Author Archives: Sazia

Lost at Sea: Criminalization of Migration and the Barbaric Indifference of Civilized Society

Exodus by Dan Williams

Summary of Topic

As the physical world is being reshaped by climate crises, nations around are the world are faced with an existential crisis of their own. The concepts of property, border, and nations are losing meaning because sea level is rising and some lands are becoming uninhabitable. Nations are grappling with this loss by criminalizing migration and movement because nations themselves are built on the foundation of sedentism. Therefore, historical narratives privilege sedentism over mobility. While sedentary populations are considered civilized nomadic population are stigmatized as “barbaric”. The influence of this biased historic narrative can be seen in the tension between nation-states and migrants today. While nation-states and their citizens represent sedentary society, migrants represent a nomadic society. However, to alleviate the stresses and trauma of forced migration that will be induced by climate crises, migration must be decriminalized and the right to move must be protected as an inalienable human right.

Summary of Research – Structural Violence

Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation”. Citizens of nation-states are implicated in the suffering of migrating populations through their participation in structural violence. Structural violence represents an indirect form of violence that is built into the political structures and systems of civilized society. This kind of violence is evident in the hierarchies and inequalities imbued in nation-states. Citizens of nation-states are complicit in structural violence through their inaction, silence, and indifference.

The term systemic injustice can be used interchangeably with structural violence. It is the outcome of privileged individuals and institutions pursuing their own interests within established political orders to benefit from social norms while disregarding the suffering migrants or stateless people are subjected to within these systems. Systemic injustice is suffered by mobile, stateless people in a global political system that privileges citizenship over non-citizenship. It is perpetuated by citizens who contribute to it by taking harmful socio-political norms for granted and leaving them unquestioned. Though political leaders are often blamed for designing systems that are unjust, the role citizens play in contributing to systemic injustice by electing leaders who uphold damaging political systems is often overlooked. This complicity applies to addressing climate crises and climate induced migration as well. 

More importantly, systemic injustice is built on the principle of misrecognition. Jade Larissa Schiff defines misrecognition as “a disposition that conceals both the contingent character of social life and the forms of domination it sustains” (745). Through misrecognition, we learn to accept injustice as the way of the world, while remaining unaware of contributing to it. For instance, we take it for granted that human rights are associated with national rights. According to Hannah Arendt, most migrants lose their human rights when they lose their national rights. She argues that human rights should be inalienable and separate from all national governments. In other words, those who leave the security of their nation due to climate crises may lose their human rights and be rendered invisible through systemic injustice, just as countless refugees and undocumented workers are already made invisible. Therefore, climate crises and the mass migration it will fuel is a call to challenge the political systems we take for granted and the systemic injustice the inflict. Migration and the right to move must be protected as inalienable human rights, as more people around the world are uprooted due to climate crises.

No where to go, Idomeni by George Butler

Similarly, Isabelle Stengers reminds us that blindness is demanded of us because it is the only way nation-states can uphold the violent political structures that continue to displace and marginalize millions of people. She urges us to practice the “art of paying attention” to counter misrecognition, indifference, and the systemic injustices citizens are complicit in. For Stengers, to question the political systems that have been presented to us as the inevitable outcome of the civilizing process and to imagine alternative systems that are more just are political acts in themselves. Hannah Arendt’s poignant statement sums up what could happen if nation-states and their citizens continue to uphold systems that are structurally violent and exclude masses of people: “For it is quite conceivable,… that one fine day a highly organized and mechanized humanity will conclude quite democratically… that for humanity as a whole it would be better to liquidate certain parts thereof” (298-299). Her chilling words have the potential to come true if nation-states and citizens of the Global North remain indifferent and stop paying attention.

Resources

In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism by Isabelle Stengers

CORE TEXT
Stengers, Isabelle. In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism. Translated by Andrew Goffey, Open Humanities Press, 2015. 

SUMMARY
In this book, Isabelle Stengers reminds us that we’re at the juncture of two histories: one that is familiar to us and one that is to come. The familiar history is dominated by capitalism. It is a history in which we deify the market. Progress is defined as economic growth and scientific and technological innovation. We must strive for progress at all cost in this history, even if that progress will cause widespread environmental damage and profound suffering of humankind. Stengers encourages us to question who benefits from the systems and narratives we take for granted. She gives us the theoretical tools and language to question the status quo. It is the only way we can top being complacent and prepare for the coming history. The history to come will be dominated by the intrusion of Gaia, who will be just as indifferent to our reasoning as capitalism is. The intrusion of Gaia is climate change personified. Stengers suggests that we provoked Gaia to intrude because of the destructive way in which we treated the planet. Rather than struggling against Gaia, we should be struggling against the systems that provoked Gaia. If we fail to do so, Stengers warns, we will be complacent in creating a barbaric future in which we will be condemning millions of lives to the hazards of climate change. We have been taught to believe that our existing way of living, no matter how destructive it is for the planet, is the only way to be. To question this narrative and to think and imagine a different kind of future are political acts, according to Stengers. 

TEACHING RESOURCES
Arendt, Hannah. “The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of The Rights of Man.” The Origins of Totalitarianism. Ohio: The World Publishing Company, 1958, pg. 267-302. In her seminal essay, Hannah Arendt describes the way inmates of concentration camps were treated and suggests that what is barbaric are the concentration camps designed by civilized society.  She states. “Deadly danger to any civilization is no longer to come from without. Nature has been mastered and no barbarians threaten to destroy what they cannot understand. . . The danger is that a global, universally interrelated civilization may produce barbarians from its own midst” (Arendt, 302). Without the complicity and indifference of civilians, it wouldn’t be possible to maintain systems that are designed to inflict structural violence. That’s why it’s necessary for civilians to participate in structural violence and crimes committed by political leaders. Indifference is a passive form of participation. Arendt claims that the inmates of camps were the model citizens of a totalitarian state because they will behave as they’re trained and won’t question authority even when they’re led to their death. This depicts what is at stake if we don’t question structural injustices and don’t fight against them.

Coetzee, J.M.. Waiting for the Barbarians. Penguin Books, 1999. Throughout J.M. Coetzee’s novel there is a constant sense of anxiety about the barbarians who are considered enemies of the Empire. The Empire symbolizes civilized society which lives according to law and order and the barbarians represent those who exist outside of civilized society. Therefore, it’s presumed that they don’t have any order or law that prevents them from being violent. They’re portrayed as rapists, looters, and ultimately a threat to the sense of order created by the Empire. However, the paranoia about the barbarians draws the reader’s attention to the internal world of the Empire itself rather than the barbarians. Coetzee shows us that under the control of a regime like the Empire, no one can claim innocence. In exchange for the protection of the Empire from the Barbarians, everyone must participate in the Empire’s crimes and be complicit. Therefore, everyone protected by the Empire is collectively guilty.

Human Flow. Directed by Ai Weiwei, AC Films, 2017. In this documentary film, artist Ai Weiwei travels across twenty-three countries to capture the mass human migration that is taking place due to war, famine, or climate change. The current mass migration event is bigger than one war or one incident. The film documents individual narratives of suffering as well as the massive scale of population migrating worldwide. It’s a glimpse of the future that is ahead of us, as climate change continues to alter the political and physical landscapes we live in. Ai Weiwei’s film depicts the consequences of the choices we make to address migration and movement. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Stengers describes our political leaders as our guardians who are responsible for keeping us complacent. She states that we must distance ourselves from their perceptions and narratives, and we can’t expect much from them aside from “disappointment and indignation” (Stengers, 35). Can civilians take meaningful action to prevent social injustices without engaging with political leaders?

Stengers personifies climate change by referring to it as the intrusion of Gaia. She describes Gaia as “as the fearsome one, as she who was addressed by peasants, who knew that humans depend on something much greater than them, something that tolerates them, but with a tolerance that is not to be abused (46).” To what extent is climate change a spiritual crisis?

The writers and artist listed above demonstrate that civilians play a key role in upholding structural injustices. Are inaction and indifference passive forms of participation in structural violence? In what ways do we contribute to harmful systemic injustices and how can we prevent them?

Through the Climate Artist’s Lens

Following are profiles of a few climate artists and how their works explore our relationship with the environment. Though the artists mentioned here create various types of work, this blog focuses on their installations in urban spaces where we are most likely to forget our relationship with nature.

River Rooms by Stacy Levy, 2018

STACY LEVY – The site specific installations of Stacy Levy visualize natural elements such as wind, rain, sunlight, and waterways. These installations are weaved into urban design and placed in public spaces. They invite the public to interact with the natural world that lives and breathes alongside them, but is often unnoticed. Levy’s series of works called Tides are installed in city parks. “River Rooms” are boat shaped structures placed along the Schuylkill River. They allow people of the city to sit by the river and observe it all year round. Similarly, “Tide Field” in the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia and “Tide Flowers” in the Hudson River in New York are floating devices that respond to the river’s tides. They change based on how high or low the water in the river is. Both installations are placed where city dwellers can see the rivers change throughout the day. It’s a reminder that the rivers are alive even in densely populated urban areas.

Reduce Speed Now! by Justin Brice Guarriglia, 2019

JUSTIN BRICE GUARRIGLIA – Messages about the existential crisis of climate change are brought to public spaces through Justin Brice Guarriglia’s LED light installations and marquees. Guarriglia reminds us that “We are the asteroids” that are threatening our world. His project, Eco-Haikus for Marquees, places haikus about climate change at the entrance of theaters in Los Angeles and New York City. Guarriglia draws inspiration from the writing of Bruno Latour and attempts to make abstract ideas about climate change more accessible to the public. Reduce Speed Now is another project of Guarriglia’s. It’s an installment of solar powered LED lights that share messages from climate activists, artists, philosophers from around the world. This project was created for a 2019 Earth Day event in London and it invited the public to share their own messages through the LED light installations during the event.

