Remaking the Urban Scene: New Youth in an Old Environment

Author(s): John R. Seeley

Source: Daedalus, Vol. 97, No. 4, The Conscience of the City (Fall, 1968), pp. 1124-1139
Published by: MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20013415
Accessed: 10-12-2015 18:29 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Academy of Arts & Sciences and MIT Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Daedalus.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
JOHN R. SEELEY

Remaking theUrban Scene: New Youth in an

Old Environment

TimRE is somethingfatal to the understandingof urban problems

in themeans bywhich we seek it.The means are, conventionally,
theorderlypresentationof factsas complete,accurate,and sure as
possible, in the contextof argumentas lucid and precise as possi
ble,with a view to thepersuasionor convictionof "rational" minds
that think thatway. We all know, I think,the roles, rules, and
skills involved.But if thisprocedure has broughtus to thepresent
sorrypass, it is ironicthat it shouldbe held thatnecessitiesof con
munication require that the fatalprocess be continued in order to
persuade any of its fatality.
Let no one fail to appreciate thedifficulty.Imagine a patient in
psychoanalysiswhose central defense is "intellectualization." His
analystwould likehim forhis own benefitto appreciate theharm
he thus does himself.The patientmight sense, intuit,appreciate
what is lost to him ifhe will not abandon thedefense enough to
enter as a whole man (as nearly as he can) into the drama that he
and his doctor (as representativeof "theworld") are playing out.
But beforehe will engage, he says: "Prove it tome. Marshal your
arguments.Show me a fourfoldtable of harms and goods cross
classifiedby intellectualizationand whatever is the alternative."
If the analyst yields, he and the patient are probably lost in one of
twoways: Either itcannotbe shown intellectuallythat intellectual
ization is as bad for this patient as it actually is, or, if it can, that
thiswould be theworst possible way forhim to reach that con
clusion,since at thevery least itwould deepen his relianceonwhat
he alreadyover-relieson.
We cannot reach to thequestion of "the conscienceof thecity'
1124

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Remaking the Urban Scene

bymeans of a conscience thatI hold tobe in a radical sense false.

It is ironic (and probably self-defeating)to seek to secure convic
tionon thatpoint by theverymethods thattheargumentimpugns.
It might be noted as an intellectualcuriosum thateach of the
twocoursesopen is subject to and theobject of attack.If a psycho
analystmaintains that there is no way to theunderstandingof an
alysis except by the experienceof it-that, in effect,the abstrac
tion and "precision" characterizing scientificspeech about it
inevitablyfalsifyand misrepresent its nature-he is accused of
practicingmysticism,magic, or mumbo-jumbo. If, on the other
hand, a McLuhan-no matterwhat themerit of his contentions
argues by means of a linear logic sequentiallypresented against
"linear logic,"books, and sequential as against simultaneouspres
entation,his criticshold that he cannot believe what he asserts
since his practice is incompatiblewith his theory.The two argu
ments, taken together,seem to substantiatethe conclusion of the
dean of an eminentmedical school: "There isno learning," he said,
"among doctors; only biological replacementby thosewith new
ideas."They might alsomake intelligiblethedistressof theyoung
at thedifficulties of communication
or impossibilities with "anyone
over thirty."
In any case,what is here undertakenis a self-contradictory at
tempt to marshal an over-orderedargumentagainst over-order,
an attack on the undue relianceon logic relyingunduly on logic,
a managerial-type assault on management, a prosaic demarche
againstprosaism,an attemptto convince some colleagues by these
methods that theycannotbe convincedby suchmethods, and that
failingsuch convictiontheywill mistake the futurebecause, so re
stricted,theymisapprehend thepresent in itsmost vital particulars.

II
The West (in whichmust now be included theWesternized or
Westernizing nations) has reached a climax. The climax refers
both to personal and institutional
practicesand to those reflective
methods by which "adaptation" is secured and operabilitymain
tained.By a "climax" I mean thatpoint of highestdevelopment
precedent to fission,explosion,or exhaustionand replacementby
another form.By "anotherform,"I no more mean a minormodi
ficationof the old formthan the so-calledDark Ages represented
inrelationto theprecedingRoman Empire.
1125

