DOCSLIB.ORG

American Individualism Reflected in Pop Culture, Literature, History and Philosophy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
American Individualism Reflected in Pop Culture, Literature, History and Philosophy VOL 3, NO 2 SEPTEMBER 2OO9 ISSN: 1978-3493 AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM REFLECTED IN POP CULTURE, LITERATURE, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY Didik Murwantonor Intisari Paper ini tidak akan menyoroti makna individualisme secara mendalam atau tepatnya individualisme di Amerika, namun hanyalah berupa ide-ide terhadap rndrvidualisme Amerika. Pemaknaan individualisme akan tercermin dalam konteks seperti budaya populer, karya sastra, philosophy serta perspektifpenulis terhadap Indonesia. Banyak konteks-konteks lain dalam pemaknaan individuarisme ','ang tercermin dalam kehidupan sehari - hari, misal, pemberian pemahaman rndi'idualisme sejak usia dini tentang adanya tanggung jawab terhadap diri .:ndiri. Kata kunci: Individualisme, konteks, budaya populer, sejarah, sosial, karya i fitta INTRODUCTION All references to "America" or "American" refer to the United Stated of r :,-.;: and its residents unless otherwise noted. Obviously the Asian, the i :.:,.'. :rd the Mexican are equallyAmerican but globally the use of the word 1.1':ri antono, S.S, M.Hum is a secretary of English Department in Sultan Agung Islamic . S:marang. He obtained his master in American Studies program in Gadjah Mada ':: He is currently pursuing his doctoral program the same University. American Individualism Didik Murwantono "American" is understood to mean citizens of the United States of America. The most impoftant thing to understand about Americans is probably their devotion to individualism. The stereofypic images associated with American individuality are not only abundant but abundantly well known the world over. The American cowboy counts among the most powerful and proliferated of these images. But I herewith write not only of the American as individualist in popular cultwe but also of some of the highlights and variations of American Individualism in American literature, history and philosophy. As the tipping of the scales toward one end more than the other of the continuum between individual and community is one of the more frequently invoked binaries of comparison between East and West an exploration of what various forms of individualism might mean in the Indonesian context, particularly in Indonesian literature and culture, would be of great interest. Which avatars of individualism are aiready present in Indonesian society, culture, language and literature? And what might future manifestations look like? What will modern Southeast Asian individualism look like in the near future and which traits, if any, will transcend geographic, linguistic, national, ethnic, economic, and political determinations to reveal more global configurations of Individualistic thought and practice, or its curtailment? Or will such contingencies abnegate al1 claims of universality? A comparative approach would, no doubt shed a great deal of light on the topic of individualism. But first 1et us look at the American story. THE AMERICAN COWBOY I see the cowboy all over Solo, Semarang and Yogyakarta where he towers over me on massive billboards. He is most frequently depicted as the only human in a vast landscape. He is a 1oner, a free soul, a man who finds his strength in the solitude of vast stretches of uninhabited countryside. The ilil VOL 3, NO 2 SEPTEMBER 2OO9 ISSN: 1978-3493 have me marketing executives for the markers of Marlboro cigarettes would particular brand believe that most of his vitality comes from induigence in their cigarettes but of tobacco. The advertisements are effective not only in selling inpropagatingthemythoftheAmericancowboy.AmericansliveinMarlboro country. oneofHollywood'smostconsistentstockcharactertypesisthatofthe society, lone hero standing tall against the slings and arrows of an outrageous him to be particularly a society of outlaws. He wins whether the plot allows he wins and the triumphant or not. If he stands up to the villains and survives but heartened audience is moved. If he is defeated the audience is saddened been in chalking up a moral victory for ideals worth dying for' We have or argument manipulated to identify with him - almost regardless of his cause ..tyranni.ca1,, aS a rogue - and not the society of outlaws, who see our hero One of most threat to their freely chosen social organizarton and way of life' iconic of this character type is the Western cowboy' plays both