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From: "M.A. King" <kingma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 19:54:32 -0400 (EDT)
On Sat, 30 May 1998, na.devine wrote:
> Pat Molloy in Economy and society Feb 1997 (? i may have the date wrong)
> draws attention to Burchell's use of Foucault to draw a picture of a
> liberal form of governmentality which has to conceal the violence of its
> power: it has to make it look as if the populations chooses to do what
> infact the government wants it to do. This is very evident here: the
> population is currently being subjected to a major campaign by govt to
> encourage 'dependents' to choose to go to work - as if there were any
> work for them - the aim being to put responsibility for unemployment
> onto the unemployed rather than onto a mismanaging govt.
Right - this fits well with what I've been saying about the cultivation of
uncultivation. Neoliberal governments govern by "not governing". Barry,
Osborne, and Rose's book _Foucault and Political Reason_--which includes a
piece by Burchell--is very good on this kind of thing.
----Matthew A. King------Department of Philosophy------McMaster University----
"The border is often narrow between a permanent temptation to commit
suicide and the birth of a certain form of political consciousness."
-----------------------------(Michel Foucault)--------------------------------