Small everyday acts of resistance effectively challenged the army’s total control

Evidence

While finding Michel Foucault’s notions of power useful and insightful, this book critiques a particular reading of his work that stresses the monolithic nature of the institutions of power and accepts the inevitability of its forms. Instead of an impressive and consistent picture of how modern power objectifies its subjects, what is offered below is an attempt to present a more complex, and – intentionally – more blurred picture of power, one that can incorporate fractures, dissonance and resistance. By highlighting the small acts of defiance and resistance undertaken by the soldiers in this army, the intention is to undermine the impressive representations of power and its unceasing desire to silence its subjects. These small, every-day acts of resistance, while not grand or heroic, were still effective in challenging the attempts of power to control and manipulate the soldiers’ lives and bodies, and alarmed the military authorities precisely by showing them that, through these small acts of resistance the soldiers managed to distance themselves from the Pasha and his grand projects. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 25

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with James C. Scott’s ‘Weapons of the Weak’ and everyday resistance scholarship; also pairs with the reader’s interest in army performance.