NOGNOT GNV NaAVH MAN SSHWd ALISHAAINN SIVA 09g “3 souref AONVISISAY LNVSVad dO SWHOA AVOAMTAT YAN a3 JO suodeayy,2 * Normal Exploitation, Normal Resistance ‘Almost invariably doomed to defeat and eventual massacre, the great insur- rections were alrogether too disorganized to achieve any lasting result. The patient, silent struggles scubbornly carried on by rural communities over the years would accomplish more than these flashes in the pan. ‘Marc Bloch, French Renal History ‘As the editor of Fidd and Garden once wrote, great men are always unpopular ‘with the common people. The masses don’t understand them, they think all those things are unnecessary, even heroism. The little man doesn't give a shit about a great era. All he wants is to drop into a bar now and then and eat ‘goulash for supper. Nacurlly a statesman gets riled at bums like that, when its his job to gee his people into the schoolbooks, the poor bastard. To a ‘great man che common people are a ball and chain. It’s like offering Baloun here, with his appetite, a small Hungarian sausage for supper, what good is that. I woulda’e want fo listen in when the big shots get together and start ‘griping about us. Schweyk, Bertolt Brecht, Schweyk in the Second World War, Scene 1 ‘THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF RESISTANCE “The idea for this study, its concerns and its methods, originated in a growing dissatisfaction with much recent work—my own a5 well as that of others—on the subject of peasant rebellions and revolution.’ It is only too apparent that the inordinate areention accorded to large-scale peasant insurrection was, in Norch ‘America at east, stimulated by the Vietnam war and something of a left-wing ‘cademic romance with wars of national liberation. In this case interest and source material were mutually reinforcing. For the historical and archival records were richest at precisely those moments when the peasantry came to pose a threat to the stare and co the existing international order. At other times, which is to 1. See, for example, Barrington Moote, Jf., Social Origins of Dictatonbip and Demeeracy (Boston: Bescon, 1966); Jffeey M. Paige, Agrarian Revolution: Socal Move- ‘ments and Export Agriculture in the Onderdeeloped World (New York: Free Press, 1973); Bric R. Wolf, Paatant Wars ofthe Tueniath Century (New York: Harper & Row, 1969); James €. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Pusant (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1976); Samuel L. Popkin, The Rational Peatant (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1979). NORMAL EXPLOITATION, NORMAL RESISTANCE * 29 say most of the time, the peasantry appearcd in the historical record not 50 much as historical actors but as more or less anonymous contributors to statistics ‘on conscription, taxes, labor migration, land holdings, and crop production. “The fact is thar, forall their importance when they do occur, peasant rebel- lions, Jee alone peasant “revolutions,” are few and far between. Not only are the ‘circumstances that favor large-scale peasant uprisings comparatively rare, but ‘when they do appear the revolts that develop are nearly always crushed uncere- ‘moniously. To be sure, even a failed revolt may achieve something: a few conces- sions from the state or landlords, a brief respite from new and painful relations of production? and, not least, a memory of resistance and courage that may lie in wait for the future. Such gains, however, are uncertain, while the carnage, the repression, and the demoralization of de‘eat are all too certain and real, It is worth recalling as well that even at those extraordinary historical moments ‘when a peasant-backed revolution actually su-ceeds in taking power, the results are, at the very best, a mixed blessing for the peasantry. Whatever else the revolution may achieve, it almost always creates a more coetcive and hegemonic state apparacus—one that is often able to betten itself on the rural population. like no other before it. All too frequently the peasantry finds itself in the ironic position of having helped to power a ruling group whose plans for industriali- zation, taxation, and collectivization