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... h a universal right to freedom does indeed imply equality in the sense that people are equal because of there shared inherent right to freedom. He writes, .".. equality is at once the most natural and the most chimerical thing in the world: natural when it is limited to rights, unnatural when it attempts to level goods and powers. Not all citizens can be equally strong; but they can all be equally free. " 7. Voltaire seems to suggest that all people have equal access to freedom.
Foucault's argument does not suggest this. In fact, my interpretation of Foucault implies the opposite: not every one has equal access to freedom nor to power. Social forces impinge on people in such ways that people who occupy certain positions will, for the time they occupy those positions, have access to more freedom. Although it is true that one social body may have more access and therefore more freedom than another social body, it is still necessary that both bodies posses freedom to a degree. Foucault adds, ."..
power relations are possible only insofar as the subjects are free. If one of them were completely at the others disposal and became his thing, an object on which he could wreak boundless and limitless violence, there wouldn't be any relations of power. Thus, in order for power relations to come into play, there must be a certain degree freedom on both sides. " 8. The power exchange, being as it is involuntary, implies that the possessor of the power is not consciously subjecting the receiver of the power to the power, and therefore the power in question could just as easily be coming from its subject.
It is this freedom that allows the power exchange to occur in the first place. This is because, although it is true that Jill and Jane are subject to Julie's power via their intimidation, it is the intimidation that grants Julie her power. This means that Julie does not posses some inherent power, but is empowered by the exchange itself. Thus it is necessary that Jill and Jane have a degree of freedom in order for Julie to have any power over them. If they did not have freedom, there would exist no power relation, and therefore no opportunity for Julie to posses power. A body possessing freedom requires no power to control a body which has no freedom.
Therefore, both bodies must posses a certain degree of freedom in order for power to be necessary. Alec Mchoul and Wendy Grace support such a view in their book A Foucault Primer- Discourse, Power, and the Subject, .".. states of power are continually engendered or incited on account of the potential counter-powers which coexist with them. " 9. These "counter-powers" require the "freedom on both sides" that Foucault mentions. This freedom creates a two way highway for power. Foucault, addressing an interviewer in 1984, states, ...
these power relations are mobile, they can be modified, they are not fixed once and for all. For example, the fact that I may be older than you, and that you may have initially been intimidated, may be turned around during the course of our conversation, and I may end up being intimidated before someone precisely because he is younger than I am. These power relationships are thus mobile, reversible, and unstable. 10 I will now return to the story to exemplify such reversals of power. Later that week, over their fifth consecutive dinner of Thai food, Jill and Jane have a conversation with Julie. "My gosh Julie, daddy sure is lucky to have you. He must be able to eat all of the Thai food that he "Your father certainly does get his fill of Thai food, " replies "Yeah, daddy is a real fortunate fella. Thai food is such a treat. " comments Jill with a subtle roll of her eyes.
Julie, sensing Jill's sarcasm, decides it might be best to stop serving Thai food to the girls. Julie is disappointed at this development, however, because Thai food is her favorite. Nevertheless, she knows how important it is for Jill and Jane to approve of her in order to gain favor with their father. Julies power shifted to Jill and Jane when Jill unintentionally alerts Julie to her dislike of Thai food. Julie is still in control of herself to the extent that she makes the decision to stop serving Thai food but she is led to make this decision by the indirect pressure of Jill's disdain and her own need to gain Jill's approval. Jill may have no intention of controlling Julie's actions but both Julie's and the girls' desire for approval gives Jill's involuntary or unintentional actions the power to influence Julie.
In his Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu comments on unintentional power. Ursula Le Guin translates the last stanza of chapter 51 as, Leading without controlling is similar to involuntary power exchange because one is leading another person without taking (bodily) control of them. Lao-Tzu implies that giving another person power is a form of power itself. If one can give up one's freedom to the extent of giving someone else power over oneself, then one has exercised the power to empower others.
