Another angle on the Man

[David Elliott]

 “I’m the Man.” I also used to hear that boast. Someone pulls out a bag of coke... “I’m the Man.” “You the Man.” “The Man” was often the person with the dope instead of the person busting you for the dope. One “The Man” would bust the other “The Man.”
    On Thursday, November 25, 2021, 12:13:38 AM EST, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 The toilet episode & the Schwarzkommando point to consideration of Black
culture.

I think of “The Man” as a phrase coming from Black slang. And meaning
“abusive authority” - back in the 60s it was always the Man arresting
people. It made its way into hipster and Movement slang but wasn’t it first
Black?

And then sometime in the 80s or even earlier, maybe even synchronously with
the “abusive authority” usage, people started (over)using the Man as a
compliment - the verbless “you the Man” meaning meritorious authority.

This complements rather than contradicts the Freudian paradigm - the id is
capable of meritorious actions as well as abuse.

It did surprise me to some extent that the Man wasn’t assigned to the
superego, but I’m flexible in my theory.
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