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
DADALUS

We may discern some intimationsas to theprobable shape of

thatsuccessorformby attendingto two classes of facts: thosecon
nected with alienationand those connectedwith such alternative
and separate integrationsas we see beginning.Alienation here
means the dissolutionof a civilization-not some untoward cause
or consequence of it-since civilization exists in attachment,de
votion, as communityexists (to quote JohnDewey) in communi
cation.
If this is what is afoot, and if it can by no means-or at least
notmuch or forvery long-be contained, any treatmentof "the
conscience of the city"must take thisdevelopmentat least for its
contextor, ifapproved, for its aim. If theview is correct,there is
somethingtragicomicabout sittingaround "planning" to secure,
extend, and improve what is to be shortly swept away-like Roman
generalsplottingreparativewars abroad and placatory redistribu
tionof bread and amusementat home, just as a double, irresistible
assault striking at the roots of the very idea of Rome was being
mounted by "barbarians" abroad and "riff-raff"in catacombs in the
heart of the heartland at home.
Just as the city is in normal times that place where the civiliza
tion reaches the high point of its gradient,where the civilization
is refined,developed, elaborated, and fed back to thehinterland,
so in abnormal times the city is that place where its successor is
being incubated,nurtured,fostered,or developed. And the con
science of the city lies at thatnucleus nucleorum,wherever itmay
be, where most actively,most passionately,most devotedly,most
integrallythe foundationsof the new civilizationsare being in
action and interactionconceived, incarnated,tested,and worked
out.
Most of the thoughts and plans for the future of the city are
exacerbationormeremitigationor fondfolly:mitigationifwe agree
to give cups of water to thirsty children while the world shifts seis
mically in its shape and center of gravity; folly, ifwe imagine that
we are doing more, or that we are dealing at all with the main and
significant flow of events; exacerbation if the plans perfect exactly
thatwhich leads the listof repudianda.

III

The crisis of theWest, the great movement (or drift) toward

universal alienation, is attested to by the absence of response ap

1126

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Remaking the Urban Scene,

propriate to the very idea of crisisdespite or because of endless

discussion and attendanthandwringing.If your patient,child, or
colleague talked endlesslyof a crisisor seriesof crises in his life,'
of a growing feelingof depersonalization, while over some very
longperiod thecrisesgrewworse and thedepersonalizationgreater,
surelyyou would begin to suspect that thecrisis lay at another,a
different, a deeper level: thatperhaps the talkabout crisesor that
way of talkig about crisiswas intrinsicand contributoryto the
crisisand its exacerbation.You would be forced to conclude that
the talk (and the action "based" upon it) was insufficient as rem
edy; youmight suspect itwas unnecessary(and hence diversion
ary); youmightwell entertainthe idea thatthatway of analyzing
and dealingwith crisiswas at or near the core ofwhat generates
it. It isnot enough to "recognize"and plan against theKafkaesque
-indeed, by now, ultra-Kafkaesque-qualityofmodern life, if it
is precisely the kind of recognitionand response thatwe give to
the quality of life that is the source supremeof its increasingly
Kafkaesque character.Some people, even if they allow thatwe
have thoughtourway intothecrisis,evidentlybelievewe can think
ourselvesout of it.Even where theywill allow thatourway of con
ceiving and perceiving theworld has broughtus to thispass, they
seem to hold thatsome continuationof thesame or some relatively
minormodificationwill see us throughor out. That thewhole set
ofways of thinkingand theirattendantways of acting themselves
constitutethe crisis is evidently,forthem,hard tobelieve.
It seems evident tome andmany thattheworldmay be loosely
divided, likeCaesar's Gaul, into threeparts: a relatively"affluent"
part more or less conscious of,more or less disgustedwith, and
alienated fromthe "good life"theyhave finallyachieved; a mod
eratelywell-offpart, some stillcoastingon themomentumofgetting
there,but mostmore or lessnumbed and indifferent; a needy part
desperately strugglingby everymeans to get into the desperate
straitsof theother two.Such a distributioncharacterizesnot only
any single nation (this one especially), but the relationsamong
nations as well. By a developingor an underdevelopednation,we
mean one aspiring or being pressed or maneuvered to get into the
state we are in. Those who have qualms about getting them into
that state console themselvesby supposing that the "beneficiary"
nations can at one and the same time commit themselvesto our
major ways of doing, being, thinking,feeling in theworld, and
save and preserve "the best of theirculture."For people who be
1127

