"When it comes as an expression of a nationality that has neither
independence nor state structures and demand them, terrorism is ultimately
accepted: Jewish terrorism before the creation of the state of Israel,
Palestinaian terrorism, Irish terrorism, also; even if one is hostile to one
or another of these types of action, the very principle of terrorism is not
fundamentally impugned. By contrast, what is funamentally impugned is a
terrorist movement in which one speaks in the name of a class or political
group or avent garde or marginal group, saying "I am rebelling . . . I am
threatening to kill someone in order to gain one or another goal" (From an
interview from 1977 quoted in Miller's Passion of Michel Foucault p. 449
n43).
As Miller notes it shows essentially that Foucault's later opposition to
terrorism was tactical and not moral. To me passages like this show that
Foucault's relation to the problem of terrorism is more complex than is
normally being assumed these days.
It seems to me that there is a whole movement going on to discredit the very
concept of resistence. I recall the quotes posted here right after Sept 11,
which have left me musing ever since.
regards
ali
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