Bohemian Rhapsody

bohemianism, conservatism, frank zappa, liberalism, political philosophy

It is tiresome (and just downright false) for the Fundamentalist Right to claim that certain “alternative” lifestyles are incompatible with conservatism. In the first instance their grip on what conservatism is, is very weak and often at often at odds with the spirit of conservatism; and secondly, they do not appreciate that ideological categories are fluid and cannot be fixed by necessary and sufficient conditions.

It equally tiresome to assume that bohemianism denotes a left-of-centre sensibility: much of what is currently taken to be bohemian is just faux, shallow, and studied off-the-peg consumerist lifestyle choices. Elsewhere I wrote about Mill’s “experiments in living” – this is an idea that might shed light on the notion of the bohemianism:

Mill says that freedom is necessary to encourage “experiments of living”, which will bring new possibilities of experience, new roads to happiness, to light. Society needs a diverse field of ways of life; we have to continually experiment. In no other way can we serve “the permanent interests of man as a progressive being” (Introduction).

The engine of these experiments in living is “individuality”, a certain structure of mind and character which we need if we are to withstand the pressure to social conformity.

The Wiki Bohemianism entry says:

Many prominent European and American figures of the last 150 years belonged to the bohemian counterculture, and any comprehensive ‘list of bohemians’ would be tediously long. Bohemianism has been approved of by some bourgeois writers such as Honoré de Balzac, but most conservative cultural critics do not condone bohemian lifestyles. Ironically enough, bohemianism by definition can only exist within a framework of conservative values.

While I agree that being a conservative doesn’t preclude being a bohemian, the writer doesn’t explain what is meant by “conservative” and provides no definition of “bohemianism”. It’s therefore hard to say what if anything, in general or in relation to conservatism, is true of bohemianism “by definition”.
The concept of bohemianism does seem contrastive. The bohemian life style is NOT conventional and is UNconventional in certain reasonably specific ways – freedom of sexual relations, emphasis on the aesthetic approach to experience, a sense of superiority to the common run of vulgar humanity. It can be reconciled with conservatism in two ways.
(1) that this life style takes for granted that the vulgar herd will continue to be vulgar and support this life style as servants and retainers and there will be a background presence of conventional folk readily shocked by bohemian antics.
In this sense it depends on a status quo (a) to attend to its needs and (b) to show contempt for.
(2) A political or social conservative may place value on activities and institutions that aren’t damaged by bohemian, or bohemian, goings-on. Oakeshott’s innumerable affairs were not inconsistent with his conservatism and practically implied no commitment to rationalism in politics or to large-scale social engineering. Oakeshott’s  own philanderings were hardly likely to undermine the institution of Western marriage.
Another interesting example of a right-leaning bohemian was that of Frank Zappa. Zappa was the scourge of  the Fundamentalist Right and the “politically correct” Left, most publicly manifest in his testimony before the US Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center, a music censorship organization founded by then-Senator Al Gore’s wife Tipper Gore. But that’s another story.

Zappa as Conservative (3.71MB) Zappa wrote a chapter in his autobiography entitled “Practical Conservatism“. “Practical Conservatism” would, to many a high Tory, be a contradiction in terms. Nonetheless what’s on offer is a conservative disposition tempered by a Hayekian libertarianism wrapped up in bohemian garb – a combination bound to bewilder the Right-wing Fundamentalist and the Right-on PC mob. And to add insult to injury, I’m pleased to have come across this Marxist appreciation of Zappa – see here.