Abstract This article builds on the employment of Andrea Rapini, historian and researcher at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, present at the meeting of Thursday, May 20, 2010 May Philosophical, held in Rastignano (BO).
the slogan: "Youth and political violence in the twentieth century". I do not intend here to reconstruct the content covered in a timely manner, very rich and, in some parts, complex, but I will try to hook some stimuli collected to link the issue of youth subculture and counterculture in their relationship with violence.
Rapini, after the masterly historical survey conducted by Luca Alessandrini
focused on youth violence from the late nineteenth century until the 70s of the twentieth century, has focused his speech on the '68 and the birth of the student movements within University, identifying different stages of development of the movement. In the beginning, as we shall see also in the reconstruction of the movement in the U.S., the interest of young students has centered mainly on domestic issues to university life and subsequently released from this boundary to link up eventually with workers' struggles. Advance
now that the link between student movements of the '60s and the violence has to be well specified, in order to avoid an improper generalization. As we shall see in the brief reconstruction of the history of the student movement in the U.S., beginning the movement is characterized by a strong non-violent, and only between the '67 and '68 makes its way the violent option.
Definition of subculture
start with an initial clarification of terminology, citing the voice subculture from the Dictionary of Sociology Gallino:
subset of elements is immaterial and material-cultural values, knowledge, languages, rules of conduct, styles life, work tools-developed or typically used by a given sector or segment or layer of society: a class, a regional community, an ethnic minority ... While it shares some essential features, this subset of cultural elements is characterized by greater with the dominant culture, in some cases, to be a variant of differentiated or specialized, as are most of the S. professional, or a historically constitutive element, such as S. regional or ethnic, in other cases, because to present itself as a form of diversion or of opposition, real or apparent, against him. This is the case of S. or criminal, on the other hand, the S. youth. However, when an S. incorporates nearly all the items you have or are perceived as radically opposed to the dominant culture, we tend to call rather COUNTERCULTURE (emphasis ours).
According to this definition, then, you can first make a distinction between subculture and counterculture. The term subculture
may be considered a set of cultural elements that are not typical of all members of a given society, but only some of them, when we talk about youth subculture refers to a multiplicity of cultures adolescent, often antagonistic to each other, show their characteristics and with specific musical tastes in clothing. Their common denominator is opposition to adult culture. Nevertheless, the dominant values \u200b\u200bwithin youth subcultures are strongly influenced by the culture of adult origin: think of the importance of racial variable in the formation of many youth subcultures, especially the United States. The term counterculture
indicates, however, a certain type of youth subculture that developed in the sixties in Europe and America, whose aim was to place themselves in an open and radical contrast with the dominant culture and adult, by adhering to values \u200b\u200band ways of alternative life: nomadism, sexual freedom, el'antimilitarismo non-violence, drug use, communitarianism, religiosity Eastern pop music and rock.
youth subcultures and intergroup conflict
Let us now see the connection between violence and youth subcultures. To address the issue of relationship violence and youth subcultures, I think it must first analyze the psychological and social dynamics of adolescent groups.
The importance of peer groups in post-industrial urban society is unprecedented: place, in fact, an irreplaceable role in the emancipation of the adolescent-"emancipation" is here understood in the etymological sense of the term as "Liberation from the manus, or by subjection to parental authority" -. The teenager, in fact, in our society through a particularly delicate stage of his life from the perspective of the construction of identity: the body changes and often it is hard to recognize the changes, the adolescent, puberty, reaches biological maturity (the ability to reproduce), but at the same time, in terms of social and political, is still regarded as immature and irresponsible (for example, can not vote or drive a car before age 18 ...) from the exit ' childhood and the process of emancipation, then, entails a search for new models identification and the peer group plays an irreplaceable role in this regard.
The problem of identity arises, then, at several levels: identity in relation to the body and gender ("I am a child-to-man or a woman?" "What kind of man or woman am I?" ) personal identity as a sense of continuity through time and separately from the other ("What is the part of me that remains constant in change - from infant to young person - and this makes me say I am / not another ae / a "); social identity understood as a response to questions about the social location (" What is my role? "), education (" What will I be? ") and ideological (" What are the things I believe? ").
