I just can't stop myself. The opportunity is simply too good to resist. The
contortions this list is having over this issue are a paradigmatic case (in
my humble opinion) of the political and moral poverty of Foucault's thought
in dealing with such issues. If, as Eagleton puts it at the end of his
recent book, the test of a social theory is how it would stand up to fascism
then things do not bode well for a Foucaultian approach.
The, I suppose, well meaning (although you could equally well describe this
as simply good old fashioned wooly minded liberal toleration (commitment to
difference?)) calls to allow the Nazi's to have their say, their space,
their voice, could only be articulated for two reasons: (i) because deep
down those people arguing for an unconstrained right of free speech might
just be supporters (I am NOT assuming anyone on the list is of this form,
but then again we simply don't know do we?); or, (ii) because they pose, or
at least we think they don't, no threat to us (safe as we are in our
comfortable white intellectuals bubbles), this, of course simply forgets
those they do pose a threat to, but then why should we care?.
But the threat is real and those demanding a voice intend to silence other
voices. How to silence such a voice ethically and with sensitivity? I don't
know, but what I do know is that Foucault provides me with no intellectual
resources to help make my decision.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
SY23 3DA
--------------------------------------------------------
contortions this list is having over this issue are a paradigmatic case (in
my humble opinion) of the political and moral poverty of Foucault's thought
in dealing with such issues. If, as Eagleton puts it at the end of his
recent book, the test of a social theory is how it would stand up to fascism
then things do not bode well for a Foucaultian approach.
The, I suppose, well meaning (although you could equally well describe this
as simply good old fashioned wooly minded liberal toleration (commitment to
difference?)) calls to allow the Nazi's to have their say, their space,
their voice, could only be articulated for two reasons: (i) because deep
down those people arguing for an unconstrained right of free speech might
just be supporters (I am NOT assuming anyone on the list is of this form,
but then again we simply don't know do we?); or, (ii) because they pose, or
at least we think they don't, no threat to us (safe as we are in our
comfortable white intellectuals bubbles), this, of course simply forgets
those they do pose a threat to, but then why should we care?.
But the threat is real and those demanding a voice intend to silence other
voices. How to silence such a voice ethically and with sensitivity? I don't
know, but what I do know is that Foucault provides me with no intellectual
resources to help make my decision.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
SY23 3DA
--------------------------------------------------------