{"id":1179,"date":"2021-04-19T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T09:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2021-04-19T10:10:56","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T09:10:56","slug":"normative-entanglement-in-public-discourse-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/normative-entanglement-in-public-discourse-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Normative Entanglement in Public Discourse (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To read Part 1 of this series, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/2021\/04\/05\/normative-entanglement-in-public-discourse-part-1\/?fbclid=IwAR1cebH3t1t06hIe9MfzLidvRv5HOlgryQPGHJVbHTGeIXRWA6PAexevMp8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start simple.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m hurt.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Taken by itself, this tiny phrase has an obvious meaning. Without any context, however, it is difficult to guess what is the upshot of the statement. Notice how the upshot changes when we add different kinds of context. It could be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spoken playfully, during the course of a game, by a player who has taken some kind of hit, to call for a brief time-out, to call for another player to swap in, or directing teammates to \u2018carry on without me.\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Spoken sadly, to a lover. \u2018I\u2019m hurt that you didn\u2019t feel you could trust me with that situation; I want to know what\u2019s going on with you, even when it\u2019s difficult!\u2019 This speaker may be trying to avoid implying that they blame the person for not trusting them; the \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 functions almost as an invitation.<\/li>\n<li>Spoken by children in the course of a sibling squabble. \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 might function as an accusation, to get the other in trouble. It might function as a bid for parental attention or intervention, or as a pre-emptive justification for the speaker to strike back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each scenario provides not only an interpretive context for what is meant by what is said, but also a <em>normative <\/em>context. The seriousness of the claim, \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019, can vary widely by normative context. In the first scenario, for example, we have a context where it is to be expected that players may sometimes get hurt, and that such injuries require appropriate adjustments but do not pose serious threat.<\/p>\n<p>The normative context tells us what people\u2019s obligations and entitlements are in this scenario, so it may be that a player is <em>entitled <\/em>to swap off the field if she is hurt, or that all players are <em>obligated <\/em>to cease play and honour a time-out in the case of possible injury. When a player makes this statement, then, she is invoking one of these norms\u2014the entitlements and obligations that tell us about how the game should be conducted\u2014and calling for some action or change on the part of the other players. This is normative entanglement: all the players are bound by a particular normative context, in which a person\u2019s cry of \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 requires certain kinds of response from the others.<\/p>\n<p>Games aside, this little phrase has tremendous range in public life. The politics of claiming \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 will also be dependent on context. Who the speaker is, what the occasion is, and who the audience is all play a role in determining what obligations and entitlements are being invoked. Let\u2019s examine an individual case in public life.<\/p>\n<p>In the famous 1995 BBC1 Panorama interview between Martin Bashir and the Princess of Wales, we have the following context: Princess Diana had been separated from Prince Charles three years, but she was still functioning in public life as a member of the royal family.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> In this interview, she describes some of the pain and turmoil that she has been through in the years previous. She reflects on her thoughts and emotions at various points, as well as her experiences with post-natal depression, self-harm, and bulimia.<\/p>\n<p>Here was a public figure, saying in public\u2014in a broadcast interview\u2014what amounts to an \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019, including what happened, why it happened, and what it all meant for Diana. Throughout it, there\u2019s a dialectical see-saw around what the upshot is of Diana\u2019s \u2018I\u2019m hurt.\u2019 Within this normative context, what is the upshot of her claim?<\/p>\n<p>Two clear options are in play: accusation or admission.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Accusation<\/strong>: \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 with a focus on the passive voice, meaning I have been hurt [by someone: by whom?] and so I\u2019m claiming my entitlement to apology and restitution by the offending party.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Admission:<\/strong> \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 with a focus on the description of the speaker. I\u2019m hurt, I\u2019m broken, something has gone wrong with me.<\/p>\n<p>Three times Diana highlights the dialectical pressure from the press and others to bring this second option to the forefront.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it [depression] gave everybody a wonderful new label &#8211; Diana&#8217;s unstable and Diana&#8217;s mentally unbalanced. And unfortunately that seems to have stuck on and off over the years.<\/p>\n<p>and<\/p>\n<p>Well, people were &#8211; when I say people I mean friends, on my husband&#8217;s side &#8211; were indicating that I was again unstable, sick, and should be put in a home of some sort in order to get better. I was almost an embarrassment.<\/p>\n<p>When \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 is taken as an admission of something being wrong in the speaker, and this is particularly true for someone in public life, the normative upshot is that <em>she <\/em>needs to be dealt with. Whereas Accusation searches for an accused party whom the obligations for restitution can attach to, Admission stays home with the speaker as the source of the problem. Admission obligates the speaker to respond to the problem in herself. This shows up most clearly in the exchange below:<\/p>\n<p>DIANA: It [Bulimia] was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals, and people were using my bulimia as a coat on a hanger: they decided that was the problem &#8211; Diana was unstable.<\/p>\n<p>BASHIR: Instead of looking behind the symptom at the cause.<\/p>\n<p>DIANA: Uh,uh.<\/p>\n<p>BASHIR: What was the cause?<\/p>\n<p>DIANA: The cause was the situation where my husband and I had to keep everything together because we didn&#8217;t want to disappoint the public, and yet obviously there was a lot of anxiety going on within our four walls.<\/p>\n<p>Here, Diana articulates her resistance to the interpretation of her pain as an Admission that she was the problem, that she was unstable. Notice that when Bashir asks about the cause, Diana articulates her tactful resistance as well to the interpretation of her pain as an Accusation. The cause, she says, was the <em>situation <\/em>she was in\u2026 not anyone in particular, but the situation.