E. Erickson stressed the importance of moving from self-concept built on the opinion of parents in self-concept derived from peer ratings, which are crucial for the physical, intellectual ability, sexual attraction that first were entirely unrelated to self-esteem. It is likely that the uncertainty in relation to the body and its image, real or perceived ability to be attractive, or relating to their cognitive performance is likely to cause anxiety and reactions compensatory (eg acts of physical courage). An overprotective attitude of parents at this stage, on the other hand, may lead to the construction of a negative identity, which is characterized by a strong opposition to the adult world.
The peer group (with its language, its values, its external signs) is an alternative to the family and the adult world and plays thus a crucial role in the process of identity construction. On the other hand, it can be said that identification with the group leads the individual to categorize their own group (ingroup) differ from other (outgroup) and to involve the differentiation value judgments. The individual is thus designed to maximize inter-group differences (between his and other groups) and to accentuate intragroup similarities (between the members of its group), assigning values \u200b\u200band positive meanings to their group and, therefore, if itself. The phenomenon of favoritism towards his own group, and the discrimination of other groups often linked to it, is explained at the individual level with the need by the party to increase their positive social identity. Thus, in a positive way to differentiate their group responds to an individual need, which is closely connected with the formation of social identity.
I open a short period to observe the dress is of particular importance in youth subculture: it is the visible sign of belonging and establishes the boundary between us / them. In this sense, the youth subculture you retrieve the value of their traditional apparel companies pre-Renaissance and many traditional cultures: the dress, that is the visible signifier of a certain social class.
The similarity between the wearing of traditional cultures and youth subcultures is to be found in a culture-gown relationship that makes the dress and outward sign of an immediate cultural particularity. With regard to the subculture, just think of the equation that is to be established between the clothing and sphere of values in the hippie movement: coat + flowers + necklaces = = hippie peace and love.
The birth of the phenomenon in Renaissance Fashion Renaissance creates, however, a rift between signifier and signified. For example, think of the "country look" of a certain collection of fashion apparel "country" in this case does not mean that the wearer is farmer or work in the country. The dress in fashion is empty signifier. It can be said, however, that fashion taken as a whole constitutes a celebration of the New, where "New = Better." In this sense, fashion is the daughter of a culture that celebrates the unlimited progress as an end in itself.
We now return to the dynamics of adolescent psycho-social groups. The outcome of the intergroup comparisons (we / they) is of decisive importance for the individual, as it contributes indirectly to the consolidation of self-esteem. If your group is superior to others, members of the group will enjoy the most prestigious and indirectly account. This needs to have a positive self-concept often leads the individual, in a positive way to differentiate their own group, intergroup comparisons to distort, and can very easily lead to violent demonstrations and social prejudice toward other groups, leading to social action discriminatory and destructive. At this
regard, I refer to the study by Stan Cohen (1972) on the clashes between the mods and rockers have taken place in England, in early 1964. This work highlights the role of media in the organization of social reaction to deviance, revisiting themes announced by Turner and Surace on the subculture of zooters USA (1956).
In the spring of 1964 some groups of mods and rockers to go and spend a day at the seaside resort of Clacton, about two hours from London, and riots broke out there between the two groups. The next day the popular press put the incident on the front page and, with reference to the iconography of street gangs in New York, presented them as fierce battles between rival gangs organized. This act of labeling (labeling) was, according to Cohen, two major effects: first, he triggers social unrest, forcing the police to intensify surveillance of the two groups (more frequent arrests ensued which ended with the food the initial alarm), and secondly, by highlighting the differences in style and giving relief to antagonism between groups, the publication encouraged the teen-agers to think of themselves in the same terms in which the two sub-cultures were described (this together with a group solidarity created by common subjection to police interference, more and more polarized the two subcultures). The convergence of these processes produced further clashes between the groups, attracting more attention from the press and sparking further alarm the public.
not discussed here a subject as broad as that of the relationship between deviance and social control. What we wanted to highlight citing Cohen study is that within the youth subculture is certainly present the issue of violence. In particular, in the case under consideration, we are faced with the use of violence within an intergroup conflict between youth subcultures.
