Cultural Consciousness

In 1935, at the First American Writer's Congress, Kenneth Burke told an audience of writers, both of the communist and fellow traveler persuasion, that it was imperative that the working class must ally itself with the petty bourgeoisie against the capitalists. The audience did not heed his proposal; instead, he was viciously attached in both verbal and prose form.

This moment in the history of the left sprung to mind after I read Szymanski's response to the Ehrenreichs. Instead of talking about the PMC as a potential third class, Szymanski argues to retain the traditional Marxist third class category the petty bourgeois. The petty bourgeois, he argues, often attempts "seeking its own 'third path' if not effectively appealed to by the proletariat or the bourgeoisie (60). The 20th Century manifestation of this 'third path', he continues, has been fascism, which "would promise both the destruction of independent trade unions and working class parties sand the breaking up of the big corporations, banks and landed estates...[for] their redistribution to the petty bourgeoisie" (61). But, Szymanski reminds us, fascism, especially that of Hitler and Mussolini, only "fulfilled the anti-working class half of their program admirable, but forgot the anti-monopoly half" (61).

Szymanski's analysis here seems particularly apt when talking about the recent phenomenon of the the Tea Party, especially because of their backing by members of big business like the Koch brothers and their constant straw man criticisms of the so-called socialism we supposedly have here in the U.S. But while the motive of the latter does seem somewhat financial--the fear of losing what little or not so little property members have--a lot of it also seems political--the fear of losing power to Mexican immigrants, African Americans, homosexuals, etc.--as well as cultural. While Cohen & Howard argue for a political rather than economic analysis of class and revolution, what about analyzing class consciousness in terms of culture?

Here's where I think Gramsci's notion of the national-popular would come in handy. How can the left articulate the national beliefs and values both in their past and present form? How can it re-appropriate an idea behind the "tea party" (or the founding fathers) commensurate with its own hopes and goals as well as the influence of present historical circumstances? Should it conceive of another qualifier for consciousness? Instead of class or political consciousness, would it be better to say cultural consciousness? One thing seems apparent: solely using economic and/or political appeals to make alliances with the PMC, petty bourgeois, or whatever you want to call it is probably not going to be enough to create effective change.