The banality of good
The humanity and individual plausibility of a theory also influences it’s validity for activists.
Humans believe what they are doing matters, that they are doing it for sake of goodwill and with good purpose. Unless a theory is able to describe the way that people, in a casual, banal way engage in stupefying acts of evil, then it has not captured a reality that seems to be at the crux of systemic violence. Just as social evils arise out of banal acts, so should social goods. Humans have exigencies of existence that concern food, water, shelter, kindness, etc. – radical change must concern these, and the way these regular needs influence change. Theory that involves merely faceless, inhumane, commandeering forces appear to exclude any role for the people affected by those forces. They neither see themselves as part of the problem or the solution.
Vignette 1 – The Beehive Collective – a poster I saw created by this collective depicts the US of A as giant larvae consuming resources. This is depicted by a totalized image of the US as a nation state. There is no room for activists, or anyone else seeing the picture, to find themselves. No one wants to be a larvae. The US is faceless.
Vignette 2 – Bush. The new face of evil for the left. Lack of complexity and the depicted lack of humanity leaves many without a political lexicon after Bush leaves office. The absolute, cronniest, evil, corrupt picture of him scapegoats personal action out of the picture.
Radical, immediate change seems tied to a very particular way of thinking about politics. I think there is an analogy between calls for immediate, violent revolution and something like the invasion of Iraq. Both require the ability to marshal a great deal of force, on the scale of an entire nation. This requires the creation of systems of force and control that change the nature of a political goal you’ve set out to achieve. It also presumes a level of knowledge and authoritative control over the truth that we may not have. The death of god makes our ability to tie down the truth to any political goal nearly impossible.
Duncan
Humans believe what they are doing matters, that they are doing it for sake of goodwill and with good purpose. Unless a theory is able to describe the way that people, in a casual, banal way engage in stupefying acts of evil, then it has not captured a reality that seems to be at the crux of systemic violence. Just as social evils arise out of banal acts, so should social goods. Humans have exigencies of existence that concern food, water, shelter, kindness, etc. – radical change must concern these, and the way these regular needs influence change. Theory that involves merely faceless, inhumane, commandeering forces appear to exclude any role for the people affected by those forces. They neither see themselves as part of the problem or the solution.
Vignette 1 – The Beehive Collective – a poster I saw created by this collective depicts the US of A as giant larvae consuming resources. This is depicted by a totalized image of the US as a nation state. There is no room for activists, or anyone else seeing the picture, to find themselves. No one wants to be a larvae. The US is faceless.
Vignette 2 – Bush. The new face of evil for the left. Lack of complexity and the depicted lack of humanity leaves many without a political lexicon after Bush leaves office. The absolute, cronniest, evil, corrupt picture of him scapegoats personal action out of the picture.
Radical, immediate change seems tied to a very particular way of thinking about politics. I think there is an analogy between calls for immediate, violent revolution and something like the invasion of Iraq. Both require the ability to marshal a great deal of force, on the scale of an entire nation. This requires the creation of systems of force and control that change the nature of a political goal you’ve set out to achieve. It also presumes a level of knowledge and authoritative control over the truth that we may not have. The death of god makes our ability to tie down the truth to any political goal nearly impossible.
Duncan
posted by Duncan at 5:16 PM
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