Re: BHA: Santa, God, kneeling

[Colin Wight <Colin.Wight@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi hans,

this is really interesting. what is it that you think Santa is? It seems to
me that in the way you put it here that the cultural practices create the
beliefs in santa. Is this your argument? To me Santa, if we are going to be
conceptual purists, and as you will all gather this is the mode I am in
this week. Then when we say santa exists we are simply wrong. That is to
say there is no X, X, X, X... There are however, a set of practices,
beliefs, cultural icons (yes potentially i concede, the result of
particular social relations) that revolve around the notion of this
mythical being Santa. Why I am being so pedantic on this issue should be
clear from some of the counter examples, I have already suggested.

But let me make it more political. (Oh BTW Erik, this is the key social
point and it 'aint over till the fat man sings' - sometimes arguments have
to run their course whetehr ontological or not). Women are inferior to men
- I mean after all there are discourses, practices (constructed as a result
of social relations) that exist, so if we say santa exists (or is real)
simply because we have such beliefs and practices, why deny this status to
the reality of womens' inferiority? I could proliferate examples here, and
I am sure everyone on the list can think of their own. Santa is not real,
nor exists, and neither are women inferior to men and the mere existince of
discourses and practices does not mean that they do. If we mean that there
are such prcatices etc...then we should say so, not claim that X exists
because there is a social discourse however derived, that says there is.
Without this distinction we lose the strength of CR in separating these
levels of reality. Santa neither exists nor is real, because to say
otherwise is to claim that there is a old white beraded man
who....Otherwise we are close to humpty-dumpty theorising; 'when I use a
word it means exactly what i want it to mean!'


Cheers,



=============================================


Dr. Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Wales
SY23 3DA
Tel: (01970) 621769


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