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

 July 12, 2022

A note on the Statesman.

The Statesman will think whatever he wants to think, and do whatever he wants to do, to be prepared to address the exigencies of the times. To do whatever it takes to get from the head to the heart, and from the heart to the guy, in order to do what you need to do when you need to do it. How do you govern the shepherd? Only by giving him more responsibility. How do you chastise the shepherd? Only by taking away some responsibility. Who gives and takes the responsibility? Not the Statesman. The Statesman holds these threads but he does not give nor take.

This is where Cioran failed to find the third thing - that third thing is addressing the exigencies of the times. The Statesman doesn't have solipsism.

Foucault's sixth adventure

This man, having conquered the grain supply, domesticated animals, and walked through the valley of the shadow of death to get his wine and so forth - the intrepid adventurer of this clan of monks, revered as an adventurer form their perspective, cannot for the life of him chase down a goose to pull a feather for his own pen.

Geese be scary.

Foucault's character is bound to ask some other young monk to chase down a goose feather off a live goose. He can't manage it. But this other guy manages it just fine. And Foucault realizes he is no shepherd, and no Christ.

All this time, Foucault is lost in thought thinking about what is this pastoral power that is essential to the Western tradition: what is meant by "politics seen as a matter of the sheep-fold."

All he can conclude is that to find this source of pastoral power he must give up any notion or hope of being Christ to his fellow men.