> >There is NO dominant discourse in modern society which encourages drug
use.
>
> Perhaps it is the word Modern that confuses the discussion.
> - There was no dominant discourse in Modern society that encouraged drug
> use.
> - Perhaps there is a dominant discourse in Postmodern society that
> encourages drug use.
Can't we apply perhaps the logic of 'The Will to Knowledge' here and say
that, just as sex was encouraged while being prohibited as part of the same
strategy, the same is true of drugs? It seems to me that something like this
is definitely going on.
The thing I find most interesting is the way that making it more difficult
to smoke cigarettes in the UK has gone along in recent years with an
increase in teen smoking - I started smoking myself in the same period,
attracted by the way being a smoker made me feel about myself, i.e. good,
valuable, rebellious, etc. - despite having read Foucault! I might add that
I recently stopped after considering the reasons why I was smoking and its
generally detrimental effects on me.
> When Foucault was alive he challenged the status quo. Almost 20 years
after
> his death his ideas now define (in part) the status quo.
Sadly, I just don't think this is true. Foucault is used selectively and
rarely. Only in a few areas of highly specialised discourse has Foucault
really become anything like an orthodoxy, particularly the later stuff -
give it another 25 years, I'd say
use.
>
> Perhaps it is the word Modern that confuses the discussion.
> - There was no dominant discourse in Modern society that encouraged drug
> use.
> - Perhaps there is a dominant discourse in Postmodern society that
> encourages drug use.
Can't we apply perhaps the logic of 'The Will to Knowledge' here and say
that, just as sex was encouraged while being prohibited as part of the same
strategy, the same is true of drugs? It seems to me that something like this
is definitely going on.
The thing I find most interesting is the way that making it more difficult
to smoke cigarettes in the UK has gone along in recent years with an
increase in teen smoking - I started smoking myself in the same period,
attracted by the way being a smoker made me feel about myself, i.e. good,
valuable, rebellious, etc. - despite having read Foucault! I might add that
I recently stopped after considering the reasons why I was smoking and its
generally detrimental effects on me.
> When Foucault was alive he challenged the status quo. Almost 20 years
after
> his death his ideas now define (in part) the status quo.
Sadly, I just don't think this is true. Foucault is used selectively and
rarely. Only in a few areas of highly specialised discourse has Foucault
really become anything like an orthodoxy, particularly the later stuff -
give it another 25 years, I'd say