In defense of performative radicalism
Artwork by Phoebe Edith. Check out her twitter!The figure of the poseur haunts radical political movements. The elmer’s-glue spikes in his hair, his Hot Topic Che shirt, his ability to misquote Lenin or Bakunin or Steiner in exactly the wrong circumstance and to use terms like ‘late capitalism’ in such a way that it’s obvious he doesn’t know what they mean — all of these attributes make a mockery out of serious political radicals, who themselves are mistaken for him. The poseur haunts radicals because he is real, and he is everywhere. But the poseur is a doorway to the possibility of revolution, because he is also, for the radical, their past selves — and rejection of the poseur is a counterproductive reaction to the return of the repressed.
The poseur is the most visible member of any radical movement, and the least likely to be capable of either good theory or good praxis. The kind of in-your-face performative radicalism practiced by this figure — lifestylism — is rightly criticised for the problems it brings about in spaces it dominates.