The Johnson Family
The concept of the Johnson Family, fair and self-governing, is the alternative to the Jones Family in American society
During the Great Depression, there were a lot of people riding the rails, looking for work, or just a way to stay alive. A man named Jack Black wrote about the Johnson Family, an underground alliance of the best of us, when we have to govern ourselves.
The mythos of the Johnson Family was picked up and amplified by William Burroughs. To be a Johnson meant you had character in the underworld just as you have character in the upper world.
Johnsons mind their own business.
A Jones has no business of their own to mind, and is always in other people’s business. The Jones family will interfere with your most private decisions because they have to be right, so you have to do what they think is right. They think in black and white, like a book of laws. Johnsons think in terms of sense and nonsense. It was sensible to treat people fairly and keep your word, and it was senseless to be disrespectful of others who were treating you fairly.
The Johnson Family collected around trash can fires with cornmeal and beans and probably some weed. It was legal in those days, buy it over the counter like Winston cigarettes. When Black was introduced to the Johnson family, he was in the Utah Territory penitentiary. He was introduced to the ways of “good bums and thieves.” The Johnsons called themselves the best of the best, not from pride but from intention.
William Burroughs read Black when he was a kid, and was taken with the concept of the Johnson Family. These were outlaws and hobos, minstrels and thieves, and at the head of the family the best of the best. They were outlaws not from defiance, but from a knowledge of quality as the mother of laws, which means if you have the one you don’t need the other.
This mythos may have led Burroughs to Texas, where he was a farmer in the late forties. He didn’t just grow weed, but he grew weed.
Obviously, good character to Jack and Bill did not square with the good character of a pillar of the community, or a man of the cloth.
He remembers his fathers last words: “Stay out of churches, son. All they got a key to is the shit house. And swear to me you’ll never wear a lawman’s badge.”
The difference between a Johnson and a Jones is that the Jones family aspires toward respectability, which causes them to have one face turned outward, pretending to be a Johnson. The Johnsons, on the other hand, are not pretending.
William Faulkner said modern people are abstracting themselves out of existence, and the most abstracting force is the desire for respectability.
The Johnsons are son’s of John, which means, graced by God. While a Johnson might not follow the law as written, she will follow the grace of her heart. A Johnson won’t be cruel to somebody because of their race or sex or social status, because Johnsons are sane men and women.
I got this tip from Baruch Spinoza:
Which brings me to today’s tip for evolving into a Johnson if you’ve been Jonesing on how to build yourself a boat that will float. First off, mind your own business. That means when you are feeling something, some emotion, don’t ignore it. Pay attention until it speaks to you. Don’t go chasing it with words because words are the hounds of hell when they bite into the tender flesh of the emotional body. Do not think that what you are feeling is being “caused” by somebody. That is projection. That makes people feel crazy. Not a Johnson thing to do.
That’s it for now. Keep the change.
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