My first real discussion in The Way of Things will be related to baseball and also discuss a topic that interests me personally, something that I think is really very interesting: the concept of the Carnival.
As a brief background, the Carnival is an idea that was brought to the attention of modern readers by Mikhail Bakhtin, primarily in his work Problems of Dostoyevsky’s Poetics (but also discussed in a number of other works as well). Carnival is, as you probably know or have guessed by now, is a time of frivolity among the masses. It is a time when established order is not broken down, but rather turned inside out, or reversed. This reversal is exemplified by Bakhtin's description of "The Fool" who, during Carnival, dresses and acts like the king, while the king takes the place of the fool. Further (and this will become important later on), the Carnival establishes a dualism, a system of opposites, where individuals seek to find escape from their everyday routine by becoming someone else - someone that is as far from their "official" self as possible. This dualism is further represented by a series of opposites being represented in Carnival: life and death, night and day, and more tangibly in people doing things like turning their clothes inside-out, being naked during the Carnival, or the poor feasting to a breaking point. Essentially, societal borders are reconstructed in this setting, and the individual has the power to become whoever they desire. Today we see examples of the Carnival in the traditional sense in Mardi Gras (is that how you spell it?).
The Baseball, Almost
Beyond Mardi Gras one can understand the Carnival to exist in the world we live in from several perspectives. Certainly an actual "carnival" like the one you may encounter in New Orleans is an extreme and not something encountered regularly. For this reason modern representations of the Carnival have developed. A simple example of this is when we go to the movies and lose ourselves in a different world, become immersed in another person's identity for a couple of hours, before returning to the world afterward. Baseball is much the same way - but it's power is even greater.
In Rome the Carnival was huge. That's the only way I can describe it. Consider the society that existed in Rome's heyday: a highly structured empire where people lived according to a set law. Perhaps this structure was slightly lax the further one was from the Empire's central hub, but in the city itself, one can image what it was like to live according to an emperor's rule. Such a life is likely quite stressful, especially for those individuals not blessed enough to be high on the societal foodchain. If life is so difficult, so structured, how are the masses kept from leaving the empire for some place less strict, kept from killing themselves to get away from it all, or from revolting? The answer is: the Carnival.
This really is genius. An empire like Rome could not function without the masses as a base. Further, given the fact that such a regimented empire required great obedience, something had to be done to maintain the power structure. It is for these reasons the Carnival came to be in Rome. For one week every year Rome essentially took part in one big party (and I apologize now, because I know this Carnival was not a feature of Rome for the entirety of its existence, and I don't have citations to let you know exactly how long and when it did take place, but I can find out if you really want to know). Huge, government-owned, food stores were opened up to the masses, and those who spend their days toiling away in support of Rome were once allowed to reverse their societal role and live as the emperor did. This was not an escape from reality, but from the individual's specific reality.
What About Baseball, Again
Right, back to baseball.
So, just as Romans took part in the Carnival and just as we sneak out to the movie theater here and there to lose ourselves in a 007 flick, we watch baseball games on television, or go to the ballpark. The game is a three hour break from our reality, from 7:10 until 10:00 or so o'clock. But baseball is unique to other escapes because, as well all know, the game doesn't really stop with the twenty-seventh out. Rather, baseball is a universe of its own in our minds. If one sits at work pretending to make a to-do list for the day, but instead tries to figure out next season's twelve-man pitching staff, or who should be called up once the rosters expand in the fall, that individual is dipping their toe back in to the pool of baseball's escape. It is a world of it's own, and it follows the individual wherever they go, providing escape whenever it is needed.
But you already knew that.
Baseball as Oppression
One thing that I have had to fight to make some colleagues understand is that these carnivalesque escapes are indeed a break from our daily toil, but are more importantly a form of oppression forced upon the masses by "The System". Well, what is "The System"? Briefly: "The System" is not merely an economic construction, or a social construction, or any other one-dimensional, singularly (or centrally?) controlled state or private apparatus. It is rather a name for that which controls everything in our world that is connected, that works toward sustaining itself within a structure that works toward preventing individuals from realizing and experiencing the freedom to do exactly what they please, when they please, in life. Essentially, escaping "The System" is impossible because 1. we are all a part of it, and we are just shy of being forced to exist within it, and 2. it is self-sustaining. Really, without this system, what are our choices? Reverting to hunter/gatherer societies? Then many would argue we lack many other freedoms that those in first world nations (even the very poor) take advantage of.
