Established orders reproduce themselves by naturalizing their own arbitrariness

Evidence

It is, Bourdieu suggests, through mechanisms of this sort that every es­ tablished order tends to produce ‘the naturalization of its own arbi­ trariness’ expressed in the ‘sense of limits’ and the ‘sense of reality’ which in turn form the basis for an ‘ineradicable adherence to the established order’. The reproduction of the social and symbolic order through the exploration of difference and ‘otherness’ is all too evident in the climate of postmodernism. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 2149

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The mechanism whereby postmodernism’s exploration of otherness actually stabilizes rather than destabilizes the capitalist order — a genuinely counterintuitive, load-bearing claim for the periodization argument.
• XREF: connects to: Each order of simulacra feeds on the alibi of the order that preceded it. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 214; Nation-state formation generates founding myths that legitimate ruling-class orders; Disciplinary order blends artificial regulation with natural normative processes — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 277 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Treating modern order as a historical practice exposes its naturalness as an effect #corroborates (0.88) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 537
• Nation-state formation generates founding myths that legitimate ruling-class orders #expands (0.82)
• Disciplinary order blends artificial regulation with natural normative processes #expands (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 277