In the classic Westem film High Noon (1952) Gary Cooper cowboyandlonehero.TheWestemfilmcelebratesandlamentsthesettling of the frontier west of Mississippi, the wild west. In the genre excessive just' He is individualism and brute force are honored, provided the cause is -efttorunthedespoticbadguysoutoftownwhilebeingabandonedbythe corr'ardlytownsfolkheisdefending.Hefightsnotforthetownsomuchas not a self- :br his own principles and sense of honor. He is an individualist, sacfficing defender of the PeoPle. DespiteHolll.wood,sperpetualrevisitingofonlytheanarchicparlofthe for \\lld west the frontier folk and their townships quickly learned the need allowing ;Llilnunities with shared values - the brief absence of such society In the end : i.un' of Hobbesian "State of Nature" lawlessness and chaos' mid-nineteenth century 31 en one seemed to agree with Aiexis de Tocqueville r:i:rque (from Democracy in America, Part II, 1840) of individualism's ::rCencl'todevolveintoegoism:"Individuatism,atfirst'onlysapsthevirtues American Individualism Didik Murwantono of public life; but in the longrun it attacks and destroys all others and is at length absorbed in downright selfishness." The sequel to the Westem and its cowboy hero has in large part been the "renegade cop" or "good soldier" genre: 41 Pacino's Serpico, Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, Sylvester Stallone's Rambo, and most of the roles played by Amoid Schwarzenegger. All of these characters single-handedly take on the riff raff of a city (or the world) and win. Each of them is abandoned by superwisors, society's less effective institutional and bureaucratic leaders, but their rugged individualism and go-it-alone approach allows them to overcome the odds and not only survive but triumph. Their victory is portrayed not only as a personal one but also as a practical and moral victory for a1l of society and ideals such as justice and humaniry. These are the images of America and the American character that of the world is most familiar with. The long reel of Hollywood reaches deep into the world's psyche buming in the eidetic image of the American individualist. It may take the form of the rugged individualist, the libertine, the seemingly ironic altruist or myriad other manifestations but the overall archetype is undeniable' American pop culture is our biggest export though it is impossible to measure its influence in mere fi.gures of revenues generated' Such characterizations from Holl1wood and the American music industry from, by sheer visual and auditory bombardment, the dominant impression of Americanisms" as perceived by the rest of the world. But, for the most part, this revelation of American character, whether accufate or not, is wholly a phenomenon of popular cuhure. There is another very influential realm of ideas, images, and metaphors that exists in literary culture. In this realm we also encounter myriad depictions of the American as Individualist as well as more systematic outlines of American Individualism as philosophy or general worldview. vol, 3, NO 2 SEPTEMBER 2009 ISSN: 1978-3493 PURITANS AND REBELS Theeasiestplacetodrawaquickterminusoforiginatingliterarydepictions Franklin' As a of American Individualism is with the writings of Benjamin an individualist. In his rue Renai.ssance man Franklin was quintessentially of speech wide range of genre and topic Franklin would advocate freedom the American love and of press (himself being a printer)' He would laud form the days of of open and spirited debate, depicting a great turn around totalitarianruleandtheruthlesssuppressionofdissentinthenascentpuritan class (when compared colonies. He credited the emergence of a large middle spoke of the utter to Europe) to greater egalitarianism and opportulity and privilege by birth' Franklin's American disregard, even loathing' of claims to the class and caste of Autobiographyrelates his personai transcendence above hisbirth-afeatmuchlesspossiblehadhebeenborninEurope-andlaudsthe l'irtuesofindividualselfimprovement-givingthetextthecharacterofthe self-he1p book. joumal' Poor The witty aphorisms proffered in his widely successful self-suffrciency' Richartl's Almanac, admonish the reader to industry thrift' andpersonalvirtue:,,Eartytobedandearlytorisemakesamanhealthy, you ought' ctnd not trealthy, and wise"; "Would you live with ease' / Do what ',rhatyouplease";"Godhelpsthemthathelpthemselves"Therewereseveral culturalandgeographicalfactorsatthetimeofFrankiin,sAutobiographythat ]enttheAmericancharactertogreatelreceptivityofindividualistideasand Puritan influence' breaking away from