Saturday, February 2, 2008

The Main Issue Manifesto, by Michel Foucault

I couldn't have described why I care about politics any better than how Monsieur Foucault described his love of politics. Without further ado, the new manifesto for my blog, The Main Issue, from the Chomsky v. Foucault debate in 1971:

Your question is: why am I so interested in politics? But if I were to answer you very simply, I would say this: why shouldn't I be interested? That is to say, what blindness, what deafness, what density of ideology would have to weigh me down to prevent me from being interested in what is probably the most crucial subject to our existence, that is to say the society in which we live, the economic relations within which it functions, the regular permissions and prohibitions of our conduct. The essence of life consists, after all, of the political functioning of the society in which we find ourselves. 
So I can't answer the question of why I should be interested; I could only answer it by asking why shouldn't I be interested? Not to be interested in politics, that's what constitutes a problem. So instead of asking me, you should ask someone who is not interested in  politics and then your question would be well-founded, and you would have the right to say, "Why, damn it, are you not interested?"

1 comment:

Mollie Joan said...

I tell you, Brett, I certainly agree with the reasoning there!
Be my eyes and ears, will you? Because I simply cannot keep up with it all, try as I might.