are very much at odds with che goals for which peasants had imagined they were fighting.? For all chese reasons it occurred to me tha: the emphasis on peasant rebellion ‘was misplaced. Instead, ic seemed far more important to understand what we ‘might call everyday forms of peasant resistance—the prosaic but constant struggle FF ——————=_—t and interest from them. Mose of the forms this struggle takes stop well shore of collective outright defiance. Here I have in mind the ordinary weapons of rel- atively powerless groups: foot dragging, dissimulacion, false compliance, pilfer- ing, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, sabotage, and so forth. These Brechtian forms of class struggle have certain features in common. They require little or ‘no coordination or planning; they often represent a form of individual self-help; and they typically avoid any direct symbolic confrontation with authority ot wich clite norms. To understand these commonplace forms of resistance is to under- stand what much of the peasantry does “between revolts” to defend ies interests as best it can. It would be a grave mistake, as it is with peasant rebellions, to overly ro- manticize the "weapons of the weak.” They are unlikely to do more chan mar- 2. For an example of such temporary gains, see the fine study by E. J. Hobs- bwin and George Rude, Captain Swing (New York: Pantheon, 1968), 281-99. 3. Some of these inves are examined in James C. Scot, “Revolution in the Revolution: Peasants and Commissars,” Thery and Seca 7, nos. 1-2 (1979): 97— 34uy eowely, puoteg “vaphyy we05 “8 ood © ang ‘ree eu U>E v, stm si aradwo> pynow 2eyp saqqnr Surpes pue Suymosi wos Anuesead ayp aBernors4p (2 ekeepy UE auaurUsaAG8 Teruo|OD axp Jo sways ausisiod ay “uoRda29p pe uoiseaa ‘amoges ajaqns ‘souerdusoouou axtssed yo wad} oyp spear “TonaMoy § suayo aioyy “2uaforn Uasa ‘aaraze awloDeq sey A>UERSISDI sIyp SUOISEDO DUIOS UC) 2‘Sepuoypne axp paseajep vaYO sey oY s|P}}8 axrsdaaap sy Bursn fq ang “Bury swowdoypaap warms jo 2481] 4p U 0294 © ATpreN st yuesead uuyy ay], “s97U axp shewqe sueaur ou Aq ase sures os0u jo siouuim. atp “wmous sey dpras sip sy “sumed ums-orse © 02 poonpor ‘vay s1 uowenbs auauidorsasp atp j a]gepuersiopun st SvoHeNNS sy Uy :2uoa Zuymoq|ay ayp Ur sopnfsuod Aoyjod axes Tutu -avanya apena so opt es sapeaap [es9has JaA0 pafeueut axey—eo13yY ase Ut 2509 snp u}—swueseed woy Buyfeiap aunoove arer ¥ jo soypne ays, AnUEsed oYp JO _aoueasisar aatssed atp Aq uortsurax9 a paygqiu suresfoud pur soue4os wourus2008 auauudojasop,, emma wo asmzesaay] 243 30 Supeas PEL, 7 ens ap go som 2 orruasaidassrur pue Aa}oqplwo> Jo >p0m220 © yox9 ayo dam soleI2yaug fediouiad asoyea wOIINA!SUF Ue 305 SurySy yo [rpuasar Aedsap aram. “Camo py Surpfoyaseysuoy ayp woyy 2soy Ajqersads> “soaryea 200g “232d ayBiur avo se ‘JeuaEU pue yerOUr Y20q 994 If + SONVISISTU TVNYON ‘NOLLVLIOTAXS TVNON. +9 $6 sxdey> “@oruooypay “sud UN spromspuouey}) souneg sejfnoq “Suen “query ay.L “COZ aoe Burdd1s8 ¥ 203 *16-96 ‘any 02 seacde suoseas ay, 5 21paBorye voHad}s9sU0> poproae aney 02 30 paxsosap att 02 59 axe SOIIYAS —IqHEHTD 0O'OST ABFEN "SUED Pozej22puN [ue auajis jo ajax aarsizap aup jo aydunexa roxy v sr SoNeXS POmUN, sep Uy Tey TIAID atp Jo assne> atp ur Ausouose pu Auuze aresapazuor ay Jo asdeyfoo au, ‘unop SuyBuyq us aeys ay sip ey © ‘vowruo> aif ** * aqoy sumr “ssy anoua qt at poppop sey aetp aydosd v uot uewoasy © 39} apeiveds Surzemo> st aroun ou 2s3ip pur ‘auras aalssaxddo ur yo dareindodun yesz2arun 2xp wo umpuatajes wanbop a1ou ou ua9q aAey pIne> axaxL, “suoRed oxd snydosisene> paypeat as0u v0 *Z1.gT WoHy °° yptYs aBeyoURY jap yo poods aya Unop Tummoys Ajesoduss ueyp sou ur poss2ns 200 pI ‘oxjod yemu ajqetjas pue snosoumu axour épisea © quis ‘anidurg aya UOKg ‘suoe> 2joyes ‘fqyurey ay Burajonu ‘Kpypduios aan se paqunsp aq 2yBrur rey Jo ypBuanss up " 2sodounwo axp—spoet aA Jo snug pros ap 00 IA 2K 99 Of Sundnisip pur Sujsisa1 spuoppue] pue spe!