From: "Leigh Johnson" <quickleigh-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Hypocrisy as Power?
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 15:09:34 CDT


Intereting question re: hypocrisy and power.  And an excellent example, by 
the way, citing the LA police.  My only reservation with regard to your post 
is the "backlash" that you speak of which inevitably brings down the 
reigning power structure, "shows us its face" so to speak, and in turn gains 
power itself.  More often than not, these backlashes are just the back end 
of the same cycle.

That is, (and I realize I am running roughshod over the example you proposed 
here), let's say the LA police come to the forefront as a powerful "force" 
over and against unrestrained street rules(i.e. crime, urban vigilantes, the 
justice of black market economy, inner city "street sense").  The LA police 
pose as proponents of Justice and The Law, codefied order, though we find 
out later that, in fact, the new power attained and maintained by the LA 
police force uses racial profiling, deception, framings and coverups.  A new 
(backlash) force emerges to bring to light the hypocrisy of the LA police 
power, and in turn becomes a new power itself.  But what is this newest and 
enlightening force?  The courts!....which we leatn more and more are rampant 
transgressors like their predecessors.  And who shows us the shortcomings 
and hypocrisy of the court's power?  You got it, the accused "criminals".   
Here we are back at square one, looking to the police again.

So to answer the original question, I think you have pointed out a society 
within which power can be attained and kept (for a time) through 
hypocrisy...ours.  I don't know whether or not an entire civilization could 
operate on this principle, but on a microcosmic scale, it seems possible to 
demonstrate. It does seem to be the case, as you point out, that each time 
the hypocrites are denounced and dethroned, their successors have a more 
diluted power.

Increased power does demand increased responsibility, but to whom?  I have 
found that over and over those for whom I vote find a way to become more and 
more responsible to and for one another...way off there in DC...

I don't know, what do you think?

leigh

----Original Message Follows----
From: George Sherwood <search-research-AT-worldnet.att.net>
Reply-To: nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
To: nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Hypocrisy as Power?
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 11:13:59 -0700

Can anyone think of a civilization that attained and kept power through
hypocrisy? I can't. Though our police and politicians often maintain power
through hypocrisy, in the end, there is always a backlash that results in a
great loss of power. Examples would be the L.A. police scandal (after a
decade of pro police "Cops" and other real TV shows), and the limits placed
on the CIA after they got out of control, and the Three Strikes Law, come
to think of it. Could avoiding this weakening of power be what N meant by
the Ubermench acquiring more responsibility at the same time as more power?

George
"Having resentment is like taking poison and waiting
for the other person to die" -- Malachy McCourt.


	--- from list nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---



________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com



	--- from list nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---