We Were Warhol

I’ve been reading The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, a wise and funny collection of anecdotes and maxims from the bewigged genius. He anticipated everything (cultural): reality TV, shows about “nothing,” a time of extreme superficiality and stupidity. The book was written in 1975, after the social and political upheavals of the 60s, Watergate, the Vietnam war, the assassinations of the Kennedys and King—and Andy himself was shot, just a few days before RFK. What he invented (among many other things) was the response to all this, a defensive attitude, a disaffected tone, which has abided on down even to the catty ennui of the commenters on Gawker (who still sometimes make me laugh). Warhol’s self-parody describes it best: “The bored languor, the wasted pallor…the chic freakiness, the basically passive astonishment, the enthralling secret knowledge…the chintzy joy, the relevatory tropism, the chalky, puckish mask…the childlike, gum-chewing naivete, the glamour rooted in despair, the self-admiring carelessness, the perfected otherness, the wispiness, the shadowy, voyeuristic, vaguely sinister aura, the pale, soft-spoken magical presence, the skin and bones…” Now, does that not describe white (hipster) culture over the last 30 years? We’ve all been being Andy—belatedly, as Harold Bloom would say. It was useful while it lasted.

But I think the time of being Andy is receding; everything is changing, has been changing, with the “change” candidate and other things; even the yawning Gawker commenters became committed and passionate over the election; did you see? Eight years of something veering very close toward actual fascism can tend to motivate even the boredly languorous. How can we remain disaffected once we see how deeply we are affected? But can we really do anything about anything? Here comes the brilliance of Obama: “Yes, we can." I don’t think it will seem cool now anymore to sit back and simply observe, and titter, and complain. We’ve all seen what can happen when we do that. Changing the world is the new kind of art. "They always say that time changes things," Warhol said, "but you actually have to change them yourself."