Gianfrancesco Prandato LA CONTROCULTURA E IL SUO SIGNIFICATO recensione di: |
Questo è un libro che credo possa diventare un classico.
La premessa e' che la controcultura ha soppiantato il socialismo e il comunismo come base del radicalismo politico. Basti pensare al successo di Michael Moore con il film 9/11 (1) o il clamoroso successo del libro No Logo (2). Si sta formando una grande onda di controcultura che combatte questo mondo apparentemente dominato dalle multinazionali, ma non lo combatte piu' con una contrapposizione in logica marxiana, bensi' con fenomeni e movimenti legati alla controcultura.
I fatti pero' sono inequivocabili, nonostante questo “impegno” il capitalismo e' stato rafforzato nelle ultime decadi anziche' indebolirsi.
Il tentativo e' affascinante, anche se non nuovo. La dimostrazione che la controcultura e' un pezzo della cultura, un pezzo del sistema, funzionale tanto da trasformarsi in beni di consumo non appena e' di successo.
Nulla di nuovo, ma scritto in modo affascinate e moderno. Il libro utilizza categorie marxiane e freudiane sviluppando la propensione all'acquisto dei beni consumo piu' banali come le automobili e le scarpe oltre ad analizzare la musica e il cinema di ribellione che pervade il mondo contemporaneo.
Ci sono in questo libro domande banali, ma affascinanti, a cui tutti dovremmo veramente rispondere: come cosa c'entra il movimento dei diritti civili e la controcultura con la NIKE (3), che e' diventata uno dei bersagli dell'antiamericanismo (finalmente un po' di tregua a Mc Donalds e alla COKE!). Cosa c'e' di sovversivo o di politico nel vendere scarpe da running? O affascinanti dimostrazioni come quella che fa' risalire agli Yuppie l'invenzione delle SUV (4), tante odiate oggi dagli ambientalisti.
Il pezzo piu' bello mi pare quello sulla musica il suo rapporto con la controcultura. HIPPIES come i JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, che esaltavano il consumo di droga (5)odiati dai PUNK o dai GRUNGE per aver abdicato agli ideali alternativi e essere diventati parte del sistema come YUPPIES .
Interessante e' l'analisi del movimento GRUNGE e del gruppo di punta i NIRVANA (6) il cui leader COBAIN si e' suicidato perché' troppo di successo e perché' aveva secondo lui “svenduto” il movimento GRUNGE alla musica commerciale. Ma qual'e' il senso di tutto ciò, si chiedono gli autori: sono solo canzonette, non hanno mai cambiato il mondo, lo hanno solo reso meno noioso. Però Cobain ci credeva è stato vittima di questo miraggio della controcultura.
Altre ramificazioni sono nel RAP la musica di rivolta per eccellenza, con tutte le sue ramificazioni GANSTA (7): in cui devi avere almeno un tentato omicidio al tuo attivo per poter incidere un pezzo. EMINEM (8) il rapper piu' di successo, che si dichiara perseguitato politico perché' il governo si interessa ai suoi testi (pensa un po'che sorpresa vende milioni di CDs!) insulta tutti per poi svolgere il 60% delle sua canzoni attorno al rapporto con sua madre in tipico mood adolescenziale.
Con tutti questi limiti e' comunque indubbio che rappresenti uno spaccato della generazione odierna e della rabbia o protesta giovanile che si trasforma poi in show business.
La morale e' quella di Matrix (9), o quella di Dick (10): siamo circondati da un mondo in cui ci crediamo di contrapporre a qualcosa, ma questo qualcosa in realta'non esiste. Non esiste “l'impero” caro ai cattivi di GUERRE STELLARI (11) e a Toni Negri (12), con la sua affascinate, ma vuota metafora della realtà che viviamo rappresentata da “EMPIRE”. La cultura e'in qualche modo una invenzione della controcultura non si può combattere, perché e' un insieme di regole mobile che permette il funzionamento del sistema sociale, non un sistema di per sé. Ogni volta che radicalizziamo lo scontro con il cosiddetto sistema lavoriamo per crearlo e rafforzarlo. Sviluppando il business della controcultura rafforziamo il business e quindi il sistema, denigrando la NIKE elogiamo Le VANS le scarpe di quelli contro il sistema perché fanno skate board nei parcheggi! . (13)
La morale e' una variante evolutiva piu' moderna e secondo me attuale del pensiero di Marx (14) . Partendo dalle premesse di contrapposizione della controcultura gli autori dimostrano quanto sia piu' efficace per cambiare il sistema lavorare su un approccio che lo riformi e ne faccia evolvere le contraddizioni piuttosto che un approccio che si contrapponga con un atteggiamento tipico della controcultura. Quest' ultimo finisce poi solo per rafforzare il pensiero dominante e per rigenerarlo senza minimamente scalfirlo.
Mi pare che questo libro abbia il grande pregio di utilizzare un approccio marxista per seppellire i deliri di tanti marxiani.
