Power Relations Exposed in Truth and Power
In "Truth and Power" Michel Foucault revisits the major theoretical trends and questions of his career. He is a thinker who knows no bounds of subject or field. His ideas stretch from literature to science, from psychology to labor. He deals in a currency that is accepted everywhere: truth and power. Foucault spends much of his career tracing the threads of truth and power as they intertwine with the history of human experience. He especially loves to study asylums and prisons because they are close to an encapsulated power structure. Using techniques culled from psychology, politics, anthropology, sociology, and archaeology, Foucault presents a highly politicized analysis of the flow of power and power relations.
"Truth and Power" is an excerpted version of an interview with Alesandro Fontana and Pasquale Pasquino that initially appeared as "Intervista a Miche Foucault" in Microfiseca del Poetere in 1977. The interviewers first ask Foucault to revisit some of his earlier ideas and trace the path of his career. Foucault began looking at asylums, and tried to create his theories with an eye toward French politics of the Left. He soon turned to evaluating other sciences such as biology, political economy, and medicine, and came up with the concept of discontinuity: "It seemed to me that ... the rhythm of transformation doesn't follow the smooth, continuist schemas of development which are normally accepted." The idea of discontinuity became a tag which other critics and thinkers applied to him, much to his dismay. Foucault wanted only to show the susceptibility of the sciences and scientific statements to the pressures of power:
At this level it's not so much a matter of knowing what external power imposes itself on science, as of what effects of power circulate among scientific statements, what constitutes, as it were, their internal regime of power, and how and why at certain moments that regime undergoes a global modification.
This idea echoes Thomas Kuhn's ideas about paradigm shifts in a science, and even reverberates back to Dryden's statements about every age's "universal genius." Dryden stated that in every generation there is a general inclination of thought that affects all disciplines. Kuhn proliferated the idea that major revolutions in science are due to major paradigm shifts.
The discussion then moves to structuralism, where Foucault makes some major statements about the structure of history. Foucault is ardent in asserting, "I don't see who could be more of an anti-structuralist than myself.
The Great Depression is one of the longest and most severe economic hysterias experienced by the industrialized Western world. During the depression the political, economic, and social institutions in the U.S were in bad conditions. The government, various groups, and individuals sought ways to address the problems that Americans faced. Starting in the United States and later on engulfing nations worldwide, the Great depression that up rose in the industrialized western world, began the biggest market crash in History.
The craziness began on Black Monday with the market beginning to close, once Black Tuesday hit many stock investors were in a panic. In the early 1920’s, the American economic policy was laissez faire which led up to an uneven
Post the era of World War I, of all the countries it was only USA which was in win win situation. Both during and post war times, US economy has seen a boom in their income with massive trade between Europe and Germany. As a result, the 1920’s turned out to be a prosperous decade for Americans and this led to birth of mass investments in stock markets. With increased income after the war, a lot of investors purchased stocks on margins and with US Stock Exchange going manifold from 1921 to 1929, investors earned hefty returns during this time epriod which created a stock market bubble in USA. However, in order to stop increasing prices of Stock, the Federal Reserve raised the interest rate sof loanabel funds which depressed the interest sensitive spending in many industries and as a result a record fall in stocks of these companies were seen and ultimately the stock bubble was finally burst. The fall was so dramatic that stock prices were even below the margins which investors had deposited with their brokers. As a reuslt, not only investor but even the brokerage firms went insolvent. Withing 2 days of 15-16 th October, Dow Jones fell by 33% and the event was referred to Great Crash of 1929. Thus with investors going insolvent, a major shock was seen in American aggregate demand. Consumer Purchase of durable goods and business investment fell sharply after the stock market crash. As a result, businesses experienced stock piling of their inventories and real output fell rapidly in 1929 and throughout 1930 in United States.
...obtain real knowledge Rene Descartes creates what can be considered the most historically significant documents of modern society in “ The Discourse of the Method” and the “Principles of Philosophy” the first major works to challenge the Catholic Church and the Classics.