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
DAEDALUS

lieve thatculturesare or ought to be in a profoundand pervasive

sense wholes, such a prescriptionis very strange-so strange, in
fact, thatone is driven towonder what vital irrationality thepro
posal ismeant to protectand conceal. Surely if someonehad sug
gestedwe might graftthebusiness practicesofManchester in the
1890'sonto, say,PericleanGreek cultureand thushave thedouble
virtue of "cheap goods" (whatever thatwould have meant to our
neo-Pericleans) and high-mindedbalance (whatever that could
have meant to our neo-entrepreneurs), one would have judged the
proposingsomeonecrazy.That one or anothercultural logicwould
have had to pervade and prevail, giving everythingits ulterior
significanceand destroyingor eliminatingwhateverwas radically
incompatible,is as certainas anythinghuman can be, and, ifnot
implicitin thenotionof culture, most definitely confirmed by every
thing we know about it.
Thus the dream of a pluralism in essentials is idle.We are
destined,I think,to a culturalunity.And thatunity to be achieved
in some historicallybrief interval,a virtual next instant,is unity
under the sign of affluenceand emptiness,plenitude of "means"
and vacuum of satisfactions, satiation,disgust,"power,"and nausea
thatnowmarks and distinguishessome considerableportionof our
own societyand a lesserportionof allWestern ones.
I can hardly avoid "talkingpast' thosewho believe that the
source of thedeep and pervasive disgust,thenause'egenerale,has
to do with "our failures."To be sustained,thisview requireseither
a specialmeaning for theword "failure"or the recognitionthat
what disgusts us is our success. The alienation, themisery, the
nausea are intrinsicto our culture and its essence, implicitin its
organizingprinciples,andmost present,most visible,most palpable
when andwhere it ismost perfected.
Does anyonehave seriousdifficulty identifyingthearch-achieve
ments and most characteristicproducts of our civilization?Surely
some unique supremacywould have to be accorded our "produc
tion,"our characteristicsocial organization,our "educational sys
tem,"our "middle-classway of life"-as much a climax and a hall
mark forus thishour as the "gentleman"was forEngland in the
age justpast.But a deeper supremacy would have tobe our science
and technology-nowa technologyofmen aswell as of things. And
behind and below theseare theways of thinking, being, and acting
ofwhich theyare theproduct.Those surelyare our grand achieve
ments-indeed, theyare us inour distinctus-ness,inmotion.These
la28

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Remaking the Urban Scene

are not our aberrations,but our essentialand crowningglories. In

deed theyare that towhich we do lookwhen we wish or think we
wish to correctwhat we trulyconsider aberrations:minor de
partures fromexpectation,such as air pollution or ghetto "hous
ing."When Rap Brown said, "Violence is as American as cherry
pie," he toowas tryingtoget us tocease pretendingthatan endemic
conditionconnectedwith our dearest aims and efforts may (forthe
sake of self-deceitand in ordernot to deal with real problems) be
ignoredor relegatedto special,extraordinary, and disclaimed status.
Our violence, both in its "spontaneous"and organized forms,I
would have to list also among our arch-achievements: Mace, na
palm, and person-shredding devices are as much our lovinglyla
bored products, responsive in use to our deepest needs, as the
LincolnMemorial, theMedical Corps, or theLibrary of Congress.
Indeed, not these severally,but theirbonding orwelding orwed
ding iswhat interests us here.
It would be idle to deny that a varietyof responsiveopinion
obtains even among thosewho see "the phenomena"with distress
or disgust.There are thosewho regard thephenomena as expres
sionsof human nature, ratherthanour particularcivilizationalna
ture,andwho lookhence to resignation, "realism,"orminormitiga
tory measures as appropriate. These are those "reformers"-for
want of a better
word-who regard what presentsitselfas evidence
of the immaturity of a systemthat is essentiallygood or potentially
viable, and theirremedy,of course, is to press on tomore of the
same planning, control,"education,""resource-utilization," correc
tionof blatant injustice,and the like.There are thosewho profess
and call themselves"radicals,"who look to such remediesas new
laws-or constitutions even-redefinitionsof propertyor redistribu
tionsof titlesthereto,the substitutionof one elite foranother (the
inaugurationof "meritocracy," for instance).These threeseem so
much alike as to appear bedfellowssquabblingfamiliarly within the
standard Western family. A fourthopinionholds thatnone of these
views touchesthatwhich gnaws at theverymarrow of theciviliza
tion,rendersit intrinsically dehumanizing,inevitablycorruptingof
man and nature.The view ought not to be thoughtentirelynovel
even inmodern times.Freud seriouslyraised and leftopen (in
Civilizationand ItsDiscontents) thequestionwhether any civiliza
tion-viewed as a systemprotectingpeople fromthe threatsof na
ture,thebody, and one another-did not of itsnature so emptylife
of pleasure and thepossibilityof pleasure that themotive forand
1129

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
DdEDALUS

capacity to sustain the civilizationmust be in timeundercut and

destroyed.Not necessarilycivilizationgenerally,but certainlythis
civilization is, in a rapidlymounting crescendo,showing itselfto
be aMoloch at itsheart and core.
The evidence lies not in our peccadilloes, sins,and deviations,
but inour centraland crowningachievements:themost basic kinds
of relationsamong thekindsofpersonswe havemost basicallymade
ourselves.The allegation thatwe are all "Plasticpeople" loses too
much in translationto carry the force,richness,or meaning that
belongs to it.