The '60s counterculture in the U.S.
We now report the analysis of counter- and violence, particularly in reconstructing the historical and social context of the birth of the student movement in the mid 60s in the U.S.. After the war, the general primary education, ie basic literacy, became the aspiration of all governments. Literacy made dramatic progress, particularly in countries ruled by communist revolutionaries. Multiplied even secondary school enrollment and the university. The explosion of
enrolled at the university was impressive: before the Second World War in Germany, France and Great Britain the population of university students in relation to the total population was a students per thousand inhabitants (the sum of the population of the three countries was 150 million, while the sum of the students was 150,000) and by the end of the 80 students could be counted in millions.
The growing population of university students led to unexpected phenomena in the social, cultural and political. In fact, it is undeniable that only the 60 students became, both socially and politically, an important force, as was demonstrated beyond any statistics student rebellion of 1968 which had global. Retained in this regard a passage from The Age about Hobsbawm.
... These masses of young men and women with their teachers, calculable in millions or at least hundreds of thousands of units, more and more concentrated in large, often isolated or campus <
can be surprising finding that young men and women who find themselves living in a time of economic boom and have an opportunity with the university, to change the better their social position, cultivate radical left-wing political ideals. Before the Second World War, in fact, the vast majority of students in Central and Western Europe and North America was apolitical or right. Thus, paradoxically, the student protests are placed at the height of its economic boom.
Let's better understand the reasons for the birth of the student movement in the U.S.. At first the movement is entirely internal to the University and only later will come out of these boundaries. The first uprising, which took the name of Free Speech Movement broke out in Berkeley in September 1964 when the administrative authorities banned the raising of funds for a political cause life outside the university. The real object of concern to the Movement is, first, the relationship between students and educational system. Able to count within the school, becoming actors in a process that concerns his life, is a strongly felt need. It says, in fact, the perception that the American educational process is a cruel initiation ceremony. In Weinberg's "The Free Speech Movement and civil rights" in the collection The Other America of the 60s vol. 1, edited by F. Pivano, we read:
Two of the most fundamental issues that began to emerge in the early speeches of protest and who continued to occupy a central position in following been the condemnation of the concept of the university as knowledge factory and request that students are heard. These two themes of protest have been received so well because of widespread general feeling among students that the university condemned them anonymity, which have very little chance of controlling their environment and their future, the company that university is almost completely deaf to their individual needs. Students complain about the lack of human contact, lack of communication, lack of dialogue that exists at the university. Many believe that a large part of their training programs is of little interest, that many of the most difficult compitiu assigned exclusively of tedious slog of little or no educational value. Too often, during the studies, students disappointed, in a moment of bitterness, he asks: "What brings all this?" In a flash of insight, the student sees the educational process as a cruel initiation ceremony: 's instruction leading to a diploma of graduation is a ritual to test the endurance of the candidate, a series of tests which, if successfully completed for entry to courses of the graduate school, and to those who are able to pass unharmed through the tests of the entire ritual, is given the pompous title: Ph.D. More than a show, the better the job that gets ... Too often the educational process appears as un'eliminatoria, governed by the laws of supply and demand. The better one plays the game the better one is compensated.
(tr. it. 1971, pp.134-135)
The American educational system is, therefore, as an institution that operates a "natural selection" designed the emergence of stronger and a little worried about the growth and training cultural students. The discontent expressed in September 1964 goes well beyond, then, the episode quota. The approximately four months of unrest that followed, will lead to space "free" and the right to organize "teach-in" on political issues within the university.
The first "teach-in" was dedicated to Vietnam. The American commitment, in fact, had been gradually increasing and in 1965 had begun the first bombing. At the same time had started and had extended the protests. The matrices from which to move the rejection of the war were multiplying on the one hand, there were various committees, more or less affiliated to various international anti-nuclear movements and radicals, who advocated a pacifist and anti-nuclear choice for Western society, on the other , it was a way of thinking is open to pre-capitalist and Eastern cultures. The discovery of Eastern spirituality and mysticism joined, in fact, the reinterpretation of mythical communion with the anthropological nature of the American Indian populations: the set is formalized in the proposal for a "new man" committed to finding your inner self and peacefully incorporated into a natural observe and respect.
masters of the new humanism were the protagonists of the alternative culture of the previous decade: Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Timothy Leary. The way forward towards the ideal of "new man" is shown very clearly by Timothy Leary (the following article in the anthology The Other America in the 60s vol 1).
