On Thu, 5 Dec 2002 topp8564 at mail.usyd.edu.au wrote:
> The idea that subjectivities (ie. people) are odiously boring and ripe
> for cataloguing is just what's on my mind when I worry about the
> assumptions made within hasty generalisations about social relations. As
> for limp leaves plonking to the ground, I know some such people, but
> they are hardly representative.
>
> Thiago
I guess you don't get my point. It's a pragmatic issue: useful knowledge about social relations is not tantamount to analysis of particular subjectivities. If any domain of knowledge (from physics to even philosophical domains like ethics) took the route you're suggesting, not much would be accomplished. I know you don't like the analogy, but if physicists worried about whether their theories applied or didn't apply to a specific leaf on a specific day, they would not have created any useful theories. Theories are violence against particulars, to put it dramatically; that's a sign they're good theories!
This emphasis on paying attention to particular subjectivities is to me an ideological precipitate of social relations in a capitalist society that glorifies individualism and freedom. To claim we must carefully study specific subjectivities or our theories are inadequate is, perversely, an indirect way of reinforcing political and economic inequalities in our society. The celebration of individual subjectivity is, in the final determination, the celebration of the political and economic realities that encourage people to conceptualize themselves as unique individuals.
If this point seems labored, consider: what would happen to consumer spending if people were no longer compelled by social norms to express their personalities and their individuality with their purchases? You might say, no, no, I mean true individuality, true subjectivity, but I agree with Goffman about this: no matter how deep you go, the "real me" is always, always a social precipitate. The "real me": another advertising slogan, more ideological fuel for the ads hacks at Nike and the Gap, more profits for the 1% who own 40% of the wealth in our society.
Miles