End Of The World Thinking

End Of The World Thinking.

by Gina Geoghegan 

Today, the statistics favour Donald Trump as the next president of the USA. Gaza is being erased, literally in front of our eyes, world biosystems are falling apart, Sudan is facing the world’s worst hunger crisis, and my town in Vermont, USA, is 10 degrees hotter than average. These disasters superimpose themselves over each other in my mind’s eye, and I often feel like a mere spectator, implicit but cemented down, engaging only with swipes, likes or outrage through #’s and comments.

As part of this blog, my group has been asked and tasked with writing an interactive blog post, which should demonstrate that I am “tuned into the “pulse” of digital debates” (ComDev Syllabus, 2024). When I was reflecting on this concept of being tuned in, I started to feel more and more insane because, for me, being tuned in also means being tone-deaf. The best representation of this madness is the artwork by Jeroen Kooijman from 1994 called ‘Work’.

                                                     Image from artist’s website: https://jeroenkooijmans.com/portfolio/work-1994/

We are endlessly repeating ourselves and each other in an infinite Sisyphean loop, or as Slavoj Žižek calls it, a “quantum entanglement” in which we are caught in the tension between a “mobilisation against an emblematic enemy and a relaxed [state of] indifference.” (Žižek, S., 2024). This immobile tension has, I believe, allowed us to be at or in the end of the world for a long time. Yet, it is clear that we now might be at that embodiment stage, where the fantasies become reality, and we actually blow up or slowly cook ourselves into oblivion.

Now, surely, as a ComDev student and mother, I must have some kind of intrinsic hope for a future. Despite all the proof to the contrary?
The short answer is yes, I do. I actually do. Yet, despite being at the 11th hour, how we save ourselves matters. To not only save humankind (and the world as we know it) but also our souls, we must act slowly and with care. I heartily disagree with Swedish Emeritus Professor in Philosophy Torbjörn Tennsjö when he argues in his newly re-released book (!) From Despotism to Democracy– how a world government can save humanity, that the answer lies in a despotic world leader who, at the last minute through a coup, takes charge and saves us all. Why? Because it will most likely come at a significant cost. Does it matter if such things as gay rights and abortion rights become “severely restricted” while “we reap the fruits of a global democracy” (Tennsjö, T., p. 144-145)? Yes, it does. How we save ourselves is of utmost importance, not only for the survival of the species but for our souls (energetically and spiritually, not religiously). Tännsjö’s radical idea to bypass social movements and grassroots mobilisation in favour of handing power to an authoritarian regime reinforces the very power structures that have led to our current crises in the first place. His approach reeks of paternalistic shortcuts that echo old imperialist ideas and is a solution which would only really be attractive to those protected by privilege, i.e. Tennsjö himself. It would be a revision of old, colonial ways, which we are in such an urgent need of eliminating.

Instead, my hope lies in slow, kind and loving change, which celebrates degrowth (see Giorgis Kallis), kinship (see Wahinkpe Topa), spiritual healing (for me, this was, among other things, Ayahuasca, seeds, community and my own book club) and slowing down (having kids and turning 40). I believe that Rest is Resistance, and so when I don’t know what to do and feel helpless and desperate, when i feel insane, I put my phone down, put some shoes on, and go outside. I pluck the last frost-bitten tomato from the vines, cuddle a chicken and listen in wonder to my youngest when she names the world around her, where my Sparrow becomes her Skipping Bird and my Willow her Dancing Tree. I can tune in. Finally. My ears, nose, mouth and skin are prickling with sensuality and pleasure. Not from the choking online furore flashing on my phone, gasping for my attention, but rather from an intangible delight which has travelled and evolved over billions of years, through endless oceans of time, to connect with me right here, right now.

This is how I save myself, and in so doing, I also gain an understanding of how we can save everything else.



PS- In an alternative universe, all women around the world take a moral stance and align with the Korean feminist movement, the 4 B’s. As one global movement, women, in solidarity with one another, withhold sex and work until men relinquish power, and we can then move from a capitalist, neoliberal ‘Democrazy’ into an era of Matriarchy. Any man who refuses will be put on the next rocket to Mars with Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Tennsjö! DS




References

Hirst, D. (2024, October 28). Gaza genocide: Is Israel going mad? Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-israel-genocide-going-mad-is

International Rescue Committee. (2024, June). Sudan crisis alert [Report]. https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/PS2406_Report_WL%20Sudan%20Crisis%20Alert_Final.pdf

Kooijman, J. (1994). Work [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hg2XZ0k_vn8?feature=share

Lent, J. (2022, September 19). Restoring the kinship worldview—Jeremy Lent in conversation with Four Arrows & Darcia Narvaez [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HquubTPFXMo

National Centers for Environmental Information. (n.d.). Climate at a glance: Statewide time series. NOAA. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/43/tavg/12/9/1895-2024?base_prd=true&begbaseyear=1901&endbaseyear=2000

O’Neill, D. (2021, June 10). What is degrowth? Interview with Giorgos Kallis [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alp2ZJnvwW8

Purba, J. (2024, September 12). Defying patriarchy: South Korea’s 4B movement and women’s rejection of ‘future-maker’ role. Modern Diplomacy. https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/09/12/defying-patriarchy-south-koreas-4b-movement-and-womens-rejection-of-future-maker-role/

Sussman, A. (2024). A world without men: The women of South Korea’s 4B movement aren’t fighting the patriarchy—they’re leaving it behind entirely. The Cut.  https://www.thecut.com/article/4b-movement-feminism-south-korea.html

Tennsjö, T. (2024), From Despotism to Democracy: How a World Government Can Save Humanity, Springer Publishing

The New York Times. (2024). Election 2024 polls: Harris vs. Trump. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/elections/polls-president.html

Žižek, S. (2024, October 26). We already live in the end of the world: North Korea, quantum entanglement, and the end of history. IAI News. https://iai.tv/articles/slavoj-zizek-we-already-live-in-the-end-of-the-world-auid-2987

YouTube. (2024). [WORK] [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hg2XZ0k_vn8?feature=share