Killing Knowledge

Henry Giroux’s recent article about Paulo Freire generated these thoughts: “that education and politics are inseparable”. The French and American revolutions initially highlighted the importance of knowledge in valuing the independence of the press. The Fourth Estate.

Preeminent international law expert Richard Falk writes “If ever during the history of the human species did we need the benefits of ‘deep thinking,’ which is the enduringly profound contribution of philosophy, is now so many of the world’s leaders and influencers are behaving mindlessly or malevolently, raising risks of provoking quasi-species or even extinction events.”

On today’s articles on the appalling lies and on illiteracy even in the liberal press see Naomi Klein and Jonathan Cook. Declining literacy.

Another source of knowledge is necessary in addition to philosophy: the psychological contribution of Freudian psychoanalytic findings from over a century of listening to people, of analysis and observations of individual psychology and of group processes. The accepted psychological paradigms leave out much human behavior, especially attributing all to neuro-chemical processes that are caused by a homunculus brain. [1]In Freud, the centrality of aggression as readily seen in all the current wars, the role of narcissism of current leaders, the importance of essential narcissism such as the lost pride and pleasure from mindless alienated work in bureaucracies and factories, gendered fear and hatred of women, the body as seen in the meticulous focus on skin color and in Israeli torment of Palestinians’ bodies, castration anxiety as demonstrated in forms of torture, the maturational capacity for rationality and reality testing, for developing a usable conscience and realistic anxiety, the capacity for concern for others. [2]

Advances in understanding the psychology of criminal behavior means considering motives, background, personal experiences of perpetrators which is glaringly absent in the vengeful reaction to 10/07 and 9/11. What have Palestinians in Gaza or Israelis seen and experienced? A timely psychoanalytic contribution comes from working with juvenile delinquents and how some parents actually admonished their children to cheat and exploit: this fits Rockefeller senior patriarch who was a “snake oil salesman” and Trump’s patriarch. This is called “superego lacunae” .[3] In Israel children are taught from an early age that Samson was a hero who killed thousands of people in his suicidal vengeful retaliation for feeling humiliated.

I reflect on Harvard professor Elaine Scarry’s report that students have never heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think of many university students I speak to who do not know about NATO or the IPT, Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-intellectualism in American history, about post-modernism’s challenge to objectivity, about the end of history, about spineless and immoral university adminstrations, to Julian Assange’s eloquent statement about the discarding of truth in his long ordeal, and of course – appalling worldwide leaders. And much much more.

From my clinical work as a psychoanalyst, I see people from all sectors, classes, levels of education, who know a lot, who think a lot. I also think that people likely know a lot more than often what is attributed to society, to “we”: about climate change – from hearing about and experiencing unprecedented storms, floods, droughts, fires.

Here is my own list of basic facts that need to be known at this time. Yours are most welcome.

Because of current genocides, nuclear weapons and unprecedented climate change disasters, the arc of history bends at this time towards human extinction or human survival. This is preventable because there is enough knowledge and technology to provide everyone in the world with shelter, food, potable water, sanitation, health care. There is widespread worldwide protest demanding justice.

Militaries are organized to kill. The military can be replaced by a First Responders Corps to rescue people, and to a Civilian Conservation Corps such as during the New Deal.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) The international treaty on eliminating nuclear weapons. The five original nations possessing nuclear weapons are the only permanent members of the UN Security Council and the only nations holding the veto power. Right now, the US, China, and Russia are updating their nuclear weapons arsenal . Four other nations have nuclear weapons and have never signed the NPT: Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Iran does not have nuclear weapons but is sanctioned and accused of developing these weapons. The United Nations does not represent the people of the world. It represents the rulers of nations and especially nations with nuclear weapons. [4]

The International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice have no mechanisms of enforcing their decisions. Examples are the decision that even threatening to use nuclear weapons is a violation of international law. Another example is the ruling that Israel dismantle the apartheid walls. The UN has also refused to take responsibility for the spread of cholera by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti. Separate UN agencies contribute much information and services for refugees and children.

Treaty on the prohibition of Nuclear Weapons TPNW Entry into force on January 2021.

Nuclear winter and the end of agriculture due to even a limited nuclear war would cause enough fallout to block out the sun for several years.

The International Atomic Energy Agency The IAEA effectively gagged the World Health Association on matters of health in the presence of ionizing radiation. WHO agreed to “consult the IAEA” before issuing statements about health effects. [5] The comprehensive study on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) found that there is no safe level of radiation exposure.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund impoverish the majority world by dismantling the social safety net and creating unpayable “odious debt.” It is labelled neoliberalism. An alternative is abolishing Third World Debt.

350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the cut-off amount for the melting of all Earth’s ice. Current level of carbon dioxide concentration is 421 parts per million which will lead to melting of all ice and causing sea level rise. It is happening so fast that coastal areas, major cities, and agricultural land will be inundated by salt water, causing vast displacement of people within decades.

The wet bulb temperature is a combination of temperature and humidity. It is not survivable by humans who will no longer be able to cool off by perspiring. It will make outdoor work like farming impossible.[5]

Kyoto Protocol exemptions: large sources of carbon emissions like international aviation, shipping, and the military, are not even counted. The huge emissions of factory farming [4], [ data centers of the internet, and the emissions from the production of steel and cement are also ignored. Carbon emissions could easily be substantially reduced by a moratorium on non-essential production. Building codes could substantially reduce the use of steel and cement and many buildings can be converted into mutli-dwelling housing. Reducing non-essential production was done in the U.S. at the beginning of WWII and was also an initial response to the covid pandemic. Rationing has historically been implemented by governments to ensure that peoples’ basic needs were met.

The disparity between huge poverty and enormous wealth and power of the few is unprecedented in the neoliberal class system. There are many radical ways to address this: abolishing third world (odious) debt, abolishing tax havens and confiscating assets and limiting property ownership, setting a maximum wage, stripping decision-making power of these oligarchs and CEO’s and captains of industry and of financialization, many of whom deny human death and believe they can live eternally with the help of modern technology in outer space.

Wealth distribution could change under an economy that provides for everyone’s needs. How? The power of a unified, informed public that is aware that the choice is between existence and extinction.

NOTES

[1] James Gilligan, Reflections on a National Epidemic, Vintage, New York, 1997. See his critique of biological theories. Gilligan was psychiatric director of the Massachusetts Prison System.

[2] Leeb Claudia, Contesting the Far Right: A Psychoanalytic and Feminist Critical Theory Approach. Columbia University Press, New York, 2024.[

[3] Johnson, A. M. & Szurek, S. A. (1952) The Genesis of Antisocial Acting out in Children and Adults. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 21:323-343

[4] Also see these books: Daniel Ellsberg The Doomsday Machine: confessions of a nuclear war planner, Bloomsbury, New York. And see Dr, Dale Dewar and Florian Oelck, From Hiroshima to Fukushima to You: a primer on radiation and health, Between the Lines, Toronto, 2014. P 21.

[5] Fred Magdoff and Brian Tokar, Agriculture and Food in Crisis: conflict, resistance, and renewal, Monthly Review Press, New York, 2010. Also see the immense body of work on regional agro-forestry ecological agriculture, and on factory farming: Tony Weis, Philip McMichael, NGOs like Food First).

Crucial researchers, I recommend Eric Toussaint on the international financial setup, Alain Deneault on tax havens, Joel Bakan on corporate personhood, Stan Cox and Monbiot’s Heat on rationing energy, James Hansen on understanding the climate system, James Gilligan on the psychology of criminal and violent acts. Patrick Bond on deciphering global politics, and on psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and invaluable contributions of Anna Freud.

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