the communal pressures of the old on thought' To look back in retrospect and conclude a Puritan monopoly n'orldview,andsocietalarrangementisto,perhaps,maketoomuchofthePuritan indicate' Undisputedly hegemony that colonial American literature seems to -}ete*'erecontestingworldviewsandi.nfluences.Infact,NorthAmericainthe :el'enteenthcenturywasaveritabletestinggroundforallmannerofsocietal characters from the hedonists 3rrangements -social experiments, really - and American Individualism Didik Murwantono 710 dancing around the Maypole to coloniar pilragers, joint-venture coronies (such as the one at Jamestown), mini-theocracies, and agricultural settlers with no thought of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Religious Values in Indonesia's Character
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by eJournal of Sunan Gunung Djati State Islamic University (UIN) Ahmad Nadhif RELIGIOUS VALUES IN INDONESIA’S CHARACTER EDUCATION Ahmad Nadhif STAIN Ponorogo Jl. Pramuka No. 156 PO. BOX 116 Ponorogo 63471 Email: [email protected] ABSTRAK Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menginvestigasi ideologi di balik peletakkan yang tercantum dalam Panduan Budaya dan Karakter Menteri Pendidikan yang diterbitkan pada tahun 2012. Penelitian ini dipaparkan sebagai bagian dari kurikulum pendidikan karakter dan memberi petunjuk pada guru tentang bagaimana melakukan implantasi untuk nilai-nilai moral yang baik dalam fikiran dan jiwa mereka. Isu pendidikan karakter menandai perubahan signifikan dalam kurikulum nasional pendidikan Indonesia yang menunjukkan potensi bagai pertarungan ideologi. Karenanya, hal ini merupakan isu penting untuk diteliti, khususnya dalam kajian Critical Discourse Analisis (CDA). Dengan menggunakan tiga model dimensional CDA Fairclough (1989), kurikulum Indonesia terkait dengan pendidikan berkarakter secara tekstual dianalisa. Analisa menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan nilai-nilai agama masih dipertanyakan; terkait dengan simbol dan jargon, agama sesungguhnya sangat dihargai; namun nampaknya hanyalah merupakan hal tak jelas untuk diam-diam menekan dan memarjinalkan core penting pengajaran. Kata Kunci: Pendidikan karakter, Nilai agama, CDA ABSTRACT This study aims at investigating the ideology behind the positioning of religion included in the Guidance of Culture and Character of the Nation of the Ministry of Education published in 2010. It is presented as part of the curriculum of character education and prescribes for teachers on how to conduct the implantation of good moral values in their students’ mind and heart. This issue of character education marks a significant shift in Indonesia’s national curriculum of education showing a potential to be a conflicting battleground of ideologies.
    [Show full text]
  • Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Reformer?
    Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Reformer? A History, with an Examination of Several Plays and Fictions By Florence Irene Munson Rouse in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Master ofArts in English May 12, 1998 Thesis Adviser: Iit. William C. Home Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Refiormer? A Histqry with an Examinjation ofSeveral Prays and Fictions This Thesis for the M.A. degree in English by Florence Irene Munson Rouse has been approved for the Graduate Faculty by Supervisor: Reader: Date: Aphra Behn was an important female vliter in the Restoration era. She wrote twenty or more plays which were produced on the London stage, as well as a dozen or more novels, several volumes ofpoetry, and numerous translations. She was the flrSt WOman VIiter tO Cam her living byher pen. After she became successful, a concerted attack was made on her, alleging a libertine life and inmoral behavior. Gradually, her life work was expunged from the seventeenth-century literary canon based on this alleged lifestyle. Since little factual information is available about her her life, critics have been happyto invent various scenarios. The only true understanding ofher attitudes is found in the reading ofher plays, not to establish autobiographical facts, but to understandher attitudes. Based on the evidence inher many depictions oflibertine men in her satirical comedies, she disliked male libertines and foundtheir behavior deplorable. in plays and poetry, her longing for a new social order in which men and women micht love andrespect one another in freely chosen wedlock is the dominant theme. Far from being libertine, Aphra Behn is an early pioneer for companionate marriage.