IV
If I trytobringback out of the richand allusive 'language
words, acts,musics, postures,gestures,shaded and subtleways of
being, breathing, reaching, touching-whatever I can put into
O'straight"
language,what shall I say?How shall I locate in "our"
language the source of a ddgofittotal,a nausee generate,a large
part ofwhich stemsfromtheverynature of thatlanguageand the
uses towhich it isput, theonlyuses towhich it can be put since it
was developed forjustsuch use.
Ihe central thrusts
of thecivilizationare clearlyconquest, con
trol,mastery,subordination,domestication,domination,the bend
ingof all towhat is takentobe thehumanwill. It is theapotheosis
of willfulness.We appear in theUniverse as Conquistadors-no
matterwhat minormodifications we may in our odd momentsper
mit ourselves.Agency is all; patience nothing,except as another
way ofmastery in rarecircumstances,such as terminalcancer.We
preferinpractice (whateverwe may say abstractly)theeffectiveto
the harmless.Nazi soldierswere toAmericans part of the family,
perhaps inmisconduct or error;Balinese non-soldiersare quaint
or a mystery,but not serioushuman beings.All is reduced to the
testof use-use in thepeculiar "military"sense of the conqueror
lookingforfurtherconquest.We sometimessmilewhen the claim
ismade explicitlythatmusic is to be used to "tame the savage
breast" or religiontomaintainmental health or serve social soli
darity,but in factwe can hardly accredit eithercomfortably until
theclaims (or analogicalones) have beenmade. To be in theworld
in themode of loversor childrenis so nearlyunthinkablea thought
thatwe should rejectit, ifwe could imaginewhat it implied,as cer
tainlyun-Americanand non-Westernand, perhaps, not fullyhu
1130

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Remaking the Urban Scene

man.We are the societyof thegirded loin,andwhat is inour hand

is the crook at best and the sword at worst, the twobeing in our
scheme so closelyconnectedanywayas to representphases in one
act, theappropriateact,our paradigm-universal. The questions that
dividemen politically--thefew capable of causing cold wars, of
threatening hot ones, and generallyof promotingpassion-are not
about thewhether of appropriation, but thewhom.Who is to take
titletoand exercisedominionover thefarthestreachesof space and
theuttermostdepths of the sea has become an urgentquestion for
us. Our highest imaginativeflightssuggest"all of us" as theanswer,
but a non-proprietary, non-possessoryrelationis outside the ambit
of our imaginationor beyond thepale of our politicalpractice.The
Universe is "ours"-either distributivelyor collectively. Indeed
property,propriety,and theproper (proprea moi, the essence of
the egoid) are so closely connected conceptuallyand practically,
psychologicallyand etymologicallythat it is impossibleto thinkat
all in our thought-system without implying(assuming) the rela
tions as given. Freedom is even defined as the conditionunder
which "I am my own man," a statementthaton its face seems to
imply that slave and slaveholder,owner and owned, are one.We
cannot,dare not,would not leave ourselvesunconquered,uncon
trolled,unowned.We speak severallyof "Myself"and "my self,"
and the practice seems so close to common sense, to something
given in thenatureof things,thatany alternativeformulation, even
a silence before the ineffable,appears needless or misleading or
both.The notion thatyour self is not yours,nor anyone else's, and
not in theorder of thingstowhich possessoryideas or feelingsare
appropriateis so patentlyviolativeof our ideas,attitudes,practices,
and assumptionsthat it can barelybe appreciatedas a seriousand
radicallytransforming perception.Indeed, it is ina sense an untrue,
a false statement.Startingwith the assumptionwith which we all
start,we have evolved-or, rather,involuted-selves so truncated,
trivialized,narrowed, and ill-nourishedthat they probably are
nearly capable of being "owned,"used, and held in fee.
The controlling, mastering,conquering,subordinatingset is so
built into our practices,our psychology,our psyches,our episte
mology, our ways of "knowing,"and our language thatextrication
or escape by means of these is actuallyor virtuallybarred.Had I
prefaced thepreceding sentenceby saying,"I thinkthat. . .. ," the
very "I" used would have evoked inevitablyin themind of the
reader exactly that controlling, mastering "I," engaged in one more