>yjo paniosgo sey ou ase Ase ‘ue auoKue se ‘suodear asaya uo Ajodouour ou sey Anuesead op ‘ax0WzaIM suoyuo> sauesead rey uoneordxs jo suEy snowea op wage AUT ONYSISAU TVWWON 'NOLLVIIOTAXA TVION + Of32 + NORMAL EXPLOITATION, NORMAL RESISTANCE with che plantation sector for land and markets is a case in point.” Various restriction schemes and land use laws were tried from 1922 until 1928 and ‘again in the 1930s with only modest results because of massive peasant resis- tance. The efforts of peasants in self-styled socialist states ro prevent and then to mitigate or even undo unpopular forms of collective agriculture represent a striking example ofthe defensive techniques availabe to a beleaguered peasantry. ‘Again the struggle is marked less by massive and defiant confrontations than by ‘2 quiet evasion that is equally massive and often far more effective."® “The style of resistance in question is perhaps best described by contrasti paired forms of resistance, each aimed more or less at the same objective. The first of each pair is “everyday” resistance, in our meaning of the term; the second represents the open defiance that dominates the study of peasant and working class politics. In one sphere, for example, lies the quiet, piecemeal process by which peasane squatters have often encroached on plantation and stae forest lands; in the other a public invasion of land that openly challenges property relations. In terms of actual occupation and use, the encroachments by squatting may accomplish more than an openly defiant land invasion, though the de jure distribution of property rights is never publicly challenged. Turning co another example, in one sphere lies arash of military desercions that incapacitates an ‘army and, in the other, an open mutiny aiming at eliminating or replacing ‘officers. Desertions may, 2s we have noted, achieve something where muciny may fail, precisely because ic aims at self-help and withdrawal rather than institutional confrontation. And yet, the massive withdrawal of compliance is ina sense more radical in is implications for the army as an institution than the replacement of officers. As a final example, in one sphere lies the pilfering of public or private Brain stores; in ehe other an open attack on markets or granaries aiming at an open redistribution of the food supply What everyday forms of resistance share with the more dramatic public con- frontatios is of course that they are intended ro mitigate or deny claims made by superordinate clases or to advance claims vis-t-vis those superordinace classes. Such claims have ordinarily w do with the material nexus of class struggle— 9. The best, mose complete account ofthis may be found in Lim Teck Ghee, Pasants and Their Agriulteral Economy in Colonial Maley, 1874-1941 (Kuala Lum- par Oxf Uni res, 1977 St ao che peri argue o Donald ul Diener, and Eugene E. Robkin, “Ecology and Evolution: Population, itive Accumulation, and the Malay Peasantry” (Typescript, 1979). 10. For careful and fascinating account of the ways in which China's production teams and brigades could, until the changes in 1978, have some influence on the 24p $1 a1 pur ‘sassa2oud apensqe pur ae jo zonpord pua ap se 200 “Buns 729s 21212000 © unypute vorssaiddo pur voneandap asuaadia aydoad ‘asmig :ssep Bunjsom a4 205 suauadko snp jo Aaroypods ap amadeo premoi pue vanig “so{88nuns pue sizyuo ay!oads ‘sdnos8 pue sjenptarpur 2y12ads 30 wa9y weumy-oorpe aya ut ing sadaouoo azensqe “nsoy se papuatjidde sou are Aa, pure ‘ales {3p “Poa s 3 se seep Jo aouauadxo sme1200> a4p 02 pusre am 3 ‘cononpord jo spow 349 wey) Apos 30 Apsoup SaaINSpE Ap aonpep sua, pstonpuod are suores e108 ypu Jo m0 aovated Srupy 205 330m oa pe ,$S9USTOIDSUOD—F ‘uonze ueumy jo sofdioulid [Te sstwsip 02 autos 02 apquartdde aq, deus Inox aon Suey “Gayruyza Yat Jp 2oeds Aaozeurjdxa yexo ayp asnetpo 200 SBOP ‘Ife J2ye ‘SseLD 10128 HU ‘poorg-pue-ysog dq popuayaiddle ae samaonunsasoya oy purassopun on aegaud 5, Uaaraaq aouepuodsat ‘2p 02 uorejas ut vonssod ajqeredusa> + Ajauapr 02 fam Aaa qe st 38a Sse Jo adsou0> ayp sus22U09 sISATeUT 243 jp ima ayp 30 swuaie Ueume Jo aouatiadxs ayp Susand 205 uoseas pu02ss Y +8 Adnooo [Te 04a sfenprarpar Jo UOR22ff09 & + SONVISISHY IVWYON ‘NOLLVLIOTEXE TVICUON, ‘ams axp—nstfemonns ‘Ippe a0u—adumee 20g JO sisKTEUE ay woyy swuade weumy Jo aouatiads ayp 11H a], ,<"TeUEIqoXTuadumy 247 UaKD puE ‘aystoa8inog aaned axp ‘arstoa8moq yp 305 Anwoesead ayp 30j ann st sip Jf ‘25moD Jo ‘Puy “3 opasiadns 40 34 ureyeW puE ay aimansuo9 oll as0up saDUangu! waashs 2ytHOUODS Uaa!T ¥ M804 anogE [YSU uous Sunpéve Aes 02 24qe aq 3m [1% SSOUTT Sa ay] BurPAWIOS exp Suumade> Aq Aug Zuonerasdianut pue aouotidxe wewuny 4q paxepau s) se adaox9 suore[es seep Jo azmaeu aup a0047¢ UorImpoxd Jo apour ¥ WED asf> MOF] ec Waar aze yrs suonrpuod sapun YRnounpe “Furzeus-jps Jo ssa20xd w st vorseuizgssepp Jo ssapoud aup smu :shem sse]> U1 anqen O2 pue “fur o2 *188nns 03 awoo pue ‘nsasnu! spstuodewe stp AjuDp! ‘suore|as SATIN ‘geneoaq S517 SBSSH]D * ** “SONTANIE ap B susXS woRInpasd Jo apour ayp Ie ‘souatndso jo suesur “sojo2 w s9At8 yams (eou2podko ssep> uayo) aouzuadsa st 31 :ssousnOI9sUOD Tepos pu Bulag ye!D0s vaami9q uni appr Aressooou v st aouatiadxo aouis ‘arxsepy © Ut afqeuopred [souatiodxa Jo fesryas earojourmsida ap ssnupry asurede 8 9q gy, “add pure stsrreypaus Aquo ‘2394 810378 Tamura ou ame aso, “suai afaqp wou} MOOG or poumsaid sf rex uoRENS Sse ay 02 suoatd itouos9 aj Ksaa © 40 260 WOH} ayfrens deo] astuorZnpal ‘Aquiy « sire ammp22oxd sty, ‘voeudosdde snydms o apous ag) 30 ‘Surou029 ‘pow aya ‘uonampaid Jo apour weuyuOp fue ur suonepss ssepp Jo ammyeu ap ju) ue> 240 Ie suse OF WRTEL oou jo siuetzen asyesmaanns ai0Ul at Jo awos Ur ayqeuONys sta] “paronpuo> 3q 01 aygno pus UeD 9DURIS fPIIOs MOY Yak op 0} sey UOsKaT 3815 IL ‘hpras ays owt ypeosdde peSojovauousyd ‘yBnoyp ‘auno2D zeqp Jo YMpy “(9212 Jo Burddos>-aJqnop ayp ‘2seD s1U UF +, UORINYO AONVLSISTY TVWWON ‘NOILYIIOTEXE TVMUON + ZY wt44+ NORMAL EXPLOITATION, NORMAL RESISTANCE landlords, ruinous interest rates from moneylenders, combine-harvesters that replace him, and petty bureaucrats who creat him shabbily. He does not experience the cash nexus or the capitalist pyramid of finance that makes of those landlords, ‘combine-harvester owners, moneylenders, and bureaucrats only the penultimate link in a complex process. Small wonder, then, that the language of class in the village should bear the birthmarks of its distinctive origin. Villagers do not call, o\ Pak Haji Kadir an agent of finance capital; chey call him Kadir Ceti because it vfvas through the Chettiar moneylending caste, which dominated rural credit from about 1910 until World War Il, that the Malay peasant most forcibly experienced finance capital. The fact that the word Chettiar has similar conno- tations for millions of peasants in Vietnam and Burma as well is a tribute to the homogenization of experience which the capitalise penetration of Southeast yt Asia brought in its wake. Nor is i simply a question of recognizing a disguise 9" and uncovering the ral relationship that lies behind it. For the disguise, the metaphor, is part of the real relationship. The Malays historically experienced the moneylender as a moneylender and as a Chettiar—that is, as a foreigner and ‘4 non-Muslim. Similarly, the Malay typically experiences the shopkeeper and the rice buyer not only as a creditor and wholesaler but as a person of another race and another religion. Thus the concept of class as i i lived is nearly aways an alloy containing base metals; its concrete properties, its uses, are those of the alloy and not of che pure metals it may contain. Either we take it as we find ic ‘or we abandon the empirical study of class alrogethes/ ‘That che experienced concept of class should be found embedded in a partic- ular history of social relations is hardly to be deplored. Ic is this rootedness of the experience that gives ic its power and its meaning. When the experience is widely shared, the symbols that embody class relations can come to have an extraordinary evocative power. One can imagine, in this context, how individual Bievances become collective grievances and how collective grievances may talee on the character ofa class-based myth tied, as always, to local experience. Thus, a particular peasant may be a tenant ofa landlord whom he regards as particularly oppressive. He may grumble; he may even have fantasies about telling the landlord what he thinks of him or even darker thoughts of arson or homicide. If this is an isolated, personal grievance, the affair