Dancer at the Hemis Monastery festival. Annual festival dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava. Practices considered sacred in connection with the divine. Photo: Monteiro, 2022.
Recently I was invited to think, write and propose discussions about the future and how it might be possible to think about its connection with the past. After all, where are we? How is it possible to think about escape routes from the multiple crises we are going through and how they influence our own way of acting and being in the world. It is a fact that we must change our individual and collective way of being and being in the world. But how can we do this? Before making concrete and material changes, I believe it is necessary to go through deep reflections on how we got here. After collective thoughts and reflections, with my partner and others, I would like to share these thoughts that are still specific and preliminary.
Ancient futures
Coming from a social academic tradition, I tend to assimilate the theme of the future from a Marxist perspective based on dichotomies that capitalism carries within itself: collective/individual; accumulation/distribution; isolation/integration. Perceiving the future in this sense reminds me of Francis Fukuyama's paper "The End of History" (1989), in which he explores the idea that, with the end of the Cold War, history would have ended due to the triumph of capitalism over capitalism. socialism, and its implications in subjective and collective fields - individualism, exploitation, privatization... Western democratic values and standards perceived as goals to be sought, as a beacon of so-called development. From a broader perspective, the way of being, seeing and being seen. This fact has at its core several implications on the subjective perception of the mind and how we, personally and collectively, understand the meaning of the choice to be different/deviant and how we can accept different ways of designing and building the future. There is, therefore, only one way of being and pursuing existence in the world, the capitalist ideal, and this is leading us to failure.
Since the implications of climate change are adding to a world that is already facing multiple crises, the concrete image of the end of the world grows in the global imagination. Powerful floods in Pakistan and Germany, landslides in Brazil and Ecuador, alarming droughts in California and Australia, etc... The images of climate change are stronger in our lives, also encompassing subjective fields of human practice - the The presence of the end of the world is near. We are close to not being able to perceive the consequences of its impacts from different perspectives, since capitalism has put great pressure on our collective and individual diversity – pasteurizing our dreams, desires and ways of understanding the world. It kills our worldviews.
In recognizing the arrival of the end of the world, Western society has never been so close to indigenous populations. In the Americas, for example, indigenous populations have been facing the apocalypse since the arrival of Europeans, who never stopped enclosing their lands, exploiting their bodies and resources, and condemning their lives. Indigenous populations, better than anyone, know how to face the end, postponing it through various community practices. In addition to destroying territories and cultures, the accelerated expansion of capitalism is also destroying ways of perceiving the world. Allowing the expansion of capitalist practices as they are, is allowing the growth of necro-politics and also, as explored by Boaventura de Souza Santos in his "Epistemologies of the South" (2009), conducting different types of epistemicide in the world, the killing of worldviews and ways of seeing the world. These worldviews, from his perspective, could bring solutions that Western society does not have the tools or cognitive repertoire to properly probe.
As discussed by Silvia Federeci, in her "Re-Singing the World: Feminism and Politics of the Commons" (2018), a key aspect of capitalism for its expansion is the dispossession of goods and even people's bodies and also their community practices. Depriving the population of the feeling of belonging, their identity, their hope and even their memories. Not having a community or memories is not having a story. As an example she points out that if the only sense of security one has is provided by the security provided by a monthly salary, then our social practices, and therefore hope in life and even our freedom, are doomed - as they really are doomed. in the Western, so-called developed, world. In many southern countries, community practices are still strong enough to support people's lives, even in the darkest moments of their lives. To this end, it is important to highlight resistance practices of traditional South American populations, based on the concept of "buen vivir" (Spanish for "living well"). According to Alberto Acosta in his book "El Buen Vivir: Sumak Kawsay, una oportunidad para imaginar otro mundo" (2012) this is a key concept that could rescue old concepts that could help us in the much needed leap forward - such as community practices, the rights of nature and other forms of production, consumption and distribution of goods and services. After all, everything belongs to everyone.
Another anecdote about the importance of traditional knowledge for urgent improvements that we need to experience also comes from South America. Indigenous leader, shaman, philosopher and screenwriter Davi Kopenawa describes it in his book "The Fall of the Sky: Words from a Yanomami Shaman" (2013) how the worldview of its people and how their practices are key to preventing the sky from falling on us - meaning in a very simplistic view the end of the world. Some people originally from Brazil have this practice of carrying out ceremonies and community practices in order to
Re-enchanting ourselves
Weber's seminal concept of Disenchantment of the World, fostered by the rationalization and technical improvement of modern society, taking cultures far beyond the magical perspective of our common existence on Earth, points to a world where no mystical aspects are anymore necessary - example speak with spirits and dance so that plantations develop. In this sense, rituals, songs and dances are no longer necessary, connection is no longer practiced. Silvia Federici (2012) proposes the opposite. She proposes that we must go back, primitive, mystical and seeking enchantment to visualize other forms and allow other voices, other songs and colors to emerge and propose new forms for the future. Enchantment comes from the Latin verb cantare (to sing), being the basis of the practices that connect us with each other, and with the land itself. Not just singing per se, but dancing, painting and other practices that bring and allow lyricism in the world.
In addition to proposing art and community practices as ways of re/imagining and re/producing ways of living and being, artistic and affective practices are also necessary so that we can re/create collective and individual memories. Creating new memories of belonging also paves the way for a better and more inclusive future. Only by allowing ourselves to create art and affection in a gray world, by being part of it, could we foster color and new personal narratives. Such practices are small windows to breathe that, when opened together, could help us dream of our future together.
Thinking about the end of history idealized by the triumph of capitalism in the late 80s, and its subsequent growth and recent accentuation, I would like to suggest a reflection that goes in the opposite direction. In order to see a way out of the dead end we are in now, it is essential that we believe and step back in our references of practices and faith and that we are collectively courageous enough to create and propose ways of thinking about ourselves and how we want follow together. Only by doing it collectively could we do it alone, helping each other on this journey.