Radio Free Beszel

Discourse, the Demon of Social Justice

December 24, 2021 Alphonse Season 1 Episode 20
Radio Free Beszel
Discourse, the Demon of Social Justice
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Discourse is at the heart of social justice: the idea human beings are not free actors in the world, but are instead constrained by language, in the form of discourses that have been established over time. And we do not create our identities freely: who we our is our experiences of different discourses - discourses like race, gender, nationality, and so forth.

Discourses are power relations. They conflict with one another - feminism versus patriarchy, for instance. They, not we, are the dominant actors in the world. We are the landscape on which they struggle, and the territory that they conquer. We are possessed by discourses. Discourses, as it were, are the demons of social justice.

In such a world of conflict, power comes from controlling what people say. Censorship is not a convenient tactic of social justice, it is central to the social justice world view.

This is the final episode of season one of this podcast. The theme of the season has been social justice. Nearly every episode implicitly critiques an aspect of social justice. But the pandemic has revealed that social justice is not the cause of the situation we're in. It shows that something more fundamental is at work - something that is manifesting in both social justice and the authoritarian response to Covid.

I will be pausing now. When I return with new episodes, for season two, I will be looking beyond social justice. I expect I will be looking at technology, technocracy and the narrative of progress.

 This episode excerpts Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, 3rd edition, by John Hartley.

0:00
Good evening. This is Radio Free
Beszel. I am Alphonse. Tonight:

0:05
Discourse, the Demon of
Social Justice. My very

0:09
first episode was The Case
for Social Justice.

0:14
But I indicated I didn't
buy it. And now I

0:17
want to return to that
issue, and I want to

0:19
continue from where I left
off and draw together

0:22
some of the threads from
the episodes so far.

0:26
What I said before is one
of the core ideas of

0:29
social justice is language
- that language shapes

0:32
the world, and that it acts
and speaks through

0:36
us. And so language really
matters. And I take

0:40
pains to avoid jargon terms
where I can, but the

0:43
word that's used for this
is discourse. And I'm

0:46
going to draw on a definition
from a book that's

0:49
commonly used by college
and university students

0:51
in the social sciences,
titled Communication

0:54
Cultural and Media Studies:
Key Concepts, 3rd

0:57
edition. Now I'm going to
read from the book. "The

1:00
potentially infinite senses
any language system

1:03
is capable of producing
are always limited and

1:06
fixed by the structure of
social relations which

1:09
prevails in a given time
and place, and` which is

1:12
itself represented through
various discourses."

1:15
So we can't say anything
we want. And if language

1:19
is so important, if language
shapes the world,

1:22
we can't make any world
we want. It's

1:24
limited by discourses.
I'll continue:

1:28
"individuals don't simply
learn languages

1:31
as abstract skills.
On the contrary,

1:33
everyone is predated by
established discourses

1:36
in which various subjectivities
are represented

1:39
already - for instance those
of class, gender,

1:43
nation, ethnicity, age, family
and individuality."

1:48
So here we have a list of
identity categories.

1:51
Now this book is from 2003.
It doesn't include

1:55
the term intersectionality,
but that's

1:57
basically what it's
talking about.

2:01
Let me continue: we establish
and experience

2:04
our own individuality by
'inhabiting' numbers

2:07
of such discursive
subjectivities." In other

2:11
words, our identity is
an intersection of

2:14
these different categories,
these different

2:17
identities, and they are
the defining features.

2:20
We may have some unique
individuality, but the

2:22
most important thing is the
ruts, the guides that

2:24
are laid down by the
pre-existing discourses. We

2:28
can't stray too far from that.
I'll continue: "The

2:32
theory of discourse proposes
that individuality

2:36
itself is the site, as it
were, on which socially

2:39
produced and historically
established discourses

2:43
are reproduced and regulated."
As I said,

2:47
language speaks through us.
Language is doing the

2:50
speaking. We are the site,
we are the territory,

2:54
and we are also a battleground.
Quote,

2:57
"Discourses are power
relations.

2:59
It follows that much
of the social sense

3:02
making we are subjected
to in the media,

3:04
at school, in conversation
is the working through

3:07
of an ideological struggle
between discourses."

3:11
This is a theory that makes
discourses language

3:15
the most important thing.
It makes human beings

3:18
the territory on which
discourses battle as

3:22
though they are gods and
we're puppets. We're

3:25
like ants down on the ground,
and the territory

3:27
they occupy, the territory
they win is us.

3:30
And they act through us, but
it's the discourses that matter.

3:35
So I could ask, is social
justice effective?

