ABSTRACT
Dada emerged into a world which had already lost its secure faith in absolutes. Confronted with mechanical processes and biological determinism, the individual saw less and less scope for action. While growing industrialism seemed to indicate, in pragmatic terms at least, that the idea of progress was a reasonable premise, the political and social stresses which it released suggested fundamental anomie. The Dadaist recognized no arbiter but himself because he saw no one whose values were to be trusted. Moral judgements are clearly difficult to justify at a time when formal ethics are being rallied under a dozen banners for the sake of national aggrandisement; aesthetic judgements make little sense when form, structure and content are undergoing profound change. If language had been devalued by its abuse in war it also operated as a reactionary influence in itself – failing to reflect the Dadaist’s sense of mutability and working to undermine his freedom and originality.
