Art Criticism - The State University of New York

mode of self-consciousness that best realizes integrity of self.
There are two extremes of recognitional interactions. One is the mas~
ter/slave scenario where there is a maximally uneven distribution of power
amongst the participants; the other is where unequal power relations are minimized
in the realization of a communal spirit. 7 Hegel makes clear in the Phenomenology
that the master/slave interaction is ineffective at achieving .the
integrity of self of both parties. What he does not thematize in the Phenomenology,
and would do so only in subsequent texts, is that as unequal power
among the participants is diminished, there is an increase in the likelihood of
achieving mutual respect and the integrity of all involved. 8 Minimization of
domination is a regulative ideal necessary to the formation of community9 -
community embodied in mutually respectful and recognitional styles of interacting
with others. Community is not the donation of a prior rational spirit, but
a temporary and local human achievement, realized through historically specific
practices, and always requiring struggle, inventiveness, and a smattering
ofluck.
Let me interject at this point that I see this sketch of self-consciousness
as not only pointing towards facets of our historical essence in the West,
and perhaps the fundamental ethical promise of our times,1O but also as gesturing
towards some of the woes of our modernity.
Our daily jobs demand lots of work that is mostly alienated, while our
institutions tend to close down and colonize public spheres that might otherwise
entertain communal interaction. What predominates in our culture are
practices of consumption - consuming activities that nourish life in ever more
pleasurable and refined ways, but also acts that consume prepackaged
subjectivities: body regimes of dieting and exercising; fashion styles that "make
a statement"; commodities that once in our possession "reflect" who we are.
Because our lives typically lack sufficiently expressive work as well as
recognitional interactions that are consistent and regular, we seek self-integrity
in the ubiquitous circuits of consumptjon. Hence the spectacle of modern
life, where we purchase not so much the commodity for its use-value, but for
how it will make us look to others, what kind of identity it will bestow upon
us. 1I Of course as a subjectivity that is consumed for the eyes of others, rather
than a sense of self that emerges in an ongoing interaction, this form of identity
is skin deep and fails to achieve integrity of self; instead, it readily perpetuates
further acts and cycles of consuming an identity. 12 Much of the disquiet in
our lives, I am suggesting, has to do with the desire to achieve communal selfintegrity
in a culture governed by all-consuming practices.
Schooling contributes to the problem. From kindergarten onwards
the teacher-student relation is a modern form of what Foucault brilliantly diagnosed
as pastoral power, where the teacher is responsible for the "souls" of
her students. 13 No doubt this is necessary for the early years of education.
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Art Criticism