“
The Inoculation: […] this very general figure which consists in admitting the accidental evil of a class bound institution the better to conceal its principle evil. One immunizes the contents of the collective imagination by means of a small inoculation of acknowledged evil; one thus protects it against the risk of a generalized subversion.” (Roland Barthes)
6 comments:
Gottit. It's the story of the US pursuing the 'perpetrators of Abu Graib, isn't it? And the whole Israeli 'justice' system, chasing government wrong-doing while not noticing the set-up of the state itself. Well done, roland. Why did you cross that road at that time, in that place?
Indeed. And among the professional and amateur apologists for state crimes, corporate exploitation, systematic injustices etc you get a willingness to punish with great harshness 'severe miscalculations', 'incompetence', 'errors of strategy' and so on, all of which leave the basic framework unquestioned and in tact, indeed strengthen it.
Looks like Amnesty have spotted another eg for Roland:
Human rights are still under threat
Saturday September 9, 2006
The Guardian
The transfer of 14 CIA prisoners to Guantánamo Bay does little to reassure the world that the US administration is prepared to bring its "war on terror" into compliance with international law (Bush's dirty secret, September 8). A host of issues remain. Where are the prisons? Are other prisoners still held in secret - possibly in the Middle East? Will "high-grade" prisoners continue to be disappeared into "black site" prisons? And will President Bush persist in unfair military trials at Guantánamo? What has the UK government known about renditions? Whether or not CIA prisoners have actually been transported via UK airports like Prestwick (a matter still unproven), many rendition planes have touched down at British airports. Only an independent investigation, with international expert input, will begin to settle these unanswered questions.
Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UK
Nice quote, but, Roland never met moi.
Stay on Groovin' (DNA Jungle) Safari,
TOR
Come back, Charlotte. Where are your nuggets?
It's bad ... and yet the method works, it works and has no side effects to speak of, it works so well in fact, we all of us, individually and on the collective level, continue to use it to immunise ourselves against hostile influences threatening to undermine us without our being aware of the nature of the survival method. Monsieur Barthes for one!
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