1131

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
DADALUS

act of controland mastery.That "I"-overly, formally,totallydis

junctivefromeverywe, actual and virtual,fromevery they,from
all its and the It-is the condition,cause, consequence, and be
ginningof theConquistadorial set and the conquest. It is a par
ticularway of being in theworld. Since of itsnature itdrives to
ward itsown logicalconclusion,itprogressively bars all otherways
totally.
This set,now reaching itsclimacticelaboration in thoughtand
practice,has given us victory,but victoryof themost Pyrrhickind.
Not the unexamined life,but the lifeof conquest turnsout to be
notworth living.The starsand the atom'spowers and secretsare
now ours; the biosphere is our familyfarm. With everypromise
of "success,"we turnupon ourselvesand one another,through"so
cial science," the scopes (whether tele-ormicro-) thatbid fair to
bringour own refractory selves,severallyand collectively,also into
our service in our severaltyor collectivity.The heady hope of a
"social science" thatwill let us trulyknow ourselves and one an
other,conjoined to a "planning"thatwill allow thisus in effectto
manage thatus, is theepitomicexpressionof theWestern dream.
The disease or dream is variously seen: by a Mannheim as a
virtually limitlessincrease in "functionalrationality"accompanied
by and based upon a virtually limitlessdecrease in "substantive
rationality";by a Freud as the sacrificeof all pleasures to thepoint
where thewill to live is itselfovercomeby theelaborationof those
'defenses"which thiscivilizationrepresents;by othersas the ever
more dangerous, evermore irrepressiblereturnof the repressed
moves to aggression,the genocidal-suicidalsuper-achievements of
our age; by a Marcuse as the topological transformation ofmany
sided,multiformman into "one-dimensionality." These men agree
thatwe do everbetterwhat makes no sense, that joyand bliss are
dead on the altar of armor,thatwe are other and strange to all
including"our own selves,"hell-bound towed death, already all
but dead, reduced to a single, last dimension.Those professionals
who hear thesevoices,however,seem dominantlyto respondto the
vision theyevokewith a heighteningof the activitywhich is the
cause and expressionof the state that the vision recognizes.They
seem tohold thateithermore of themedicine thatcaused the sick
ness or a minor variantof the samemust be the sourceof itscure.
That senselessness,joylessness,alienation, limitlessaggression,the
basic alliancewith death, and the finalreductionof all to nothing
are built into theprimordialrootsand presuppositionsof our cul
1132

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 RemakingtheUrban Scene
ture is rarelyconcluded and still less acted upon.We relymost
desperatelyon what has failed us first. We cannot believe thata
world conceived,organized,and related to aswe have donemay be
finallyuninhabitable,and the selves correspondingly cast over and
over against such a world emptyand inoperable.Even when the
problem is "located"within the self,we make of that self a "that"
in order to "deal with" the problem in our customaryfabricant
fashion.Our answer to theproblems thatarise is furtherand finer
fragmentation(so that conquest can continue even as its fruits
tasteevermore ashen inourmouths). Dissevered each fromhimself,
everyonefromeveryoneelse, all fromnature,and each more and
more from theAll, we seek our salvation in one more analytic
effortto be followedby one more organizational thrust,a new
battle plan for triumph when what is killingus iswar.
What we have perfected is technology, and it is technologyon
which mostmen, most places,most timesrestsuch vague hopes as
stillstir.It is now in or almost in our hand to feed lavishly,clothe,
and render"literate"theworld, to live in virtuallyinstantaneous,
universal, continuous,ubiquitous "communication,"to annihilate
nearly all physicaldistance,to commandmore energythanwe can
use, to engineermood and perhapsperceptionatwill, towrite such
geneticprescriptionsas we wish, tomake suchmen as whim may
dictate.The Universe capitulates.We are everywheretriumphant.
But a premonitorysmell of cosmicNeroism is in the air, and the
cryof "StopThe World; IWant To Get OF" has become,whether
absurd or not,pervasiveand insistent.

