When a radical performance artist has command of an army
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In the 1960s the Yippies had a theory about how to transform America. The system, they thought, was rotten, and the best way to show it was to create a spectacle for TV. They scattered dollar bills in the New York Stock Exchange and held a mass meeting to levitate the Pentagon. Some also thought that if armed police or soldiers attacked protesters, Americans would realise they were living in a fascist state and revolt. It backfired: the silent majority saw these stunts and voted for Richard Nixon. The Yippies had got on the wrong side of a fundamental political divide: who stands for order?
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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “American disorder”
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