<\/p>\n<p>There are many ways an \u2018I\u2019m hurt\u2019 claim in public life can be interpreted. Admission and Accusation are far from being the only options, but they have a tendency to masquerade as a polarising dichotomy, as if it must be one or the other. To make an Accusation is to lay a charge, obligating the accused to remedy matters. But this only succeeds if the charge finds the right party, the party who is normatively entangled in such a way as to be responsible for the harm done.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the difficulty: such charges land easily on individuals, but they do not land so easily with group agents, particularly when it is not clear that any one person is to blame for the harm brought about by the collective dynamic. And when the charge does not land squarely at the feet of one distinctly culpable party, it is easy for it to be sent back to the feet of the speaker.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018She is unstable.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You shouldn\u2019t be so sensitive.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018She should not have been walking alone at that time of night dressed like that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In Part 3, we will take a closer look at how some public figures and philosophers have handled the Accusation\/Admission polarity and the difficulty in laying ambiguous or collective charges.<\/p>\n<p>Picture: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Melicsohn_hurt.JPG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Melicsohn_hurt.JPG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To read Part 1 of this series, click here. Let\u2019s start simple. \u2018I\u2019m hurt.\u2019 Taken by itself, this tiny phrase has an obvious meaning. Without any context, however, it is [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1319,"featured_media":1183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"@SusanNotess Normative Entanglement in Public Discourse (Part 2) on Open for Debate","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[199,7,283],"custom_author":[290],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-for-debate","tag-language","tag-politics","tag-speech-act","custom_author-notess-susan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KPlM-j1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1184,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/normative-entanglement-in-public-discourse-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1179,"position":0},"title":"Normative Entanglement in Public Discourse (Part 3)","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"May 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"To recap: In Part One of this series we looked at how our impulse to reduce messy situations to nice clean epistemological facts can cause us to miss what is at stake for people\u2014the normative entanglements at issue. In Part Two, we looked at how such normative entanglements show us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/05\/Picture1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1588,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/context-needed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1179,"position":1},"title":"Context Needed","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"December 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It may be hard for us to admit, but many of us are two-faced. That is to say, we act differently depending on who we\u2019re with. We might be polite and affectionate with parents, playful with friends, and calm and composed with colleagues. And that\u2019s no bad thing; adjusting how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/12\/hugh-han-5pkYWUDDthQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/12\/hugh-han-5pkYWUDDthQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/12\/hugh-han-5pkYWUDDthQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/12\/hugh-han-5pkYWUDDthQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/12\/hugh-han-5pkYWUDDthQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/12\/hugh-han-5pkYWUDDthQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":269,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/how-empathy-promotes-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":1179,"position":2},"title":"How Empathy Promotes Trust","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"October 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the aftermath of the Dallas shootings on July 7, 2016, Hillary Clinton said: \u201cWe need to try as best we can to walk in one another\u2019s\u00a0shoes, to imagine what it would feel like if people followed us around stores or locked their car doors when we walked past.\u201d Clinton\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/10\/trust2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":258,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/bad-questions-lead-to-bad-democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1179,"position":3},"title":"Bad Questions Lead to Bad Democracy","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"October 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In a previous post, I discussed the essential role that questions play in the political landscape of contemporary democracy. 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But what if this involves taking persons seriously who are in the grip of QAnon, racism, climate change denialism, or The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/12\/daniel-lonn-Regf9o7r_ZM-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/12\/daniel-lonn-Regf9o7r_ZM-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/12\/daniel-lonn-Regf9o7r_ZM-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/12\/daniel-lonn-Regf9o7r_ZM-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/12\/daniel-lonn-Regf9o7r_ZM-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/12\/daniel-lonn-Regf9o7r_ZM-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1492,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/thats-not-what-i-didnt-say-some-thoughts-on-silence-and-deniability\/","url_meta":{"origin":1179,"position":5},"title":"\u201cThat\u2019s not what I didn\u2019t say\u201d. Some thoughts on silence and deniability","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"July 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In June 2020, there was a long moment of silence, when Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was asked a question about his views on US president Donald Trump\u2019s reaction to Black Lives Matter protesters in a press conference: \u201cYou\u2019ve been reluctant to comment on the words and actions of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/07\/volodymyr-hryshchenko-V5vqWC9gyEU-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/07\/volodymyr-hryshchenko-V5vqWC9gyEU-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/07\/volodymyr-hryshchenko-V5vqWC9gyEU-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/07\/volodymyr-hryshchenko-V5vqWC9gyEU-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/07\/volodymyr-hryshchenko-V5vqWC9gyEU-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/07\/volodymyr-hryshchenko-V5vqWC9gyEU-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/04\/Melicsohn_hurt-BW.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1182,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions\/1182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}