Latour talks throughout the book how we are not Modern because can’t keep categories separate. We cross politics with science with ethics and others all the time. And so, according to Latour, we have never been modern because of our use of “hybrids.”
But at one point in the book, he mentions how there are three categories we do strive to keep apart (or the postmodernist do, at least): nature, society, and discourse. Latour calls this a terrifying image:
“…a nature and a technology that are absolutely sleek; a society made up solely of false consciousness, simulacra and illusions; a discourse consisting only in meaning effects detached from everything; and this whole world of appearances keeps afloat other disconnected elements of networks that can be combined haphazardly by collage from all places and all times. Enough, indeed, to make one contemplate jumping off a cliff” (64-65).
It made me think of something else our society tries to keep separate and that also creates a terrifying image: race.
The US has always upheld the idea of the melting pot, that we are a mix of cultures and races, that anyone can come to the US from wherever and become “American.” And yet, we go completely against this image of a melting pot and label everyone separately. We don’t view each other as “American,” instead we see people as “African American,” or “Asian American,” or “Irish American.”
It leads to incidents such as what the girl in the video has experienced. We don’t view those of different race as the same as everyone else. You might live in the America, and you might be an American, but we will view you as “Asian” and treat you accordingly.
It seems to me that Latour is arguing that we can’t achieve the separation we hoped to achieve as modernists, though we try. I would argue he views complete separation of everything as impossible and destructive. And I think the racial example is a good illustration of his fears.
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