rowland manthorpe dot com

Reading Michel Foucault’s superb essay on the uses of history: “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” (pdf). I particularly liked these lines:

Rules are empty in themselves, violent and unfinalised; they are impersonal and can be bent to any purpose. The successes of history belong to those who are capable of seizing these rules, to replace those who had used them, to disguise themselves so as to pervert them, invert their meaning and redirect them against those who had initially imposed them.

I have a theory about this. It is: that the tidal waves of passive-aggression that sweep across offices is the result of just the kind of rule perversion that Foucault describes. The rules specify that aggression is bad; so people use these rules to oppress each other. Ever so politely, of course - but, frankly, I’d prefer a punch in the face to an “I’ll let you get back to it…”

[See also: How to apologise]

Tweet This  Delicious This  Digg This