The Politics of Moralizing

by Bennett,Jane; Bennett,Jane

• ISBN13: 9780415934787
• ISBN10: 0415934788
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2002-10-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Through postcolonial studies, indigenous perspectives are finally being heard, challenging various Western views of the world. However, these challenges are often made in the same moralizing voice as the original conlonizations were justified. In keeping with the moralizing-resistant perspectives of Foucault, Benjamin and DerridaThe Politics of Moralizingissues a warning about the risks of speaking, writing and thinking in a manner too confident about you own judgments. Can a clear line be drawn between dogmatism and simple certainty and indignation? This collection starts by questioning what has become a popular, even pervasive, cultural narrative told by both the left and the right-the story of the West's moral decline, degeneration or confusion. Beyond declaiming the perils of this approach, each essay goes on to experiment with strategies for warding off moralistic tendencies and effects within our own texts and actions. Contributors even explore the dynamics and dilemmas of moralizing byadvocates of liberal causes, including patriotism, environmental protection and women's rights.The Politicsof Moralizingargues that taking the so-called moral high ground gives free license to self-aggrandizement, cruelty, vengeance and punitiveness and a generalized resistance to or abjection of diversity.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(10)
Jane Bennett
Michael J. Shapiro
The Moraline Drift	11	(16)
Jane Bennett
Generating a Virtuous Circle	27	(36)
Democratic Identity, Moralism, and the Languages of Political Responsibility
Alan Keenan
Political Not Patriotic	63	(30)
Democracy, Civic Space, and the American Memorial/Monument Complex
Steven Johnston
Autobiography and Cultivating the Arts of the Female Self	93	(20)
Ann Curthoys
The Tragedy of the Ethical Commons	113	(28)
Demoralizing Environmentalism
William Chaloupka
Out for a Walk	141	(42)
Helen Liggett
Just the Facts, Please	183	(18)
Why Civil Society Does Not Need Moral Truths
Jill Locke
The Challenge of Polytheism	201	(22)
Moses, Spinoza, and Freud
John Docker
Affirming the Political	223	(20)
Tragic Affirmations versus Gothic Displacements
Michael J. Shapiro
Contributors	243	(2)
Index	245