You must begin by changing your habit, the your home, your movement, your environment, in such a way that reflects the greatness and glory of your divine vision. You must have a different look and act differently. But this tuning process must be balanced and elegant. Please no destructive or rebellious gesture! ... Walk, talk and eat, as if you were a happy God of the forest.
(op. cit., P. 185)
The frightening prospect from which we try to go out with this proposal of life is exemplified in Figure clerk in Manhattan, described by Leary in these terms:
... works in a dark room that smells of polluted air. He moves amid a mass of anonymous mobile series and made to go to a bathroom or a kitchen impersonal celluloid plastic. Makes a breakfast consisting of food-fuel anonymous, taken from a box or packing. He wears the uniform of the anonymous citizen-robot, cotton linens, shoes, shirt, tie and jacket. Travel in dark tunnels of metal and sooty gray cement to the aluminum box that is his office ... The money that he needs to earn his food and celluloid for his apartment from the air polluted. This man is surrounded by a gray, polluted, dead, impersonal, made from an assembly line, mass produced and anonymous. This is the environment of a mechanical robot.
(op. cit., P.184)
To exit this tunnel
existential one turns to the Eastern philosophies and often makes use of drug-use sacred mushrooms, marijuana, LSD, which can cause the expansion of the spectrum of perception, to experience new states of consciousness and liberate the creative energies large, free of social conditioning.
In 1965, Ginsberg draws up a plan for a major event (The other articles in America in the 60 vol. 1), thus trying to make it quite clear to all the intentions and modalities of the meeting and prevent reactions in disordered case of provocations:
The parade can be a spectacular example of how to control situations of anxiety and fear / threat (such as the spectrum of the Hell's Angels or the specter of communism).
was evident as an example, namely with the parade itself, how to transform the psychology of war and pass, pass, the vice-image-reaction of fear / violence.
Namely, the parade can be realized as an example of Pacific Health, which is the opposite of a blind battle against combat.
Announce in advance that a march is sure, bring Grandma and the kids, bring family and friends. Open declaration: "We do not come to fight and not fight"
(op. cit., P.263)
The event became a great peaceful holiday without a sound, songs, colors and lots of flowers.
The climax of the movement, however, is the great meeting of January 14, 1967, held in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, a real center of the alternative youth culture. This great collective ritual closes at sunset, with Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder who chant the mantra Om Sri Maitreya facing the sun, in an atmosphere of great peace and poetry.
From this account of the birth of the movement emerges quite clearly I think as this counterculture, strongly antagonistic to the values \u200b\u200bof the dominant culture, with neatness has chosen the option not violent, not only in declarations of intent but also in practice which gave rise to social.
must consider, however, that the hippie movement in the U.S. represents a fairly consistent development of the underlying values \u200b\u200bof the subculture of the 50's beat (in fact Ginsberg is a bridge figure between the two movements).
To have a clearer idea about it, a carry-over passage of the article "Lamb, not the lion," Write bop in the collection, which makes it clear that Kerouac:
Beat does not mean tired, or defeated, but happily, the word Italian for beatific: to be in a state of beatitude, like St. Francis, trying to love everything in life, trying to be sincere to the end with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart. How can you achieve such a thing done in our mad modern world of multiplicities and millions? Doing a little solitude, going off by themselves every so often to make bearing the greatest treasure: the vibrations of sincerity. Being dry is not be beat. It can be closed in themselves, but this does not necessarily mean being grumpy. The beat is not a form of criticism tired and old. It 'a form of spontaneous statement. What kind of culture would be if all face darkened by saying "This does not seem right?
