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CRITICAL RESPONSE
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POLITICALTHEORY/ February1993
Thisgatheringof disparateinstancesindicatesa collective decline of confidence in the futureour institutionsare designedto build.This effect, in turn,
is expungedfromelectoraldebateby a politics of collective identitythrough
negation of the other. Other examples, as noted above, serve different
purposes.3
NOTES
1. Young remainstotally deaf to the discussion of the ontological dimension of political
theory,even thoughthe quotationin questiondeals directlywith it. This dimensionis enclosed
in the "supplement"of civic liberalismin the sentenceunderreview.It is, for instance,the social
ontology of civic liberalismthat warrantsthe devaluationof disturbancein its political ideal.
whereasI heara contestable
Youngprobablyfindsthe ontologicaldimensionto be too "abstract,"
ontology lodged in the categories throughwhich she reads my book. On my view, responsible
involves sustainedeffortsto articulateandreflecton the contestablesocial
politicalinterpretation
ontology informingone's own work.
2. Is the referentof the following statementpersonalor institutional,on Young'sreading?
"A democracy infused with a spirit of agonism is one in which divergentorientationsto the
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mysteries of existence find overt expressionin public life.... Distance becomes politicized in
a world where othertopographicalsourcesof distancehave closed up. The termsof contestation
enlarge opportunitiesfor participantsto engage the relationaland contingentcharacterof the
identities that constitutethem, and this effect in turnestablishes one of the preconditionsfor
respectfulstrife betweenpartieswho reciprocallyacknowledgethe contestablecharacterof the
faiths thatorientthem andgive themdefinition in relationto one another"(p. 211). And, by the
way, is Kevorkian,given Young'sdistinctions,a therapistof death,a political activist pressing
the cultureto reconsiderits collective orientationto mortality,or neither,or both?
3. Young criticizes me for "weaving"a variety of presentations"aroundthe main theme."
But each instance she cites is part of the theme, dealing with the way individual, group, or
collective identities are shaped throughtheir constitutionof difference. In one such instance,
Youngasserts,I argue"againstthe internationalsystem andterritorialsovereignty."Ugh! Rather,
I endorse social movements that extend through and beyond the state, compromising the
monopoly of the territorialstate over the identitiesand allegiances of its members.Young also
says the book reads like "one man's painstakinglyinscribedjournal."Perhapsit does. What,
though, renders its inscriptions "painstaking?"Does Young presume that "Connolly," the
grown-up Irish boy, raised to be religious and Catholic, painstakinglyreconsidersit all in "A
Letterto Augustine"?This stereotypewould be false in two of its presumptions- andoffensive
to the Irish, who, as everyone knows, are quick to take offense. What is the referentof this abstractpresumption:"painstaking"?Does Connollycomposeabstract,painstakingIrishlullabies?
4. For example:"Thisstudy has confined itself to the politics of identityanddifference.But
to illustrateits linkagesto anotherset of issues, let me outlinejust one ingredientin an economic
projectelaboratedsomewhatmorefully elsewhere"(p. 214). "Butsuch economicmodifications,
while crucial, are certainlynot sufficient"(p. 215).