2 Naomi Klein, No Logo , trad. it. Baldini e Castodi. http://www.nologo.org/ Secondo me una grande sola!
3 NIKE. http://www.saigon.com/~nike/ . Q uesto sito e' solo un esempio tra I tanti. Ormai pare che molti pensatori radicali ritengano la NIKE al centro di un impero del male che sfrutta lavoratori nel mondo.
4 http://www.suv.org/ Un altro sito che e' buon esempio di questa controcultura delle automobili
5 Jefferson Airplane : ecco il testo dell'indimenticabile white rabbit in bilico tra LSD ribellione ai genitori e Alice nel paese delle meraviglie. WHITE RABBIT (G. Slick) One pill makes you larger And one pill makes you small, And the ones that mother gives you Don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice When she's ten feet tall. And if you go chasing rabbits And you know you're going to fall, Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar Has given you the call. Call Alice When she was just small. When the men on the chessboard Get up and tell you where to go And you've just had some kind of mushroom And your mind is moving low. Go ask Alice I think she'll know. When logic and proportion Have fallen sloppy dead, And the White Knight is talking backwards And the Red Queen's "off with her head!" Remember what the dormouse said: "Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head"
6 NIRVANA: ecco alcuni testi dei NIRVANA dal loro secondo album il piu' bello NEVERMIND la nascita della musica GRUNGE la popolarizzazione della musica METAL e la sua evoluzione in chiave politica e piu' sofisticata
Leggendoli non ci si stupisce che Cobain si sia suicidato.
@SONG: Come As You Are
Come
As you are
As you were
As I want you to be
As a friend
As a friend
As an old enemy
Take your time
Hurry up
The Choice is your
Dont' be late
Take a rest
As a friend
As an old memoria
memoria
memoria
memoria
Come
Dowsed in mud
Soaked in bleach
As I want you to be
As a trend
A a friend
As an old memoria
memoria
memoria
memoria
And I swear
That I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
memoria
memoria
memoria
memoria {don't have a gun}
And I swear
That I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No i don't have a gun
memoria
memoria
@SONG: Something In The Way
Underneath the bridge
The tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
But it's ok to eat fish
Cause they haven't any feelings
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Ummmmm
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Ummmmm
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Ummmmm
Underneath the bridge
The tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
But it's ok to eat fish
Cause they haven't any feelings
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Ummmmm
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Ummmmm
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Ummmmm
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Ummmmm
Something in the way
Ummmmm
Something in the way, yea
Crime
Here I am
Take a chance
Dead
Die
7 Si ricorda la sfida mortale tra TUPAC e BIG BOY finita davvero male.
8 Eminem: ecco i testi di quelle che secondo me sono le sua piu' belle canzoni, Lose Youself che mette in scena la centralita' della musica per la generazione giovanile e White America autentico urlo dal basso ch comincia con le parole di Bush al paese riprese con grande ironia da Eminem e finisce con gli insulti piu' lascivi alle leaders del movimento per la censura americana.
LOSE YOUSELF
Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
[Verse 1]
Yo, his palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There is vomit on his sweater already
Moms forgettin' he's nervous
But on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drops bombs, but he keeps on forgetting
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth but the words won't come out
He's choking, how? Everybody's jokin' now
The clock's run out, time's up, over BLOW!
Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked, he's so mad
But he won't give up that easy, no he won't have it
He knows his whole back's to these ropes
It don't matter, he's dope, he knows that
But he's broke, he's so sad that he knows
When he goes back to this mobile home
That's when it's back to the lab again, yo
This whole rhapsody, better go capture this moment
And hope it don't collapse on him
[Chorus]
You better lose yourself in the music
The moment you own it you better never let it go, oh
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
Cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo
You better lose yourself in the music
The moment you own it you better never let it go, oh
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
Cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo
You better
[Verse 2]
Soul's escapin' through this hole's that is gaping
This world is mines for the taking
Make me king as we move toward a new world order
A normal life is boring
But superstardom's close to post mortem
It only grows harder, homie grows hotter
He blows us all over, these hoes is all on him
Coast to coast shows, he's known as the Globetrotter
Lonely roads got him
He knows he's grown farther from home, he's no father
He goes home and barely knows his own daughter
But hold ya nose cuz here goes the cold water
These hoes don't want him no mo', he's cold prada
They moved on to the next shmo who flows
Who nose dove and sold nada
And so the so proper
His toll, it unfolds and I suppose it's old, partner
But the beat goes on
Duh duh doe, duh doe, dah dah dah dah
[Chorus]
[Verse 3]
No more games, I'ma change for due called rage
Tear this muthafuckin' roof off like two dogs caged
I was playin' in the beginnin', the mood all changed
I've been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage
But I kept rhymin' and stepped writin' the next cipher
Best believe somebody's payin' the pied piper
All the pain inside amplified by the
Fact that I can't get by with my nine to five
And I can't provide the right type of life for my family
Cuz, man, these goddamn food stamps don't buy diapers
And there's no movie, there's no Mekhi Pfifer
This is my life and these times are so hard
And it's gettin' even harder tryin' to feed and water
My seed plus teeter-totter
Caught up between bein' a father and a pre-madonna
Baby momma drama, screamin' on her
Too much for me to wanna stay in one spot
Another damn or not has gotten me to the point
I'm like a snail, I've got to formulate a plot
Or end up in jail or shot
Success is my only muthafuckin' option, failure's not
Momma love you but this trailer's got to go
I cannot grow old in Salem's Lot
So here I go, it's my shot
Feet fail me not
Cuz maybe the only opportunity that I got
[Chorus]
[Outro]
Duh doo
You can do anything you set your mind to, man
You can do anything you set your mind to, man
WHITE AMERICA
Prelude)
America! We love you! How many people are proud to be citizens of this beautiful country of ours? The stripes and the stars for the rights that men have died for to protect / The women and men who have broke their necks for the freedom of speech the United States government has sworn to uphold. (Yo I want everybody to listen to the words of this song) or so we're told...
