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Repression is not bad. - 5/15/2008 3:14:24 PM
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hammurabi
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Repression is not bad, nor evil, nor unwanted. I'm tired of hearing the charge that some opinion or belief x was or is being repressed, and hence the repressor is by necessity evil, in some cynical form or another of the word "evil." Now, I by all means oppose oppression, tyranny, and the like, if by these terms you mean something unjust, but even then, justice is a repression of the discourse of the unjust. Of course, justice exists for a reason - hence we repress the unjust. The communal and volitive suppression of actions or beliefs x, y, or z, is not only not bad, but necessary if a society is to function, less anarchy (and not of the communal, anarcho-syndicalist variety) runs rampant. We repress bad spelling, sociopaths, and murder. I repressed my dog the other day. It wanted to pee on the carpet. And we do it in ourselves. Repressing things based upon a normative discursive form constituted with some sort of integrity is the prerequisite of society. Obviously.
So my question: is repression good? Is power good? Does one dominant discourse or social practice which is repressed, coming into being or escaping repression, such that it equalizes itself, merely repress further elements which previously repressed the repressed form? Of course, this implies everything is power. Which makes power a good. Or if not good, because power might not exist within an ethical framework, the means by which all things are. How do we escape power? "Can the subaltern speak?", to put it less bluntly.
People should shut up about repression. Instead, they could go repress other people. Then we would have a democracy.
(My two cents. Well, it's one rant. But two cents.).
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/15/2008 3:55:04 PM
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hammurabi
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Man, sometimes it's annoying to be a liberal. Because liberals are so annoying!
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/15/2008 4:11:24 PM
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Jhud
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Well, the structure of our government, and the liberties we are given, were designed to to minimize repression by any one group while maximizing the ability of those with the most convincing case to gain a modicum of power and so advance what is good.
So in our case it is not repression which keeps that which is undesirable in check, but rather freedom - and through the exercise of freedom, the contest of free ideas and people vying for power, no one faction is allowed to have maximum power and so repress completely opposing ideas.
Interestingly, it is not repression itself that is bad, but human nature. If there existed a benevolent, all-wise, and all powerful dictator, that would be the best of all governments because such a ruler would always use his power to repress for good, repressing what is truly evil and promoting the greatest good.
But as it is, we got left in charge on this planet (for the time being) so we must minimize the worst of our corrupt natures, while promoting the good that we know, all the time allowing no one the absolute power to repress.
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Jack
“I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth”
William F. Buckley Jr. 1925-2008
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/15/2008 4:28:39 PM
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Jhud
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quote:
We should definitely repress repression.
Is that like expressing expression?
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Jack
“I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth”
William F. Buckley Jr. 1925-2008
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/15/2008 4:46:19 PM
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John_O
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Help me I'm being repressed
(Someone had to do it)
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Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/15/2008 4:59:00 PM
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Jhud
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quote:
Help me I'm being repressed
(Someone had to do it)
I love that scene. Then again, I think I love most of the scenes in Holy Grail.
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Jack
“I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth”
William F. Buckley Jr. 1925-2008
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/16/2008 6:03:59 AM
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hammurabi
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Okay, so I'm making broad, sweeping comments here. Basically I'm wary about the notion of good being able to be instituted as a form of benevolent repression; as opposed to normativity being the dominant purpose of repression. Oh, and I'm humorless.
quote:
So in our case it is not repression which keeps that which is undesirable in check, but rather freedom - and through the exercise of freedom, the contest of free ideas and people vying for power, no one faction is allowed to have maximum power and so repress completely opposing ideas.
Interestingly, it is not repression itself that is bad, but human nature. If there existed a benevolent, all-wise, and all powerful dictator, that would be the best of all governments because such a ruler would always use his power to repress for good, repressing what is truly evil and promoting the greatest good.
I think we essentially agree that freedom is a prerequisite of thinking repression, because we can't conceive of power in a human way without thinking the ability of one to overpower another, and to marginalize or suppress some aspect of themselves. But what has me wondering is this idea of using freedom, or the anthropological man, or species-being, to constitute a political system. For example, the usage of "man" within a judicial context to establish codes of normative behavior, or the psychotherapist's adoption of normative behavior to treat a patient. Both of these repress abnormal or idiosyncratic behaviors in conjunction with a social concept of normalcy in order to allow society to function in a predetermined way, but rely upon this predetermined way to constitute the concept of abnormality.
I'm thinking of Marx's distinction between theoretical and real levels of social production, and the apparatuses which allow ideology to be constituted. Schools, for example, require a certain conduct which doesn't accord with the actual ways in which some children are determined to act, whether psychologically or biologically. But they function in this way in order to distribute social norms. So, the school creates educational ideologies which divorce the student from their actual selves, but their actual selves are then reconstituted socially such that, as opposed to having factual existence, they have social existence (i.e., they have a hyperactive disorder, or a learning disorder):
quote:
Feuerbach, who does not enter upon a criticism of this real essence [=social essence], is consequently compelled:
1. To abstract from the historical process and to fix the religious sentiment as something by itself and to presuppose an abstract – isolated – human individual.
