Courtney Love said,
> A great writer named Neal Stephenson said that America does four things
> better than any other country in the world: rock music, movies, software
> and high-speed pizza delivery. All of these are sacred American art
> forms. Let's return to our purity and our idealism while we have this
> shot.
A previous subject heading alluded to Tom Wolfe's 1970 book, _Radical Chic
and Mau-mauing the Flak Catchers_. As the conversation progressed on
that thread, it seemed to me the allusion became more and more
apt. Wolfe's book satirized a stylized "left", which for its part was
becoming a parody of itself.
I haven't read Wolfe's book in a long time and probably hated it when I
read it so maybe what I'm saying is a riff on a half-forgotten,
half-improvised impression. But it seems to me that while the militants,
the bureaucrats and the New York liberal social elite were going through
their poses, there was yet another game of charades going on. I don't
recall if Wolfe mentioned that game.
Let's call it the managing change game. What it entailed was the applied
use of Kurt Lewin's theory of social-psychology in industrial management
(see Coch and French. [1948] "Overcoming Resistance to Change," Human
Relations 1, pp. 512-532). Lewin's theory contained just enough of
a mixture of common sense and dominant ideology to make it operable (at
least in the short term) as a guide to practice. Reduced to its simplest
terms, the experimental results showed that workers who participated in
decisions about workplace changes, adapted better to those changes. The
joker in that deck was, of course, whatever the heck was meant by
"participation".
The point isn't that Lewin's theory was diabolically clever, just that it
got adopted (by the Ford Foundation) in the war against that most salient
of 1950's social problems, "juvenile deliquency". In turn, the Ford
Foundation model became the template for the "maximum feasible
participation" clause of the War on Poverty. Like Bill Gates' DOS, Karl
Lewin's social psychology became the OS of habit for social engineering in
America.
The flip side of reforming teenage gangs has always been romanticizing
them. And the Broadway musical version of the Ford Foundation program was
West Side Story. One thing I have to say about West Side Story -- stars
Richard Beymer (Tony) and George Chakiris (Bernardo) wore Converse All
Stars. I know this because I was a 13 year-old suburban school boy when
the movie came out.
> Let's return to our purity and our idealism while we have this shot.
What is NIKE about? What is Tommy Hilfiger about? What is the Gap
about? West Side Story.
I'm interrupting this rap to bring you the lyrics to "Gee, Officer
Krupke", music by Leonard Bernstein and words by Stephen Sondheim. I'll be
back after the musical interlude with some concluding words from C. Wright
Mills' 1943 article, "The Professional Ideology of Social Pathologists".
RIFF:
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!
RIFF and QUARTET:
Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that every child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!
RIFF:
There is good!
ALL:
There is good, there is good, there is untapped good.
Like inside, the worst of us is good.
SNOWBOY (imitating "Krupke") (spoken):
That's a touchin' good story.
RIFF (spoken):
Lemme tell it to the world!
SNOWBOY ("Krupke") (spoken):
Just tell it to the judge.
RIFF:
Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,
My parents treat me rough.
With all their marijuana,
They won't give me a puff.
They didn't wanna have me,
But somehow I was had.
Leapin' lizards, that's why I'm so bad!
DIESEL ("Judge"):
Right! Officer Krupke, you're really a square;
This boy don't need a judge, he needs an analyst's care!
It's just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
He's psychologic'ly disturbed!
RIFF:
I'm disturbed!
ALL:
We're disturbed, we're disturbed,
We're the most disturbed,
Like we're psychologic'ly disturbed.
DIESEL ("Judge") (spoken):
In the opinion of this court, this child is depraved on account he
ain't had a normal home.
RIFF (spoken):
Hey, I'm depraved on account I'm deprived!
DIESEL ("Judge") (spoken):
So take him to a headshrinker...
RIFF:
My daddy beats my mommy,
My mommy clobbers me.
My grandpa is a commy,
My grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!
ACTION ("Psychiatrist"):
Yes! Officer Krupke, he shouldn't be here.
This boy don't need a couch, he needs a useful career.
Society's played him a terrible trick,
Und sociologic'ly he's sick!
RIFF:
I am sick!
ALL:
We are sick, we are sick,
We are sick sick sick,
Like we're sociologically sick!
ACTION ("Psychiatrist") (spoken):
In my opinion, this child don't need to have his head shrunk at all.
Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease!
RIFF (spoken):
Hey, I got a social disease!
ACTION ("Psychiatrist") (spoken):
So take him to a social worker!
RIFF:
Dear kindly social worker,
They tell me get a job,
Like be a soda jerker,
Which means I'd be a slob.
It's not I'm anti-social,
I'm only anti-work.
Glory Osky, that's why I'm a jerk!
A-RAB ("Social Worker"):
Eek! Officer Krupke, you've done it again.
This boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the pen.
It ain't just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside him, he's no good!
RIFF:
I'm no good!
ALL:
We're no good, we're no good,
We're no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!
DIESEL ("Judge"):
The trouble is he's crazy.
ACTION ("Psychiatrist"):
The trouble is he drinks.
A-RAB ("Social Worker"):
The trouble is he's lazy.
DIESEL ("Judge"):
The trouble is he stinks.
ACTION ("Psychiatrist"):
The trouble is he's growing.
A-RAB("Social Worker"):
The trouble is he's grown.
ALL:
Krupke, we got troubles of our own!
Gee, Officer Krupke,
We're down on our knees,
'Cause no one wants a fella with a social disease
Gee, Officer Krupke,
What are we to do?
Gee, Officer Krupke,
Krup you!
"Cooley took the idealists' absolute and gave it the characteristics of an
organic village; all the world should be an enlarged, Christian democratic
version of a rural village. He practically assimilated 'society' to this
primary group community, and he blessed it emotionally and conceptually."
> Let's return to our purity and our idealism while we have this shot.
Amen, and . . . Huh?
Tom Walker
