OutBoxing Series: the dictator of the 21st century will not be a human but the earth. A truly fantastic comparison between Game of Thrones and climate warming.

in #philosophy6 years ago

Outboxing: this series of posts makes you think about life, it wants to show things from a different perspective or it just wants to express what you already know subconsciously.

Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot. A small selection from the hundreds of dictators the 20th century has delivered. Together these bloodthirsty tyrants and enlightened despots have eradicated an unprecedented amount of people on the plane. The 20th century was not only the century of freedom and democracy, but also the century of the dictator.

And yet, at the end of the century, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the world seemed to slowly get rid of the supreme ruler; the model of liberal democracy spread rapidly over the globe and capitalism nestled in the capillaries of everyday life. The (western) man finally lived, after a lot of blood, sweat and tears, in a prosperous and democratic mecca. Perhaps a bit flatfooted and soulless. But still, at least there was no chaos and terror.

That was the 20th century. Meanwhile, the 21st century has shifted into high gear. New geopolitical landslides (from East to West) are fiercely emerging and - bam! - the authoritarian leader is back on the world stage. Putin (Russia), Duterte (Philippines), Orbán (Hungary), Erdoğan (Turkey), but also Trump, may not be officially called dictators, but they do meet - to a greater or lesser degree – the qualifying criteria set out in the 'checklist of dictatorship'. In times of chaos and multiple existential crises, omnipotence fantasies always find their way. A dictator is born that way.

This is obviously not reassuring. Yet - and here the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the 20th - these aspirant dictators are nothing compared to the dictator of dictators, which is increasingly manifesting itself: planet Earth.

For while the dictator of the twentieth century could still practice his sovereignty in a relatively calm and benevolent climate (the Holocene), the climatic decor itself appears on stage in the 21st century. Many call it 'climate change', but it is actually more comprehensive: we are at the beginning of a total restructuring of the earthly system. 'Welcome' in the Anthropocene!

The Anthropocene is a scientific term introduced by the Dutch geologist Paul Crutzen. Since its introduction, emotions have always run high when it comes to this phenomenon. 'Antropo' is the Greek word for human, 'ceen' a scientific term for a geological period (to get an idea of the scale on which we talk: the previous epoch, the Holocene, lasted more than 11,000 years). In ordinary human language the term means something like 'the geological age of man'.

A rather unfortunate term, because it is easy to misinterpret. We are not talking about something like 'man as ruler over the planet', as opportunists sometimes interpret it. On the contrary, the opposite could well be the case. The term 'Anthropocene' therefore refers more to the enormous geological impact that man has on the earth's life-support system, as a result of which it is fundamentally transforming into a much more incalculable and less hospitable environment. So call it the era in which man, if he does not learn to bend quickly, will be dominated.

In the context of the Anthropocene, it is difficult to speak of 'people' in a general sense. After all, mankind is not a universal community at all, but a divided and multi-headed species with diverse interests and influences. One has (in the first instance) much to gain when maintaining the current state of affairs (think of several multinationals and governments), the other much to lose if 'humanity' keep doing this dance (think of a poor farmer in the dry desert of Darfur, or closer to my home: the South European ravaged by heat and forest fire).

Vox made two years ago, based on a scientific article by the American politician Charli Carpenter, a beautiful and cleverly found comparison with the series Game of Thrones. Because whoever looks through the scenes sees that the series not only evokes an imaginary world, but is secretly also an allegory of climate warming.

Carpenter's analysis is as follows: while the various rival kingdoms, from House Lannister to House Targaryen, are fiercely fighting for power in the Seven Kingdoms, somewhere halfway through the story a new but much larger player comes into play: the White Walkers. This growing legion of humanoid creatures (they have a human body structure, but are extraterrestrials), coming from the cold North ('behind the wall'), forms a supernatural and immanent threat to humanity as a whole. Where the White Walkers come, they even literally change the weather. The White Walkers, according to Carpenter, symbolize a non-human and destructive force: climate warming.

And there are more indications. Because even in the series there are 'noble people' (read: politicians) who are far too busy competing with each other, so that the threat of the coming White Walkers is not taken seriously enough or even dismissed as a non-existent legend (read: hoax). Then there is the Night's Watch, a group of heroic guards (read: the climate scientists) who in the far north at a large ice wall protect the empire against the dangers behind the wall and have seen the devastating power of the White Walkers up close.

Jon Snow, the former commander of the Night's Watch and now King of the North, travels the empire to warn everyone (with little success) of the upcoming danger. Behind that wall are not only the White Walkers, but also the Wildlings or the so-called Free folk (read: climate victims): a nomadic people who are the first to experience the consequences of the destructive nature of the changing environment.

The series is not over yet, so we do not know how it ends. Will the rival groups manage to unite against the common threat? Or does their own hunger for power become the collective death? It will be exciting. According to Carpenter, Game of Thrones is at least a collective action story: it states that the seven warring families can best join forces, but also shows how difficult this is in the existing governmental structures.

'Winter is coming' is one the most famous statements in the series. Replace 'winter' with 'summer' and you are back in reality. How life will be under the new climate regime? The first lashes of dictator 'Earth' are in any case already visible. Extreme heat waves in southern Europe and the Balkans, acidification of the oceans, massive extinction of animal species, explosive global increase of ticks (by heat), sea level rise and so on. The list is getting bigger and bigger.

As a non-human dictator, the earthly life-support system will increasingly - whether we want it or not - dictate our future life. This requires not only adaptation, but also fundamental re-reflection of what it means to be human on planet Earth.

In any case, I am already making a respectful bow for the new ruler.

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