2. Essence, therefore, can be comprehended only as “genus”, as an internal, dumb generality which naturally unites the many individuals.
- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach.
I think this is a good example, because the conception of a "real essence" abstracted as a genus (kind) is similarly the notions of "freedom," or even of "the democratic individual," or "homo faber/economicus," etc., which we use as axioms to found political ideology and practice. What's interesting to me is the notion that positivity without essence would be a better form of normative discourse, because then the notions of abnormality are provisional. As opposed to regulating social interactions according to a concept of kind or essence (like a corrupt human essence), the social would be an abstraction, as would the essence of human nature, and instead of divorcing occurrence from social constitution, occurrence would be all that is left. So the hyperactive disorder is a state of being, and correcting it would be something different than it is now; because as it stands, I see it as a form of necessary repression which nevertheless disguises itself beneath the notions of propriety.
quote:
But as it is, we got left in charge on this planet (for the time being) so we must minimize the worst of our corrupt natures, while promoting the good that we know, all the time allowing no one the absolute power to repress.
I agree.
< Message edited by hammurabi -- 5/16/2008 6:16:41 AM >
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miscellanea, a blog.
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/16/2008 9:40:37 AM
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John_O
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OK Serious repsonse.
Repression i snot only not bad, It is a required good.
Every society must have a moral code in order to survive. Some things are easily determined to be evil and must be repressed. Murder and rape for example.
Other things have been observed to alwys lead to evil and must be repressed like Islam which condones murder and rape.
The job of good men is to follow the will of God and repress those things that need to be repressed, and encourage those things that need to be encouraged.
A world without repression is an anarchistic hell. A world without encouragement is just as bad.
_____________________________
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/20/2008 12:10:53 AM
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angelka71
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On a more personal level, I guess I've been a victim of the whole psycho babble culture. You aren't supposed to repress any emotions...i.e. they need to come up and out or something horrible will happen.
As a result, the first half of my marriage was horrible. Any and everytime I felt any form of anger I expressed it...I thought this was a good thing...naturally, it got old pretty quick and our arguments only continued to escalate.
At some point I decided to try a little repression. I started keeping my mouth shut and amazingly, instead of growing, my anger would dissipate...which eventually helped my husband feel like he loved me again and long story short, it literally saved my marriage.
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 5/23/2008 12:10:47 PM
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DaveW
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I think the OP has the wrong definition of repression.
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 6/3/2008 9:28:30 PM
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War4Him
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Repression is unhealthy. Scientists have found proof that it leads to disease. If you're religious you may think repression is good but repressing emotions can cause all kinds of illness. Look at the recent shooting incidents involving Christians. Coincidental events based on some crackpots flaring up? No!!!!! Events based on people REPRESSING emotions. Emotions come from the soul-the soul needs attention...TOTAL ATTENTION! That's why it's so important to let the pain come out in some kind of creative work-a diary, a sketchbook or a blog. Recent scientific studies have also shown that people writing blogs have healed themselves of mental disease.
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 6/5/2008 9:35:41 AM
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URForgiven
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DaveW
I think the OP has the wrong definition of repression.
Yes, I agree. The ideal is to control the negative while not repressing the positive. It is a fine line and probably impossible to achieve in society.
Within the individual, repression is a form of self-deception. It is pretending that what is, isn't. Not only psychologically unhealthy, but spiritually unhealthy. We are exhorted to be controlled by the Spirit for the Spirit alone can control our flesh. If we are repressing our wretchedness, if we are pretending that we are not really that bad, then we will never see our need to live in the Spirit.
If all were completely, and of their own volition, dependent upon a benevolent dictator, then there would be no need for external controls. The key words there are dependent and benevolent. Kind of like the relationship of Christians to Christ, certainly not perfectly in this life, but most definitely in the next. 
Peace
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"Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit,
are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" Galatians 3:3
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RE: Repression is not bad. - 6/5/2008 6:45:29 PM
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wunderschon
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quote:
ORIGINAL: angelka71
On a more personal level, I guess I've been a victim of the whole psycho babble culture. You aren't supposed to repress any emotions...i.e. they need to come up and out or something horrible will happen.
As a result, the first half of my marriage was horrible. Any and everytime I felt any form of anger I expressed it...I thought this was a good thing...naturally, it got old pretty quick and our arguments only continued to escalate.
At some point I decided to try a little repression. I started keeping my mouth shut and amazingly, instead of growing, my anger would dissipate...which eventually helped my husband feel like he loved me again and long story short, it literally saved my marriage.
I've found that it works that for us in my marriage also. Anger feeds on itself, sometimes freely expressing it and "letting it all hang out" just makes everything worse. Sometimes suppressing anger and showing love instead, no matter how "right" I think I am, leads to a much better resolution.
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For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
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