects that provide a framework for shared activity. These rules and rituals of consumption can be used to create social space, but this space can be easily trumped by the deterritorialization of the market. In order to prevent this, it would be necessary to put up very strong barriers and constantly guard against infiltration, which in turn easily gives way to paranoia and repression. This knife-edge throws the entire "progressive" nature of the project into question.
So this is obviously why struggle over production is vastly preferable. But this struggle still needs cultural support: Union struggles, for instance, cannot effectively develop if producers are seen to be screwing over consumers by waging union struggle. So we're back to the need for a culture of struggle to relate producers and consumers.
The revolutionary party is an advanced form of this culture, but we're so far away from party consciousness that discussing it is little more than a bad joke. The party is a uniform, and we don't even know how to make the appropriate fabric, let alone how to cut it. So where does that leave us?
A few ideas:
First of all, the struggle has to be waged from the side of production. It is the rule-boundedness of specific cultures that makes them so easily out-maneuvered by the market. If a subculture is appealing, and offers advantages over the dominant culture, more people want to get into it. If this culture is determined by a closed set of objects and esoteric rules for their usage, the esoterica gets swamped by the influx of new people and new needs, and the objects can be mass-produced for cheaper than the artisanal method that "cultural autonomy" implies. Checkmate.
Add to this the inestimable value of functioning urban space, and the eagerness of finance capital to realize a profit, and multiply the willingness of mayors to use police violence in service of law & order, and there's a stark limit to how far this struggle can go without a tight relation to the power of production.
Secondly, we need to take into consideration the radical recombination that now occurs daily in the urban context beneath the innocuous moniker "commuting." The socialization of transportation is historically intwined with the destruction of ghettos: police enforced street-clearance to "open up" neighborhoods, raising slums to build highways, housing projects built with the specific exclusion of jobs written into their charters, etc. The culture that has been produced, a kind of "hyper-culture," is staggering, mutated and quite monstrous, and needs to be reckoned with. The great increase in the common language has been accompanied with a vigilant scourging of that language's ability to carry collective passions.
I don't know where this is heading.
But I do know that the idea of an autonomous culture is terminally fucked. We need explosion, not erosion. My question for today is: how can the "right to rebel" be communicated across the synaptic gap between production and consumption? I'm not really sure if this is even a good question; maybe it follows "of course" from an effective organization of producers.
Posted by Sam at March 28, 2004 10:12 PM
what do you mean by "revolutionary party" ?
Posted by: eric b at March 29, 2004 04:28 PM
Posted by: sam at March 30, 2004 02:11 AM
very fine post
intentional above the frackus
micro communes
petty burglarz
politicozo folly
see their mind turnz
like their parentz charity
their radpol always beginz at home
" libertarian fantasy
of the pure life
melds with kulturkampf"
or
"the crass struggle uber alles "
usual product
some variation built around
a neat new set of pygmy kings
where diet and beauty reign
like Ewoks
come see their village
in the treees
before they go bye bye
-------------------------------
apropos social progress in realtime
when the sound barrier was broken
it was broken by bold acceleration
at the point of contact
thatz
the " spirit" of modernism
the spirit of prole world
"nothin to lose baby but ma ch...s"
------------------------------------
caution flag
production/consumption
production of consumption
consumption of production
watch out here
the dialectic developz screech back
hall of mirrorz shit
when operating at these gritless airy fairy levels watch the fuck out !
my take :
one sided
az mol tse put it
" them culture/vulturez got
sterility fears "
annnnnnnddd
sinz culture is itself produced
and reproduced ........
obviously
" the right sort of action "
can't just be " found " out there
like a " kool" new restaurant
after jomby time is over
butfuck
who didn't know
a hand made dyke
can't divert no real tide
if itz comin this way itz comin this way
( or that way for that matter)
when she comes where she goes
i say
" surf the fucker babe "
" balance and focus
balance and focus "
the right now
iz the only now
and for christ sake hang those toes
" work it kiddo work it "
maybe you can steer sharp left soon
maybe not
watch the curl
------------------
again good show sammo
bringin out the ole club/cell
phase check
god bess ya
needs doing
needs checking
like ones blood sugar levels
in fact
needs constant checking
in these sugar shocking
path-illogical tymes
when the ever reason soaked
ways of history
show more cunning our way
then we can possibly enjoy
rock on hard stuff !
Posted by: meat me at March 30, 2004 08:55 AM
sam,
the idea of a revoluionary party sounds a lot like lenin.
assuming the consciousness was there, as you say, what would it look like? what would its role be?
Posted by: eric b at March 30, 2004 12:42 PM
The more I think about it, I realize I didn't go far enough in this post. All this shit about needing "a culture of struggle?" Of course it's an "of course." Culture always lags behind its own production, and exists at best as a bread-crumb trail leading to the real deal. Of course culture vultures are sterile, how else could they have so much time to preen their featherless heads?
So eric, forget what I said about the party. What's a party? It's an organization of revolutionaries -- no culture needed -- just straight up agreements & rules. None of the delicacies and mummeries and hemming and hawing. Effective directives. Fuck culture it's for wets and pseudos. If it don't work, scrap it and start again; no great loss.
Posted by: sam at March 31, 2004 01:40 AM
right on sammo !
from clubs to cells
fom adventure to revolution
cells + deep klass base = rev org
Posted by: meat me at March 31, 2004 11:02 AM
Molly points out, too
that culture is
foremost
a shared resource.
Like speaking the same
language, there's a lot
you can do with something in common.
That's why the TV is so fucking great.
First rule of the cultured shit:
trow away da T33 V33
I'm really starting to see
what a mistake it would be
to trust these
cultured
crass warriors
with our hopes...
Something which connects us, however ugly,
is a fuck lot better looking
than the most beautiful pair of pants
or nicest garden.
Posted by: sam at April 6, 2004 04:25 AM
on mol tse lines culture is a collective product
no private language no private prices etc
and zzzoo
culture needs interact max
just to stay afoat let alone progress
and inter act max
meanz ruthlessly sharp
exchanges
whether over a price or over a quality
or (god blezz you) an idea
the bat bat bat of the contras
must dictate the kampf
not such pap is goopol-speak
productive respect
is often best shown with slaps
not claps
at least during game days
Posted by: meat me at April 6, 2004 11:19 AM
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