I apologize if this has begun to sound radical, this feels like a digression, but it's actually pretty key.
The reason escapes like baseball are oppressive is that they perpetuate the cycle of: oppression in our daily lives => escape to the Carnival (baseball), which allows us to recharge ourselves so we can face our daily struggles anew => that is until we get bogged down again and need another escape, so it's off to the ballpark.
It's like being a drug addict, you have to have it otherwise the world will end. Your head will explode. Lima beans will replace Skittles.
As such, we, the masses, must exist in our daily lives in order to reach the escape we crave. We are held captive by the fact that we must work through the winter and blow along with the winds of society in order for baseball season to roll around, and for us to enjoy it. Further, we must accept this system if we want to continue escaping from it - to see the baseball game I can't just quit my job and go live in a shack in the woods. I hate to make money so I can afford cable, tickets, gas for my car to get to Seattle, my parking in the parking garage at the stadium, etc. Thus, the escape fuels the oppression.
Without the Carnival, what would happen? Without baseball, what would happen? Without this escape, people would reject "The System" and it would no longer be able to sustain itself because it depends on the masses. There would be a revolution, or a mass suicide, or a mass exodus from "civilization". It's impossible to know exactly, but something would happen to cause "The System" to collapse. As such, escapes like baseball are a requirement of this reality. Without baseball there would be, in theory, no oppression. Therefore, the escape, and in some cases, baseball is the source of our ultimate oppression. Pretty wild.
But is this going to stop people from watching baseball? No way.
Comments:
From "Sancho Panza":
Therefore, the escape, and in some cases, baseball is the source of our ultimate oppression. Pretty wild.
And pretty illogical. If as you claim The System forces escape on us, then it follows that it's the agent - not its subterfuge – that's the source.
I know of one "system" only that is "preventing individuals from realizing and experiencing the freedom to do exactly what they please, when they please." It's called nature, which is challenging rather than oppressing, and there can be no question of ever meeting its challenges by doing exactly what we want when we want. Culture – a more useful, concrete term maybe than The System - in its broadest possible sense is an existential response to nature, and part of that response is – as you call it - "carnivalesque."
Now the guy that goes to the ballpark to get away from his wife is definitely escaping, but I see nothing inherently insidious or escapist in gaining relief and respite from the tedium and chores of what we have to do to survive on this planet. On the contrary, it contributes to our well-being and recharges batteries necessary for survival.
From Daniel:
I think you're right on the first point - what I mean to say is that diversion is a major component of oppression, and came about because of it. I'll get in to this a little more below.
You bring up an interesting point with nature as a form of escape. This is actually a really interesting topic for discussion, especially in reference to people like Lefebvre, who argue that urban centers create things like roads in order to provide access to nature, which brings up the questions: when people go in to nature in order to accomplish escape, is it still authentically natural? What makes something natural? It's up for debate, for sure. I would argue that an escape to nature is a component of the Carnival because the individual must return to their official life afterward, and because it's hard to a person to "return to nature" when we easily corrupt it, whether we mean to/want to, or not.
Also, I think it's important differentiate between "escape" and "escapism", where the latter has something of a negative connotation to it. But in reference to this: "I see nothing inherently insidious or escapist in gaining relief and respite from the tedium and chores of what we have to do to survive on this planet." The idea is not that the escape itself is insidious, but rather the fact that we utilize it as a distraction from something that we are forced to endure. In this light, I believe I was wrong if I said the escape was the ultimate source of oppression - it's just a component of the System. In any case, the idea is that some turn to baseball as a diversion from doing "what we have to do to survive on this planet" is exactly the point - we don't have a choice but to survive within the System - because it's near impossible to figure out a way to survive outside the confines of it.
Last, I think you can certainly argue culture is a way to go about describing the System - but I think it's an oversimplification. Though that's a different discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment