Every Established Order Tends To

I Often Say That Sociology Is A Martial Art, A Means Of Self-defense. Basically, You Use It To Defend Yourself, Without Having The Right To Use It For Unfair Attacks.

You Cannot Cheat With The Law Of Conservation Of Violence: All Violence Is Paid For, And For Example, The Structural Violence Exerted By The Financial Markets, In The Form Of Layoffs, Loss Of Security, Etc., Is Matched Sooner Or Later In The Form Of Suicides, Crime And Delinquency, Drug Addiction, Alcoholism, A Whole Host Of Minor And Major Everyday Acts Of Violence.

The Point Of My Work Is To Show That Culture And Education Arent Simply Hobbies Or Minor Influences. They Are Hugely Important In The Affirmation Of Differences Between Groups And Social Classes And In The Reproduction Of Those Differences.

The Difficulty, In Sociology, Is To Manage To Think In A Completely Astonished And Disconcerted Way About Things You Thought You Had Always Understood.

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.