is likely to stop there—at fantasy. If, however, many tenants find themselves in che same boat, either because they share the same landlord or because their landlords treat them in comparable ways, there arises the basis fora collective grievance, collective fan- tasy, and even collective acts. Peasants are then likely to find themselves trading stories about bed landlords and, since some landlords are likely to be more ‘notorious than others, they become the focus of elaborate stories, the repository of the collective grievances of much of the community against chat kind of Jandlord in general. Thus, we have the legend of Haji Broom, which has become ‘kind of metaphorical shorthand for large-scale landlocdism in the region. Thus, ” NORMAL EXPLOITATION, NORMAL RESISTANCE + 45 ‘we have poems about Haji Kedikut, which are not so much stories about individuals as a symbol for an entire class of Haji landlords. TGIF chere had ever been (and there has not) a large-scale movement of rebellion against landlords in Kedah, we can be certain that something of the spirit of those legends would have been reflected in action. The way was already sym- bolically prepared. Bue the central point to be emphasized is simply that the concept of clas, if itis to be found at all, is to be found encoded in concrete, shared experience that reflects both the cultural material and historical givens of its carriers. |In the West, the concept of food is expressed most often by bread. In most of ASia, it means rice. The shorthand for capitalist in America may be Rackeflle, with all che historical connotations of that name; the shorthand for dad landlord in Sedaka is Haji Broom, with all the historical connotations of that For al these reasons, the study of class relations in Sedaka, as elsewhere, must of necessity be as much a study of meaning and experience as it is of behavior considered narrowly. No other procedure is possible inasmuch as behavior is never self-explanatory. One need cite only the famous example of a rapid closing and opening of a single eyelid, used by Gilbert Ryle and elaborated on by Clifford Geert, to illustrate the problem.» Is it a ewitch or a wink? Mere observation of the physical ac gives no clue, Ife is a wink, what kind of wink is it: one of conspiracy, of ridicule, of seduction? Only a knowledge of the culture, the shared understandings, of the actor and his or her observers and confederates can begin to tell us; and even then we must allow for possible misunderstandings. Ik is one thing to know that landlords have raised cash rents for rice land; itis another co know what chis behavior means for those affected. Pethaps, just pethaps, tenants regard the rise in rents as reasonable and long overdue. Perhaps they regard the rise 2s oppressive and intended to drive them off the land. Perhaps opinion is divided. Only an inquiry into the experience of tenants, the meaning they attach to che event, can offer us the possibility of an answer. I say “the possibility of an answer” because it may be in che interest of tenants 34, "Man doesnot live by bread aloe.” But “bread” may come to mean more than jst food; ie may mean che wherewithal for living oF cash, as in “Can you loan sme some bread, man?” In Malay sociery, che provtb Jangen pecth perok nasi orang (Don't break someone else's ice poe) means “n't threaten someone else's source of livelihood.” 35. Clifford Geecea, The Inerprtaion of Caters (New York: Basic, 1973), 6-9. ‘An excellene suromary ofthis itelleccual postion may be found in Richard J. Bern- seein, The Reuracturng of Sucial and Political Theory Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsy- vania Press, 1978), 173-236. As Bernstein notes, “These incencional descriptions, meanings, and interpretations are 09¢ merely subjective states of mind which can be Correlated with exteroal behavior; chey are consituive ofthe activities and practices of our socal and political lives” (229-30),46 + NORMAL EXPLOITATION, NORMAL RESISTANCE, ‘to misrepresent ther opinion, and thus interpretation may be tricky. But without ‘hat information we are utterly at sea. A theft of grain, an apparent snub, an ‘apparent gift—their import