Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

This chapter investigates how the Yippies created the concept of revolutionaryaction-theater. I argue that the idea for this networked participatory street performanceform emerged alongside the notion of Yippie itself as the community of activists whoformed the Youth International Party came together at the anti-war March on thePentagon. For this street performance form aimed at changing the political and culturallandscape of the United States in the 1968 election year, the Yippies drew on ideas fromseveral different radical communities: the peace movement, the New Left, and the hippiecounterculture. From the large umbrella groups of the peace movement, the Yippies stolethe notion of network organization. From the student activists of the New Left, theYippies took the concept of participatory democracy that stressed the importance ofindividuals participating in politics by taking direct action. And from the flower childrenof the hippie counterculture, the Yippies embraced the free-spirited philosophy of doyour-own-thing.By marrying these ideas to an in-your-face theatricality, the Yippieshoped to realize a new kind of anti-war and anti-Establishment activism, one thateschewed “rational dissent” for madcap and carnivalesque disruption (Krassner, How306).In the first part of this chapter, I use the March on the Pentagon as an example ofthe kind of revolutionary activism advocated by the Yippies. Although the concept of“Yippie” had yet to be formed by 21 October, 1967, the March nevertheless involvedmany future Yippie participants and informed Yippie practice. In addition, theparticipation in the March by numerous activist groups organized under a larger umbrellaorganization served as a model for later Yippie network organization. Using as examples50