Re: [fc-uk-discuss] Silly argument (was Re: Steal This Film!)

[David Berry]

This is "guilt by association". If anything it shows that we need to be careful and critical. And people are not always presenting their best intentions to us -- in fact tom's argument seems extremely panglossian...  Anyway, someone has to take responsibility.  You are also rewriting history. There was a lot of doubt around the dodgy dossier and especially the 45 minute claim. I remember this clearly as I had to explain to people why I wouldn't march in support of Saddam at the time. Of course, this seems to be the way in which *the majority* of the  population was interpreting the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)  dossier presented to Parliament by Tony Blair, I am merely pointing out not that anyone is guilty or not guilty, rather that assuming that 'charitable interpretation' or other 'commonsense' approaches are flawed and we need critical conflictual (might I even say dialectical) reasoning.   But of course, the Prime Minister wasn't playing your game, he was  counting on the above interpretative charity, indeed, he was playing  the game of power. Reifying power leads to Foucault in Tehran. Is this causality?  I think you'll find that its a little bit more complicated than that.  Anyway, I wasn't even thinking in terms of Foucault's concept of power (which is productive), rather more in terms of Stephen Lukes (negative) concept of power.  But this is getting a little academic so Rob, feel free to mail me direct if you want to continue the chat... David

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