THE NATURE OF SOCIAL DESIRE
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people. And from he anarchist emphasis on structure flows an attention to he
quality of he means as well as he end. While more authoritarian theories,
such as Marxism, posit he state as a transitional and necessary structure, social
anarchists do not tolerate expressions of hierarchy at any point in he
revolutionary process. For social anarchism, he revolution itself represents an
educational process that transforms each individual into he kind of person
desirable for he new society. In order for this gradual transformation to take
place, he process of revolution must embody he same values and structure of
he good society itself.
Social anarchism focuses boh on improving the quantitative material
aspects of life and on improving he qualitative, sensual aspects of life.
Expanding he revolutionary vista to include demands for roses as well as
bread, social anarchism emphasizes he desire for beauty, pleasure, and
self-expression in addition to emphasizing he desire for economic abundance
and social cooperation. For Goldman, he process by which we transform
society must be infused wih degrees of meaning, sensuality, and pleasure hat
will characterize he new society we struggle to create. Her often quoted
statement, “If I can’t dance in your revolution, I’m not coming,” stands as an
emblem of he social anarchist appreciation for the crucial role hat desire plays
in he political struggle.7
New LeFt DesIre: Socbl Desire WiilniN TIhe New SogaI Movements
Goldman’s appeal for a revolution hat makes room for dancing, a revolution
hat answers to he call of desire as well as need, was largely overshadowed by
he Marx-influenced movements of he Old Left. For Marx, it is through
material production hat society achieves freedom from conditions of universal
scarcity or need. Thus, it identified'social relations of production as he primary
focus for revolutionary activity.
Wih he emergence of he New Left, however, we see a revival of an old
anarchist sensibility: a proclivity to widen he political agenda beyond ideas of
need and social relations of production to re-encounter understandings of
desire and social relations in general. In he United States, he civil rights,
anti-war, student, and women’s movements, demonstrated a new political
sensibility hat stretched he productionist perimeters of he Old Left. Critiquing
racial and sexual inequality, U.S. military aggression, and he rationalization of
consumer capitalism, a new culture cried out against such institutions as
racism, he government, he military, he university, he church, and he nuclear
family. The dual appeals to anti-auhoritarianism and desire constituted a
qualitative sensibility hat gave the New Left its anarchic flavor. Disenchanted
wih he current social order, American youh demanded a quality of life hat
was sensually engaging. By he early sixties, he movement had transformed