3:38
Is it making life better
for the marginalized

3:41
people that it claims to
represent? But if you

3:44
look at the objective of
social justice, if that

3:48
objective is to change
discourses, then yes, it is

3:52
- even if there's greater
racial strife, even if

3:56
there's greater sexism
and greater conflict

3:59
between the sexes. So it
makes perfect sense

4:02
in a world where discourses
shape reality,

4:04
where discourses battle
each other through

4:06
the medium of people, that
the way they do that

4:10
is by controlling what people
say. Censorship is

4:13
not a regrettable aspect
of social justice. In

4:16
this understanding ,it's
an essential feature.

4:20
But my critique of social
justice isn't just about

4:22
its ideas. It's about where
it comes from. This

4:25
idea of discourses is the
belief of a professional

4:28
elite. And that professional
elite are produced

4:31
in our educational institutions.
And one of

4:33
the primary functions of
those institutions,

4:36
as I've said, is to train
people to conformity,

4:39
and it is to teach them
to use language.

4:43
This theory of discourses
is a perfect fit for

4:46
the skill set that we are
producing. And this idea

4:50
that discourses act and
people are basically

4:52
puppets or marionettes
is something we

4:54
see all around us. Not
only advocates of

4:57
social justice talk about
people this way.

5:01
Across the political spectrum
we have people

5:03
accusing their opponents
of being NPCs,

5:06
pod people or sheep. There's
a widespread belief

5:09
that other people are possessed,
that they're not

5:12
authentic individuals -
although of course the

5:14
person saying that thinks
that he or she is.

5:19
So this idea that people
are like puppets

5:21
or sheep - that's why
I talk about demons.

5:23
This is almost an
idea that people

5:25
are possessed by
discourses.

5:28
Discourses like race, as I spoke
about in my previous episode.

5:33
Discourses are the demons
of social justice. The

5:37
battle between the discourses,
these invisible

5:41
imagined social constructions,
actually takes

5:45
place through conflicts
among people. But it's

5:48
the discourses that are
primary. I find this

5:52
profoundly dehumanizing.
The pandemic has laid

5:56
bare that the social justice
movement, it seems

5:59
to me, is just an expression
of something deeper.

6:02
Because the authoritarian
pandemic response shares

6:05
so much in common with a
social justice movement,

6:08
and yet its content, health,
is so different:

6:12
there must be something
deeper at work.

6:16
Now of course social change
on this scale has

6:19
multiple converging causes.
But one key one jumps

6:23
out at me. John Michael
Greer has talked about

6:26
this, Paul Kingsnorth, and
others. And that's the

6:29
narrative of progress. Our
elites produced by our

6:33
educational institutions
- their elite status is

6:37
justified on the basis of
making the world better.

6:40
It's justified on the basis
of progress. And

6:43
indeed the vast majority
of them call themselves

6:46
progressives. The idea that
technology and society

6:49
are improving hand in hand,
the idea that we can

6:53
make and become better people.
But that narrative

6:57
is breaking down. We look
around us and we see a

7:02
society and a civilization
in decline. And this

7:06
threatens the very reason
for being for these

7:10
elites. If progress justifies
their status,

7:13
if progress justifies their
moral superiority,

7:16
what happens when progress
breaks down?

7:20
Well, how do human beings
respond to bad things?

7:24
As I've said several times
before, we don't like

7:27
to think it's just chance.
We don't like to blame

7:31
it on impersonal forces. We
want someone to blame.

7:36
And social justice does
this. It doesn't just

7:39
blame discourses, it blames
the people who are

7:42
possessed by those discourses.
It identifies

7:45
scapegoats. And the pandemic
does exactly the

7:49
same. And I think that's
an excellent candidate

7:52
for why we're seeing social
justice and why we're

7:55
seeing response to the pandemic
that we are. But

7:59
those deeper causes are
topic for next season.

8:03
This is the final episode
in the first season

8:06
of this podcast. I'm going
to take a break now,

8:09
I'm not sure for how
long. Social justice

8:12
was the theme of this
first season,

8:16
and almost every episode
(although

8:18
I usually didn't
state it)

8:20
had at its heart a
critique of some

8:22
aspect of the social
justice movement.

8:25
But when i come back I'm
going to talk about

8:28
what i think are perhaps
deeper forces:

8:30
issues like technology,
technocracy,

8:32
and the narrative
of progress.

8:36
Until then, this
is Alphonse, for

8:40
Radio Free Beszel,
www.beszel.ca.

8:45
good night


Introduction
Conflict between discourses
Professional elites
The narrative of progress
End of Season One