Flatter, Mythologize, Rinse, Repeat
Yes, I know, we’re all missing this blog’s unofficial mascot, Ms Laurie Penny. What with her recent elevation to loftier moral planes in the bosom of academia, where she will soon be anointed a “leader in journalism.” Luckily, over the weekend, commenter svh spotted a review of Ms Penny’s latest book – this one – in the hallowed pages of the New York Times. Given the radical chest-puffing, there’s much to ponder. For instance,
But beyond the politics of the (white) body, Penny is an elegant writer, and she deconstructs the issues of the day with an eye to how neoliberalism has filtered into our intimate relationships (“Under late capitalism, love has become like everything else: a prize to be won, an object to be attained, a commodity to be hoarded until it loses value or can be traded up for a better bargain”).
Apparently, an unsupported, question-begging claim is what now passes for elegant deconstruction. But such is Laurie’s world. She asserts so much and substantiates so little. A talent evidently shared by the reviewer, Latoya Peterson, a self-described “hip-hop feminist” and Guardian contributor, whose opening paragraph offers a shred of comfort to those missing Ms Penny’s signature hyperbole and disregard for reality:
The feminist scholar Donna Haraway defined cyborg writing as “the power to survive, not on the basis of original innocence, but on the basis of seizing the tools to mark the world that marked them as other.” That term describes so much digital scrawl on the Internet today — voices screaming from the margins, searching for connection. The British journalist Laurie Penny’s words seem to have secured her just that; she has found a devoted audience for her blog and three previous books.
By all means take a moment to realign your mind with the notion of Ms Penny as a “cyborg” writer and in some way marginalised – “marked as other” – and struggling against the pressures of not being heard. Except of course when she’s on TV, or Five Live, or Radio 4, or when airing her various and bewildering concerns in the pages of the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Independent.
Yes, this privately educated middle-class leftist, lectured at Wadham by other middle-class leftists and steeped in all of the “privilege” she so readily denounces in others, is “screaming from the margins, searching for connection.” A woman who was all but waved through the doors of Channel 4 and the BBC, our nation’s state broadcaster, by people who find her mouthings either titillating or congenial.
A woman who is currently boosting her social status with a year at Harvard, studying journalism free of charge (thanks largely to petitioning by those same middle-class leftists in the establishment media), and is now sitting through lectures on “economic justice” given by middle-class leftists, while surrounded in large part by middle-class leftists. Oh yes, she’s such an outsider.
As commenter Nikw211 points out, Ms Penny is so marginalised, so suppressed by The Hegemon, a massively enlarged projection of her face currently graces the walls of the Victoria & Albert Museum, barking revolutionary instructions to the little people below.
So, no establishment penetration there.
I choose to mark the tools of the other as my own, thus reifying their otherness within my Self as victim. Look upon my works and despair, Patriarch.
Behold the Global Victim; a large, disembodied head floating above you. I am benevolent. We are Benevolent.
***Where, I ask you, is my column in the Guardian?
This is my cry against the Capitalist characters €\}¥~^^_• ! I find here on my Oppressive mobile device. I am disrupting global trade and complacent bourgeois self-satisfaction.
“I’m not sure what a ‘Dalrymple pet’ is, but, leaving that to one side, he is making the not very complex point that middle class people do not generally scrawl swear words on walls, or canvases, as ‘art'”
No, that wasn’t his point, or it wasn’t the point he expressed, at least. After all, hardly anyone makes art of any kind, but it is much more likely to be a middle class person who does so than a working class person, so it wouldn’t make any sense. His point – the one he wrote down at any rate – was that people from ‘higher’ social strata don’t swear. Which is an odd thing to think. It makes me think he has never met anyone from those social groups.
“As for Banksy’s output itself, may I say that his work would be quickly and ruthlessly banned in the world that the Minnows yearn for.”
It is already banned. Although not very ruthlessly, it’s true.
“I would suggest that the social stratum to which Dalrymple refers is that of the middle classes, and it is certainly true that a couple of generations ago mothers would discourage swearing. ”
Mothers of all social strata discourage swearing (the homes of working men and women are not as frightful as you seem to imagine), but middle class people really do swear and a lot. I assure you. I think Dalrymple must have been brought up in a seminary. Mind you, I once spent an evening with a trio of drunk Irish priests and their language was an education, I can tell you.
