Table Of ContentDream
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd ii 99//1111//22000066 11::4477::4455 PPMM
Also by Stephen Duncombe
The Bobbed Haired Bandit:
A True Story of Crime and Celebrity in 1920s New York
(co-authored with Andrew Mattson)
The Cultural Resistance Reader (editor)
Notes from Underground:
Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd iiii 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::1155 PPMM
D r e a m
Re-imagining Progressive Politics
in an Age of Fantasy
Stephen Duncombe
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd iiiiii 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::1166 PPMM
© 2007 by Stephen Duncombe
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permis-
sion from the publisher. Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be
mailed to: Permissions Department, The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013.
Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2007
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Duncombe, Stephen.
Dream: re-imagining progressive politics in an age of fantasy / Stephen Duncombe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59558-049-8 (hc.)
ISBN-10: 1-59558-049-2 (hc.)
1. Political participation—United States. 2. Progressivism (United States politics)
3. United States—Politics and government—2001– I. Title.
JK1764.D863 2007
320.51’30973—dc22
2006012056
The New Press was established in 1990 as a not-for-profi t alternative to the large, commercial
publishing houses currently dominating the book publishing industry. The New Press operates
in the public interest rather than for private gain, and is committed to publishing, in innovative
ways, works of educational, cultural, and community value that are often deemed insuffi ciently
profi table.
www.thenewpress.com
Book design by Rob Carmichael, SEEN
This book was set in Caecilia and Goudy Sans
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd iivv 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::1199 PPMM
For it must be noted that men must either be caressed or else
annihilated. —Niccolò Machiavelli, 1532
So long as you rely on the effi cacy of “scientifi c” demonstrations and
logical proof you can hold your [political] convention in anybody’s
back parlor and have room to spare. —Walter Lippmann, 1913
All power to the imagination! —Graffi ti in Paris, May 1968
In our dreams we have seen another world. . . . And this new, true
world was not a dream from the past; it was not something that came
from our ancestors. It came to us from the future; it was the next step
that we had to take. —Subcomandante Marcos, 1994
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd vv 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::2200 PPMM
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd vvii 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::2200 PPMM
Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Chapter 1. Politics in an Age of Fantasy 1
Chapter 2. Learn from Las Vegas: Spectacular Vernacular 28
Chapter 3. Play the Game: Grand Theft Desire 51
Chapter 4. Think Different: Advertising Utopia 78
Chapter 5. Recognize Everyone: The Allure of Celebrity 101
Chapter 6. Imagine an Ethical Spectacle 124
Chapter 7. Dreampolitik 176
Notes 184
Index 219
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd vviiii 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::2200 PPMM
Acknowledgments
This book arose out of many discussions and demonstrations. To
begin, I’d like to thank everyone in the Fantasy Reäl cabal for their
wisdom, criticism, and good company, and to single out two mem-
bers in particular: Jeremy Varon, for his insightful and encour-
aging correspondence over the course of this book, and Andrew
Boyd, for the brainstorming sessions that got it going in the fi rst
place. In addition, Andrew generously allowed me to cannibalize
and reprint fragments of an earlier essay we co-wrote.
I want to thank my political comrades in the Lower East Side
Collective, Reclaim the Streets, Absurd Response, the Clandestine
Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, and so many other groups, who have
taught me so much over the years. In addition, Larry Bogad, Jane
Duncombe, Jason Grote, Ron Hayduk, Leslie Kauffman, Andrew
Mattson, Kelley Moore, Mark Read, Chuck “Yeo” Reinhardt, Ben
Shepard, Astra Taylor, and Alice Meaker Varon have infl uenced my
thinking on this project. I’d like to thank all my colleagues at the
Gallatin School of New York University, particularly Ali Mirsepassi
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd vviiiiii 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::2211 PPMM
Acknowledgments ix
for his support, Mary Witty for making the chair’s work manage-
able, Nina Cornyetz for her knowledge of all things Fascist, George
Shulman for sharpening my thinking about dreaming, Lisa
Goldfarb for raising the politics of poetry, and Michael Dinwiddie
for keeping me sane on Saturday mornings. I want to thank my
students, specifi cally Stacy Han, Kavita Kulkarni, Kavita Rajanna,
and Geoffrey Winder for keeping my thinking fresh; my “game
boys” Robert Jones, Oren Ross, and especially Haim Schoppik and
Ivan Askwith for their help in understanding—and playing—Grand
Theft Auto; Maryellen Strautmanis and Sofi a Contreras for taking
such good care of my own boys; Eyal Rozmarin for sharing his
passion for theory and his understanding of the intersection of
politics and psychology (including mine); and the staff of Café
Esperanto on MacDougal Street, my offi ce away from my offi ce,
for putting up with my long lingerings over a single cup of coffee.
I will always be indebted to my mentor Stuart Ewen for intro-
ducing me to the works of Walter Lippmann and teaching me
about the importance of spectacle—though I’m not quite certain
I learned the lessons he intended. I am also much obliged to The
Baffl er, the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, the Brooklyn Rail, and
Radical Society for letting me try out some of these ideas in print
and then allowing me to borrow them back. Thanks go to Colin
Robinson for his instinct for the audacious and for his generous
embrace of my ideas, fi rst at Verso and then at The New Press;
Andy Hsiao for his encouragement; Stewart Cauley for his graphic
sense; Maury Botton for putting this all together; Ina Howard for
spreading the word; and my editor, Sarah Fan, who got this book
from the beginning and then worked hard to get it where it needed
to go. Also, a very special thanks go out to my father, the Reverend
David C. Duncombe, who has shown me throughout his life that
politics must speak to more than just the mind. And fi nally, none
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd iixx 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::2211 PPMM
x Acknowledgments
of this would have been possible without the love and advice of
my wife and unoffi cial editor, Jean Railla. This book is dedicated to
our two sons, Sydney and Sebastien, who, more than anyone else,
have taught me the power of imagination.
DDrreeaamm__LLaayyoouutt__0099--1111--0066..iinndddd xx 99//1111//22000066 11::4488::2233 PPMM
