Social Conditions and Violence

In Judith Butler's Giving an Account of Oneself she states "Whereas one might reserve ethics for the broad contours of these rules and maxims, or for the relation between selves that is implied by such rules, Adorno insists that an ethical norm that fails to offer a way to live or that turns out, within existing social conditions, to be impossible to appropriate has to become subject to critical revision (PMP, 19).  If it ignores the existing social conditions, which are also the conditions under which any ethics might be appropriated, that ethos becomes violent (Butler, 5-6). 

I find this piece interesting in the fact that anything we do, say, think, feel, etc. is largely based on the ethics, morals, or norms we are brought up with.  If we, say, lived in a different country where ethics, morals, and norms were different we would grow up with those as the basis of our being.  Even in this country, an older person can see the shifts that our country has had with the feminist movement, sexuality, education, etc. but these shifts are still based on the foundation for which these shifts occurred.  We could in fact say that the foundation changes for each generation based on the changes that happened prior to a persons birth.

I was brought up in a time where talking about ones sexuality was looked down on.  My mother and I had "the talk" and she provided me some books with more information, but it wasn't something discussed openly.  Nowadays we see magazine covers that cover these topics and I have overheard people openly discuss sexual issues right in the open, not privately behind closed doors.  I have seen shifts in graduating high school and marrying your high school sweetheart move towards getting an education before "settling down".  Yet, there was still a foundation on which these changes occurred.

If we threw out our foundation instead of making changes to the ethics/morals/norms we have now, our world be in utter chaos and turmoil.  Without ethics, rules, and laws all manner of violence would erupt.  So while change is good, we cannot forget where the change started from. 

I think this can not only be applied to oneself but to writing as a whole.  If you think of a piece you have written, you start off with perhaps a few notes, then a first draft, and then revision upon revision.  The final piece may be in fact different than the original version, but the original version is still there, lurking.  And as I know, a piece never feels quite finalized.  Somewhere it always feels like it could be perfected even more.

As far as an account of oneself, it evolves as well.  Who I am today, will not be the person I am tomorrow, and is not the person I was in the past.  Memory plays a part in this, as well as ways I have changed, may also impact those memories based on what I now know because I am today different than I was when these things actually happened.  So how do we really account for ourself if we ourselves are constantly changing?