There cannot, in the nature of the case, be a well-articulated

theoryof such things.A way would have to be found to "get out
of theculture"inorder to findas a new person a new and different
direction.Indeed, sincesome sortof "opening"isof theessence,and
since what will follow such opening is unforeknowable,a pro
grammaticspecification would be a double contradictionin terms.
The firstproblem is to find themeaning of gettingout and the
means to do so; the second is tobegin to "findone's head" inwhat
then is opened to one; the third is to preventone's reintegration
and reassimilation;and the fourthis to live in relationto oneself,
others,nature, in such fashionas to preserveand enhance thenew
1133

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
DADALUS

person in thenew relatedness.To look fora formulafora quest is

to fail tounderstand what is impliedineitherterm.
Some faintforecastofwhat may be beforeus may be provided
by an ideal-typicalappreciationof what was till recentlyknown
as the"hippie"phenomenon.Being "a hippie,"largelya news-media
invention,is itselfverynearly a contradictionin terms;being "hip
pie" is a way of being in theworld, of being in a different way, a
mood, a socialmovement,a movementof religions,a quest at once
personal, social, and transcendent.
The ontogenyof hippieness is as easy to abstract as it is fatal
to adequate appreciation.The onset ismarked by disaffection, dis
affiliation,and disgust in the full and literalsense of those terms.
What was libidinallyinvested is disendowed; one is orphaned.
What had been nurturantis sensed to be poisonous to one's pre
viouslybarely apprehendeddeeper being. These sentiments move
towardrepudiation, more or lessclearlyarticulated,more andmore
massive. Escape and extricationfromthewhole fast-woven web of
activities,connections,and expectationsbecome paramountneces
sities,touchedwith the desperate characterof a strugglefor sur
vival.Co-emergentis theurgencyof findingan adequate experience
sufficientat least to suggestor to intimatewhat in the selfand the
world has been so radicallydenied, distorted,and filteredout from
the rich lifeof the richchild of the richWest. What is begun is a
long,slow, agonizingquest thatmoves over a territory having few
general and stillfewer particularlandmarks. Its criteria,
recognized
in treasured"highs,"are the unitive experienceswith self,others,
nature, theAll thatdepend upon and give rise to some diffusionof
the already overbounded ego. The "incidentals"of location,drug
adjuvants,music, fatigue,fasting,costume,style,special languageof
word, touch,gesture are each less than essential,but more than
adventitious.They promoteand support,as do the endlessbut not
tightlyconnected talksinpad and commune,thewandering, tenta
tive searchingsforone's rootsand flower.Finding one's thingand
doing one's thing mark stagesand are intrinsic;theyattestand con
tributeto a far-reachingtransformation of the personality,whose
inwardsignsare growthintogentleness,trust,and grace.No longer
-or radically less-atomized, deracinated, homogenized, con
stricted,and truncated, no longermodeled onmastery,butwedded
to wisdom, a recognizablynew population emerges not merely
bearing a new culture,but being in a new way and manifesting
even inmien and posturewhat it is tobe in that Way. For the first
1134

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 RemakingtheUrban Scene
Western, a
time since the historyof theWest became distinctly
powerful emerges
movement whoseway iswisdomandwhosehero
is the sage. No more powerful transformation or revolutioncan be
imaginedfora societyor a culture thana shiftin the typeof hero
and themode of self-modeling. From tycoonand bureaucrat-in-,
chief to sage, fromconquest ofwhatever is to participationin it
theseare greatdistancesand direlydifferent directions,dire at least
fora civilizationso singularlyset as ours on so narrow and mean
a course.
The firstquestion commonlyput to anyone assertingthepower
of themovement-"How many hippies,exactly,are there?"-attests
to a culture lost inmindless counting,computation,calculation,and
coping-withor conquering designs and devices. Not only do we
instinctively turn to this countingdevice-to measure magnitude
which thenbecomes undistinguishablefromthegreatnessof some
thing-but the externality,themanagement set, is implicitin the
question.The questionmeans "Howmany of themare there,"so that
"L"may knowwhether or how tomodifymy plans forcontaining
them.
The kindestquestion asked will oftenbe "How can we plan
for them?"Dylan's answer-"Get out of the way, if you don't
understand,For the times,theyare a-changin"'-is evidently in
comprehensible,for even theword "understand"is only "under
stood"by us incharacteristic, fatalfashion.
We think we understand
something when we "grasp" it,have hold of thoseparticularsthat
permitus toput it in itsplace. That thevital is only "understood"
as it grasps you-or, more exactly,as embrace occurs-is not, it
appears, except fleetingly inour understanding.
The question "How can we plan for them?"is so wrong in its
everyword thatno answer is possible. There is an error in the
word "them": It is a movementof the spirit,a genuine "change of
mind" variously incarnatednow in various degrees in various peo
ple, that requiresa response; it is not some new "subpopulation"I
or sect.There is an errorin theword "we": The likelihoodthatany
intellectual-managerial "we" will be able (failing the advent of
fascism) to plan or controlunderlyingpopulationsmuch longer is,
negligible,as dramaticallyattestedby the progressof "pot," the
development of new sex relations and gender definitions,the
"troubles"in school and universityand otherprisonsand ghettosin
the last decadesThere is errorin theword "plan,"unless itsmean
ing is so stretchedas to includevoluntaryabdicationof thewhole
1135

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
DAMDALUS

scheme of arrangingconditionsby forethoughtas to have pre-de

cided outcomes specifiedwith some particularity."Planning for
Freedom"-the conciliatoryslogan-somehow turnsout in prac
ticemostly tomean themere impositionof order in the name of
freedom.

