“Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.”
"Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness." - Pierre Bourdieu
This quote by Pierre Bourdieu highlights the tendency of established systems or structures to normalize their own arbitrary rules or actions. It serves as a reminder to question and challenge the status quo rather than accepting it unquestioningly.
In this quote by Pierre Bourdieu, he highlights the tendency of established systems or orders to solidify and normalize their own inherent biases and injustices. Bourdieu's assertion is a warning against complacency and blind acceptance of the status quo. This quote prompts us to critically examine and challenge the entrenched power structures that perpetuate inequality and oppression. Bourdieu's emphasis on the naturalization of arbitrariness serves as a call to action for individuals to resist and disrupt the unjust norms that contribute to the perpetuation of systemic injustices.
Pierre Bourdieu's quote highlights the tendency for established systems of power to perpetuate their own arbitrary rules and norms, eventually leading individuals to accept them as natural and inevitable. This concept remains relevant today in examining how societal structures, hierarchies, and inequalities can become ingrained and unquestioned, shaping our understanding of what is considered normal or just. It serves as a reminder to critically examine the underlying assumptions of the systems we operate within and challenge any unjust or oppressive aspects that may have become normalized.
Reflecting on the quote by Pierre Bourdieu, consider the following questions:
“I would simply ask why so many critics, so many writers, so many philosophers take such satisfaction in professing that the experience of a work of art is ineffable, that it escapes by definition all rational understanding; why are they so eager to concede without a struggle the defeat of knowledge; and where does their irrepressible need to belittle rational understanding come from, this rage to affirm the irreducibility of the work of art, or, to use a more suitable word, its transcendence.”
“The mind is a metaphor of the world of objects.”
“Unless saved by exceptional talent, he necessarily pays a price for clarity.”
“Male domination is so rooted in our collective unconscious that we no longer even see it.”
“The title of the work, its place in the collective library, the nature of the person who tells us about it, the atmosphere established in the written or spoken exhange, among many other instances, offer alternatives to the book itself that allow us to talk about ourselves without dwelling upon the work too closely.”
“Imagine a society entirely absorbed in its own historicity. It would be incapable of producing historians. Living entirely under the sign of the future, it would satisfy itself with automatic self-recording processes and auto-inventory machines, postponing indefinitely the task of understanding itself”