    [Show full text]
  • Max Stirner's Egoism and Nihilism
    ================================= ===================== =========== Max Stirner's Egoism and Nihilism A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of San Diego State University in Partial Fulfilment of Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy by Larry Alan Schiereck August, 1981, revised 1996 and 2015 SDSU Thesis Committee: William Snyder, Philosophy (Chair); Sherwood Nelson, Philosophy; Kingsley Widmer, English & Comparative Literature Note: this document was written in 1981, based on the literature available at that time. I revised and converted it to HTML in 1996, and revised a lot more in 2015. I didn’t want to rewrite it from scratch, nor leave the old one circulating, so as a blend of old and new this is a final update. Send any comments to [email protected]. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dedicated to my father, Fred W. Schiereck, and the late Professors Kingsley Widmer, Walter Koppelman and Michael Carella of SDSU. I am grateful to (in the 70s and 80s) Josef Binter, William Stoddard, and Linda Moore. Barbara Franke-Watson of SDSU graciously clarified some of my German translations. A special thanks to Antonio T. De Nicolás, professor of philosophy at S.U.N.Y Stony Brook, where I audited classes in 1979-80. Many of his extraordinary books are available online. 2. * * * * * * * * * * TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 I. Overture: The Nihilistic Egoist 3 II. Oratorio: Total Atheism 10 III. A One-Urchin Chorus: Nihilism 17 IV. Sunday, Billy Sunday: The Nihilistic Egoist 22 V. Requiem & Scherzo For Solipsist 28 VI. Capriccio & Finale 32 POSTSCRIPT: Stirner Without Metaphysics 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY 49 Endnotes after each chapter ABSTRACT During the early 1970s a 'revival' took place of the philosophy of Max Stirner, born Johann Caspar Schmidt (1806-1856), whose book Der Einzige und Sein Eigentum has been called a 'revolutionary anarchist manual', a 'Banker's Bible', a 'structural model of petit-bourgeois self-consciousness' and other names since its appearance in 1844.
    [Show full text]
  • Sex, Death, and Philosophy: Libertinism and Eighteenth-Century British Literature” Winter 2018 – Mark Mcdayter
    ENG3341G: “Sex, Death, and Philosophy: Libertinism and Eighteenth-Century British Literature” Winter 2018 – Mark McDayter Because the popular image of the 17th and 18th centuries still prevalent evokes an era of stuffy aristocrats wearing uncomfortably voluminous and elaborate clothing, the extent to which sexuality formed a vital preoccupation of life in the period sometimes comes as a surprise. In fact, the men and women of England in the Restoration period thought of sex as enormously important as an expression of identity and an articulation of the human relationship to the world around. And they seem, on the basis of the literature and art of the time, to have engaged in a great deal of it. “Sex, Death, and Philosophy: Libertinism and Eighteenth-Century British Literature” (ENG3341G) is an honours course devoted to literary and cultural articulations of the phenomenon of “libertinism” as it was expressed from about 1660 to 1748. Libertinism represented a particular and surprisingly broad-ranging perspective on the world, and the place of humans within it: it addressed the shape of the cosmos, the mechanisms of human nature and understanding, and complexity of ethical and political structures and behaviour. And for many if not most libertines, sexuality stood as the ultimate human expression of the “freedom” that was promised (or threatened) by their radical philosophy. We will be reading libertinism through the lense of a variety of genres, including lyric and satirical poetry, drama, prose romance, the novel, and philosophical discourse. We will additionally be discussing the political, cultural, ideological, and social contexts that informed libertinism. The focus of the course is upon two authors who made important (and very different) contributions to the idea, expression, and indeed lifestyle of the libertine, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, and Aphra Behn, but other authors whose work we will be addressing include Thomas Hobbes, the Earl of Dorset, George Etherege, and Eliza Haywood, and John Cleland.
