Re: Free Download From Beyond The Apocalypse
Martial Salleh
My students chuckled nervously. Maybe the joke was that it was day one of the fall semester, and who really wanted to be in a required advanced poetic form class? Or maybe it was my way of cutting the tension of our gathering, united by the sole purpose of discussing poetry in a time that, back then, felt newly apocalyptic to some.
Although these problems of language have been extensively critiqued and studied, the fact that little has materially changed for Palestinians with regards to victimization by the US media is, itself, a reflection on how deeply entrenched institutions of the English language are within the colonial project. What, then, can our future look like if Palestinians must exist within the English language? How can we build a better elsewhere, for all of us, in language if our current institutional imaginations continue to fail us?
We are living in apocalyptic times, yes, so may apocalypse be a friend in time. Despite time. May this space be a balm, yes, but the opening of a new and un-countried wound. May our gathering, itself, be apocalyptic.
In an English of Western journalism, I do not know how to name the apocalypse in my chest, witnessing Palestinian youth climb the entrance of the Israeli consulate in Boston at our Nakba day protest, holding an image of our Al Quds and waving our flag in pride. That would require both a language of returning, and a returning to language.
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There is a chain of associations I want to play with and tug at in this consideration of the Anthropocene. At the start of this chain is the signification of science in the imaginary. I have argued elsewhere when considering the discourse of germ-free organisms (aka gnotobiology) that science as a profession and a discourse is about signifying futures (Weinstein & Makki, 2009). We do not call fiction about the future technical fiction, but science fiction. Science relies on this signification for its funding, because the technical details of this ecological survey or that obscure epigenetic pathway for cancer do not inspire, except as a promise of better (eu) worlds (topias). Often the public discourse of science plays upon religious motifs and registers; as Mary Midgely has analyzed, science becomes salvation (1992). Consider this dialogue from the big budget movie Interstellar (Nolan, 2014), which is set against the background of environmental catastrophe:
Such a moment of faith is the keystone to the entire narrative edifice. On the long odds of solving a seemingly insolvable equation is deliverance tied, and as the story unfolds, its solution rests ultimately on the metaphysical. Against this, consider this quote from Kevin Esvelt, an actual scientist who tried to sell the residents of Nantucket, Massachusetts, CRISPR (genetically modified) mice as the solution to Lyme disease (Quimby, 2019, Episode 7):
After considering these contrasting Anthropocene futures, I conclude by comparing them to a fictional account of life under the proposed Green New Deal (GND) (Aronoff, 2018). How is our vision of the GND limited as a sociotechnical imaginary? I end by speaking to the limits of extant imaginaries and the necessity of better ones.
Again, to explore these sociotechnical imaginaries I look to popular and academic media and texts; public and private pedagogies of the future, looking backward to look forward, and the ways these are likely to play out in any policy or collective response. I start with Interstellar, a big-budget film with high-salary stars about the response to an un-named but always implied climate crisis. In a radically different view of the future, Kim Stanley Robinson imagines New York surviving after several major flooding catastrophes as the new Venice, and against and within both of these, I examine the four futures foretold by Climate Leviathan and consider the narratives needed to produce a more democratic, less fascist future.
And here is the shared organizing moment of both these public pedagogies of the Anthropocene: that crisis as a literary trope (financial, environmental, agricultural, etc.) serves as the opening for a new order. Crisis resolves in better worlds. Both Interstellar and New York 2140 are about transcending crisis. It is about restarting and shifting global orders, as Lilley et al. so critically observe. To make sense of the shifts in these two fictions, it is helpful to consider the matrix of possible worlds they are drawing from.
To think of texts as educative, it is necessary to state that they operate at the level of imagination and habitus. They shape what we can consider and what how we feel within the matrix world of the story extending outward to our affect in the worlds in which we live. The stories I consider here, fictive and academic, help consider and condition the horizon line of potential action. To consider Climate Mao or Climate X as a possibility is to see beyond the Leviathan embraced by Interstellar and assumed to be the extant governmentality of 2140. These texts thus interact with, that is, are intertextual with, current discourse on strategies moving forward, especially after the failure of the U.N. Climate Conference COP25, in which actors really associated with the Climate Behemoth, for example, Donald Trump, scuttled the agreement. The eco-fascist state lightly portrayed in Interstellar is suddenly palpable. The question becomes, can we envision a way forward toward 1) actual effective responses to the looming climate crisis and 2) something participatory and democratic within those responses?
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When all the news about the North Korea situation started surfacing a month or so ago I found a video basically simulating and explaining what would happen to the world if nuclear war broke out (including the 'nuclear winter' theory) and from then on I was terrified of nuclear war/WW3 breaking out. Every time I thought about it or saw the latest news headlines relating to it I would get very anxious, scared and would cry.
This continued on and off for a few weeks and then progressed to thinking up scenarios of other disasters such as an apocalypse/doomsday, economic breakdown, worldwide disease outbreak etc and a general fear of dying, the afterlife (or lack thereof), being in a crisis without my parents or boyfriend with me and dying without them...the list goes on.
The smallest things seem to trigger my fear/anxiety and I find it difficult to 'not think about it'. Sometimes I can think logically and tell myself that certain things won't happen for certain reasons, but then my anxiety kicks in and says 'but what if it did?' or 'but what if this happened?' and I get upset again. When I'm not scared, I just feel depressed and have the feeling of impending doom. It's very difficult to go about my daily chores and carry out my home business duties and I have been avoiding social activities at the fear of having a breakdown in front of people. It's very hard to get to sleep at night and have spent a lot of nights sharing the bed with my mum for company/comfort when my boyfriend is unable to come over due to work.
I am booked in to see a psychiatrist next week and my mum and I are looking into doing some meditation/yoga together, but I recently discovered NLP and am wondering if this is something I should look at getting as well. I have considered going back on medication but would prefer not to rely on medication, although I am starting to think I may need it.
Is anyone else here struggling or has struggled with similar fears/anxiety? Is there a name for these feeling & fears? What have you found to help? Could anyone offer some wisdom on the subjects concerning me?
I understand your concerns as I used to have chronic anxiety for years when I was in my late teens and 20's. I remember even watching a movie and if it was sad I would burst into tears....I didnt know what was going on.
I have never been pro meds until my anxiety/depression became serious after 13 years. My female GP kicked me hard and changed my mind. I am so glad she did. I have been on antidepressants since 1996 and they gave me my life back....just a small dosage too!
Meditation and Yoga are great tools too of course. If the anxiety & depression are effecting your quality of life the meds may be a good option to work with Natural Therapy/Remedies. (Subject to your GP's approval of course)
I remember many years ago when I was a teenager (I'm a grandma now), there was a program on TV about nuclear war. In those days we were not so well informed about what could happen although the program did make an effort to talk about the points you have listed above. It was the closing remarks that gave me nightmares for many years. I won't repeat them as I do not want to add to your concerns.
I don't think the comments filled my everyday life but I became quite anxious and would feel quite scared when I saw, or read, or heard something on nuclear war. My questions were pretty much the same as yours, what if... ? Life was pretty tense with the Cold War between Russia and the USA and its allies. Lots of demonstrations about disarmament, much like today, tension between nations etc.
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