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555. Between subjugation and authenticity
One
of the problems in human life is to find a way between subjugation to the
powers that be, institutions, and authenticity. Michel Foucault showed how
people have to submit to authority in, prisons, clinics and scientific
communities, to discipline even if they are victims of it. Such subjugation
occurs in all organisations. There has to be a shared mission, ways of conflict
resolution, reporting procedures and handbooks to achieve a goal. That seems to
leave no room for authenticity. Michel Foucault despaired, and could not say more than that pne should live
one’s life ‘like a work of art’.
For
philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Buber, whom I have discussed before,
in this blog, the individual was not
primary, but its relation to the other, which comes first and then constitutes
the self. The self does retain its separateness and is to be respected in its
unicity, and unification is impossible. For Levinas the relation was
asymmetric, with the self being subject to the other, to whom unconditional
surrender and care was required For
Buber the relation was more reciprocal, where self and other needed each other
to establish their identity. Hartmut Rosa spoke of ‘resonance’ between people,
as between tuning forks that adopt each other’s vibration even at some
distance.
Philosophers
Lacan and Žižek rebelled against this subjugation, and claimed that one can
always break away from the ties with established power and institutions. They
did not explain how this is to be done.(Ruti, 2015)
Spinoza
held that life is driven by ‘conatus’, the will to survive. The ancient Greeks
had the notion of ‘thymos’, the urge to manifest oneself, next to passion, to
be held in check by reason. Nietzsche propounded the ‘will to power’ as the
fundamental drive. Next to the ‘Apollonian’ drive for balance and harmony, he
promoted the ‘Dionysian’ exuberance in transgressing boundaries. He claimed
that this drive for power was stronger than the instinct of survival.
The
answer to this predicament of subjugation versus autonomy is simple. One can
break away and be authentic, but usually at the cost of being punished by
derision, exclusion, ostracism, isolation and loneliness. This is not only
hurtful, but stunts one’s development, for lack of interaction. Thus it takes
courage, strength and robustness. Most people prefer to stay tucked away in the
group they are taken to belong to. But one cannot completely cut loose from one’s
history of relations that built identity.
Ostracism
may take many forms. I once witnessed that an employee was not just ignored,
but people turned their backs to her when she entered the room. As a scientist,
one may no longer be invited to meetings and conferences, and no longer have
access to scientific journals. It may take a long time to get recognition, and
that may never happen.
Ruti,
M. 2015: Between Levinas and Lacan, London: Bloomsbury.
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