Foucault's ideas are everywhere, but he is largely unknown

>From: Mark Kelly <mgekelly@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: Here is the point some of us disagree on: is a drug discourse
>going on?
>Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 08:07:07 +1000
>
> > 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
>
I do not suggest that Foucault is used by anyone in mainstream society. I
suggest that his discourse has been absorbed into current society through
the ideas of high profile feminists, queer and other radical writers of mass
media that is consumed by mr and ms ordinary bloke on the street. People do
not realise how much many of their favourite authors have been influenced by
Foucault. For example, two academics (one of over 30 years international
standing in sociology and psychology) did not realise the depth of
Foucaldian ideas in their seminal paper, but when you traced through their
bibliography, over 1 third of the works cited drew extensively on Foucault
(including one of the academic's own works). One of the authors told me
that after writing the paper in question she began to draw on Foucault with
greater frequency and intensity; I suggested that she became conscious of
the influence of Foucault on her work.

I do not think that a time will ever come when Foucault is acknowledged as a
font of resistance to the dominant. His ideas will settle into the voids
and cracks between our ideas and become part of the substance that most
people call culture. His ideas are affecting the social order:
- people percieved rights
- people perceived duties
- the moral order
- the actions that occur in society

[ See my paper persented at MAAOE2002:
[ http://intergon.net/papers/Boxer-MAAOE2002-
[ 20may2002.doc (a rough version of my ideas that I am sure people will find
flawed)
[ Consider attending this year's MAAOE - http://intergon.net/maaoe

In a similar vein, in 2003 drugs are part of what most people call culture.

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