There are outsiders, and then there are …

Whimsley is rarely wrong¹, and today he skewers the outsider manoeuvre. It’s a tedious form of self-justification posing as self-deprecation, offering the artist a flabby excuse for their art. Plenty of artists aren’t outsiders, plenty of outsiders aren’t artists; the link between the two is weak, to say the least. The existence of Outsider Art suggests that many claims to outsider status may be a bit premature unless you spend a fair amount of time being physically restrained or chemically sedated.

Which brings us neatly to politics. Claims to outsider status are the symptom of an individual building a narrative about themselves. Where the artist is concerned, this narrative is mainly for themselves, as well – but where the politician is concerned, the narrative is definitely for public consumption. American politicians are particularly susceptible to this, and apparently the American electorate is as well – claims to be marching on Washington, prepared to sweep aside the old order with a new broom, a broom that only an outsider can wield – these sorts of claims play very well indeed.

You can see the hard form in John McCain’s rhetoric about being a “maverick” or Sarah Palin’s entire persona:

I’ve stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies and the ‘good old boy’ network… If you want change in Washington, if you hope for a better America, then we’re asking for your vote on the 4th of November.

but the softer form is also present in Barack Obama’s speeches, when he says things like “Change doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington” – and means every word.² The point is not whether these statements are true or false – it’s that the speaker believes them to be true, and wants you to believe as well.

Whimsley is right that we should never, ever trust these claims, no matter who makes them. Claims to outsider status are true or not depending only on where you draw the line of outsider status, but usually people who make such claims are trying to sell you something – whether it’s a film or a presidential campaign.

1. By which I mean that I nearly always agree with what he writes, of course, rather than making any epistemological claims on his behalf. [↩]
2. Andrew Keen points out the flaws in this argument with his usual panache. [↩]

January 24, 2009

Posted in art, politics and tagged Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Tom Slee.