Using telnet (remote login) to do my e-mailing makes it hard for me to
respond promptly, but here's my off-the-head (?) response :-) :
(1) Judy, thanks for your interesting question! but i'm not sure what
you mean by "ideological push"? Could you explain or give an example?
if you mean formality can help push one to self-transform, then i must
say i have reservations about that position... to me, transformation can
be induced, seduced :-) , through a mutually respectful / transforming
process; always a 2-way flow... what do you think?
(2) Jay, you wrote elegantly on alternative notions of rationality and
passion; I especially like your point about scientific rationality as a
form of passion... I've actually seen this kind of passion embodied in
some of my teachers at OISE, e.g., they are "passionately" committed to a
ruthless form of "calm, cool", objectifying rationality. It's interesting
that we like to contrast passion with rationality; well, now, they belong
to the same species, as you pointed out.
However, I also think that I'm not at all sure I could agree with all you
said... to put it in a less elegant form: I think we can (and need to)
be "civil" to our fellow human beings; well, yes, how civility can be
accomplished in our local interactions is a complex matter; to me, being
passionate and committed and angry about social injustice does not
necessarily gives us a licence to hurt other people; and then of course,
you would ask me what i mean by "hurting" people... well, for example,
I'm angry about the women-commodifying discourses in beauty contests in
Hong Kong; I can be passionate and express my anger about these practices
when I talk about these practices, problematize and expose the nature of
these discourses... yet, i'd still want to maintain a dialogue with
people who "enjoy" watching these beauty contests in Hong Kong... i
don't know how i can be passionate and yet let them feel that i'm not
aganist them; i just would like to show them the consequences of their
practices; i'd like to be able to talk to them, to maintain a
relationship with them; otherwise, we'll be like enemies in a war: no
dialogue, no mutural transformation...
well, these are certainly "unbaked" ideas; you know, i've come from a
tradition in which we believe in the potential and possiblity of human
connectedness and understanding (whether in a Zen Buddhist
/Confucianist or Dao-ist sense); so, how does that sound to your Western
ears? :-) Angel