unearthing something nasty

yesterday's helpful reminder occurred in a discussion of 'hauntology' on the folk horror revival page. there was an ill-advised accusation of bert lloyd being a 'cultural marxist' (or at least an implication that his ‘researches’ were of a similar, i.e. low, level of scholarship).

true bert lloyd was a communist - but as one commentator put it 'there was nothing 'cultural' about a.l. lloyd's marxism'. he was an old school stalinist ('a tankie' in horsemouth's terms) he'd have a problem using the ideas of jacques derrida (the er. ‘father of hauntology’ if you will) in his writing because frankly he was already dead (hmmn or maybe not - but anyway, no sign of derridean thinking in bert lloyd’s writing that horsemouth can detect).

now onto this term cultural marxist and the people who use it

the term 'cultural marxist' is used by one of horsemouth's friends when horsemouth thinks what he really means is 'shitty patronising new labour councillors who won't give me a council flat', horsemouth’s friend may beg to differ and claim wider political aims, but this is how horsemouth hears it. horsemouth thinks his friend is wrong to use it in this fashion but hey, at least he has a real problem.

but more often the term  'cultural marxist'  is used by alt-right types as a means of having an anti-intellectual or anti-communist witch hunt in all but name.  at no point is any evidence offered or any serious reading done. it is simply slander and innuendo .

the sample argument here is ‘hauntology is no good (because derrida’s a marxist), bert lloyd was a marxist (so his research must be no good)’.

firstly is derrida even a marxist? he publishes a book the spectres of marx which sort of affiliates him to the marxist tradition, or at least shows that there is a deconstructive reading (derrida’s thing) of the marxist tradition possible - but then loads of other theorists (terry eagleton etc.) most of whom would almost certainly be described by alt-righters as cultural(ly) marxist, weigh in (in a a book called ghostly demarcations) arguing that derrida is not a proper marxist, or that a deconstructionist reading of marx cannot be made and it still be marxism.

secondly the problem for such people in the folk horror world (and there do seem to be some neo-folk types about, people who like to spice up their lives or flagging musical careers with a hint of fascism) is that the fifties, sixties 'folk revival' world was (largely) hewn into existence by writers, archivists, performers and promoters deeply interested in the working class and the independent culture of the working class - a pack of communists, lefties, peaceniks, civil rightsers and fellow travelers (such were your seegers, lomaxes, macolls and crucially here bert lloyd).

now horsemouth does not think propaganda always leads to the best music (he's with john fahey and harry smith on this one) its... oh look, just watch this documentary, clearly there is no mileage in arguing with bert lloyd's folk bonafides. and clearly there is also a danger of folk being  used to promote essentialist, nationalist or just plain racist myths - of it being (re-)hijacked by the right.

horsemouth could tell you a tale of cultural studies - of people wishing to study the culture of ordinary people, he could tell you a tale of a young generation of philosophy students enthused by rock and rave wishing to study it and deploying the new ideas coming from the continent following the dethroning of marxism in 1968 (deleuze and guattari in particular but derrida also). he could tell you a tale of the beautiful dawn of these ideas and their partial eclipse (as the problems with their application became obvious). he could tell you a tale of the rise of hauntology in the editorial office of the wire.

as to the term hauntology applied to music horsemouth is not particularly into it himself (there’s a nina power article somewhere where she questions its value). if it helps you write and create all well and good, if it helps you arrange your record collection and structure your taste all well and good. if you want to use it to slander people you can fuck off with that.

(horsemouth had a look in the photos of this critic of bert lloyd and derrida - and what should he find there but the logo of national vanguard/ national action - us fascist organisations).