George Gissing: A Fan's Commonplace Blog

Commonplace 127 George & The Rise of Demos.

George was always interested in drawing a very wide line between the working and the middle (and above) classes. This was partly to disguise his own humble origins (son of a shop-keeper; failed academic; gaol bird) and to maximise his loftier pretensions to being somehow 'aristocratic'. In fact, this demarcation wasn't entirely based on money or class, but on 'aesthetic sensibility' - George thought the poor have no right to power because they lack a refined, artistic soul, and the rich and educated are equally philistine. so, it is only a few who are touched with the greatness of aristocracy, in the Classical sense click, who  deserve to prevail. Totally without irony or insight, George always placed himself in this elite by dint of the way he liked books and the Greeks. If you stop and ask yourself what, exactly, he brought to the 'aristocratic' party, you come up with... ? Maybe he confused the term 'aristocrat' with 'prig'.

The Sexton's House by "BB" c 1907

As the nineteenth century wore on, the rise of the Proletariat became a constant source of threat to the classes in charge of the resources. In 1836, a group arose that represented exclusively the interests of the working class: the Chartists. Leaders of the movement knew that effective change has to happen incrementally, but that no social progress can be made without a mandate from the People. The fear instilled in the British controlling classes by the French Revolution had made the likelihood of democracy being handed to the poor extremely unlikely, and so the Chartists set out to win a voice through challenging the established political structure. They had six basic tenets:
1) a vote for all men over 21

2) the secret ballot

3) no property qualification to become an MP

4) payment for MPs

5) electoral districts of equal size

6) annual elections for Parliament

There were three separate drives to secure better representation for the masses, but all were defeated. Finally, the movement disintegrated in the face of severe penalties from employers for known Chartists and their sympathisers. As with the UK Miners' Strike of 1983-4 click, starving the activists back to work was an effective means of control. However, progress, like fascism, once started, is unstoppable, and eventually, some of the Chartists' aims were incorporated when a more liberal party came into power. For an easy to understand account visit the National Archives site click.

Woman With Plant by Grant Wood 1929

George was initially enthusiastic about the new Socialist movement that was gaining some influence in the late 1800s. Socialism - the idea of political power being in the hands of the largest part of the population - has its roots in the English Civil War of 1642-1651. It wasn't the victorious Puritans who promoted it, but their rebel factions, the Levellers click, the Diggers click and the Fifth Monarchy Men click. By the time George took it up, it was a popular trend amongst the educated and demimonde, much like the Occupy Movement is today click. And, just as with Occupy, amongst the real devotees were dilettantes and hangers-on - and George was one of these. Part of his falling out of love with the movement may have been the distinct hierarchy above him that he would not be able to challenge or overtake. The likes of William Morris were already in the best positions, and there was nowhere a little minnow like George could establish a toe-hold (or a fin-hold haha). More likely, he turned his back on joining in with any movement that would have had strong and frequent links with his old hunting ground of Manchester.

The lure of Positivism claimed George, and through his association with Frederic Harrison he found employment, some social recognition, a limited readership for his fist novel, and a smattering of knowledge about statistics. So, what is Positivism? This click explains it fully. Basically, it was a belief system that relied on accepting only empirical evidence; this means what you experience from your own sensory input  is more valid than any interpretation you make of that sensory input. Current aspects of Behaviourism are close to the basic idea of Positivism. Because Positivism relied so wholeheartedly on the perspective of the individual, a system was required to establish norms of behaviour, so that human experience could be assessed and compared with what was usual in any particular social group. And so sociology was born.

Cookham by Stanley Spencer 1914

George would have recognised the dissonance between Positivism's reliance on systems, rules and norms, and the Artist's inherent spontaneity and creative flow. In fact, some of the legendary Art being produced at the time George was dabbling in Comte was produced by Artists who had thrown away the painting rulebook and were beginning to work in new methods. In fact, most painters are always working to long-established rules - even Monet was making use of colour theory and Jackson Pollock working on perspective - and one of the possibly least successful was Georges Seurat (or any of his fellow Pointillists).

Parade de Cirque by Georges Seurat 1887-1888

Apart from not wanting to be mistaken for a common oik, George was one of many who believed that life under the rule of Demos would be one where Art was relegated to a minority activity and that vulgarity would prevail. As Art has never been anything but a minority interest, and as the very definition of what is vulgar is the quotidian, it's difficult to know what George's problem was with either notion. But, wouldn't that have appealed to George? In fact, it would have suited him to live under a system where he could feel even more marginalised and even more of an outsider?

See also Commonplace 101 -  George & Eugenics.