Mothers of all social strata discourage swearing…
I’m sure they do. But I’d guess that discouragement is more widespread in middle class households. I have no statistics to prove it, though, so feel free to disagree.
…middle class people really do swear and a lot. I assure you.
Thanks for the assurance. I’m sure many do, but on the whole the ones of my acquaintance don’t. Again, though, just my own experience, so feel free to tell me I’m wrong.
I think Dalrymple must have been brought up in a seminary.
I don’t know where he was brought up, but he certainly seems to have plenty of experience of what one might call the lower classes. There’s some interesting stuff here, if you want to know more about what he thinks.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/10/life-at-the-top-the-worldview-that-makes-the-elites-theodore-dalrymple
(I assume the humourless ‘well-known left-liberal journalist on Britain’s most important newspaper of that persuasion’ he refers to is Polly Toynbee.)
“I’m sure they do. But I’d guess that discouragement is more widespread in middle class households. I have no statistics to prove it, though, so feel free to disagree.”
My experience is the opposite, much more prudishness in working class homes. But, again, not scientific.
“I don’t know where he was brought up, but he certainly seems to have plenty of experience of what one might call the lower classes. ”
He has a lot of experience of people in who are in jail. I don’t think they represent any class.
He has a lot of experience of people in who are in jail. I don’t think they represent any class.
I think he knows full well the class of the majority of people he used to treat as a prison doctor. He also, in the piece I linked to, refers to working ‘in a general hospital in a slum’, so I’d imagine he knows the class of people he treated there, too.
“I think he knows full well the class of the majority of people he used to treat as a prison doctor. ”
I suppose it might depend on what you mean by ‘class’. It is true that the jails are mostly filled with very poor men. But they don’t represent the working class.
But they don’t represent the working class.
I don’t think anyone said they did. We were talking about ‘higher’ (and presumably therefore also ‘lower’) social strata. The point is that the people he met in the hospital and prison are not, by and large, the middle class.
“The point is that the people he met in the hospital and prison are not, by and large, the middle class.”
No, you have to go to more comfortable jails to meet the middle class criminals. It’s all about opportunity.
No, you have to go to more comfortable jails to meet the middle class criminals. It’s all about opportunity.
Now I realise you’re trying to be all clever and witty here, but I’m confused.
So, ‘people in jail don’t represent any class’, but ‘jails’ are ‘mostly filled with very poor men’ while ‘more comfortable jails’ have the ‘middle class criminals’?
And in any case, we were talking specifically about Dalrymple’s experience, weren’t we?
On the broader subject of graffiti, this may be of interest.
‘So, ‘people in jail don’t represent any class’, but ‘jails’ are ‘mostly filled with very poor men’ while ‘more comfortable jails’ have the ‘middle class criminals’?’
I am glad to help, but I don’t really see your confusion. Like I said, it may have something to do with what you mean by ‘class’, but I am sure you don’t disagree that the jails are mostly filled with men and that they are mostly very poor. And, yes, middle class prisoners will mostly be found in the more comfortable jails on the rare occasions they get sent to jail at all. Hope that helps.
Also this, where there’s some fun in the comments.
Hope that helps.
I’m afraid it doesn’t, really.
And, yes, middle class prisoners will mostly be found in the more comfortable jails…
But according to you, people in jail ‘don’t represent any class’. Are you now saying that the people in ‘more comfortable’ jails do, in fact ‘represent’ the middle class? If so, presumably you think that people in the less ‘comfortable’ jails ‘represent’ a different class?
In which case, why are you choosing to argue with my statement, ‘he certainly seems to have plenty of experience of what one might call the lower classes’ by saying, ‘He has a lot of experience of people in who are in jail. I don’t think they represent any class.’
Like I said, it may have something to do with what you mean by ‘class’, but I am sure you don’t disagree that the jails are mostly filled with men and that they are mostly very poor.