(ibid., 49-50)
These words clearly the profile of a movement which seeks a thorough spiritual regeneration, and drawing on sources as well as the Christian religion is trying to bring Eastern philosophies, especially Buddhism. As in the hippie movement, a search that is deeply antagonistic to the proposed values \u200b\u200bof consumerism and materialism "careerism" that we can consider the founding of the American way of life.
At some point in the movement, however, you start to talk about violence. All this we can deduce very clearly from the words of Tuli Kupferberger article "The politicization of a hippy", written August 4, 1967 (High America in the sixties vol 2.)
Yes, we are committed, people who choose between two systems of life, two social orders, two conceptions. We gave up the moral norms and silly promises of a wicked society. We abandoned, physically, intellectually, emotionally, and economically.
But now the era of peaceful protest within the law, the era of dissent is over. With skulls and blood massacred white America has come to the conclusion that he had tried to avoid at all costs. We are living under a tyrannical and violent system of oppression who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, and that if we want to end the destruction of human life at home and abroad we have no other alternative that illegal and violent actions. (Emphasis ours).
(op. cit., P. 193)
New developments of the movement can be traced in the Peace March on the Pentagon on 20-22 October 1967, where Jerry Rubin tried to pull the strings of all channels of protest, from the non-violent than violent. Between October 1967 and August 1968, he completed that process-called "politicization of the hippies." These are the Days of '68 in Chicago in August to mark the turning point.
read the guide to Tennis Frawley "Pig in Chicago," wrote August 30, 1968 (in The Other America in the sixties vol. 2).
Facts Chicago last week have created a bizarre situation in America. It has never been so obvious that the country's political system has the strength to survive. ... However, after the experience of doubt that Chicago will not be the most lethal weapons used by troops defeat of the young contestants. Chewing gum and rolled up newspapers are of little protection against the Gestapo, and the philosophy of the Black Panthers seems to have more sense after this comparison.
(op. cit., P.239)
After this introduction, which shows a profound rethinking about the philosophy of nonviolence practiced until then, Frawley goes to the chronicle of those days.
Thursday
The blood began to flow this Thursday morning ... when an American Indian in South Dakota for 17 years was killed by a shot in Old Town ... Dean Johnson, the Indian boy, had been tossed to the point of wanting to defend. People say it was stupid of her to fire on the policeman. Maybe it was stupid - but brave. ... The gun did not work and the boy was killed while trying to flee.
... At 11 am Tuesday
large doses of tear gas were used at Lincoln Park, and beatings were attacked and made away some of the clergy who had joined the protesters in prayer. In the evening they arrived Bon Seale Seale and the Black Panthers and gave a speech stimulant that was well received. Seale suggested that one should not take more than the city in large groups but in small groups armed with three or four in the entire city - and this tactic was adopted in part to the demonstrations at Grant Park ...
Wednesday
The front had moved to Grant Park where 15,000 people demonstrating against the headquarters of the Democratic Party. The demonstration was characterized by tear gas, by brutal beatings, and a lot of movement on the streets ... Chicago has highlighted the futility of non-military movement. Youth is more determined than ever. The strong arm of the machine of Mayor Daley, a reaction to Daley's personal reaction to dissent, is the key point of the youth organization of armed resistance. The consumer has to die a violent death.
(op. cit., Pp.239-244)
At the end of this long article, it can be said that the youth movement, born in the university in the mid-sixties in the U.S., is characterized by the principle forms of non-violent struggle, but in the course of its evolution, before the violent crackdown by the police, and the welding of groups like the Black Panthers, has gradually changed its appearance, it was "politicized", coming to the practice of resistance violent.
References
S. Cohen
1972 Folks Devils and Moral Panics , MacGibbbon and Kee, London
Erickson EH
1974 aspects of a new identity, Armando, Roma 2006
Galimberti
Dictionary of Psychology (voice Identity), De Agostini, Novara
Gallino L.
2006 Dictionary of Sociology, Utet, Torino
EJ Hobsbawm
2007 The Short Century , Burexploit Rizzoli, Milan
J. Kerouac
1996 Write Bop , Mondadori, Milan
F. Pivano (ed.) 1993
The other America in the sixties , vol. 1-2, Arcana, Milan
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