All of the things mentioned above only got worse and this would last until 1941, when the U.S entered World War II. Hoover, “thought the crash was part of a passing recession”, but after the crash happened, he worked very hard trying to fix the economy. He founded government agencies, encouraged labor harmony, supported local aid for public works, fostered cooperation between government and business in order to stabilize prices, and struggled to balance the budget. His work focused on indirect relief from individual states and the private sector, with emphasis on “supporting each state effectively” with volunteerism and “appealing for funds” from outside the government, but as the Depression became worse, calls grew for increased federal intervention and spending. But Hoover refused to involve the federal government in forcing fixed prices, controlling businesses, or manipulating the value of the currency, all of which he felt were steps towards socialism. He was inclined to give indirect aid to banks or local public works projects, but he refused to use federal money for direct aid to citizens, believing the dole would weaken public morale. Instead, he focused on volunteerism to raise
Credit structure was another factor; farmers were indebt owing land mortgage and crop prices too low to ever help pay of the due. Small & large banks in trouble as in 1920’s customers defaulted on loans that suffered because of the market crash.
From 1920 to 1929 consumerism partially caused the Great Depression due to speculation and installment buying. Speculation is the act of investing in a stock with the hope of a big gain but the risk of a big loss. Many of the investors were sure that the stocks they were going to buy were going to grow, therefore they received big loans that, once the market crashed and all the money was gone, they could never pay b...
The causes and far-reaching effects of The Great Depression are examined. Discussion includes its impact on both American cultures and nations around the world. The role of World War II and the New Deal in overcoming the Depression are explored.
The black Tuesday, October 29th, 1929 has been identified as the symbol of the Great Depression. Stock holders lost 14 billion dollars on a single day trade, and more than 30 billion lose in that week, which was 10 times more than the annual budget of the Federal government.[ [documentary] 1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash
Mascarenas, Isabel. “Should School Teachers Wear Uniforms?”. WTSP News. CBS. 26 Aug. 2008. Web. 24 Nov. 2009
"Will School Uniforms Crube Student Violence." Inspire. Johnson Publishing, 1 Apr. 1996. Web. 11 Jan. 2014. (Will school)
Many human beings have been involved in a power struggle of some sort since the beginning of time. Between power in the business world, classroom, and government it is often clear who is subordinate and who is dominant. Subordinates may at times feel powerless; however, they can gain satisfaction out of aesthetics and hidden transcripts because of the personal freedoms it represents to them.
...lidated or simply rational or simply generally accepted” (61). This maintains that something known by one may not be considered knowledge if it does not follow the conventions of the knowledge of the time, those in power, or if the thing known does not coerce people into believing it, it may not be considered knowledge at all. This drives home the point that all knowledge is subjective to a time, power, person, or place. Foucault expresses, again, that this is not necessarily troubling because “nothing can function as a mechanism of power if it is not deployed according to procedures, instruments, mean and objectives” and that means that all knowledge would be meaningless if it did not have power. Knowledge has to have power to exist as it does in the same way that critique must exist with our current means of governing in order for governing and critique to exist.
...e stock market crash of 1929, Black Tuesday. Black Wednesday was used to refer to a day of widespread air traffic snarls in 1954 as well as the day the British government was forced to withdraw a battered pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992. Black Thursday has variously been used for days of devastating brush fires, bombings and athletic defeats, among other unpleasantness. (The New York Times.)
As children we always had that desire to have some sort of extradinary power or ability and use it in whatever way we wish so. Shamefully, this fantasy could only be briefly lived in our dreams and imagination. Despite of this, that didn't stop our heroic journey to keep on trying to fly, read minds or move object with our minds. If, by any chance I could gain any superpower in an instant I wouldn't hesitate to ask for the superpower of power manipulation. To be brief, power manipulation is the ability to control any sort of energy, alter the structure or composition of myself and others, and absorb any sort of energy.