"The CIA reads Foucault" - Foucault's fifth adventure

 July 12, 2022

The new appropriation that interests Foucault at this point are "the very specific instruments" through which the "art of government" operates. And this means that he is now, through his pantomime character, going to have to acquire paper.

It's once again important to remember that nihilism is a critique of the monastic system and Foucault is know being extremely critical. Otherwise this expose would be extremely disturbing.

The reasoning driving the quarter-master toward this particular type of acquisition of this particular type of paper is a bit disgusting. For the first point, the Church wants to write upon the paper that represents the population because the population is the instrumentality of the State. And this means animal skin-vellum. The use of human skin vellum is reasoned to be for God only because that would represent the Shepherd, and the Church is content with governing the Flock. The tongue-in-cheekness of this sequence is amusing only very quietly and at great distance.

But the esoteric reasons are not the real issues at stake. Beneath the scribe's bragging there are actual economic reasons - and more on the nose, there are economic political reasons.

The economic reasons are present but are not much satisfying beyond the efficiency of eliminating waste in the system. If sheepskins can be re-used as paper after a large slaughter this is good, and so on. But the pure economic reasons do not satisfy Foucault's pantomime character. It's not either the civilizing mission that he is used to: he's not sent to a region of nomadic people or anything like that, but to a landowner - or rather to get vellum made from sheepskin harvested by a landowner. This is so deeply disturbing that a philosophy had to be called upon. "A political power...considerably foreign to Greek and Roman thought...coagulated...a type of power that I think was unknown to any other civilization," says he, implicating the problematic of The Statesman.

The vellum is handed over; on the journey homeward Foucault's pantomime character reflects on the violent and bloody history of the Christian West. He is reminded upon return that other sacrifice for him and humanity as a whole, even, in the figure of the shepherd. Nevertheless, he now believes he has discovered the strangest form of power...that will also have the greatest and most durable fortune."

It's important to remember that The Statesman was known to the monastic system. Although many of the philosophical works known to Antiquity were lost or disappeared while the Church was hoarding them during medieval times, the Statesman survived.