Even the metaphor that underlies the Country Email List term " woke " is infused with notions of truth: a dash of "new birth" Christianity mixed with an enlightened acknowledgment of the world as it is. The conception of history advocated by many Country Email List on the left in recent years does not simply seek to explorealternative narratives , but rather to make the American past – and slavery, above all – the “right” one. "Believe science," the liberal mantra of the pandemic, is also based on the view that the truth should be able to resolve key political Country Email List disagreements once and for all.
It is surprising that the contemporary left Country Email List resorts to almost all the forms of truth – Christian, enlightened, scientific – on which Foucault cast his critical gaze. However, to the extent that one can even speculate on these things, I imagine that Country Email List Foucault would have supported initiatives such as the 1619 Project – a New York Times initiative in 2019 that aimed to “reframe the history of the country by placing the consequences of the slavery and the contributions of African Americans at the very center of America's national historical Country Email List narrative" - and would have seen them as aligned with his genealogies of power, not to mention his politics of liberation.
He was, as he is commonly Country Email List acknowledged, acutely aware of how historical narratives often exclude certain individuals and recognized the power of telling history from the point of view of marginalized groups. But Foucault's deeper Country Email List project of weaning us from our addiction to truth is as alien to our present as it was to his own time. "Speaking truth to power," an idea that seems more relevant than ever, seems to have a pleasantly Country Email List Foucaultian air. In fact, Foucault's lesson is more precise (if somewhat tautological) as "combat power with power."