A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation [...] He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribed in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.
This non-proletarianised plebs has been racialist when it has been colonialist; it has been nationalist - chauvinist - when it has been armed; and it has been fascist when it has become the police force.These ideological effects on the plebs have been uncontestable and profound.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Foucault highlights how social classes and ideologies can drastically shape the behaviors and beliefs of the masses.
In this quote, Michel Foucault discusses how the plebs, often marginalized and excluded from the dominant class structures, adopt various ideologies based on their circumstances. He suggests that when faced with colonialism, nationalism, or the militarization of society, these groups can embody racialist and fascist ideologies as defense mechanisms or means of power. Foucault's analysis reflects the complexities of identity and ideology within societal structures, emphasizing the significant impact of historical and political contexts on public consciousness.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on societal structures in a classroom setting.
More from Michel Foucault
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But the guilty person is only one of the targets of punishment. For punishment is directed above all at others, at all the potentially guilty.
I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think that you would have the courage to write it? What is true for writing and for love relationships is true also for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we don’t know what will be the end.
You may have killed God beneath the weight of all that you have said; but don't imagine that, with all that you are saying, you will make a man that will live longer than he.
The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play).
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The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind.
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