REFLECTION #3: FOUCAULT

 

(photo from: https://www.openculture.com/2015/07/an-animated-introduction-to-michel-foucault-philosopher-of-power.html)

MADNESS IN THE SHIP OF FOOLS

A Reflection on Michel Foucault: Beyond Good and Evil (1993)

       Upon hearing/reading the word 'madness',  the common image that comes to some people's mind is probably that of a psychiatric ward filled with people displaying extreme insanity; the halls are filled with shouting, laughing, crying, or sometimes a deafening silence. Nevertheless, the feeling of pity is evoked upon witnessing this. Society sometimes neglects these individuals and would tend to cage them and treat them in inhumane ways; this was one of the observations made by Foucault.

    Madness is a theme found in the corpus of the radical philosopher Michel Foucault, specifically in his work "Madness and Civilization" in 1961. This work was revolutionary and it did not follow a conventional manner of writing, a style that shocked readers specially historians. From the video, it was noted that there were others who applauded his work, but there were also some who dissented it. Upon watching the film, I see that Foucault's personal experience of madness may also have contributed to his thoughts about the matter. Biographers and some colleagues of Foucault have shared that he was having some troubles in his personal life, specially with his sexuality. 

    But what does 'madness' mean in Foucault's work? It is said that it denotes to a couple of meanings. From the dark ages, madness points to dark magic, secrets, and revelations; the modern era sees it as a form of mental illness. But, what captured my attention was on the explication of madness in terms of the metaphor 'Ship of Fools.' This ship, according to Foucault were "pilgrimage boats highly symbolic cargos of madmen in search of their reason." This metaphor is still relevant today, especially with the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is like we are aboard the ship of fools, wearing our face masks and face shields without practicing social distancing.

(photo from: https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-ships-with-confirmed-covid-19-cases-during-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-4)

ALL ABOARD!

    My personal interpretation of the ship of fools with COVID-19 in the backdrop is that we are forced into these systems of society. We are entering into a new age of unreason with a redefinition of what madness is. Madness was seen before as having erratic, insane, and extreme behavior. But now, we are going mad either by following too much rules and regulations (GCC, ECQ, MGCQ, MGCQ+, EQ+, etc.) or by getting stuck in the same daily routine with all the restrictions in place. 

    The systems in place promise us 'safety from the virus', but in turn they choke us, not because they limit the 'fun', but because they force us to always conform and heed to the authority without knowing why we do so, with fear as the only explanation for this conformity. Fear of getting the virus and fear of the punishment of the state are good motivations for conformity, but they are not enough. I think that this situation calls for us to be critical in exercising our rational power. 

    Aboard the ship of fools we are made passive and subservient passengers. But, it is imperative that in this perilous time we should exercise our reason with prudence and be critical in following the different systems in place. It is only through critical thinking that we will not be able to descend into the seeming madness that this pandemic brings.