PARTISAN REVIEW
213
were proved pointless as the artists began exhibiting "documents"–
photographs, videotapes, prints, etc., of their works in commercial
galleries and museums. The permissiveness of dealers, curators, and
the public seemingly had no end. Dada's testing of limits was dem–
onstrated as ridiculous in the present context, which admits of no
limits. The result is that in its current confusion, society has abdicat–
ed the parental authoritorian rule vis-a.-vis the rebellious artist adopt–
ed in the formative years of the avant-garde. In other words, society
in general no longer wishes to perpetuate the traditional relationship
between itself and the avant-garde: the society appropriates to it–
self
the artist's license to remain a child, perpetually at play, knowing
no limits.
Dada exalted play as a form of artistic activity: now Dada has
become the activity of the masses reflected in its films and rock con–
certs. And conversely, the artist can no longer practice Dada
if
he
wishes to remain in a critical role. This has produced an enormous
crisis, polarizing artistic protest into forms on the one hand more
infantile and, on the other, more mature than those of Dada, whose
adolescent attitudes no longer seem opposite to the current situation.
For the key to Dada from a psychological point of view is to
understand how closely its interests and activities conform to those
of the adolescent. In
En Avant Dada,
the Dadaist Richard Hiilsenbeck
speaks of "The New Man - armed with the Weapons of Doubt
and Defiance." To speak of the "new man," and call doubt and
defiance weapons, is to speak in a sense as an adolescent, who doubts
and defies the old order, envisioning himself as the new man who
will replace his father, the old man. The adolescent sees that the old
generation with its dead values, hypocrisy, and corruption must be
replaced with new values. He is optimistic; he has hopes that he
can transform the world. Current despair, on the other hand, is
predicated on the understanding that society will no longer assume
its
traditional role of parental opposition. In this case, the hope of
transforming the world - making it new again dwindles with each
manifestation of permissiveness - the signal that the parent does
not care.
Dada seems to us now a delightful episode, its despair a com–
bination of adolescent
weltschmerz
and romantic self-pity, in contrast
to the present moment of harsh truths and dead-ends. Adolescence
is the period of preparing for something else, preparing for a future