Well, we began this by talking about ‘lower’ and ‘middle’ classes. What would you like to call those ‘mostly poor’ men who ‘mostly’ fill the jails?
“But according to you, people in jail ‘don’t represent any class’. Are you now saying that the people in ‘more comfortable’ jails do, in fact ‘represent’ the middle class?
No, that would be silly. I don’t think the middle class is ‘represented’ by inmates of jails. What would that even mean?
“Well, we began this by talking about ‘lower’ and ‘middle’ classes. What would you like to call those ‘mostly poor’ men who ‘mostly’ fill the jails?”
I don’t really know what to make of ‘lower’ class but it might be because you have an idiosyncratic way of using ‘class’. I think ‘poor men’ is a good enough description of the people who mostly populate our many jails. Of course a very large proportion of of them will be black men.
I don’t think the middle class is ‘represented’ by inmates of jails. What would that even mean?
Indeed. But as you’re the one that started talking about where to find ‘middle class’ prisoners, I thought you could tell me.
I don’t really know what to make of ‘lower’ class…
Well, it’s usually found in conjunction with the terms ‘middle class’ (see your own comments above) and ‘upper class’ as a sort-of convenient shorthand for someone’s social status. It has a lot to do with money, but also things like attitudes and culture. Does that help?
…but it might be because you have an idiosyncratic way of using ‘class’.
It might, I suppose, but what precisely have I said that makes you think that?
I think ‘poor men’ is a good enough description of the people who mostly populate our many jails.
In which case, why did you start on all this stuff about middle class prisoners and ‘comfortable’ jails?
Of course a very large proportion of of them will be black men.
That may well be. And? Is there something you want to get off your chest?
“Well, it’s usually found in conjunction with the terms ‘middle class'”
No, it isn’t, not in the way that term is usually used by economists, marketeers and sociologists. We might talk about ‘working class’ but the old stuff about ‘lower’ orders is pretty much reserved for golf club bars and table talk on Downtown Abbey.
“It might, I suppose, but what precisely have I said that makes you think that?”
Well, you don’t seem to be using it in the way it is usually used.
“In which case, why did you start on all this stuff about middle class prisoners and ‘comfortable’ jails?”
I didn’t, I just made a passing comment in reply. I had no idea that the fact that middle class prisoners tend to be found in the more comfortable jails was so controversial.
“That may well be. And? Is there something you want to get off your chest?”
Why would you think so? I tend just to say what I want to say.
No, it isn’t…
Yes it is. Lower, middle and upper. They go together pretty well, as far as I can see. And I didn’t think anyone would spend so long wondering what they could possibly mean and running off to the dictionary in confusion – especially as you’re obviously happy to use the term ‘middle’.
…not in the way that term is usually used by economists, marketeers and sociologists.
Ah – it seems I was wrong to use those terms in a Joe Public, plebeian sort of way. Sorry. I didn’t realise we were being so strict in our use of pretty everyday words.
Well, you don’t seem to be using it in the way it is usually used.
You mean by economists, marketeers and sociologists? I don’t actually know any of those, so on the contrary, I think I was using it in exactly the way it is ‘usually’ used in casual conversation. Which this is, isn’t it?
I had no idea that the fact that middle class prisoners tend to be found in the more comfortable jails was so controversial.
Are you using ‘middle’ in the economic, marketing or sociological senses there? I’d just like to be clear I understand what you mean by ‘middle’ as the word ‘lower’ is obviously something we’re having trouble with.
And I never said your statement was controversial. I was just trying to find out why you started going on about it and what relevance it had to the discussion about the kinds of people Dalrymple tended to come across in his hospital and jail.
Why would you think so?
Because you decided to mention it?
I tend just to say what I want to say.
Clearly – but do you like to say what you want to say even when it isn’t in any way relevant? Why would you do that? My two-year-old tended to just say what he wanted to say whenever he wanted to say it. I made allowances for him when he did. Would you like the same sort of consideration?
No, it isn’t…
Yes it is.
I fear we’re on the verge of an Ethel Merman number.
. . . Mind you, I once spent an evening with a trio of drunk Irish priests and their language was an education, I can tell you.