Right and might: Of approximate truths and moral judgements

This article explains why the community of scholars in the current conjuncture of the capitalist development of power experiences problems distinguishing between right and might and suggests a way of reducing such difficulties. It claims that the mightys’ operation of regimes of truth in conjunction with intellectuals’ adoption of postmodern sentiments erodes the ability to judge whether those with might have it right. This position is argued by considering a particular assertion of righteousness. The Indonesian and US mighty, as represented by Geertz, claimed that the Indonesian military's 1965–66 massacres were in self‐defense. “Causal moral analysis” is formulated as a method of assessing this claim.