[lbo-talk] I, We or They

[Eric Beck]

On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:08 AM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> From what vantage point, what perspective, what relationship to left
> qctivity are these phrases used? How do they define the writer's vantage
> point.
>
> It seems to me that such phrases, even when accurate, separate the speaker
> from "the left" and implicitly claim a vantage point Outside of and superior
> to that of those wh are "in" the left. In other words, such phrases label
> the writer as an "I" in a superior (objective?) position passing judgment on
> "them."
>
> I find this position disturbing.

Foucault raised in a different context -- in his first book about
sexuality -- but I think his idea of the "speaker's benefit" is
applicable here:

"But there may be another reason that makes it so gratifying for us to
define the relationship between sex and power in terms of repression:
something that one might call the speaker's benefit. If sex is
repressed, that is, condemned to prohibition, nonexistence, and
silence, then the mere fact that one is speaking about it has the
appearance of a deliberate transgression. A person who holds forth in
such language places himself to a certain extent outside the reach of
power; he upsets established law; he somehow anticipates the coming
freedom."