tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post7860759213919428667..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: DocilityCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-36985107807542816842010-08-31T18:37:07.721-04:002010-08-31T18:37:07.721-04:00On a tangent ... in the election campaign here tha...On a tangent ... in the election campaign here that concluded nearly two weeks ago, each of the two major parties kept vying for "underdog" status, as in Australia, that's the best way to garner votes (or support for a sports team). Now that we have a hung parliament, we don't hear talk of underdogs anymore. Instead, Labor and the Liberal-National coalition, with 72 seats each, are both claiming a kind of natural authority: top dog status, perhaps.<br /><br />Equally, there's an odd mix of admiration and frustration with the various independents who are still to determine whether they'll help form a minority government, and with which party. Several of them are conservative, rural-based candidates who are decidedly undocile... leading some to remark that we are heading for a new form of parliamentary practice. A perversely productive indocility? <br /><br />I adapted a form of your code of courtesy last semester. I had occasion to refer back to it only once, in a lecture group of about 80. I'll certainly use something like it again. <br /><br />WV: ackbash (either a delicious Turkish sweet or aggressive student behaviour in class)This old world is a new worldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567163294720510335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-82328533355023228002010-08-31T13:31:00.810-04:002010-08-31T13:31:00.810-04:00Wonderful post, Jeffrey. It reminds me of one of m...Wonderful post, Jeffrey. It reminds me of one of my favorite books that I read so many times as an undergraduate that the dust-jacket fell off:<br /><br />Jonathan Kozol, THE NIGHT IS DARK AND I AM FAR FROM HOME: A POLITICAL INDICTMENT OF THE U.S. SCHOOLS<br /><br />It came out in the 1970s [I think?] and was related to teaching that Kozol did in Harlem after graduating from Harvard. It's a beautiful book that makes the case that public schools mainly just indoctrinate children to behave, and not to think creatively or independently. He was right, of course [some schools excepted, but they're in the minority, and usually private].<br /><br />Go Underdog!Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-34544030600805567952010-08-31T11:53:55.942-04:002010-08-31T11:53:55.942-04:00Oh! The Braidotti sounds good.
Here's a ref ...Oh! The Braidotti sounds good. <br /><br />Here's a ref you have on hand no doubt: Bennett, Vibrant Matter, p. 54 for example.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-42484621081148330072010-08-31T11:42:30.647-04:002010-08-31T11:42:30.647-04:00Thanks, Karl: that's just the reference I was ...Thanks, Karl: that's just the reference I was looking for. I'd been reading Rosi Braidotti waxing lyrical about zoe as well in her "Animals, Anomalies, and Inorganic Others" essay AND was trying to find a term for life force / life-as-force that can include the inorganic, so as you can imagine Foucault and Agamben's bios/zoe hierarchy wasn't really useful.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-40338498868153698872010-08-31T11:21:29.481-04:002010-08-31T11:21:29.481-04:00Great post, Jeffrey, and very useful to me as my s...Great post, Jeffrey, and very useful to me as my semester gets up to speed. BTW, on Agamben on bios v zoe, see the Derrida I cite <a href="http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2010/07/briefly-on-animal-sacer-curse-anyone.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>: Derrida, Beast and the Sovereign, 315-17, 324-33. Briefly, JD's impatient with Agamben. No surprise?Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-66956176086455170822010-08-31T10:42:01.994-04:002010-08-31T10:42:01.994-04:00Thanks for your comment, Roberta. Foucault has bee...Thanks for your comment, Roberta. Foucault has been heavily on mind this morning as well: I've been writing about Agameben's reworking of Foucault's bios versus zoe distinction ... and in the draft of this ITM I'd mentioned Discipline and Punish. It just seemed TOO heavy, though, to leave in there: once you're in D&P it's hard to get back out.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1863877387743803182010-08-31T10:36:33.183-04:002010-08-31T10:36:33.183-04:00Thanks for this refreshing post! It reminds me of ...Thanks for this refreshing post! It reminds me of Foucault's discussion of 'docile bodies' in disciplinary institutions; imagined as willing subjects of policing, they acquiesce in power and relinquish their bodies to it. I have always found that discussion profoundly saddening, so thank you, Underdog, for giving me a mental image (ears and cape included) that I can superimpose to the bleakness of the docility described by Foucault!Roberta Magnaninoreply@blogger.com