Eugene notes, correctly, an asymmetry in my view of appropriate
stance for an analyst in respect to (1) his/her own culture, (2)
all other cultures.
I believe that in case (2), while an analyst may feel critical
toward another culture, such feelings should be regarded as data
about his/her own culture and its relations to the Other, i.e. as
grist for the mill of our own reflexivity. Our dominant stance
should be be humility: I cannot possibly form as adequate a view
of another culture as I can of my own, cannot know it from
inside, cannot perceive its self-interests, its needs, its pain.
This humility appears in the context of our dominant ideologies
of scientific objectivity as a sort of neutrality, but that is a
misunderstanding, and an impossible ideal.
But in regard to case (1), my own culture(s), I have exactly the
opposite view. It is my responsibility as analyst to be
hypercritical, to identify every possible weakness and flaw and
site for potential improvement that my analytical perspectives
allow. I believe that I am both qualified and morally licensed to
damn middle-class culture wherever possible.
Perhaps this asymmetry may give some the impression that I am an
uncritical admirer of all things Other (I am not), and that I
count my own culture the worst of all possible lifeways (I
don't). I cannot help but enjoy and feel comfortable with many
aspects of my own culture (and I need to be critically on guard
against this congruence of enculturated habitus and positioned
experience). I cannot help but feel repelled by some aspects of
other cultures (but this is again data about me, not about them).
I do not imagine myself happier living in any Other culture, but
I can well imagine myself and many others happier living in a
different future of my own culture(s). And so I must imagine that
difference, through critique. JAY.
PS. In addition to this asymmetry, there is of course another
relevant one: power differences between cultures and castes. The
powerful are wise to welcome the criticisms of less powerful
Others, whose viewpoints are never wholly outside the social
system that links dominant and dominated. The latter also need to
criticize the former as part of their own liberation, but for the
more powerful to criticize the less is weakly grounded not only
intellectually but also morally. Examples on request.
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JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
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