[lbo-talk] RE: Xmas message

[Devine, James]

Brian Siano writes:>
I should mention that Eubulides' comment "Why, in history, are there all
the various attempts by groups to privilege their interpretation of
reality and society at all and to impose it on others?" bothers me.
Maybe it's the overuse of  academic-speak ("privilege their
interpretation of reality?" Oy.), but it reads as though E's saying that
it's just a matter of different "interpretations of reality" and their
imposition through power. ...<

As someone on lbo-talk said, "privileging" a group's interpretation of reality and society is a function of power. If you've got the power, you want the power to be legitimate, i.e., accepted by others. (If you're the dominant class, you want your ideology to dominate too.) Of course, legitimation increases the dominant group's power, creating a virtuous circle for them and a vicious one for the dominated. 

a separate point: I've found that some interpret efforts at rational argumentation as being efforts at "privileging" a world-view. silly.

Jim D.