Re: pushpull/collusions of privilege

Katherine Goff (Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu)
Sat, 4 Oct 1997 19:11:23 -0600

diane writes:
> the unpredictable; chaos; freedom; all those dangerous radical notions
>that are so antithetical to education and traditionalist concepts of
>"interaction"... these are what interest me about interactions; giving
>over any presumptive control of the interaction so that some sort of
>autonomous action can take place; give the back-and-forth of
>interactions a
>wider berth, so to speak, so that not only are the outcomes
>unpredictable,
>but so that sometimes you might have to actually run to catch up, or you
>might have to react spontaneously to something
>unexpected - what a concept!

jay writes:
If individual power were equal, and all unequal institutional power
freely delegated and revocable, the dilemmas would vanish at the level
of individual action. But they do not
because many of us have power accumulated, or delegated, under social
arrangements we don't consider just. If we use our power for moral ends
as
we see them, and outside of substantial social consensus, can we weigh
the
justice we dispense to some against the injustice that inevitably
accrues
to others? Have we the right?

diane,
Your description of interaction appeals to me, but I am unclear how the
assumptions and manifestations of power are viewed in the process you
describe. What control is not "presumptive," and how do you give it
over when the other person believes it's your responsibility to wield
it? Isn't disrupting the expected flow of an interaction by giving over
presumptive control a judgement that some kinds of control are better
than others? I also struggle with doubts about the morality of imposing
tolerance or what seems to be an injustice on an/other, which is what I
hear in jay's questions.

Kathie

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