Austin's legacy is variously divided among political persuasions. It
turns out all sorts of people are excited by the notion that words are
the sorts of things you can do things with. Derrida vs Searle was
conducted over Austin's casket, as was Butler vs MacKinnon. The cold
war context I'm less familiar with, although I can see how certain
sorts of commonsensicality can be co-opted as rationalisations for,
well, whatever the ruling powers like at the time really.
Dominic
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