ABSTRACT
The key resides not in a particular set of norms or values, but in the presence of a structure within which all such standards are set. This structure is an “interdictory order” which masks the line between what is included and what is excluded, that is, which establishes the reality of prohibition. For modern science and technology, nothing is in principle impossible, not even changes in the so-called laws of nature which themselves, after all, have served as secular versions of prohibition. Rieff himself provides the surest explanation of why all such proposals must in end seem lame and helpless: “The negative gifts cannot allow themselves to be taught”. The most immediate consequence of admitting a role for social cause in the history of culture would be to politicize the role of the teacher. The conclusion may seem part of a circular argument: culture requires repression or interdiction because without these there is no culture.
