On co-opting Reggae and Rastafari revolution
On October 12, 2022 By Jah Billah
Jah Billah intro:
This text highlights tactics used by Babylon to regain social control over revolutionary social movements.
In escalating progression these appear as:
Evasion –; ignoring
Counterpersuasion–; ridicule and linguistic control
Coercion or Coercive persuasion –; violence
Adjustment –; co-opting the social movement
Capitulation –; Babylon take over
Even if take just a quick look at first tactic “;creating dead channels”; we can witness how online media surrounds us with fake activist influencers who do the talk yet never remember to do the walk.
The Rhetoric of Social Control
…;
Responding to the agitation of a social movement, ‘;‘;establishments’;’; tend to Resort first to ‘;‘;evasion,’;’; which involves, in effect, pretending that the social movement ‘;‘;does not exist or that it is too insignificant to recognize’;’;.
Establishments can postpone action, appear constrained to grant protest goals, control or change the social or political agenda , lie and control information, deny protestors the physical means of protest, deny protestors access to the media, and create ‘;‘;dead-;‐;end’;’; channels of influence.
For example, during the 1960s, several poor, Black communities in Baltimore waged a war on poverty, challenging the dominant White majority who controlled the city’;s political structure.
In order to thwart the demands of the protestors, Baltimore’;s political establishment employed a standard evasion tactic, changing the political agenda. The protestors insisted that the city government must invest the necessary time and resources to address Baltimore’;s impoverished areas. In response, Baltimore’;s political establishment changed the political agenda to ‘;‘;improve the absolute well-;‐;being of the city’;s entire population, not to effect a redistribution of values in favor of the poverty-;‐;stricken blacks’;’;.
The second strategy is called ‘;‘;counterpersuasion.’;’;
In counterpersuasion, governments and their surrogates seek to discredit movement leaders or to show their ideas are ‘;‘;ill-;‐;advised and lack merit’;’;.
Counterpersuasion may be part of a larger rhetorical matrix called ‘;‘;administrative rhetoric,’;’; or the establishment’;s attempt to undermine a social movement’;s ideas and influence.
A number of counterpersuasion tactics have been identified, including ridicule, discrediting protest leaders and organizations, appealing to unity by ‘;‘;crying anarchy’;’;, and linguistic control.
In a study on the Equal Rights Association, Martha Solomon ( 1978) argued that the STOP-;‐;ERA political campaign employed the tactic of ridicule to paint ‘;‘;an unappealing picture of the feminists’; physical appearance and nature’;’;.
Portrayed in ‘;‘;devil’;’; terms, ERA supporters were labeled ‘;‘;anti-;‐;male,’;’; ‘;‘;arrogant,’;’; and ‘;‘;abortive.’;’; In contrast, ERA opponents were characterized within the ideological framework of the ‘;‘;Positive Woman’;’;—;physically attractive, intelligent, and emotionally fulfilled.
When milder strategies prove unsuccessful in counteracting the agitation of a social movement, establishments typically resort to a strategy of ‘;‘;coercion.’;’;
This strategy may remain largely rhetorical, what Stewart, Smith, and Denton refer to as ‘;‘;coercive persuasion’;’;. Simons ( 1972, 1976) coined the term ‘;‘;coercive persuasion’;’; because he believed ‘;‘;elements of persuasion and inducement or persuasion and constraint are generally manifested in the same act’;’;.
For example, police officers combine physical and verbal intimidation to control deviance before a social disturbance breaks out.
If ‘;‘;coercion persuasion’;’; fails, the conflict can escalate to more physical tactics, such as restrictive legislation, physically attacking demonstrators, firebombing homes, imprisonment, or even assassination.
Oberschall ( 1973) observed that during this conflictual stage ‘;‘;the authorities seek to destroy the organization of the opposition, arrest their leaders, and even set up stooges that allegedly speak for the population from which the protestors are drawn’;’;. In a comprehensive study of how riot commissions interpret and investigate riots, Platt ( 1971) reported that an estimated 34 people died and over 4,000 were arrested during the 1965 Watts riots. According to Platt, a jury later discovered that the Los Angeles Police Department and the National Guard were responsible for 23 of the 26 ‘;‘;justified’;’; murders.
When all strategies have failed, an establishment may employ the ‘;‘;adjustment’;’; strategy, which ‘;‘;involves making some concessions to a social movement while not accepting the movement’;s demands or goals’;’; .
Adjustment tactics can encompass ‘;‘;symbolic’;’; concessions, such as Manley’;s public praise of the Rastafarian movement, or establishments might sacrifice some of their own personnel if a ‘;‘;social movement focuses its agitation and hatred upon a single individual or unit’;’;.
Elites can use economic rewards to satisfy and stratify a protest group or establish committees to investigate issues.
If a social movement’;s agitation becomes especially intense, the establishment might even incorporate movement leaders and sympathizers into the establishment by appointing them to low-;‐;level decision-;‐; making positions.
Or the establishment might incorporate parts of the dissent ideology into the mainstream, entering into a loose confederation with the social movement.
Yet, cooperation with a dissent group ‘;‘;may lead to outright co-;‐;optation of the cause’;’; or a literal takeover of the movement by elements of the mainstream establishment. Gamson ( 1968) suggested that establishments use the co-;‐;optation strategy when prior control strategies were unsuccessful.
Social movements that are co-;‐;opted are often ‘;‘;subject to the rewards and punishments that the organization bestows’;’;. In fact, according to Gamson, ‘;‘;new rewards lie ahead if they show themselves to be amenable to some degree of control’;’;.
The final strategy, capitulation, occurs when the social movement’;s ideas, policies, and personnel ‘;‘;replace those of the target institution’;’;.
In the case of the Rastafarian movement, the Jamaican government did not capitulate to the demands of the Rastafarian movement. Instead, the Jamaican government and its supporters co-;‐;opted the cultural symbols of Rastafari and reggae music as authentic reflections of Jamaican society.
Text from:
The Co-optation of a ‘;‘;Revolution’;’;: Rastafari, Reggae, and the Rhetoric of Social Control
Author:
King, Stephen A. (1999).
Faculty Research and Creative Activity. 15.
http://thekeep.eiu.edu/commstudies_fac/15
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