To Piss in or Piss Out: Gerrard Winstanley and the Radical's Dilemma

Abstract

‘Are we called to be prophets or pragmatists? Voices crying in the wilderness, or whisperers in the corridors of power?’ Radicals in every generation have to face the question. Gerrard Winstanley, ‘True Leveller’ leader and Christian communist, faced it in the English revolution of 1649. Was he a Utopian prophet or an early practitioner of critical engagement? ‘He was sometimes one, sometimes the other, and often both at the same time. As such, he speaks to our postmodern condition, where pragmatism is the life of all.’