queers

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

John St. Clair:
>"In that book I claim that "theory" cannot do much to bring the excluded in
>from the margins--to enlarge the community whose consensus sets the
>standards of objectivity--that that other kinds of writing (notably novels
>and newspaper stories) can do quite a lot."

And this idea of 'community consensus' setting the 'standards of
objectivity'--isn't this the main source of Rorty's philosophical and
political conservativism? Rorty's conventionalism gives the dominant
race/gender/sexuality/etc. a philosohical justification to listen to or
ignore the voices of the subordinated at will or even at whim. The dominant
can always say to the subordinated, 'Well, your story doesn't appeal to me,
you are too loud, you look too angry, you must beg, not demand, etc.'


>But, I think, I
>would agree that a film like _And the Band played on_ (or the book of
>course) can get more people to _accept_ the idea of dialogue with gays, than
>any paper in Radical Philosophy.

According to John St. Clair, on one hand, there are 'people,' and on the
other hand, there are 'gays.' I suppose that 'gays' aren't 'people' in a
Rortyesque 'community'?

Yoshie