“Social Banditry”

Somehow, I don’t ever remember coming across the phrase “social banditry” before. But it gave me a way to post something about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson but not split a lot of theoretical hairs about whether the fact that some people expressed some degree of understanding for the act is another sign of the impending Doom Of Civilization.

Romantic idolization of criminals as folk heroes is not new. For instance, it reminded me among other things of this song, a Woody Guthrie piece here sung by Rosanne Cash.¹

If anyone wants to tell me that Rosanne Cash is celebrating murder and encouraging robbery and assassination, all I can say is: Bite me!

Yes, Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd in real life was a robber and (maybe) a murderer and a mostly terrible human being.² But that’s not how folklore – and folk songs - work. Pretty Boy Floyd did destroy mortgage papers during bank robberies. Which in the Great Depression gained him some real sympathy.

Joshau Zeitz used the “social bandit” term in a Politico Magazine article:

In 1959 the Marxist scholar Eric Hobsbawm introduced the concept of “social banditry” into the historical and sociological lexicon. Social bandits were sometimes fictional, sometimes real figures who operated outside of the law and were widely revered for their efforts to mete out justice in an unjust world — like Robin Hood, the legendary English outlaw who lived in Sherwood Forest and, with his band of Merry Men, “stole from the rich and gave to the poor.”

Hobsbawm’s theory, which historians continue to debate, rested on a fairly specific Marxian analysis of power and economic relationships in agrarian societies, with bandits (or the idea of bandits) providing a form of resistance in the face of rampant inequality. But such characters transcended different geographies and times, ranging from the fictional Robin Hood in 14th century England, to brutally violent, real-life outlaws like Jesse James and Billy the Kid in the post-Civil War era United States, to Pancho Villa in early 20th century Mexico.³ [my emphasis]

Pancho Villa, by the way, was an actual Mexican revolutionary. But not a choirboy, and not really the Thomas Jefferson type. (But Villa didn’t own slaves, either, so there’s that!)

Speaking of Marxists, John Reed – who was honored in the then-new USSR by burial inside the Kremlin walls after his death in 1920 – was heavily influenced in his understanding of revolution by covering Pancho Villa in Mexico.⁴

In Politico terms, using a Marxist’s explanation of a cultural phenomenon qualifies as pretty edgy. But, hey, when you’ve got a point, you’ve got a point:

Whether Rob Roy MacGregor, aka the Scottish Robin Hood, or Ned Kelly, a 19th century Australian outlaw, “the crucial fact about the bandit’s social situation is its ambiguity,” Hobsbawm wrote. “He is an outsider and a rebel, a poor man who refuses to accept the normal rules of poverty. … This draws him close to the poor: he is one of them. It sets him in opposition to the hierarchy of power, wealth and influence. He is not one of them.

… At the same time the bandit is inevitably drawn into the web of wealth and power. Because, unlike other peasants, he acquires wealth and exerts power. He is ‘one of us,’ who is constantly in the process of becoming associated with ‘them.’” (Of course, being “one of us” doesn’t mean the social bandit cannot come from wealth or privilege. As the Robin Hood lore evolved from its 14th century roots, the masked bandit became a former nobleman who turned traitor to his upbringing and cast his lot with the poor. It’s about affinity and identity, not background.) (Politico Magazine) [my emphasis]

1. Rosanne Cash - Woody Guthrie At 100! / "Pretty Boy Floyd". Rosanne Cash YouTube 02/10/2018. (Accessed: 2025-02-01).

2. Editors (2024): Pretty Boy Floyd. Encyclopedia Britannica 12/13/2024. <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pretty-Boy-Floyd> (Accessed: 2025-02-01).

3. Zeitz, Josua (2024): People Are Cheering on a Shooting. This Theory Could Explain Why. <https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/10/united-healthcare-killer-reaction-theory-00193513> (Accessed: 2025-02-01).

4. Day, Megan (2021): How the Mexican Revolution Made John Reed a Red. Jacobin 11/23/2021. <https://jacobin.com/2021/11/mexican-revolution-john-reed-journalism-pancho-villa> (Accessed: 2025-02-01).