A Few Issues I Have With The "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"

If you talk to people with radical politics, you will undoubtedly run into the phrase “the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house” (Lorde). This was initially used by Lorde in a speech about how as a black feminist, she felt (essentially) that white feminists couldn’t make meaningful social change while their institutions were just as hierarchical as the culture they critiqued. This is a simplification, and there’s more to her argument, but I’m basically on board with that piece anyways – you can read it here.

My real problem is with how it is used by people these days. It commonly becomes a bastardized version “you can’t break down the master’s house with the master’s tools”. This change in language actually changes a lot about the meaning. The phrase is then used as a shorthand for “you can’t work within the system”. Basically, trying to act through existing political systems is not a way to effect any change, and so you have to tear down what exists and build something new.

First off, I’m just going to complain about the metaphor itself. A tool is by nature something that must be wielded. It doesn’t matter if my boss owns a hammer, I can use it to fuck up his house. It’s a hammer. Same goes for a chainsaw, etc etc. Maybe “don’t hire the master’s contractors to break down the master’s house” would be more apt, but then that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

Second of all, the notion of ownership of any method seems bizarre in our modern world. Trying to find methods that are outside of the use of those in power seems pretty futile to me. What’s worse is, people use this to justify violent uprising and revolution. The state has been described as a monopoly on the use of violence, so using violence yourself doesn’t exactly get you away from “the master’s tools”.

Finally, I think this notion is reductive to what politics and society really is. It’s not a tool. It’s a system that adapts and changes. Do people who currently hold power have influence on that system, yes! An enormous amount. And many people who try to work within the system end up trapped by it in one way or another. The character of Tommy Carcetti on The Wire is a really good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjzqO6UOPFQ

I am one of those naïve people who think that government can really do good. I’m probably wrong, but I think that the idea that what we have now is just a tool of the elite and that the only way to improve on it is to destroy it (using some thing that has ~somehow avoided any tainting by the elite~) is either a good way to justify an endless revolution, or nihilism. And neither serves as a better option from where I am sitting.