On Sat, 28 Jul 2001, Kelley wrote:
> also, that said, he [JH] has argued that our communication is
> systematically
> distorted _because_ of domination, power, exploitation.
>
This is the strangest thing to me about Habermas' project. In fact, domination, power, and exploitation make possible various forms of communication in everyday life. Think about it: schools, mass media, the military, the factory floor, the church: each of these social contexts involves hierarchy and power relations. Nevertheless, people effectively communicate in these settings. Moreover, the existence of hierarchially organized social arrangements, such as a mass media conglomerate, facilitate new strategies for communication (e.g., AOL's chat system). To put it bluntly, I think JH has it completely backward: it is via domination and power that we are able to communicate with each other. If/when we succeed in overcoming capitalist domination, we will not be "closer" to some sort of ideal communicative situation; rather, we will be engaged in different language games as appropriate to that context as existing forms of communication are appropriate to the existing context.
Miles