{"id":8454,"date":"2015-11-17T15:55:13","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T20:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=8454"},"modified":"2021-06-14T07:39:03","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T12:39:03","slug":"a-time-for-grieving-a-time-for-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/11\/17\/a-time-for-grieving-a-time-for-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"A time for grieving, a time for analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"parkeharrison-pollenation\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes discussions in social media feel like the internal conversations of a person with severe multiple-personality disorder trying hard to give equal voice, or at least free rein, to their many voices. And I find I can agree with all or most of those voices; and at the same time disagree.<\/p>\n

In a facebook debate over whether or not it’s okay to grieve more for Paris than for the victims of similar events\u00a0in Beirut<\/a> or elsewhere, someone wrote, “How much better off could the world be if we were not wired to respond more viscerally to that which is close and familiar to us, or could reprogram ourselves to feel equally for strangers, and places we’ve never been?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I agree that it would be better if we could feel — deeply feel — for the stories and experiences of utter strangers, people from cities we’ve learned to think of as the places where “those things happen”: the Beiruts and Baghdads and Kabuls and Jerusalems. And I agree that there’s a valid political point to be made — about colonialism, Eurocentrism, and the like\u00a0— in the fact that many of us\u00a0don’t.<\/p>\n

But I also disagree, because I can’t imagine a world in which we would be wired not<\/em><\/strong> to respond more viscerally to that which is close and familiar to us. That’s what makes us human, and it’s what gives us the capacity to empathize; everything else is abstract. I’ll take real (instinctual) empathy over abstract compassion any day. Even if I will advocate the latter as a half-way step toward developing and expanding the former.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Writing in Vox.com<\/a>, journalist Max Fisher provides\u00a0a thoughtful reflection on the Paris-Beirut comparison meme<\/a>. While he\u00a0is quite right that the media covered the Beirut bombings, the amount of coverage they received is significantly less. I counted 17 New York Times paragraphs starting on page A6<\/a> for the Beirut bombings (the article he cites reflecting on whether they were undercovered or not appeared three days later) — and over 6\u00a0full pages, including the entirety of page A1, of the Sunday edition devoted to the Paris attacks.<\/p>\n

But the point is that the media tried to cover them, and that media, in a competitive media environment, play up what they believe their readers want to hear. So Fisher’s arguments largely stand, with the caveat that the causality has become somewhat\u00a0circular: the chicken of “what will people read?” drives the egg of “what should we give them?”, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Something else in his piece strikes me as extremely revealing:<\/p>\n

“France has received 6,700 Syrian asylum claims… In response, European and other Western leaders have convened repeated international summits… Lebanon currently hosts 1.1 million Syrian refugees<\/em>… In response, the world has given some aid but has fallen far short of the United Nations’ annual funding requests.” <\/span><\/p>\n

That western readers — those with the money that could make a difference\u00a0— are tone-deaf to the non-white world is not news. That there are ways we could make much better decisions about these things should also not be news. <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s what makes the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities — including studies of how people make sense of global issues and how new media affect those sense-making processes — so important today. We process things the ways our nervous systems like to process things, amplifying certain kinds of threats (such as those posed by\u00a0people who look different from us, who might be doing deviant things or wanting to move\u00a0into our communities) and ignoring others (those that seem distant in time and in space). And those with a stake in our processing help that out in ways that benefits their interests.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

What can help? \u00a0Education, for starters. That’s why our educational institutions, instead of being subjected to neoliberal cost-cutting and money-making pressures (as they are, increasingly), ought to be transformed into the active and engaged learning communities that would transform society from the ground up. <\/span><\/p>\n

As someone who teaches at a public research university that prices many students out of its offerings, or at least keeps them in debt for years afterward, I know how that can seem only a dream. But it’s a dream worth working towards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the end, I have felt\u00a0like citing Ecclesisastes on there being a season for everything.\u00a0If we grieve for Paris, let us do that with the attention and emotional acuity it deserves. That doesn’t mean we should not have grieved for Beirut, or any other place. But grieving, when it starts, needs its space.<\/p>\n

But as soon as we grieve, we render ourselves vulnerable to one pressure or another. So analysis ought to follow\u00a0soon after.<\/p>\n

And if we feel closer to one place than another, it’s a good opportunity\u00a0to reflect on why that’s the case. I know why I feel for Paris:\u00a0I’ve been there, have friends there, know and love its history — its revolutions, its artistic and\u00a0philosophical\u00a0culture. I would want every city to be a bit like Paris. And I know where my idea of Beirut comes from: when I was growing up, it\u00a0was synonymous with “divided city,” with bombings, with seemingly senseless loss of life, so it’s not only on my inherited list of cities where “things like that” happen — it defines<\/em> that list.<\/p>\n

