Dialectical Suburbanism

Marx had no idea

by Patrick J. Shanahan
06/16/03

I recently dug through the hip-deep clay muck of my pleasant suburban back yard in order to install a small pond/water feature. As I researched how to set it up so that it worked, I discovered that just the right balance of plants, fish , sun and other features were required to filter out the muck, render toxic substances inert, and generally make the water clean, pure and happy.

I have also discovered that many of the little ponds one sees at interstate off ramps and office building exist for the same reason: they take the runoff from the highways and parking lots and render it harmless before it can cause widespread damage to the environment.

After mulling these facts over, I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly the same function that suburban America plays in our political and cultural life.

I used to get upset when I would see the ‘burbs apparently “buying in” to radical political ideas. I mistakenly took this as a sign that the radical left was winning. One bad political and social idea after another - feminism, environmentalism, “smart growth,” “diversity,” gay rights, spandex bicycle shorts, soccer - have gained seeming acceptance and popularity in the suburbs. And each, as it turns out, has been smothered, filtered and rendered inert by the wonderfully bland common sense of the modern American bourgeoisie.

The German philosopher Hegel introduced us to the idea of the “Dialectic.” This is the notion that the flow of history and progress is not just a series of disconnected events, but an ongoing organic conversation of society with itself, in which new ideas are generated (thesis) and are contradicted or opposed (antithesis). Through the intellectual and social give and take the most true and relevant elements of the thesis and antithesis become part of our social nature (synthesis). Thus does history filter out the untrue and allow the true to win out, propelling us forward towards greater truth and progress. This is a very sexy idea that clearly reflects his efforts to understand the nature and impact of the industrial revolution and modernity. Karl Marx picked up these ideas, and mutated them into his class-based “dialectical materialism,” which became the basis for communist ideology. In Marx’s group-based view, the dialectic clash played out not on the intellectual plane, but in terms of control of wealth. The “bourgeoisie” (the middle class) was the primary villain, choking off the aspirations of the working class through its control of the means of production.

We all know how Marx’s ideas shook out. But that doesn’t mean that Hegel’s vision of the dialectic was wrong. We can see the dialectic at work every day, and the secret is that in our society the middle class is the keeper and decider of social truths. We are the synthesizers.

The best example of this dynamic is environmentalism. Environmentalism as practiced by its extremist adherents is an extremely dangerous, quasi-religious ideology that is anti-human, anti-growth and intellectually incoherent. It broke out of the radical fringe and into the ‘burbs in the 70s and 80s, most easily marked by the advent of “Earth Day.” Ooooooh, that used to grate in my nerves. A bunch of comfortable middle-class yahoos parroting apocalyptic fears and pagan paens to Mother Earth. But look at it today. Earth Day comes and goes with nary a ripple on the evening news. By rendering it conventional, the middle class has robbed it of all its edginess, its radicalism. It is now dull and boring, safely consigned to a little box not even worthy of the local newscasters’ attention. The suburbanite has taken in the claims of environmentalism, and determined that as long as he has his aluminum can recycling bin, clean streams and pleasant bike trails he is happy. Those who seek to impose the radical environmental agenda (PETA, ELF, etc.) do not realize that they have already lost the debate and are consigned to the fringes forever. They have been filtered out of American life by the suburban dialectic.

This past week our local suburban paper carried a multi-colored flyer announcing a town-sponsored “Celebration of Diversity.” At first glance it caused my blood pressure to start rising, but before I could muster a decent sputter of outrage I realized that this meant the beginning of the end for the “diversity movement.” It is now trapped in the Suburban Dialectic Filter, and there is no way out. What is meant by its adherents to be an assault on “eurocentric” American culture will be transformed by soccer moms into a harmless annual festival - stuck between “Spring Cleanup Day” and the annual Strawberry Festival - celebrating the handicapped and the occasional Asian immigrant. The trappings of diversity will be subsumed into American suburban culture and rendered annoying but harmless. Middle Class America wants nothing to do with actual cultural diversity. They couldn’t care less what color or religion you are, as long as you act like a middle class American. As long as you grill hot dogs rather than actual dogs, they would be delighted to celebrate your “diversity”.

This filtering mechanism does have its down side. The same impulse that leads suburban America to filter out the radical also leads it to filter out excellence in culture. The result tends to be bland and harmless and occasionally annoying: Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera; “Married by America” and “Wheel of Fortune.” If one seeks high culture, one must look beyond the ‘burbs, and quite possibly beyond our shores. That’s okay. That’s why we have Europe.

As long as the Middle Class is free to play its designated role filtering out bad political and social ideas, American democracy remains safe, and progress remains slow but certain. Radicals know this, and it drives them crazy. The idea that (in their minds) dull, uncreative, 9-5 job commuting, churchgoing, mayonnaise and white bread eating, minivan driving, soccer playing suburbanites hold the keys to the social and political progress of the country is just absurd! They know they cannot go through the ‘burbs to obtain their ends. That is why one of their primary strategies is to go around them - through the courts, through unelected agencies and commissions, through foundations and non-profits, through trial lawyers. They seek to contain the power of the Middle Class with chains of anti-democratic power. Those of us who care about the ongoing health of the country need to focus a great deal of energy to make sure they do not succeed.

Karl Marx was right about one thing. The bourgeoisie was the enemy of his radical ideas. And they remain the enemy of leftwing, rightwing and directionless radicals everywhere. They are the key to the clarity of progress, just as my goldfish and water hyacinths are the key to the clarity of my pond.