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The Force of Nonviolence
CHAPTER 2
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This chapter expanded more on the idea of the radical equality of grievability that we were introduced to in the first chapter by grappling specifically with the concept of life preservation. The preservation of life is for Butler an essentially paternalistic concept, as it implies the existence of those who do the preserving and those who need it. I do think she's a bit unclear on her argument there. Considering that the act of preserving a vulnerable population's life is inherently political, based on the whims of political leaders and the degree of legitimacy it gets from the population who is to do the saving, then does it really matter if this legitimacy is gained and these whims are driven by paternalistic intentions? I think it would be important, in this regard, for Butler to differentiate between paternalistic intentions and paternalistic consequences, as the former can at times exist without the latter. I am open to reading what everyone thinks of that!
The rest of the chapter, in which Butler plays with conditionals to construct her 'egalitarian imaginary' verged a bit too much on the abstract for me. Whereas I do love thought experiments and I found hers quite stimulating, I'm not sure her way of navigating through them is necessarily for me, as I feel that she keeps going around in circles instead of hammering her point home. In a nutshell, though, what she plays around with in this part is the concept of substitutability. She uses this concept to show the interdependence between living beings and its role in both halting and perpetuating violence. She writes; " In seeing how my life and the life of the other can be substituted for one another, they seem to be not so fully separable" (p. 82).
The most brilliant part of the chapter for me was her introduction of Klein's work on 'genuine sympathy' (I need to read Love, Hate and Reparations at some point). For those of you who don't have the time to read the entire chapter, I really urge you to at least read the last 10 pages! I don't think I can do justice to her argument if I attempt to shortly summarize it here but we can start a discussion on it if you have some specific opinions you'd like to share, or alternatively, just facetime me and we can talk at length about it :)
Hi everyone!I am also behind on reading but my defence is is that Butler is incredibly hard to read! Dense material and even denser sources she's working from to build her theoretical views.
I agree with Sindi's feelings about Butler's paternalism argument; it doesn't really make sense to me what is defined as paternalism.
As for the chapter on the whole, Butler certainly goes on attack mode and takes down Kantianism and consequentialism with psychoanalysis theory. It's approaching Zizek-level of complexity - it's really helpful to have the low-down of Freud's influence on radical social theory to understand the debates that Butler engages with in this chapter. (On that note, I recommend reading Subjectivity by Nick Mansfield for a break-down on radical social theory, which has chapters on psychoanalytic thinkers like Freud and Lacan.)
Butler goes with Klein's argument about love and aggression, which are opposites but somehow can complement each other - fitting well with Butler's argument about how aggression can be non-violent. Butler takes after Klein and says that guilt shouldn't restrain us from not harming others (as Freud might say) but should motivate us to protect the lives of others as an outwards drive towards love and sociality. Klein has always struck me as a darling of postmodern theory because she understands how feelings can be kaleidoscopic and overlap with each other, even if they can be contradictory like love and hate. That Butler incorporates her argument is refreshing and fits well with Butler's arguments in other works. For example, Butler has previously used psychoanalysis to argue against Foucault's notion that the psychic can be completely reduced to the social (meaning it is a power effect) because psychic resistance is possible. (See Psychosocial studies: An Introduction chapter 2 for more details.)
While I don't like the use of psychoanalysis to support social arguments generally because I find them reductive, nonetheless Butler uses it effectively in this chapter to shake things up and indeed provide an alternative interpretation on moral/social action and death which is refreshing and fits well with her overall argument supporting non-violence.
I can't wait to read her next chapter, about how to fight effectively for non-violence in today's global politics and biopower!
Thank you to the ones who participated in the discussion for chapter 1! The discussion will remain open for those of you who did not get a chance to finish the chapter in time (everyone is still very welcome to write their thoughts down at whatever time or engage in discussion for chapter 1), but we're now moving on to chapter 2!
I think we should aim to finish the second chapter on Saturday and discuss it within that day! Happy reading everyone and I hope you're all enjoying the book so far!