    [Show full text]
  • No. 26 (2015-2016)
    Berkeley Studies No. 26 (2015-2016) Editors Stephen H. Daniel, Senior Editor College Station, Texas, USA John R. Roberts, Coordinating Editor Tallahassee, Florida, USA Silvia Parigi, Bibliographical Editor Cassino, Italy Tom Stoneham, News Editor York, UK Contents Samuel Rickless The Nature, Grounds, and Limits of Berkeley’s Argument for Passive Obedience 3 Daniel Carey and Marc A. Hight Conference Report: Bishop Berkeley’s Querist in Context 20 News and Announcements 23 Recent Works on Berkeley (2010-2017) 24 Berkeley Studies 26 (2016) 2 © Berkeley Studies and Contributors 2016 Berkeley Studies is sponsored by Florida State University and the International Berkeley Society Berkeley Studies 26 (2016) 3 The Nature, Grounds, and Limits of Berkeley’s Argument for Passive Obedience Samuel C. Rickless Abstract: Scholars disagree about the nature of the doctrinal apparatus that supports Berkeley’s case for passive obedience to the sovereign. Is he a rule-utilitarian, or natural law theorist, or ethical egoist, or some combination of some or all these elements? Here I argue that Berkeley is an act-utilitarian who thinks that one is more likely to act rightly by following certain sorts of rules. I also argue that Berkeley mischaracterizes and misevaluates Locke’s version of the social contract theory. Finally, I consider the potentially practically self-defeating nature of Berkeley’s claim that there is no obligation to submit to the rule of “madmen” or “usurpers.” Controversy has long swirled, and continues to swirl, around the proper way to understand the nature, grounds, and limits of George Berkeley’s argument for passive obedience. As Berkeley describes it, passive obedience requires all human beings under sovereign rule not to forcibly resist enforcement of the legal prohibitions promulgated by the sovereign and to accept the penalties established by the sovereign for refusing (on grounds of conscience) to perform legally required actions.
    [Show full text]
  • Libertine Strategies
    Joan Dejean LIBERTINE STRATEGIES Freedom and the Novel in Seventeenth-Century France $17.50 LIBERTINE STRATEGIES Freedom and the Novel in Seventeenth-Century France By Joan DeJean This book is an important contribution to the vigorous and growing revival of interest in the seventeenth-century French novel as the progenitor of what has become the dominant literary genre in our ow n time. In a brilliant discussion of a group of compelling works of prose fiction by freethinking authors whose flamboyant life styles, radical ideas, and auda­ cious attacks on the established order made their literary productions suspect, Joan De ­ Jean demonstrates that the issues at the heart of the libertine enterprise—autobiography, madness, fragmentation, and dialogue—are precisely those that define the problematic modernity of these works. In detailed analyses of Theophile de Viau's Fragments d'une his­ toire comique, Charles SorePs Francion, Tris­ tan L'Hermite's Lepage disgracie, Cyrano de Bergerac's L'Autre Monde and Estats et empires du soleil, D'Assoucy's Avantures, and Chapelle's Voyage a Encausse, Professor DeJean explores the complex nonfictional literary genres with which they have tradi­ tionally been associated. Occupying an unstable middle ground be­ tween autobiography and the novel, the works of the libertines are, with one exception, all written in the first person, a marked departure from the dominant literary tradition of the ro­ man heroique. They reflect both structurally and thematically the problems of an existence that is at once lived and invented. Investigat­ ing these problems, DeJean provides an ori­ ginal interpretation of the libertines* obsession with naming, analyzes their perchant for fic­ tionalizing history, and studies their peculiar ambivalence about persecution.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading the Rationality of Mangunwijaya's Architectural Tectonics
    Civil Engineering and Architecture 9(6): 1759-1775, 2021 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.090610 Reading the Rationality of Mangunwijaya's Architectural Tectonics A Robert Rianto Widjaja1, Josef Prijotomo2, Yohanes Basuki Dwisusanto2,* 1Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang, Indonesia 2Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Parahyangan Catholic Unversity, Bandung, Indonesia Received June 3, 2021; Revised July 19, 2021; Accepted August 22, 2021 Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles (a): [1] A Robert Rianto Widjaja, Josef Prijotomo, Yohanes Basuki Dwisusanto , "Reading the Rationality of Mangunwijaya’s Architectural Tectonics," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 1759-1775, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.090610. (b): A Robert Rianto Widjaja, Josef Prijotomo, Yohanes Basuki Dwisusanto (2021). Reading the Rationality of Mangunwijaya’s Architectural Tectonics. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 9(6), 1759-1775. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.090610. Copyright©2021 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract The development of tectonics as a discourse matrix, digestible and teachable understanding of in the modern era has further exerted the influence of Mangunwijaya’s tectonics was successfully obtained. technology on works of architecture, thus allowing for Keywords Tectonics, Technology, Truthful, Authentic, more freedom when it comes to exteriorizing various Representation, Reading Method, Rational structure forms. This phenomenon has resulted in diverse perspectives when it comes to understanding the concept of tectonics, most alluding to a physical representation. In essence, tectonics discusses not only physical forms, but also the verity that produces beauty.