Verse 1
I never would've dreamed in a million years I'd see, so many motherfuckin' people who feel like me/who share the same views and the same exact beliefs, it's like a fuckin' army marchin' in back of me/So many lives I touch, so much anger aimed in no particular direction, just sprays and sprays and straight through your radio waves it plays and plays, till it stays stuck in your head for days and days/who woulda thought, standing in this mirror bleachin' my hair, with some peroxide, reachin for a t-shirt to wear/that I would catapult to the forefront of rap like this? How could I predict my words would have an impact like this/I must've struck a chord, with somebody up in the office, cuz Congress keeps telling me I ain't causin' nuthin' but problems/and now they're sayin' I'm in trouble with the government, I'm lovin' it, I shoveled shit all my life/and now I'm dumping it on...
Chorus X2
White America!
I could be one of your kids
White America!
Little Eric looks just like this
White America!
Erica loves my shit
I go to TRL, look how many hugs I get
Verse 2
Look at these eyes, baby blue, baby just like yourself, if they were brown Shady lose, Shady sits on the shelf/but Shady's cute, Shady knew Shady's dimples would help, make ladies swoon baby, ooh baby! Look at my sales/Lets do the math, If I was black I would've sold half, I ain't have to graduate from Lincoln High School to know that/but I could rap, so fuck school, I'm too cool to go back, gimme the mic, show me where the fuckin' studio's at/When I was underground, no one gave a fuck I was white, no labels wanted to sign me almost gave up, I was like/Fuck it, until I met Dre, the only one to look past, gave me a chance, and I lit a fire up under his ass/helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got was probably his in exchange for every white fan that he's got/Like damn, we just swapped. Sittin' back lookin' at shit, wow, I'm like my skin is it starting to work to my benefit now?
Chorus X2
Verse 3
See the problem is I speak to suburban kids who otherwise would of never knew these words exist/whose moms probably woulda never gave two squirts of piss, till I created so much motherfuckin' turbulence/straight out the tube, right into your living room I came, and kids flipped when they knew I was produced by Dre/That's all it took, and they were instantly hooked right in, and they connected with me too because I looked like them/that's why they put my lyrics up under this microscope, searchin' with a fine tooth comb, its like this rope/waitin' to choke, tightening around my throat, watching me while I write this, like I don't like this (Nope)/All I hear is: lyrics, lyrics, constant controversy, sponsors working round the clock, to try to stop my concerts early/surely hip hop was never a problem in Harlem only in Boston, after it bothered the fathers of daughters starting to blossom/so now I'm catchin' the flack >from these activists when they raggin', actin' like I'm the first rapper to smack a bitch, or say faggot/shit, just look at me like I'm your closest pal, the posterchild, the mother fuckin' spokesman now for...
Chorus X2
Verse 4
So to the parents of America / I am the derringer aimed at little Erica, to attack her character / The ringleader of this circus of worthless pawns / Sent to lead the march right up to the steps of Congress / And piss on the lawns of the White House and replace it with a Parental Advisory sticker / To spit liquor in the faces of in this democracy of hypocrisy / Fuck you Ms. Cheney! Fuck you Tipper Gore! Fuck you with the freest of speech this divided states of embarassment will allow me to have, Fuck you! I'm just kiddin' America, you know I love you...
9 Matrix: ecco il trailer http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/ .
10 Philip K. Dick: per chi fosse interessato a approfondire di piu' sul maestro: http://www.philipkdick.com/
11 Memorabili Cattivi Dart Vader e Dart Maul. http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?id=1800121659&d=hv&cf=pstills
12 Toni Negri e Michael Hardt, Empire , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts e London, England, 2000; trad. it. Impero , Rizzoli. Ho avuto modo di dissentire da subito con questo libro brodoso, messianico e para-religioso
13 VANS e' il marchio delle scarpe degli skaters i ragazzi di strada, bianchi che si sentono fuori dal sistema un po' quello che i GANSTA sono per i neri.
http://shop.vans.com/?sourceid=qIasQV6-BR7QAmCezznK
14 Marx, filosofo e d economista, spesso mal interpretato e sicuramente poco letto.
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/gias/m/10760604.html