Rather a challenge, Steve. We're talking about a major philosopher and psychoanalytical and cultural theorist, beloved by millions. (Well, by many thousands at least.)

In a nutshell, and SJL may wish to correct me, Foucault held that the search for "scientific" knowledge is little more than a search for power. (Remember the old saying, "Knowledge is power"? That's Fookie all over!) The Big-Brother elites who "know" - or, in F's interpretation - *claim* to know, develop the power to subjugate everyone else. They determine what's "true" or "false," "right" or "wrong," "normal" or "sick." If you resist, especially by being gay, or a so-called "schizophrenic" or "criminal," they overt and subtle vays of making you conform, like putting you in prison or the looney bin. "Objectivity" is the self-interested subjectivity of the wielders of knowledge and power. And Big Brother (the imaginary God or his cynical or unwitting human stand-ins) will, one way or another,be keeping an eye on you. (Ever notice those surveillance cameras? They're meant to catch Winston Smith-type resisters - oops! I mean - heh-heh - criminals.)

According to Foucault, the science-and-reason-driven Enlightenment, and the liberal humanist philosophies and political systems it inspired, are no truer or freer or fairer or better than Pharaoh or the Spanish Inquisition. It's all about the survival of the fittest, whether you know it or not, and fittest means strongest or most ruthless - subtly or overtly.

Everybody has a power-driven agenda. "No innocent texts" means that books and movies are sending you hidden messages (from the conscious or unconscious of their creators, or the unconscious of your sick society as a whole) that Foucault's followers will happily decode for you.

(Foucaultians either have no power-driven agenda - so you can trust them; or else they openly proclaim that they do - which makes them equally trustworthy! Of course, a real Foucaultian ultimately trusts no one: see "The X-Files.")

"No innocent readers" means that your understanding of anything you read (or see or hear) is based on your own unconscious power-driven agenda or else own your unconscious Freudian desires, which - perhaps unbeknownst to you - also constantly evaluate everyone your eyes fall upon as a potential sex partner. Because sex, like knowledge, is Power! Baby!

To give Foucault his due, he'd read a lot and had facts at his fingertips (of course, he had no reason to trust them, since they came from other people's books - but that's another story).

And what an imagination, eh?