This blog will serve as a depository for book reviews and essays.
My current interest is in 20th century history and thought. Contrary to popular narrative, very little was “resolved” during that time period – the violent birth pangs of modernity leave us with more questions than answers. With the looming threat of climate change, many of these unresolved conflicts will surface once again.
In 1755, the Lisbon Earthquake destroyed the wealthy port city. This event left its impact not only on the politics of the time, but its thought as well. The randomness of the event, and the scale of its destruction, challenged the convictions of many Enlightenment era philosophers.
The first and second World Wars are similar events. Both mark a major turning point in culture and society. They were both catastrophes that seemed unthinkable, until they came to pass. In fact, to some, they remain “unthinkable”. Some contend that those events remain a black mark, an abyss that cannot be bridged, a break in the continuum of history.
One book I plan on reading is “How to Quiet a Vampire”, by Borislav Pekic, in which a former Nazi spends his days revisiting sites from the war and reflecting upon his past actions. He does this by interpreting the works of many famous philosophers, from Plato to Heidegger – each Chapter title is a reference to an important work in the “canon”. From what I understand, the argument being made is that the events of WWII are not unthinkable – just the opposite. They are perfectly in line with the ideas and traditions that shaped western thought. And defeating the Nazis only meant the defeat of one particular historical constellation of these ideas – the roots remain.
Climate change may present another such event, one that brings an urgency to problems that has previously only existed in theory. But it will be on a scale unlike any previous event. Large parts of the planet may be rendered uninhabitable. Millions (perhaps billions) of people will be forced to move. Regions inhabited by mankind for millennia will be abandoned, creating masses of stateless refugees. What will happen to these stateless people?
Will open and democratic societies rise to the challenge? Or will the more authoritarian model of China prove itself more capable of dealing with matters, because it does not have to rely on elections or public opinion? Currently, neither have acted in a way that would potentially stop, or even mitigate, looming disaster.
Can capitalism survive climate change? Or will its complicity in this global catastrophe completely delegitimize it as an economic system? On the other hand, can an alternative system ever hope to gain popular support if it demands some level of sacrifice and degrowth?
Can any society, regardless of ideology, stop a problem which is international in nature? We’ve risen to the point where we, as a species, can create catastrophes of global scale. But our governance is stuck at the level of nation-state. This is a system that breeds competition between states, and that competition means that any solution that requires degrowth, or loss of power, is contrary to the “rational” self-interest of a state acting within the international state system. The Cold War brought up a similar dilemma, with the threat of nuclear war. This dilemma was never solved – we happened to luck out and survive, so the problem was forgotten.
In the 21st century, questions that were considered dead and buried will be unearthed once again.
For the next few months I plan on focusing on the literature of Central and Eastern Europe – I will probably elaborate on this choice in another post. It relates to the themes outlined above, but also the human lives caught up in the forces of history. But I also have a deep interest in Latin American literature, which I hope to explore more in the future.
Looking Elsewhere 