-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Bob Hettinga wrote:

But then, logic, much less independent thinking, was never Foucault's strong point.

I took this statement at face value, but out of curiousity I decided to find out who this guy Foucault was. The things I read about him lead me to believe otherwise. Some quotes from Michel Foucault: "The judges of normality are present everywhere. We are in the society of the teacher-judge, the doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the 'social worker'-judge." "Prison continues, on those who are entrusted to it, a work begun elsewhere, which the whole of society pursues on each individual through innumerable mechanisms of discipline." How quick we are to condemn those who step out of the "norm", no? As soon as someone says something even slightly controversial, our inner censors rush in to separate ourselves from that person, to chastise him, to condemn him, regardless of the relationship we have developed with him in the past. There is this unfortunate property in man that leads him to disassociate himself from the ideas he holds true if it is convenient, and especially if it will allow him to avoid the ridicule, hatred and disdain of others. In the never ending "pursuit of happiness" we seek to make our lives so comfortable that we will give up that which we hold dearest. "The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and...to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play)." In other words, to make people think. This is the goal of the intellectual. To subtly influence the mass of humanity by appealing to their minds, their reason, instead of their base instincts and emotions. Tolerance and acceptance are results brought about in us by communion with the mind, that which is greatest in us. Hatred, persecution, violence are what we fall back upon when we cease to live to our fullest potential. We degenerate into the animals we once were. Once again, Bob wrote:

The world's foremost pseudomystical relativist cited to support an absolutist position. The logic escapes me. But then, logic, much less independent thinking, was never Foucault's strong point.

Perhaps one way of looking at it is that if you can't see the black and the white, you're missing the whole picture. After all, who would think that one would need to use an anonymous remailer and a pseudonym to express oneself in a free and open society such as ours? Nerthus -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBNGu85OFWwZe05jcJAQGvYwgAlI0R3rJW67A9fFIs9ai5FY/jEAwV2oQ1 112bd/UmgfJ11DYPWUpG6GKt2XcBUd6UfYPnidY27hT+GGBTTKjAeF88z0XMu6Ep jWUPllwb0Dw5or1o9IBg8ZAOPaAu/SMy9yVgcfaEbAqmfNken+dBhbfoAORjaLd8 BJSYCGs1Bw3Aw1gE7e3aJdjlYs/gKKNkoTQCkgkt6VBBCEQ7dXG1qbq2BTYS3py9 meK2utOM+YLG/+bJSoGRLT5oFiIpnYrkIwAziAtO7WAfydq+vwf8EsTdnX5mwUxg THngvvyaAbZtVm/yObAPgifbfpfDbnfYOL/rrJQzGMXVJCUBNKTQKg== =zZLC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----