Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 02:17:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Olivier Urbain <ou_ec-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: BHA: Nice to meet you all


Dear Bhaskar Listers,

I have just joined the list and I would like to
introduce myself.
My name is Olivier Urbain, I was raised in Belgium
1961-1985 then went to the U.S. to complete a PhD in
literature 1985-1990. The methodology in my department
was basically social constructionism, and I had to put
up with this for five years.
Indeed I was sceptical about the "relativism" I was
supposed to apply to literary criticism and was hoping
for something better. I graduated and gave up my
search, then moved to Japan. In 1996 I met Johan
Galtung at Soka University, where I work, and I
discovered Peace Studies. 

To make a long tale short, I have recently discovered
that critical realism (CR) provides me with the tools
I had always dreamed of, allowing me to combine
critical awareness with emancipation. I found the
latest exchanges on this list stimulating, and would
like to quote Sayer (1993) in a passage which seems to
provide some answers to our current predicament. First
let me quote Carroll, Richard and Mark: 

Carroll wrote:
> Why, the imperialists are digging themselves a
larger and larger hole 

Richard wrote:
> I agree, but I fear that the hole they are digging
will be large enough 
> to swallow up many more than the imperialists.

Mark wrote:
> The Bush/Rumsfield mis-
> and disinformation machine is comparable only to
> Goebbels, the military action resembled eerily the
> Nazi Blitzkrieg (...)

I wholeheartedly agree with the concerns expressed in
the above passages.

For me the first step towards building a less violent
society is to allow more and more people to become
critically aware. The propaganda machine designed by
the neo-con and neo-liberal imperialists world wide is
indeed a very powerful capable of manufacturing
consent, and I am convinced their ultra-violent and
inhumane behavior is supported by  millions of people
who simply do not know what is going on. I am also
convinced that a huge number of people would stop
supporting the neo-con/neo-liberal/imperialist
program, if they only knew the facts and events
underneath the propanda, e.g. the real reasons for the
war and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq,
(who's next?)

Sayer (1993:253-253) clarifies the power of CR to come
up with a practically adequate diagnosis, and shows
that the therapy is already included in the
emancipatory dimension of the CR project, sorely
lacking in philosophies affected by Òna•ve
objectivismÓ and Òradical relativismÓ: 

[Now the point of all science, indeed all learning and
reflection, is to change and develop our
understandings and reduce illusion. (É) Learning, as
the reduction of illusion and ignorance, can help to
free us from domination by hitherto unacknowledged
constraints, dogmas and falsehoods. (É) The radical
implication of this can be revealed most provocatively
by asking what is wrong if researchers stimulate this
potentially emancipatory change in others in the
process of trying to achieve it for themselves? Then
consider a further deliberately loaded question:
should the aims of the social sciences be to provide
greater knowledge of society as an object or to assist
in our emancipation? (É) Again, what is learning for,
if not to change peopleÕs understanding of their world
and themselves?]

I look forward to getting to know all of you, and if
possible I would like to ask each member of this list
to send a brief self-introduction.

With best regards,

---Olivier Urbain---

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