Ghost of a flea: A preference for barbarism

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December 19, 2008

A preference for barbarism

Erudite and perspicacious as ever, Theodore Dalrymple is interviewed for Pajamas Media (via Solomonia). I particularly enjoyed the following observation on inclusion and self-esteem, both exemplary of hegemony in a strict Gramscian sense.

Trying to understand the concept of social inclusion is like trying to catch a cloud with a butterfly net. Roughly speaking, it means or implies that the bad outcomes for certain social groups are the result of acts of exclusion by other, more privileged groups. The excluded then suffer from poor self-esteem, which can be boosted by telling them that they are doing very well, irrespective of what they actually do. In order to compensate for their alleged exclusion, they are included by not holding them to the standards of the rest of society. Of course, this keeps them exactly where they are; if you were a Marxist, you would think that the British and American public education systems were conspiracies by the bourgeoisie to keep the poor poor.

RTWT, obviously. Food for thought regarding a false compassion for criminals and the substitution of daydreams for ambition. He is right about something else too. I cannot speak to the before of hospital life but having recently worked for two years at a large research hospital, I can second Dalrymple's observation on the universality of the will to power as its organizing principle.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at December 19, 2008 07:23 AM