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Birthdate: 1953
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Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the… by Kristin Ross

My second train book was [b:The Road: Stories, Journalism, and Essays|7662339|The Road Stories, Journalism, and Essays|Vasily Grossman|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320541144s/7662339.jpg|10253760], however I switched to ‘Communal Luxury’ once I got to Grossman’s famous essay ‘The Hell of Treblinka’. I have read it several times before and, let me tell you, the experience is even more painful when you are on a train. I needed a break from the horror, so turned to this rather delightful little book of theory centred on the lived experience of the Paris Commune. It takes quite a different perspective to everything else I’ve read about the Commune. The reader is assumed to already know what happened and who was involved - this is not a narrative history. Instead, the chapters discuss the philosophies of the Commune, not only during its existence but before and after. Ross specifically sets out to show both the political practises that the Commune sprung from and its lasting impact. The concept of ‘communal luxury’ is an appealing one: the particular pleasure of everyone owning everything. I found the eclecticism of the book appealing and thought-provoking. It isn’t erratic and opaque (cough-Žižek-cough) or dogmatic (cough-Badiou-cough) in its analysis of the Commune. I was particularly interested in the sections discussing the redefinition of art and rejection of disciplinary boundaries in education. Ross synthesises inspiring points like this from the Commune’s legacy:

More important than any laws the Communards were able to enact was simply the way in which their daily workings inverted entrenched hierarchies and divisions - first and foremost between manual and artistic or intellectual labour. The world is divided between those who can and those who cannot afford the luxury of playing with words and images. When that division is overcome, as it was under the Commune, or as it is conveyed in the phrase ‘Communal luxury’, what matters more than any images conveyed, laws passed, or institutions founded are the capacities set in motion. You do not have to start at the beginning - you can start anywhere.

Another highlight is the examination of how the spirit of the Commune lived on in those who survived it and were sent into exile, as well as those who weren’t there but were changed by it. Amongst the latter were Marx and William Morris, both of whose responses to the Commune are considered in some detail. I hadn’t realised that Morris was so influenced by it. Scattered throughout the book are such thought-provoking tidbits. I will admit, I’d never thought of this before, although it seems obvious in retrospect:

Russian scientists and the view from the north uniformly rejected Malthusian competition. They saw it as theoretical expression that could only have emerged from the experience of a small, crowded, hyper-industrial country whose economic ideal was the open competition of the ‘free market’, and from research conducted, as was Darwin’s, in the teeming, environmentally rich, and varied flora and fauna of the tropics. Marx, too, had come to conclusion that Darwin was, to all intents and purposes, a little Englander.

In a neat link to [b:The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us|25387295|The Shock of the Anthropocene The Earth, History and Us|Christophe Bonneuil|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443545959s/25387295.jpg|45137920], which I’m currently reading, there is discussion of concern for nature amongst the Communards. Further reason to reject the idea that environmentalism and sustainability are recent inventions and didn’t exist during the industrial revolution. (Refuting this is a key theme of [b:The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us|25387295|The Shock of the Anthropocene The Earth, History and Us|Christophe Bonneuil|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443545959s/25387295.jpg|45137920].) Another insight that will stay with me is the link between France’s colonial oppression of Algeria and the vicious repression of the Commune. The former prepared the army for the latter. There really is a great deal of original and fascinating material in this small book. It also has a charming cover, fittingly featuring a William Morris design, and ends on this excellent note:

What counts as prosperity? What is wealth? For solidarity with nature to exist, rather than purely mercantile interests, a transformation of values must occur that is itself predicated on a complete transformation of the social order: the abolition of private property and of the state. Nature would then be not just a productive force or stockpile of resources but valued as an end in itself. Environmental sustainability is not a technical problem but a question of what society values, what it considers wealth.

‘Communal Luxury’ reinvigorated my fascination with the Paris Commune and reminded me why it’s such an enduringly radical and inspiring event. Books containing this much political theory very rarely manage to be so uplifting, which earns this one five stars. An excellent train read.… (more)

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annarchism | Aug 4, 2024 |