On 29/10/2008, at 7:46 AM, Chetan Vemuri wrote:
Of course it is neither "good" nor "bad", considered in this universalistic, humanist sense ... for Foucault power is always a relation, and when we speak of power relations embodied in state apparatuses these are relatively stable asymmetrical relations that mobilize the capacities of one group so that they might be appropriated by another group in a manner not entirely reciprocal. The effects of the reproduction/transformation of such relations can only be grasped in terms of 'good for whom' rather than 'good for society (as a whole)'. Foucault was too good a student of Marx's analyses of the labour process, working day, and so-called primitive accumulation to think otherwise. The Iranian situation was one that could have gone in various directions ... I suggest reading Darius Rejali's book "Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran" (1994) for basic information on the measures used to deal with former "allies" and establish and Islamic state in Iran.
these same later disillusioning
revelations about the revolution ironically proved him right in the argument
he made against Noam Chomsky back in 1971 regarding how one group fighting
for "justice' ultimately becomes a power structure once its over, regardless
of whether they're better than the previous govt or worse. The power
structure is neither good nor bad.
Of course it is neither "good" nor "bad", considered in this universalistic, humanist sense ... for Foucault power is always a relation, and when we speak of power relations embodied in state apparatuses these are relatively stable asymmetrical relations that mobilize the capacities of one group so that they might be appropriated by another group in a manner not entirely reciprocal. The effects of the reproduction/transformation of such relations can only be grasped in terms of 'good for whom' rather than 'good for society (as a whole)'. Foucault was too good a student of Marx's analyses of the labour process, working day, and so-called primitive accumulation to think otherwise. The Iranian situation was one that could have gone in various directions ... I suggest reading Darius Rejali's book "Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran" (1994) for basic information on the measures used to deal with former "allies" and establish and Islamic state in Iran.