Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

1. p. 176: "Fired for consistently showing up late at work... what his lawyers call 'chronic lateness syndrome.'"

     Kim's margin notes: "All examples in this section are from Charles Sykes, A Nation of Victims . See also Derek Van Cleef, When Victims Rule the World (Who Will Be Left to Blame My Problems On?), Boston: Houghton Mifflin Haught, 2001."

2. p. 178: "There are a substantial number of actual victims... That is the real tragedy."

     Van Cleef added (from Kim's notes): "When children of real physical and emotional abuse begin their healing process, the first and often most difficult step is to admit and acknowledge the actual abuse--this step is sometimes as traumatic as the abuse itself. That society can encourage that first step is wonderful, in my opinion. But there is, generally speaking, no second step that is also encouraged: namely, ceasing to be a victim by assuming responsibility, not for your past, but for your future. Sooner or later, every victim has to forgive and forget to the best of his or her ability, and face tomorrow afresh. A nation of victims encourages the first step, discourages the second, and there is the real tragedy."

3. p. 180: "As Charles Sykes, author of the widely acclaimed A Nation of Victims, points out, 'Perhaps... if you add up all the groups that consider themselves oppressed... their number adds up to 374 percent of the population.'"

     Kim's margin notes: " A Nation of Victims, pp. xiii, 13."

4. p. 181: "'This rush to declare oneself a victim... suggests a more fundamental transformation of American cultural values and notions of character and personal responsibility.'"

     Kim's margin notes: " A Nation of Victims, p. xiii; emphasis added."

5. p. 181: "'Despite its pretensions... victimism is an ideology of the ego.'"

     Kim's margin notes: " A Nation of Victims, p. 23."

6. p. 185: "These people... the new race that will populate the earth."

     Margaret Carlton added (from Kim's notes): "For a discussion of whether these UFO experiences represent any higher realities, see One Taste, Aug. 4 entry. See also M. Carlton, The Alien Abduction Within (New York: Samuel Wizzer, 1999)."

7. p. 190: "And thus, in something of a shocking move for his green-meme followers, Foucault retracted... looking, that is, for more second-tier worldcentric constructions."

     Dr. Powell continued (from Kim's notes):

      "As Foucault himself made quite clear, it was not reason en toto that he was attacking, but reason in its objectifying, monological, instrumental, and representational modes (and the retroflection of those modes in subjectifying/subjugating ways). But he was himself attempting to use authentic reason (what we at IC would call second-tier, integral vision-logic instead of merely monological, instrumental, objectifying formal-operational reason).

      "Dreyfus and Rabinow ( Michel Foucault) are certainly of this opinion. On instrumental-rationality, Foucault demonstrated that, with the rise of the positivistic Enlightenment, 'human needs were no longer conceived of as ends in themselves or as subjects of a philosophic discourse.... They were now seen instrumentally and empirically, as means for the increase of...power' (p. 141). On merely objectifying-rationality: 'Foucault's object of study is the objectifying practices...as they are embodied in a specific technology' (p. 144). On representational-rationality: 'The theory of representation, linked with the social contract view and with the imperative of efficiency and utility, produced [quoting Foucault] "a sort of general recipe for the exercise of power over men: the mind as a surface of inscription for power, with semiology as its tool; the submission of bodies through the control of ideas"' (p. 149). And Foucault himself on monological-rationality: men and women became 'objects of information and never subjects in communication.'

      "Thus, as Dreyfus and Rabinow conclude, it is those generally monological modes of reason applied to humans that are especially shot through with thinly or thickly disguised power (or the reduction of intersubjective communication and mutual understanding to objectifying/subjectifying/subjugating modes of power-over). This is why Dreyfus and Rabinow conclude that in Foucault's project, 'trying to show that the relations of truth and power have for good reasons been mistakenly held to be opposed is still a matter of applying a new and modified form of reason against a more highly complex version of power.' A new reason against power. This, they say, 'should be seen as an advance, not a refutation of the Weberian project. Foucault is eminently reasonable' (pp. 132-33).

      "This, too, is why Foucault identified himself with the broad lineage of Kant, and why he went out of his way to identify his points of agreement with Habermas. Foucault: 'There is the problem raised by Habermas: if one abandons the work of Kant or Weber, for example, one runs the risk of lapsing into irrationality. I am completely in agreement with this.' The problem was not solved by the abandonment of reason, but a finer attunement to its dangers and abuses: 'How can we exist as rational beings, fortunately committed to practicing a rationality that is unfortunately crisscrossed by intrinsic dangers? What is this Reason that we use? What are its limits, and what are its dangers?' (Foucault, 'Space, Power, Knowledge.')

      "Thus, the notion that Foucault saw all knowledge and reason equally and thoroughly shot through with power/domination is entirely incorrect. That is boomeritis Foucault, not Foucault Foucault." Dr. Powell ended by saying, "See Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, 2nd revised edition, chapter 12, note 46."

8. p. 193: "Never mind that Foucault... soon enough retracted it."

     Kim's margin notes say, "See note 11 for lecture [i.e., chapter] 6."

9. p. 198: "As Jonathan Culler in his book On Deconstruction summarizes it... all meaning is context-dependent and contexts are boundless."

     Dr. Powell added (from Kim's margin notes): "See Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, 2nd revised edition, notes for chapters 2 and 7, for an extended discussion of deconstruction. See also L. Powell, Foucauldian Power Tales of a Young African-Caribbean Woman (Los Angeles: Rhizome Press, 2000)."