Editor’s Note: This article was adapted from a talk by Prof. Karim-Aly Kassam, natural resources and the environment and indigenous studies, at the Area Studies Roundtable of the Einaudi Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Last week was breathtaking. On Monday, Jan. 27, $1 trillion was shaved off the stock market in a single day. By Thursday, Jan. 30, Federal Law Enforcement was in the Ithaca Commons, raising real concerns among young scholars (including Native American Students) because of their complexion, that they would be profiled and questioned. Furthermore, these law enforcement actions have an impact on international students because of the President’s executive orders, especially if they were involved in activism. One is left breathless not because of a sense of awe but because of being a witness to sheer callousness and unrestrained inhumanity in the most powerful democracy on the planet.
Our colleagues in astronomy inform us that a star like the sun, as it approaches its death, begins to supernova. It becomes larger and larger while it uses up all its energy as it burns life in its explosive wake. Then after some time, having been spent, it collapses. The current moment in our history can be likened to a supernova. To be sure, this political process has also been aided by forces on the other side who claim the moral high ground, but their protestations are a façade. Both sides are objective allies and need each other to justify their own existence. If you view them from a distance, as my work with Indigenous peoples in the Circumpolar Arctic, the Northern Forest and the Mountains of Central Asia has allowed me to do, you will notice there is very little difference among them because they are both driven by ill-conceived self-righteousness and a monolithic conception of their own truth. They do not know how to doubt and engage in critical self-examination. Despite being well endowed with privilege, a bounty of benefits, and vast financial resources, both sides present themselves as “victims.” Thus, making us, the silent majority, “victims of victims.”
So, what are scholars, students and faculty alike, to do? Like the Indigenous peoples I work with, we are not just victims, we have agency. I would argue, it is to protect pluralism because difference matters!
Difference is so fundamental that the capacity to perceive it is shared by all living organisms from the worm to the human. We need differences to discern. It is the basis of knowledge itself because difference helps us learn. In essence, difference sustains life. This cognitive diversity is the source of pluralism: A value that protects difference.
Valuing difference is not just about appearance but ways of knowing. Pluralism in our way of being (ontology) and our thinking (epistemology) is key to addressing the climate crisis. Pluralism is vital to achieving food sovereignty and the outcome of food security. It is fundamental to overcoming poverty traps. Pluralism is necessary for attaining environmental justice and preventing violence performed against human beings of different ideological, ethnic, religious and sexual orientations. What we do to our land and seascapes, we also do to each other; and what we do to each other, we also do to our land and seascapes. Together, this has implications for future generations of all life. If we eliminate difference, we promote the “death of birth.” These are the basic precepts of environmental justice.
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Even those who worship Mammon, the demon of greed, realized last week through international stock markets that pluralism is also key to the development and ethical governance of artificial intelligence. American-based companies lost billions as they discovered that their arrogance and self-assuredness did not account for other ways of doing and thinking regarding artificial intelligence.
So, what do we do when we are caught in a historical moment like a political supernova? We build institutions, intellectual infrastructure and community engagement that facilitate and nurture pluralism. International studies of specific regions and societies, language studies beyond just the romance languages and investment in Indigenous languages and cultures are the bulwark, evolving in the present to meet the needs of future scholars and policy-makers. We cannot be distracted by background noise, of which, both sides among the elite oligarchies are spewing. Quietly, wisely and effectively, we must continue without drawing too much attention to our work. We do not need academic prima donnas; their commitment is weak because of shameless self-promotion and their intellectual depth is shallow because it is not able to embrace the value and insight of the “other.” Academic titillation and shock and awe are not our tactics. We need to speak truth to power with humility and grace, and that requires stamina, the ability to doubt along with conviction and cognitive diversity. In short, pluralism.
History shows us that no system based on self-deception, fear and motivated by hate can sustain itself over a long period of time because it will cannibalize itself. The supernova is temporary, and it will end. Meanwhile, we will be present and engaged. This is the time not only to dream dangerously but to act strategically with tactics that conserve difference. Pluralism opens up possibilities for action in resolving the climate crisis, eliminating poverty traps, achieving environmental justice, creating mutual understanding and engaging a free society of the twenty-first century.
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Karim-Aly Kassam is a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment & American Indian and Indigenous Studies.
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