[FRA:] Mass-extinction

[steve.devos at krokodile.co.uk]

matt/all
In an effort to expand the ground here......

In part I think that is correct, that is to say that critical thought 
seems to be unable to come to terms with the actuality of the current 
position.  This it seems to me can be understood in many ways but the 
simplest and perhaps most important seems to me be the change from the 
cartesian question of "how can we dominate the world" to the very 
different one which we now exist within of "How can we control our 
dominion, how is it possible for us control our own mastery ?"  The 
point is that we are at a moment when we have to accept and recognize 
that because we dominate the planet we are accountable for it, and have 
to accept that as a consequence we are going to have to decide about 
everything.  If you start from such a position - how can a 'critique' 
based on perspectives which begin from the earlier question - address 
the more serious question that we live within for the forseeable 
future.  The point about the mass-extinction event is that it is another 
way of recognizing  that global capitalism, which is still predominantly 
the west can no longer consume at the expense of the world. From this 
point it seems increasingly necessary to ask how the particularities you 
mention, ecology, feminism, anti-racism and so on - all of which emerge 
in some sense from some variant of critique, and certainly owe some debt 
to critical theory, can take account of the change that the new question 
raises.  Further it is necessary to realise that the very universals 
which critical theory maintains - are specific to the human and we are 
perhaps no longer that simple creature trying to dominate it's local 
environment, don't we need to accept that theory needs to be able to  
address the non-human as equivilant in value to the human ?  If you 
accept this level of human accountability, then it's clear that whatever 
passes as critical theory needs some critical reconstructing.

So then - of course it is a natural process - after all everything 
appears to be subject to the 2nd law of thermodynamics - but in the here 
and now we are accountable for these natural processes.  They are our 
processes rather than some abstract concept of nature that we seek to 
dominate... we are way beyond that.

later
steve...

.


matthew piscioneri wrote:

> Steve,
>
>> My own tendency is to ask why is it that the current mass-extinction 
>> event is unaddressable by the thought ?
>
>
> well it's nice to try and *do* some critical theory on a list devoted 
> to critical theory. When you say unaddressable by the thought, do you 
> mean that critical thought is unable to ameliorate the phenomenon of 
> mass-extinction?
>
> The critical thought purveyed by the ecological movement has made 
> substantive inroads into mass consciousness over the last 30 years. 
> One of my *critical* interests concerns the conditions of success 
> faced by progressive social movements - why is it that social 
> democratic efforts, feminism, environmentalism only can get so far? My 
> surmise is that the limit conditions are mainly defined by existential 
> factors...social change hits a point of acceptability beyond which 
> further change threatens the procreative regime. Further change 
> challenges the fundamental way the majority of people *exist* and 
> understand their existence.
>
> It is ironic that this incapacity to move beyond our fixed existential 
> comfort zones enable looming ecological changes which undermine the 
> possibilities of our continued material and thereby existential 
> futures as a species.
>
>> Rather, I suspect that given that for the forseeable future human 
>> beings are now uniquely responsible for 'everything' that happens 
>> within this locality - so then a philosophical proposition and 
>> position needs to take this into account.
>
>
> Well, except, I tend toward the view that humans are a part of nature 
> and what is happening is a natural process.
>
>> Re the 8 year old --- when that happened to my children i'd already 
>> innoculated them against that unpleasent virus by playing them  
>> sun-ra's "it's after the end of the world"  and told them that god, 
>> satan and somewhat later that man was dead, and that anyone that 
>> believed any human life had greater value than that of george the cat 
>> was either an idiot or hadn't thought about what they were saying...
>
>
> Thanks for the advice :-).
>
> best regards,
>
> mattp
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> theory-frankfurt-school mailing list
> theory-frankfurt-school at srcf.ucam.org
> http://www.srcf.ucam.org/mailman/listinfo/theory-frankfurt-school
>
>