But a capacious response to such events calls for extending our analysis to the\u00a0broader contours and contexts that frame them. In the case of both sets of bombings, that means recognizing that there are ideologies that cannot be accommodated within a pluralistic social body, because they are intended to destroy that pluralism and the respect for difference that must be its foundation. Those ideologies must be met, challenged, defused and neutered. (And before that happens,\u00a0they must be adequately understood.)<\/p>\n

But it also means recognizing that at least some of the grievances that fuel them come not from outside, but from within that same social body.\u00a0That is why connecting Paris to Beirut is useful and sensible, once the grieving has been given its space. They are connected as points on global vectors, some of which can only be understood through a long and probing historical lens (one that requires conceptual tools of analysis\u00a0like\u00a0militarism, colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and the like).<\/p>\n

No one ever said that the prospect of building a peaceable global civilization will be an easy one. Back in the late Cold War era, there were times when it seemed we couldn’t possibly make it to the year 2000.\u00a0We (or most of us) did. As we have shifted into an ever more unified world of multiple power centers and egregious resource and wealth imbalances, things have gotten wilder and less predictable.<\/p>\n

There’s no going back, because there’s no “there” to go back to. There’s only the way forward — a way that will have to address those imbalances, the desires and struggles\u00a0they represent, and the ever more precarious ecological frame that encloses them —\u00a0all at once<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Good luck to that. If there’s an alien civilization that can give us any pointers<\/a>, we could use them\u00a0now. Failing with that, the only thing that will carry us through is\u00a0the belief<\/a> that it’s possible.<\/p>\n

That\u00a0gives me hope. And it\u00a0makes me feel even more for the people of Paris, and of Beirut, and of all the other places where it hurts<\/a> today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image: Pollination<\/em>, by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes discussions in social media feel like the internal conversations of a person with severe multiple-personality disorder trying hard to give equal voice, or at least free rein, to their many voices. And I find I can agree with all or most of those voices; and at the same time disagree. In a facebook debate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[690660,691215],"tags":[350201,350199,103273,16928,245,16849,8,27491,109069,123674],"class_list":["post-8454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural_politics","category-politics_postpolitics","tag-beirut","tag-fear","tag-geopolitics","tag-global-civil-religion","tag-globality","tag-hope","tag-media","tag-paris","tag-political-left","tag-terrorism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2cm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9294,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/06\/02\/trump-vs-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":8454,"position":0},"title":"Trump vs. the world","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump's speech on his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord included so many questionable statements, it's hard to know where to start. Fortunately, others have. Among the better fact-checks are the Washington Post's (this one\u00a0and\u00a0this one), FactCheck.org's, NPR's, PolitiFact's, and the\u00a0Huffington Post's. Foreign Policy's summary (which comes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8540,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/12\/15\/following-the-inaction-in-paris-updated\/","url_meta":{"origin":8454,"position":1},"title":"Following the (in)action in Paris, updated","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This article\u00a0has been revised since it was first posted. It consists of a list of useful\u00a0sources providing ongoing coverage of, and initial post-conference reactions to, the COP21 conference and mobilizations in response to it. Please suggest any other helpful\u00a0sources and links in the \"Comments.\" (Previously suggested links\u00a0have\u00a0been added and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8472,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/11\/19\/the-climate-connection\/","url_meta":{"origin":8454,"position":2},"title":"The climate connection","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"How connected are the recent Paris attacks\u00a0with the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 21 (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)? At first glance, the targeting\u00a0of Paris for ISIS's act of war on civilian populations would seem to be motivated by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8443,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/11\/09\/whats-happening\/","url_meta":{"origin":8454,"position":3},"title":"What’s happening?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The beginning of COP 21, the UN Conference on Climate Change,\u00a0is three weeks away. So what else is happening, you ask? 1) The Campaign Against Climate Change's\u00a0Time to Act!\u00a0campaign, 350.org, Reclaim Power, and various other formations are preparing actions around the world on the eve of the summit (November 28-29)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ClimateGames-meme-e1444227629407","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2015\/11\/ClimateGames-meme-e1444227629407-275x143.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8902,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2016\/07\/12\/assessing-murray-bookchins-legacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":8454,"position":4},"title":"Assessing Murray Bookchin’s legacy","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"July 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Damian White has posted an excellent review\u00a0of Janet Biehl's book Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin at the Jacobin blog. Bookchin's legacy has undergone something of a revival of late\u00a0thanks to the\u00a0efforts of Kurdish eco-socialist communitarians in Rojava. As he did in his 2008 book Bookchin: A Critical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1322,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/08\/18\/almost-a-real-paris\/","url_meta":{"origin":8454,"position":5},"title":"almost a real Paris","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't wanted to tread into the recent Speculative Realist debates over Derrida, in part because I haven't had time for them (and my internet access has been a little unreliable), but in part also because I think they're mostly reiterating themes that have already been well covered. 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