VI
Even if the foregoingis correct,even ifour civilizationis about
to founderinnuclear fire(or fascism) or tobecome somethingthat
"hippieness"foreshadowsand forecasts, what has all thisto do with
"theconscienceof thecity"?
What is significant about the city is not that it is a "population
center"or a place of intersectionof roads, rail lines,waterways,or
whatnot. A city is that place where whatever is highest in the
civilization is beingmost actively,most vividly,most trulycarried
on. The city is the locus of the civilization'sconscience. Failing
that,thecityisa population trap,a behavioral sink.
We must remindourselvesof the "hippie" insistencethat"find
ing your head" and findingthe appropriate supportiveand pro
motive relationfordoing so are co-emergents. No one has as yet
gone beyond pad or communescale in such a searchand not aban
doned the one half-aimor the other-though a loose communeof
communes,not spatially concentrated,seems emerging.Most of
thesecommunesare now physically located by choice, not neces
sity, in the clefts of mountains, on the not-economically-arable
plains, in thedesertsand waste places generally,in theniches and
intersticesleftfreeor sparseby thepresentecological organization.
At least fora while, the conscience of the city and therewiththe
citymay well have its dwelling place anywherebut there.
Indeed, thereare other reasons to thinkthat for the near fu
ture the citywill be literallythe province and backwoods, filled
with and ruled by provincials and backwoodsmen attemptingto
learnand do what theadvance guard of the civilizationis striving
tounlearn and undo. It seemsperfectlyclear thatthe internalpro
letariatat home, like the externalone abroad, is bound and de
terminedto go throughall the stageswe have gone throughinour
miserable quest of thisnow potentiallyhappy place. Those most
externalto our societywant most thegoods and powers, thegames
and theiryield indifferential deference,thepenalties and rewards,
the conquestsand controlsthatare so bitter in ourmouths. Justas
1138

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Remaking the Urban Scene

thepoor tookon, stepby step, thecity'sabandoned neighborhoods

and mansions, so now theyseem about to seize the cityand with
it thecityways thatepitomizeourmaladies andmiseries. Itwill be
a "learningenvironment" of a sort,a learningenvironmentto ease
the learningofwhat we must in agony unlearn,a place to acquire
themajor diseases one did not have in thevain hope of curing the
minor ones one had.

VII

The views and visions earlieradverted to carrywith themalto

getherdifferentimplicationsforthe "lifeof learning"(all life), the
manner of learning(all modes), and the environmentof learning.
Whatever else is true,the learningmust come bearing theper
sonal signatureof some fullycredible teacher-which is to say
someonemuch more like a guru than our present techniciansof
skill or information conveyance.No mass process comparable to
our present "knowledge"factoriesin theuniversitiesor person and
"skill"factoriesin the schools could fillany part in any congruous
"processof education."Somethingmore reminiscent of, thoughnot
identicalwith, discipleshipand apprenticeship must supervene.Uni
tiveexperiences-or even precessoryexperiencesto these-may be
sought,even cultivated,but not engineered.The very notion of
puttingsoul-sustenanceand soul-deepeninginto thegrip of a vast
machine, organized like an army, standardized,bureaucratized,
governed,purportingtoderive itsauthorityfromthestatewill seem
among themore tragicomicdeparturesin the tragicomichistoryof
man.
We must take it that all large systems-except for the supply
ofminimumneeds at thecost ofminimumeffort-willlargelydis
appear.What we have to imagine,apart fromthisminimum, is
virtuallya nonsystem,and that is,of course, forus, almostbeyond
imagining.To picture the undesigned is almost as difficultas to
design it.
Let us try,however, to imagine a situation- a scene -in which
the immediateobjectivesare not somuch to learnabout something,
as to "dig it" or to alter it so that it can be dug. The scene thus
defined (to confoundBurke's distinctions)includes the action and
the actors and the agency.To add to confusion,thepurpose-at
least the immediatepurpose-is to "make the scene" (in a double
sense), if it is worth making. The indissolubledouble sense of
1137

