A Reasonable Reaction
At Kin, we discuss intangible things sometimes. But this week we wanted to capture both the visual representation of the public mood and break down the parts of what determines a word, in this case, reasonable. We choose certain words to talk about so we can critique, help understand a situation, to challenge and question, and then ask ‘so, what?’ to help us make meaning and adapt for the future.
This week, the use of the word reasonable has become coined with Dominic Cummings’ road trip to Durham during lockdown. This term has been used as a potential strategic weapon to diffuse and flatter the situation. But it feels an odd fit for the occasion, that we decided to poke at the edges of this word.
Get on the Road to Reason
Reasonable is anchored in the notion of reason, that's just and fair. To ‘be reasonable’ makes us feel uncomfortable, because it is synonymous with argument, ‘this is my position’ – yet it is a statement that eventually ricochets against someone else’s level of what they believe to be reasonable, within the context of how they live.
Slight Right Towards Tension
Reason is nuanced, not black and white (similar to division last week) which undoubtedly forms tensions. This is especially true when the context to this situation, when the UK population was under strict advice to Stay Home. The ‘we’re all in it together’ mentality is felt on an individual and public level where everyone has a connection with each other – something unique to this period of time.
Merge With Context
When addressing the public, for the word to work it needs to be set up with context, boundaries and separate points of view to buff off each other. To understand if something is reasonable or not, we need at least two reference points. The word in this context was used to turn around the focus, instead of it being about the performer he invited the audience to participate.
Follow Facts and Evidence
Reasoning is also a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence, using an “if…then,” proposition to arrive at an answer. It's the fundamental difference between a point being made and those needing to be convinced. To be reasonable, is sort of unarguable against, with that strategy comes power. Being the first with a claim to reason – the bar is set, a line drawn in the sand to mark it. Done.
Take Third Exit to Reasonable as Law
When we talk about reasonable; reasonable doubt and reasonable adjustment come to mind, where, ‘reasonable’ is applied as a prefix to justify the plausibility of an action. Typically, applied in law, the phrase is the subjectivity to which one can push the parameters of interpretation of the situation for their own gain. Reasonable is recognized within law but when it is used out of context, when you position it in the political and public landscape, it undermines its use.
Continue Noticing Absence of Agency
The word also congers up feelings around debate, declaring reasoning, sharing intellect and meeting of minds. Debate is a skill, bound within the public-school discourse. The fact one has to pay to participate in debate skills, this immediately separates people. This introduces tensions between the cultural and social capital to negotiate what's reasonable and who can enter this performance. One might not have certain kinds of languages in order to engage with what's reasonable because of circumstance, not having a certain kind of education that gives those particular words or ways of forming arguments and debating structure. This automatically steals a persons’ agency and power to participate.
Pass Barnard Castle
Most people don't think there was a debate concerning Cummings’ reasonable behaviour – he did what he thought best for the well-being of his family. But then took liberties into his own hands by taking his family on a day out to test his eyesight at a beauty spot, Barnard Castle, which seems unreasonable to many citizens in the UK. His story was very black and white to most people, and he broke the rules.
Exit out of the Head into Body
It is said that reason is the opposite of feeling – our intuition. Philosopher, Immanuel Kant, says that
reason is the power of synthesizing into unity, by means of comprehensive principles, the concepts that are provided by the intellect.
But, what if, reason is less about expertise, the facts and mental intellect and it is bodily intelligence, where it is not about the intellectual credentials but lived experience, ethics and morals that matter to be reasonable.
In this context bodily reasoning, we acknowledge feelings and intuition to approach reasoning in the future. Not to mention Brexit, but Brexit was an example where the public made a reasonable choice when they went to the polling stations that day, based on the performance of knowledge they had to inform a decision. But now, we know that many of those decisions were based on inaccuracies, fake news and powerful marketing slogans and political rhetoric performances.
Turn Left Towards Stage
We can see the performance played out within the public conference Cummings’ staged on Monday 25th May. There is a stage, props and scripts. The stage was the Rose garden. There's the costume, normally his costume is jogging bottoms and a t-shirt, in this instance we had Cummings’ the smart version, aka shirt. It was the supporting players of the journalists, critics and the reviewers. There was almost a trailer beforehand, it felt like a slightly surreal play, the way that a theatre is manipulated to create an illusion.
Head East on Discursive Performance of Power
Even though we think reasonable as being a universal thing, it is actually, a discursive performance of power. Whether it's like a reasonable doubt with all the paraphernalia of the jury and the courtroom and the wigs. It is an interesting word whose power resides on its, non-rhetorical and non-performative appeal, but actually it's utterly dependent on all the accoutrements that sit round it at that moment.
Enter Borderlands of Consensus
We have this presentation of what you think is reasonable, and we're allowed to have public opinion, yet we don’t have the power to action change and call out what is deemed unreasonable and it's that grey area we talked about, the borderlands and the impact we can have as a group. Erich Fromm, in Heart of Man he says that;
“What the majority of people consider to be 'reasonable' is that about which there is agreement, if not among all, at least among a substantial number of people; 'reasonable' for most people, has nothing to do with reason, but with consensus.”
Yet, here the consensus of the public opinion on Cumming’s responsibility to play by the rules, like every other citizen, throws up huge questions around how do we ever change a discourse of power, and the constant tension and power dynamics this governs?
Destination will be on the Right, next to Kinship
At this moment, we can recognize and identify the power dynamic played out, whether publics can act for themselves or are passive recipients. From a Foucauldian perspective, power is a network of interacting forces that self-organise and notions of passivity and dominance are a result of that tension (Penny Powers, 2015). It is open-ended, one that enables an interchange between power and freedom. During lockdown, the public mood has been ‘we are in it together’ yet we have felt this tension between power and freedom. The fragility between the two in this relationship requires us to work harder at cooperative forms of kinship, from all involved, to help design power dynamics that work for the many and not the few.
An article inspired from a Ma-kin sense conversation on the phrase "reasonable". The group of reflectors: John O’Reilly, Laura Cloke, Catherine Smith, Rachel Marsden and Katherine Simpson. Graphic Design by Joe Tucker and Katherine Simpson. What are ‘ma-kin sense’ articles?
Purpose
• Discuss as a group for 27 mins to reflect on a keyword that is prevalent or emerging in society. The conversation is written up as an article with doodles and notes accompanied.
Format
• Each person shares their observations on the key word and riff off each other.
So what
• The conversation is for self-reflection and collective transfer of knowledge – nothing more, nothing less.
• It is an opportunity to be in the moment, experimental and experiential to poke and prod as a collection of voices to excavate and test the edges of our boundaries.