From: Christopher Arthur (cjarthur@waitrose.com)
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 18:52:26 EST
>Re Michael E's [8421]: > >> Individualism should not be confused with egoism or capriciousness, >> which often happens. In the West, the notion of the individual has >> deep historical roots which go back further than the modern age >> of human subjectivity to -- you guessed it -- to the Greeks. The >> distinction between the _idiotaes_ (private individual, 'idiot', some >> who 'owns himself') and the _politaes_ (member of the polis) is >> fundamental for Greek thinking on social life. _idios_ means 'one's own, >> pertaining to oneself, peculiar to oneself, private'. An _idiotaes_ is >> someone who is 'his own person', independent, who belongs to >> him/herself and not to another or others. > >As you know, the modern meaning of the term 'idiot' is quite >different from the ancient Greek meaning of idiot. Indeed, there >even seems to be an inversion in the meaning of the term to the >extent that one who is independent, critical, and thinks for him or >herself is only identified by the dominant culture as being 'idiotic' >in the modern sense if she or he puts forward a perspective or >embraces a way of living that stands apart or is in radical opposition >to mainstream culture. Thus, mainstream thought often fails to >recognize the logic of opposing perspectives and instead dismisses >those perspectives as idiotic. This raises the question (why I do not >know the answer to): when, where and how did this change in meaning >of 'idiot' take place? > >LaFargue defended the right to be lazy; should we defend the right >to be idiotic? > >Solidarity, Jerry The change was relatively recent. Marx (in the CM?) refers to rural idiocy. There was a discussion once about this (Draper? Carver?) when it was argued Marx had in mind not stupidity but the separation of those in rural isolation from what was going on in the world. I assume the city dwellers introduced the prejudicial use. Chris A 17 Bristol Road, Brighton, BN2 1AP, England
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Feb 05 2003 - 00:00:01 EST