That’s what marginals are for: to stick out their tongues at the center’s elaborate protocols, at everything “established” and “respectable.” They use the center’s standards — if they ever do — only to undermine them. Marginals, uninvolved in the ceremonies of the center, often end up not taking anything too seriously. In the arts, they often make the greatest ironists because, for them, irony is much more than a mode of expression, it is a way of life.
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The biggest irony, however, is that all these attempts at derision and subversion, all the marginals’ mockery, usually end up making the center stronger; they are needed in the same vital way an organism needs antibodies. If the center manages to recruit the marginals to work for its own purposes, then it is saved. Indeed, the center often thrives on marginals… Marginals know only too well that, by subverting the center, they risk becoming part of it.
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Shortly after the historic Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, New York Times columnist Costica Bradatan examines how change comes from the margins.
Complement with John Waters’s magnificent and highly relevant RISD commencement address on creative rebellion.
(via explore-blog)
That’s why edglings are key to positive change.
from Stowe Boyd http://stoweboyd.com/post/123635377332