    [Show full text]
  • Comparison of the Idea of Crime
    COMPARISON OF THE IDEA OF CRIME In addition, and in the first place, laws are an expression of the idea of a “universal”, i.e. in Stirnerian, of a craze. He calls them, equivalent to Stirner, “Chimeras”. In the “Philosophie dans le Boudoir”, he explains: “Parce que les lois ne sont pas faites pour le particulier, mais pour le general, ce qui les met dans une perpétuelle contradiction avec l’intérêt personnel, attend que l’intérêt personnel l’est toujours avec l’intérêt général” (Sade, Philosophie dans le Boudoir, 470). Laws cannot be individually aligned, but always have a universal claim to follow. They are above the individual – and cannot be removed by the individuals themselves. Thus, they are, in Stirner’s terms, holy. Stirner reflects on this in “The egoist and its own”: “Only against a sacred thing are there criminals; you against me can never be a criminal, but only an opponent”, (Stirner, The egoist and its own, 267). They are, in Stirner’s terms, something “sacred”. Stirner reflects on this in “The egoist and its own”: “Sacred things exist only for the egoist who does not acknowledge himself, the involuntary egoist, for him who is always looking after his own and yet does not count himself as the highest being, who serves only himself and at the same time always thinks he is serving a higher being, who knows nothing higher than himself and yet is infatuated about something higher; in short, for the egoist who would like not to be an egoist, and abases himself (i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Focus on Asia)
    HOW DOES THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DEAL WITH THE NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN A CONSTRUCTIVE WAY? (FOCUS ON ASIA) John Mansford Prior, SVD* The question posed in the title can be answered only after we grasp the phenomenon we are facing. So let us begin with some basic data. DIVERGENT PATTERNS Pentecostalism has set its stoutest roots among Asian ethnic minorities and social classes which lack political or ideological power.1 Five Asian countries are witnessing the fastest growth of Pentecostalism as a grassroots movement and where, with one exception, there are significant numbers of Catholic charismatics, namely China, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and India. The greatest increase is found in South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines.2 PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENTS IN ASIA3 Classic Pentecostals4 Mainline Churches Neo-Pentecostals China 47,686 (0%) 629,491 (1%) 53.6 m. (99%) = 54.3 m. India 1.3 m. (4%) 5 m. (15%) 27.2 m. (81%) = 33.5 m. Philippines 765,813 (4%) 11.7 m. (58%) 7.6 m. (38%) = 20 m. Indonesia 1.4 m. (15%) 971,415 (10%) 7 m. (75%) = 9.5 m. S. Korea 2.4 m. (32%) 2 m. (27%) 3.2 m. (42%) = 7.6 m. Vietnam 51,101 (7%) 157,802 (20%) 588,097 (74%) = 798,000 1 Jungja Ma outlines critical social issues that form the context for Pentecostal mission and contemporary social challenges (Ma and Ma 2003, 185-193). As the religious movement moves into politics so this aspect will change. 2 A switch of allegiance is not the only option; many permutations are available.
