Subversives

I don't know what they have to say;
It makes no difference anyway;
Whatever it is, I'm against it.

— Groucho Marx

"Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous," historian Henry Steele Commager observed. "They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive."

But all subversives aren't alike.  

Some enrage; others merely entertain.

Karl Marx did the former; Groucho Marx, the latter.

Challenging the status quo—as Karl did—rattles its guardians to no end; saying something delightfully pointless—as Groucho did—does, too.

It's mostly a matter of degree.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, when subversion could get you imprisoned or hanged, rich Europeans clandestinely collected the subversive writings of hacks, including snarky religious tracts, satires of court life, erotic books and pamphlets, and manuals of the occult. 

Living under an authoritarian church and state, the European elites thought that collecting the writings of witty upstarts was chic—a titliating form of entertainment; an urbane, but harmless, hobby. 

Then along came the sincerely subversive Condorcet to inflame the French Revolution and put a damper on the elites' collecting.

The 19th century saw the comparably cantankerous Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzshe attack church and state from their wholly new and explosive vantage points. These philosophers produced subversive ideas that shook society in the 20th century, and today inform the "woke" movement. 

Guardians of the status quo were not amused—and still aren't.

But, whether critics or clowns, subversives contribute to our wellbeing by making our efforts to conform to authority bearable, says political scientist John Christian Larsen.

Subversives act as steam valves to reduce pressure on our psyches.

"Letting off steam might be more important in social life than we’ve recognized," Larsen says. 

"Suppressing what we really think is widely understood to be bad for our emotional health. People who have had to hide their thoughts in order to appear as conformists to the prevailing orthodoxies have often developed deep psychological problems, which in turn can lead to ‘explosions’. 

"Meanwhile, if people can express themselves, even only clandestinely, they might be relieved of this pressure."