Foucault and Lao-Tzu are working with very similar concepts of freedom and power. Where Lao-Tzu uses the assumption that everyone has a certain amount of freedom that can be given up temporarily to prove that everyone can exercise power at some point, Foucault uses this idea of "mobile" power to show that everyone must have some freedom to begin with. The very idea behind the involuntary power exchange is that a person can have power over other people without intending to do so. This parallels Lao Tzu's wu-wei. Wu-wei is the art of non action. Lao Tzu implies that power is achieved through being bendable and soft rather than dominant and forceful.
A good example of this can be found in chapter 63 0 f the Tao-te-ching, prepare for what is difficult while it is still easy, deal with what is big while it is still small great projects always deal with what is small. Thus the sage never strives for the great, This chapter implies that power is achievable on an involuntary level, and that it is completely natural to do so. In fact, to me this says that power is so natural that a social body need do nothing to access it. Historian and Political Scientist Benjamin Schwartz comments on the naturalness of wu-wei in his essay The Thought of the Tao Te Ching. He writes, All the instinctive, autonomous aspects of mans biological life operate within the realm of non action, and one may say that human life on its simplest, vegetative programmed level unites the human to the Tao and may be considered good.
This passage also suggests that, because of the naturalness of non action, those who are unnatural by taking action disrupt such a natural flow of power. Lao Tzu would appear to agree. In chapter 23 of the Tao Te Ching he writes, People who work with power belong to power. 13, and in chapter 38 he states, Great power not clinging to power has true power. 14, and again in chapter 30 Lao Tzu says, A Taoist wouldnt advise a ruler to use force of arms for conquest; that tactic backfires... For me, these passages mean that, not only is no direct action required to obtain power, but those who do take action ultimately end up receiving less power. This to me is the essence of the Tao te ching. Author Ursula Leguin agrees.
She writes, Over and over Lao Tzu says wu wei: Do not do. Doing not Doing. To act without acting. Action by inaction. you do nothing yet it gets done...
Its not a statement susceptible to logical interpretation, or even to a syntactical translation into English; but its a concept that transforms thought radically, that changes minds. The whole book is both an explanation and a demonstration of it. 15 The essence Leguin and I refer to can be stated, achievement through no intention to achieve. This is also the essence of the involuntary power exchange. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. NY: Pantheon, 1997 Foucault, Michel.
Ethics Subjectivity and Truth. NY: The New Press, 1994. Mchoul, Alec, and Wendy Grace. A Foucault Primer- Discourse, power and the Subject.
NY: New York University Press, 1997. Le Guin, Ursula. Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Boston: Shambala Publications, INC. , 1997. Livia Kohn and Micheal LaFargue (editors). Lao-Tzu and the Tao Te Ching.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1953. Grosz, Elizabeth.
Volatile Bodies: Toward A Corporeal Feminism. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. 1. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. NY: Pantheon, 1977. P. 27 2.
Le Guin, Ursula. Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Boston: Shambala Publications, INC. , 1997. P. 94 3. Foucault, Michel. Ethics Subjectivity and Truth.
NY: The New Press, 1994. P. 89 4. Le Guin, Ursula. Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Boston: Shambala Publications, INC. , 1997. P. 102 5.
Foucault. Ethics Subjectivity and Truth. NY: The New Press, 1994. P. 292 6. Foucault. Ethics Subjectivity and Truth.
NY: The New Press, 1994. P. 291 7. Foucault. Ethics Subjectivity and Truth. NY: The New Press, 1994.
P. 291 8. Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1953. P. 186 9.
Foucault. Ethics Subjectivity and Truth. p. 292 10. Mchoul, Alec, and Wendy Grace. A Foucault Primer- Discourse, power and the Subject. NY: New York University Press, 1997.
P. 84 11. Foucault. Ethics Subjectivity and Truth. P. 292 13. Livia Kohn and Micheal LaFargue (editors). Lao-Tzu and the Tao Te Ching.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. P. 220 Bibliography:
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