    [Show full text]
  • “For a World Without Oppressors:” U.S. Anarchism from the Palmer
    “For a World Without Oppressors:” U.S. Anarchism from the Palmer Raids to the Sixties by Andrew Cornell A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social and Cultural Analysis Program in American Studies New York University January, 2011 _______________________ Andrew Ross © Andrew Cornell All Rights Reserved, 2011 “I am undertaking something which may turn out to be a resume of the English speaking anarchist movement in America and I am appalled at the little I know about it after my twenty years of association with anarchists both here and abroad.” -W.S. Van Valkenburgh, Letter to Agnes Inglis, 1932 “The difficulty in finding perspective is related to the general American lack of a historical consciousness…Many young white activists still act as though they have nothing to learn from their sisters and brothers who struggled before them.” -George Lakey, Strategy for a Living Revolution, 1971 “From the start, anarchism was an open political philosophy, always transforming itself in theory and practice…Yet when people are introduced to anarchism today, that openness, combined with a cultural propensity to forget the past, can make it seem a recent invention—without an elastic tradition, filled with debates, lessons, and experiments to build on.” -Cindy Milstein, Anarchism and Its Aspirations, 2010 “Librarians have an ‘academic’ sense, and can’t bare to throw anything away! Even things they don’t approve of. They acquire a historic sense. At the time a hand-bill may be very ‘bad’! But the following day it becomes ‘historic.’” -Agnes Inglis, Letter to Highlander Folk School, 1944 “To keep on repeating the same attempts without an intelligent appraisal of all the numerous failures in the past is not to uphold the right to experiment, but to insist upon one’s right to escape the hard facts of social struggle into the world of wishful belief.
    [Show full text]
  • Egoism Ardent Press 2013 Part I
    egoism Ardent Press 2013 Part I Entries on egoism from the Anarchist Encyclopedia (1934) 1 by Wastiaux, Marestan, Odin, translated by de Acosta Philosophy of Egoism (1905) 9 James L. Walker Anarchist Individualism in the Social Revolution 73 Renzo Novatore Unbridled Freedom 77 Enzo Martucci Egoism (1924) 81 John Beverley Robinson Stirner, Marx and Fascism 85 S.E. Parker (Enemies) Freedom and Solitude 91 Marilisa Fiorina (Enemies) Part II The Unitary Triad: self-realisation, communication, participation 95 Raoul Vaneigem Preface to The Right to be Greedy 129 Bob Black The Union of Egoists 135 Svein Olav Nyberg From Sovereign Self: A Letter to Lovers (#1) 139 Indigenous Egoism (#5) 143 From My Own: An Egoist Method (#3) 151 What is an Individual (#1) 155 Nameless: An Egoist Critique of Identity (#6) 159 This book continues telling the story of egoism, a mostly neglect- ed tendency in anarchist thought, one that challenges anarchism as merely a historical story of old men with beautiful ideas and beautiful, noble failures Egoism and individualist anarchism is certainly not about losing. For those who pay attention, it tells stories about winning, defined in individual terms by those who lived life fully, and who were defined by their fight against the existing order—fights not against abstrac- tions, or Big Ideas, but to claim thier own authentic lives. Inspired by Stirner's The Ego and Its Own, egoists assert that the goal is not to compose a single better world (for everyone) but to resist the machinations of society, to resist how everything that we know and believe has been structured into a conformed, denatured shadow of what we could be.
    [Show full text]
  • Genre and Cultural Disruption: Libertinism and the Early English Novel Tiffany Potter University of British Columbia
    Genre and Cultural Disruption: Libertinism and the Early English Novel Tiffany Potter University of British Columbia EE occurred as a result of Tthe combination of any number of specifi c social factors, including new developments in scientifi c and religious philosophy, increasing literacy (particularly among women), and the progress of spiritual autobiography and other narrative pilgrims like picaresque and romance. Despite Terry Castle’s reported belief that studies of the novel “have reached a kind of intellectual dead end” and that “we don’t need further exposition” of the economic, generic, gendered, sexual, colonial, or capitalist aspects of the novel (quoted in Davis ), there may be some things under the sun yet new. Eighteenth-Century Fiction’s double issue “Reconsidering the Rise of the Novel” is only a more recent example of our continuing fascina- tion with not only the what, but the how and the why of the English novel. Many, many theories of the novel have been off ered by Ian Watt, Michael McKeon, J. Paul Hunter and others, but one facet of the genre that has not yet been considered in detail is the surprising but undeniable relationship between the prominent cultural discourse of libertinism and the increas- ing literary dominance of the novel in eighteenth-century England. is essay off ers an overview of this relationship, and argues not that the role of libertinism in the novel’s evolution in any way supersedes those of other ESC .- (March/June(March/June ):): –– contributing factors, but rather that as a contributor, libertinism is of much greater signifi cance to the genre than has previously been recognized.
    [Show full text]