is inaccessible to us unless we can construct it from the meanings only human actors can provide. In this sense, we concentrate at least as much on the experience of behavior as on behavior itself, as much on history as cartied in people's heads as on “the flow of events," as much on how class is perceived and understood as on “objective class relations." ‘The approach taken here certainly relies heavily on what is known as phe- ‘nomenology or ethnomethodology,.” But it is not confined to that approach, for it is only slightly more true that people speak for themselves than that behavior speaks for itself, Pure phenomenology has its own pitfalls. A good deal of behavior, including speech, is automatic and unreflecive, based on understand- ings that are seldom if ever raised to the evel of consciousness. A careful observer ‘must provide an interpretation of such behavior thac is mote tha just repetition. of the “commonsense” knowledge of participants. As an interpretation, ic has to be judged by the standards of its logic, its economy, and its consistency with ‘other known social facts. Human agents may also provide contradictory accounts ‘of their own behavior, or they may wish to conceal their understanding from the observer or frot one another. Hence, the same standards of interpretation apply, although the ground is admittedly treacherous. Beyond this, ehere simply ate factors in any situation that shed light on the action of human agents, but ‘of which they can scarcely be expected to be aware. An international credie crisis, changes in worldwide demand for food grains, a quiet factional struggle in the cabinet chat affects agrarian policy, small changes in the genetic makeup of seed rain, for example, may each have a decided impact on local social relations ‘whether or not they are known to the aatord involved. Such knowledge is what an outside observer can often add to a description of the situation as a supplement ‘0, not a substitute fr, the description that human agents themselves provide. For however partial or even mistaken the experienced reality of the human agents, it is that experienced reality chat provides che basis for their understanding and ‘heir action.{Finally, there is no such thing as a complete account of experienced reality, no “fll verbal transcript of the conscious experience.”* The fullness of the transcript is limited both by the empirical and analytical incerests of the transcriber—in this case, clas relations broadly construed—and by the practical limits of time and space. 36. Clifiord Geertz, “Blurred Genres: The Refiguration of Sociel Thought,” Amer- ‘tan Scholar 49, 00. 2 (Spring 1980): 175, 37. See, for example, Roy Turner, ed., Eshnometbodelogy: Selcted Readings (Har- ‘mondsworth: Penguin, 1974). 38. John Dunn, “Practising History and Social Science on ‘Realise’ Assumptions,” in Action and Interpretation: Studies in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, ed. . Hookway and P. Pettie (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1979), 160. NORMAL EXPLOITATION, NORMAL RESISTANCE + 47 ‘What is atcempted here, chen, is @ plausible account of class relations in Sedaka that relies as much as possible on the evidence, experience, and descrip- tions of action which che participants have themselves provided. At numerous points I have supplemented that description with interpretations of my own, for am well aware of how ideology, the rationalization of personal interest, day-to- day social tactics, or even politeness may affect a participant's account. But never, hope, have I replaced their account with my own. Instead I have tried to validate ‘my interpretation by showing how it "removes anomalies within, or adds infor- ‘mation to, the best description which the participant is able to offer.” For, as Dunn argues, ‘What we cannot properly do is to claim to know that we understand him or his action better than he does himself without access to the best de- scription which he is able to offer... . The criterion of proof for the validity of a description or interpretation of an action is the economy and accuracy with which it handles the fall text of the agent's description.