September 03, 2006
THE RIGHT TO SPEAK
“The right to speak politically, even in the most rudimentary way, that is, by producing a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ or even putting a cross beside a prefabricated answer, is strictly proportionate to the sense of having the right to speak. Nothing shows this more clearly than the composition of the so-called spontaneous sample of people who responded to a ‘national consultation’ on the educational system, organized, with the aid of the press, after the events of 1968. In so doing they asserted themselves as parties to the debate, entitled to express an authorized, authoritative opinion, to voice the performative utterance of a legitimate pressure group. The opinion mobilized—as if by a petition—about education closely coincides with the population of users of higher education. The probability that an isolated agent, in the absence of any delegation, will form an explicit, coherent opinion on the educational system depends on the extent to which he depends on it for his reproduction and is objectively and subjectively interested in its functioning.”
— Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction, p. 411.
Posted by Sasha at September 3, 2006 11:15 PM | TrackBack