Re: Modernity & Politics

Thanks to all those who commented.  I tend to agree
most with Khoo.  On the one hand, modernity has been
giving too much credit for "liberating" individuals
from the collective stronghold of past traditional
societies.  "Traditional" societies, likewise, have
been overly accused of suffocating individual
autonomy.  Part of the problem is the way social
scientists have set up these categories: mechanical vs
organic solidarity, gemeinschaft vs gesselschaft,
oriental despotism vs occidental decentralization...  

As Foucault and others have already argued, modernity
has created a whole new apparatus of generalized
social control, even though it is sold to us as
liberating in form.  We're not just speaking about the
big brother standing in the guard tower of the
panoptican.  It includes neighborhood communities,
school board committees, and everything from sex and
toilet hygeine to proper body weight and self help
books on how to find a lover and keep him/her.  Unlike
past historical systems, modernity is effective in
removing the uncle's and tribal leader's direct gaze
and replacing it with the hidden camera in the black
box of a school bus.  Normative controls may feel
relaxed, but the individual is subjected to a form of
social control that is self regulating.  

Yes, some of our mothers and fathers may have less
influence over our choice of a life partner, but what
exactly are we choosing in our beloved partners?  We
view our choices as "unchained" from the shackles of
others, but if you look honestly at choices people
make in their partner it is not as free as the
ideology of free choice makes it out to be.  Modernity
has created a culture of personal want ads with
extremely "rigid specifications for weight, body tone,
youthfulness..."  (Susan Bordo).  People searching the
personal ads may have a houndred photos to look at and
feel like they are making a choice, but our hyper
image producing culture has made sure my choices are
in fact very limited.

Krishnendu's comment about the fact that "everyone is
for modernity - up to a point" is largely correct, but
for reasons we need to evaluate critically.  I'll come
back to this later today and discuss what I initially
intended this discussion for: the issue of race.  I
have to run to a meeting.

Khaldoun

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