Join Sunil Amrith, a Yale history professor and author of "The Burning Earth," as he reveals the deep ties between violence against both humans and nature. He discusses how language has been weaponized to obscure truths and perpetuate injustices. Explore the colonial suppression of indigenous languages and its impact on cultural identity and environmental movements. Amrith also connects historical violence, technology, and ecological crises, emphasizing the vital need for grassroots activism and justice in a rapidly changing world.
The historical interplay between violence against nature and violence against marginalized communities illustrates systemic injustices perpetuated by dominant ideologies.
Language is a vital tool for understanding and addressing these intertwined crises, enabling coalition-building and reclaiming narratives that resist exploitation.
Deep dives
Interconnection of Violence and the Planetary Crisis
The relationship between human violence and environmental degradation is explored, highlighting how historical and systemic violence has contributed to the current climate crisis. The discussion emphasizes that violence extends beyond physical harm, manifesting in economic systems that oppress marginalized communities. Historical events, such as the conquest of the Americas, illustrate how ideologies dehumanized indigenous populations while facilitating environmental destruction. Moreover, contemporary conflicts and militarism are shown to exacerbate both human suffering and ecological harm, with staggering military expenditures diverting funds from crucial climate initiatives.
Historical Roots of Systemic Violence
The origins of systemic violence are traced back to significant historical moments, particularly the Iberian conquest, where the devaluation of indigenous lives was justified through their perceived proximity to nature. This connection between violence against people and nature has persisted, shaping Western ideologies that exploit both for material gain. Important milestones in history are identified, such as the development of technologies like dynamite, which have been used to fuel both imperial expansion and resource extraction. These narratives challenge the perception of violence as isolated incidents, revealing a continuous cycle linked to societal and environmental exploitation.
The Challenges of Environmental Justice Movements
The conversation touches on the intersection of environmental justice and social justice, highlighting how marginalized groups often bear the brunt of ecological destruction. While new middle classes in various countries are beginning to assert their rights and aspirations, there’s a tension in advocating for reduced consumption among those who have historically faced deprivation. The host and guest discuss the need for coalition-building efforts from grassroots movements worldwide to combat systemic inequities and environmental degradation. Historical examples from Brazil and India showcase grassroots initiatives that tied the health of ecosystems to human flourishing, presenting hopeful models for the future.
The Importance of Language and Imagination in Political Movements
Language plays a critical role in shaping our understanding of violence and justice and is essential for forging connections across movements. The dialogue emphasizes the need to reclaim lost narratives from various global traditions that resist exploitation and promote alternative, just ways of living. Furthermore, imagining a future beyond traditional capitalist frameworks is proposed, encouraging diverse approaches tailored to specific cultural and societal contexts. The conversation concludes with a call for solidarity and innovative thinking, as there is no singular solution to the intertwined crises of violence and environmental destruction.
In the beginning was the word—and that word justified it all.
In this stunning conversation with Sunil Amrith, historian and author of Burning Earth, we explore the systemic nature of violence. We discuss how it permeates the human project at every level, and how language is deployed to obfuscate, distract and even deny that which we bear witness to. Sunil walks us to different points in history to reveal the incontrovertible relationship between violence against the earth and violence against people, and that the justification to extract life from the non-human world inevitably justifies the hierarchies which then see the world’s most vulnerable human beings exploited and even killed.
This is a conversation about how the injustice with which the human project was built, about the ideologies that have justified rampant destruction and extraction, and about how to think of a better world tomorrow with the political language the past has to offer.
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