> "Pregnant women" is
> (depending on the context) a significant category
> (e.g., from the
> perspective of control of lead in the atmosphere)
> and from others as
> arbitrary a classification as that of SUV drivers.
> Here it is of the
> latter sort. It is a classification created
> arbitrarily to fulfill
> (illegitimate) political goals of the South Carolina
> ruling elites.
The post's subject title is a politicized classification intended to show where the real power interests--to simplify the number of legal, medical, moral, etc. disciplinary tactics involved--meet in this case: the pregnant woman. From the article, and the 15 minutes the prosecutor gave to the case, it sounds like the decision was based largely on race and class, too. These classifications are far from arbitrary, from the perspective of analysis and argument in left political praxis.
The Foucauld angle, or riff, aside, the article shows how religion and morality also can be marshalled in the service of class interests (and how class interests can expedite religion and morality?). Also, how the court becomes the final crude war-zone, after other parts of the social safety net have given way, where class-race-gender interests are decided.
Alec
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