"Reasonability is not a reproduction of universal laws declared from above" - Interview at Freedom News

 

 

I am very honored to have the opportunity to think about the ongoing Corona crisis in relation to my research in an interview led by Jaroslava Tomanová for Freedom News, the oldest anarchist press and largest bookshop in the UK. I was able to embed the matter in my ongoing (and almost finished) project about Ecological Reasonings and try to understand the current crisis in the larger field of the global ecological turmoil that will last for decades, if not centuries. I try to argue that the Covid crisis might be a good opportunity to develop an ethics of openness and experimentation in a time of growing precariousness and catastrophes. 

In the words of Jara the article "is about the tricky questions regarding ethical judgements, reasonability, differing positions of the leftists towards state-imposed restrictions and the necessity to think critically about generalisations such as “the health care system” and “responsibility”.

"I have the feeling that the growing (and very worrying) polarization and nervousness of society is also a result of not looking and differentiating carefully enough. We tend to put people into abstract boxes we took from elsewhere without looking at their personal histories, experiences, fears and motivations. Social media and social distancing accelerate this superficial mode of “social boxing” a lot.

If we would instead look and talk with them, we might understand their personal relation to this unprecedented time that is stressful to us all and makes us react in various chaotic and difficult manners. We might learn to understand that person A’s particular aversion towards state restrictions stems a lot from her traumas of a past totalitarian state she or her ancestors might have suffered under. Or that person B’s very strict obedience can – among other factors – also be explained as a certain rebellion against the “I don’t give a fuck” mentality of her closest relatives. Every position, situation and fear are understandable if we take care and time to trace them back to its specific ecology. Such a practice of differentiating and examining more carefully and closely is an ethical counter-practise to the current hegemony of too-quick generalizations and judgements."

Read it here:

https://freedomnews.org.uk/reasonability-is-not-a-reproduction-of-universal-laws-declared-from-above-a-conversation-with-kilian-jorg/