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
DAMALUS

'makingthe scene" is on theone hand being thereand (therebyor

otherwise)making itother than itwould have been. Digging what
there is also impliesa double process,but with a tremendouspre
ponderance of emphasison its firstelement: It is both unitive and
disjunctiveor discriminative;it is both tobe lost in and to absorb,
to be comprehendedand to comprehend,tobe integratedintoand
to integrate,to yield to and notmaster, but embody. It is, in fact
(to use KurtWolff's terms), to surrenderin order to returntrans
formedin order to surrenderotherwise.
What is to be dug ismore nearly a totalitythana convenient
working abstraction,thoughoccasionally a peculiarly groovy ele
mentmay be abstracted.Thus if,forinstance,a mathematics lesson
should surviveas a sceneworthmaking, it is barely possible (and
onlyunder peculiar leaningsand circumstances)thatthebeauty of
themathematicswill be theprincipal elementdug. The scene (i
Burke's sense), theact (as likelyas not seen as the funny, pathetic,
possibly interesting,peculiarlysubtle interplayof personalities),the
actors (including oneself,with special attention to the deeper
levels of value and significance),and the agency (also dug in its
fullness,ratherthannarrowlyas means to an act of narrowlyde
finedpurpose) are tobe simultaneously dug and in a special sense
played into-thus alteringall. The special sense of "Played into"
is thatwhat ismeantmust have no elementof "playinggames."To
play games is tobe governedby a trinity of repudianda: to be act
or
ingonly dominantly out of consciousnessor forethought (instead
of aus ganz Natur), forone's advantage, and in the lightof other's
conscious (especially predeterminedand narrowed) expectations.
A particulargame thathas to be avoided is thegame of not play
inggames.The knifeedges are very,very fine.
Let therebe no question thatif"skills"are not "acquired,"there
will be insufferably littleto dig. I have had to put bothwords in
quotationmarks because theywill be-can be-no longerthe same
things."Acquisition,"in virtueof its active, aggressive,prehensile,
and possessoryovertonesis thewrong word; and "skills"is unduly
connotativeof the narrow and the "useful,"'the narrowlyuseful.
But rhetoric,music, poetry,pictorialand plastic art,not tomention
domesticarts,thebread andwine of life,philosophizingand testing
of philosophy in dialogue and action-all these are already in
process of exceedingly rapid elaboration and development.But
whatever correspondsto "skills"will appear as natural emergents
fromactivitiesand experiences,creditable and valuable in their
1138

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Remaking the Urban Scene

own general (total) terms,ratherthan as the resultsof a self-or

other-governedrationalizedprocess of skillproduction (a seriesof
lessons or a curriculum).Put anotherway, theway of lifewill
engender the skillsthatenhance it.
Implicit in all this is a necessitythatallmen, ormost, be teach
ers (and gurus) in a way forwhich historyaffordsno example.
That transformation can by no means be achieved overnight,for
implicitin that implicationis another: that"teaching"must, in ef
fect,become a "voluntary,""natural,"amateur, continuingfunc
tionof the lifeofmany,most, or all, ratherthan,as at present,an
involuntary, artificial,intermittent job or trade of an essentially
reluctantand, of course, incompetentfew.The need, place, and,
indeed,possibilityfor"teaching"as it is presentlysurviving will be
minuscule. The nature of the societycontemplatedand the likely
increase in the tempo of discovery ensure that learningcan no
longeroccur, exceptmarginally, in any situationof unilateral ex
pertise. Increasinglyitwill be the case that the relativenewcomer
being taughtwill have information required for this learningthat
the relativeoldcomer simplycannot have. Because that informa
tionwill becomemore and more indispensable,all teaching-learn
ingwill have to have the structureofmutualityand thecharacter
essentiallyof a conference.Such doctors-teachers-as remainmust
be doctorsof dialogue. In any case, thebulk of theactivityentailed
will fall increasinglyto the siblingship. And the siblingship will no
longerbe, solely or primarily,the intensetinygroup of "natural"
(biological) brothers and sisters nor the non-intense "peers"
(friendsand acquaintances), but somethingin between the sibs
of the extended families,small "tribes,"and such thatnow begin
todot andwill presentlyfillthelandscape.
Very littlewill need planning-just enough control over the
spread of citiesand theirways topermittheconscienceof thecity
to find itselfchieflyoutside these centers,to spread throughthe
societywhich, by then,may be ready,having reached its fevered
climax, to abandon itsdeliriumand search out itsnew way. That
new way, I am confident, will not be, cannot be, in content,or
ganization,aim, or spirit,anythinglike a continuationor culmina
tion of what we have hitherto nurtured and known.

1139

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:29:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions