Neo-Liberal Subjectivity

How revolutionary writing becomes a taboo word

 

M. P. Balaram

Individualisation of life is carried to extremes in contemporary art and literature. Caught in its grip, the present day literary sensibility has become superfluous and reactionary. There have been instances where even some of the votaries of the leftist ideology have coolly abandoned the lessons of socialisation and politicisation which we have traditionally learned from history. Individualisation in its extreme form does away with the dividing line between the right and the left on the cultural/political front. In consequence, neo-liberal values are enthroned in an otherwise progressive society.

Distaste for history and politics co exists with the highly individualised literary sensibility of today. The fact is that those who remain enslaved to the tyranny of global finance capital  remain deprived of the tremendous creative potentials inherent in creative writing and reading. Of late the middle class of Kerala has been keeping away from the inbuilt profoundities of the intellect as well as creativity.

Today's predicament is the legacy of decades of colonial globalisation. A universal vision anchored to class solidarity had blossomed in the thirties and forties but paradoxically this robust vision got metamorphosed into a sort of ruthless egoism in the hands of the later day middle class. Unashamedly the advocates of individualisation who speak on behalf of 'civil society' and 'common-sense' are virtually devoid of historical sense as well as political awareness. The fact that the mission of the right is being carried out in the name of the left is a truly humiliating situation for the entire leftist community.

Self-exaltation, monologues and self screams make their appearance as different forms of self expressions in the present day writing. Works of art get converted into soliloquies. In the realm of writing, visual media and discourses we have only variations on a single theme. Both in its form and content the literary discourse shrinks into thousand trivialities of cell phone - Internet - F. M. radio and T. V. The act of creation becomes a hollow exercise in self-exaltation. The fact is that the current pseudo sensibility which is intent on manufacturing a notoriously apolitical vision as well as distaste for history has a definable past and politics. It is rooted in the original sin namely Kerala's 'Liberation Movement' back in the middle fifties' - the open involvement on the part of the middle class in it made every one sceptical of their one time eloquent innocence and highly pretentious gestures.

The illicit traffic on the part of the middle class with global finance capital and its class interests has necessarily paved the way for the formation of a new subjectivity with inherent handicaps. It may be remembered that the onset of capitalism had coincided with the birth of bourgeois liberal subjectivity towards the end of 19th century. The emergent pseudo subjectivity of neo-liberal era has been calculated to undo the bourgeois liberal subjectivity for ever. Neo liberal subjectivity has systematically destroyed the living legacies of Renaissance humanistic vision and its emancipatory potentials. Neo liberal subjectivity is born of the ruins of bourgeois liberal individualism.

The active involvement of imperialist forces in the 'liberation' struggle of Kerala in the fifties paved the way for the fall of not only the legitimately elected communist ministry of Kerala; it also led to the disintegration of our collective psyche. Thereafter the political rationality of Kerala's electorate as well as solidarity of the working class remained in a topsy-turvy state. The heroic heritage of class struggle as well as the legacy of anti-imperialist struggles had furthered a progressive cultural tradition in Kerala for a period of fifty years. The emergent neo-liberal subjectivity, however, has systematically conspired against this tradition with the intention of nullifying the same. Back in the 1930s, Kesari's cultural discourses had resulted in the birth of a cosmopolitan as well as revolutionary cultural subjectivity. In its place has been enthroned a notoriously individualised apolitical subjectivity which is enslaved to caste/ religious/ reactionary forces. Looking backward in time we find that M. Govindan's anti communist discourses as well as the modernist movement in literature had an antithetical relationship to Kesari's monumental exhortations. During succeeding years attempts were also made to erect intellectual icons with a view to cripple possible mass resistances to imperialist interventions. Modernism also gave currency to politically barren and reactionary individual subjectivity. Ironically, an aura of authoritativeness also surrounded such beings. M. Govindan and his choric singers went ahead with concepts like 'forward fro communism' in this context. In due course, their works became part of the establishment.

Lethal viruses like neo-colonial globalisation and its offshoots such as caste/religion/identity based varied movements had all easy access to the collective psyche of the left from the nineties onwards. We are justified in supposing that this process of fatal invasion had its genesis from the period of 'liberation' struggle onwards. Decades of experience have convinced us that the cultural hegemony on the part of neo-colonial authoritarian forces has never been a sort of harmless or non-violent activity. In fact, the newly emergent ne0-liberal subjectivity has been calculated to annihilate the rich cultural legacies of third world countries namely the languages and arts and their robust heritage; that is to say the solidarity with the downtrodden classes. On the whole, the agents of neo-liberal subjectivity embody in them limitless ruthlessness which is born of their identification with global finance capital. The fact is that their mission is not only to exorcise the spectre of communism from this planet; they are also eager to annihilate the present and past of the 'wretched of the earth'. Thus, for advocates of exaggeratedly individualised sensibility, revolutionary political activism becomes a taboo word.

(Translated from the Malayalam by M. P. Radhakrishnan)