File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1996/96-07-14.151, message 226


Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 09:20:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Will Cowling <wcowling-AT-darkwing.uoregon.edu>
Subject: Re: manly men


I am definitely interested in the notion that "free speech" is not a 
universal moral value. I find the notion of "progressive politics" 
fascinating. And "harmful speech acts"? This sounds like fascist 
horseshit, but I am probably misunderstanding; it is early and the sun is 
already far too bright and hot. Please educate me in the politics of 
silencing. Best do it quickly, before the speech police find out what we 
are up to.
will cowling
wcowling-AT-darkwing.uoregon.edu

On Thu, 11 Jul 1996, Malcolm Dunnachie Thompson wrote:

> Actually, i think silencing can serve progressive politics quite well. i 
> think the obsessive concern with "free speech" is a peculiarly american 
> red-herring. as i'm sure we can agree, speech is action - and has effects 
> in the same way that burning a cross has effects. and thus it is 
> perfectly within the scope of a progressive politics to try to limit the 
> proliferation of harmful speech acts. remember: the principle of free 
> speech was designed, in a very specific historical context, to regulate 
> the relations between the state and the activities of its citizens - it 
> is by no means a universal moral value. to take it so seriously 
> drastically limits the tactical options available to a progressive 
> politics. silencing is not the problem - the problem is "who is silenced, 
> and is there a political value in that gesture?"
> 
> i must say, although the point is quickly getting tired, that Julian has 
> a very strange view of censorship is he thinks that someone telling him 
> he's going off all half-cocked (so to speak) constitutes it. i mean, if 
> Raka found out where he lived, tracked him down, and cut of his fingers 
> so he couldn't type and stapled his mouth shut so he couldn't speak, 
> maybe that would be censorhip. some perspective, please?
> 
> but above all, Julian's response is just sooo predictable - this happens 
> all the time when people feel their privilege threatened. so however 
> inflammatory his remarks may be, they are also really quite tedious and 
> boring.
> 
> i would have thought that Julian would really appreciate Foucault, who at 
> times advocates the wholesale slaughter of the oppressor ("Prison Talk", 
> _Power/Knowledge_). i certainly do. i mean, how boring is someone who 
> says "When the proletariat takes power, it may be quite possible that the 
> proletariat will exert towards the classes over which it has triumphed a 
> violent, dictatorial, even bloody power. I don't see what objection one 
> could make to this"? (i love this quote.) oh well.
> 
> bye. malcolm
> 
> 
> 
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> 


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