Ice Watch by Olafur Eliasson, 2015

OLAFUR ELIASSON – When looking through the images of Ice Watch and how people interact with it, we see a combination of spectacle and mourning. Olafur Eliasson created Ice Watch, an installation, by transporting floating icebergs from the fjords of Greenland to public spaces in London and Paris. It confronts the public with the fact that the glaciers are melting in a more intimate way. The installation evokes the cathartic feeling of time running out and watching something bigger than us slowly fall apart. While walking through these icebergs, some people are in awe and can’t help but take selfies with them. Others kiss, hug, or hold the icebergs in a regretful way because they understand what we’re losing. For most of us, the melting glaciers is something that is happening far away. Watching videos of glaciers melting in the news or in documentaries doesn’t begin to describe the profoundness of this loss and the danger associated with it. Eliasson tries to change that with “Ice Watch”. 

Gaia Offended

A found poem created from the text of the Green New Deal by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and In Catastrophic Times by Isabelle Stengers. 

Gaia Sacred System, digital painting by Cristina McAllister 
the earth was not ours

we have chosen
Gaia’s intrusion
we, the probable protagonists
suspended in time

inheritors of history, of destruction
catastrophic collapse
bearers of a compass
separated from truth
truth, that disturbs

a world become spectacle
rhythm of news
wheels of fascination
dreams of the rich

freed predator
panic on the markets
progress defined as growth 
criminal growth
hunting the unemployed
the unhoused, millions 
sacrificed at the
altar of growth

a point of departure
an era come to an end
another history begun

stop, prevent, repair 
oppression
of indigenous, of color
of migrants, of workers
of us
this war requires all

reclaim, relearn abstract possibility
collective culpability
public ownership, community-defined
universal access
to nature
to justice, equity, economic security

take root again, in soil
call it joy
joy is 
to act, to think, to imagine 
together
joy, an epidemic

shatter fabrications, atom by atom
build resiliency, fair and just
detoxify the narratives
the air, the water

however small, it matters
to appease Gaia, imagine
a future, radical and daring

A found poem is a form of word collage. It allows us to put various works of literature, whether fiction or nonfiction, in dialogue with each other. It’s a way of understanding and processing the meaning of what we read and consume, in addition to creating new narratives and meaning. This found poem compares the ideas presented in the Green New Deal, a legislation, and Isabelle Stengers’ philosophical contemplations about climate and unregulated economic growth. Stengers speaks in favor of socialism and believes that many of the destructions we’re currently facing are a result of capitalism. Likewise, Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is described by some as a socialist agenda. Stengers describes politicians as our guardians who keep us complacent and convince us to accept systemic injustices. However, Ocasio-Cortez is speaking out against the kind of complacency Stenger denounces. The Green New Deal attempts to put into practice many of Stenger’s theories. One thing to keep in mind is that though both Stengers and Ocasio-Cortez are critical of the unregulated economic growth and systemic injustices that resulted from decades of capitalism, they’re not opposing growth itself. Stengers is not advocating for degrowth. Similarly, job creation and economic prosperity are at the center of the Green New Deal. What Stengers and Ocasio-Cortez are advocating for is growth that is reflective, sustainable, fair, and just; growth that empowers everyone and gives them agency rather than to put power and control in the hands of a few. 

Another Movement, Another Leader

It is undeniable that Al Gore played a significant role in raising awareness about climate change and he has been fighting tirelessly to motivate world leaders to ordinary people to take action in their own way. The following observations about An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power are not a criticism or dismissal of the important work he is doing to address climate change. They are rather an analysis of how the documentary itself works as propaganda and the underlying messages conveyed in it. At first glance it may seem that the documentary is about the urgent threat of climate change, but a deeper look shows that it is also about a strategic portrayal of Al Gore and where he places himself in the context of the climate movement. 

Al Gore claims that he’s a “recovering politician”. Yet, when we listen to the background music during some of the scenes in An Inconvenient Sequel [i.e. the melting glaciers, Al Gore negotiating, etc.], it almost makes the documentary seem like a political drama. Music and sound effects in film play a key role in evoking specific emotions from the audience. The choice of background music in this documentary builds tension and helps to portray Al Gore as a political figure who is targeted or confronted by wealthy climate deniers, the press, conspiracy theorists, etc. The music helps to convey the high stakes of Al Gore’s mission and the challenges he has to overcome to achieve them.

Moreover, the juxtaposition of Al Gore’s concession speech followed by the two Bush administrations and clips of Trump’s statements nudges the audience to think of Al Gore’s election loss as a collective lost opportunity. It makes us wonder what could have been if Al Gore had won the election and the race against time to address climate change wasn’t set back. He supports Obama’s values and climate initiatives. The documentary culminates into an impassioned speech where he compares the climate movement to the civil rights movement and makes references to Martin Luther King Jr.. This is another subtle nudge to portray Al Gore as the MLK of the climate movement. The screen grabs from Al Gore’s speech at the end of An Inconvenient Sequel show him in the same poses as MLK in photos of the “I have a dream” speech.