[lbo-talk] Too Old for Rap (was Lumpen)

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Sun Jan 29 11:18:33 PST 2006


On 1/29/06, Wojtek Sokolowski <wsokol52 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The fact that a hoodlum in a Ford
> Explorer is blasting this shit all over the
> neighborhood is no more an indictment of the genre
> than, say, a hoodluum in the SS uniform blasting the
> 5th all over the concentration camp is an indictment
> of Beethoven. In both cases music has been used
> instrumentally, so to speak, as an instrument of
> authoritarian aggression.

Individual lack of respect toward others (the first example) is not the same as state oppression (the second). Strictly speaking, only behaviors of the state or similar oganizations with power (such as corporations) are "authoritarian." OK, the Frankfurt School posited the possibility of an "authoritarian personality" or authoritarian attitudes. But an authoritarian advocates more power for the state or corporation (or whatever), not the kind of anarchic rudeness expressed by the hood in the Explorer.

However, it should be noted that there _is_ a parallel here. Anarchists -- and especially so-called libertarians -- often miss the fact that individual action (e.g., playing music too loud) can violate individual freedom just as state or corporate action can.

-- Jim Devine

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin



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