[lbo-talk] The Hyper object In The Gulf As Case Study

[Dwayne Monroe]

For several years, Timothy Morton, Professor (English), UC Davis has
methodically crafted the beginnings of an ecological point of view
suitable for the 21st century.  That is, an ecological ideology
liberated from Rousseau-esque ideas of untarnished Nature threatened
by an utterly ruined humanity.

I'm particularly attracted to Morton's unapologetic use of Marx, his
awareness of capitalism as a system (a rare thing, in my experience,
even amongst left savvy eco-enthusiasts) and his identification of the
ways sentimentality, nostalgia and hauntological preoccupations hinder
truly "deep" ecology.

Some Morton related links --

blog

<http://ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com/>

Book: The Ecological thought

<http://www.amazon.com/Ecological-Thought-Timothy-Morton/dp/0674049209/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257021850&sr=1-7>

Book: Ecology Without Nature

<http://www.amazon.com/Ecology-without-Nature-Rethinking-Environmental/dp/0674034856/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277078645&sr=1-2>

Morton calls his project "dark ecology" which is both a bit of a laugh
(it's ecology for goths!) but also illustrative of the inclusiveness
of the ecological concept he's assembling.  An ecology which makes no
space for anthropomorphism besotted BBC series on lovable Polar Bear
'families" but leaves lots of room for viruses and other perfectly
'natural' things usually banished from our empathy circle.

..

Morton describes extremely powerful technologies and technological
by-products as "hyperobjects".  Before climate change terrifyingly
entered our consciousness, the premier example was pu 239, plutonium.
Hyperobjects are extraordinarily long-lived and have vast impacts.
Hyperobjects also present us with acute challenges -- not only at the
workaday level of systems management but also, at the perceptual level
of absorbing the thing's full meaning and a thorough understanding of
what it's doing to the world.

Morton's Essay On Hyperobjects --

<http://contemporarycondition.blogspot.com/2010/03/hyperobjects-and-end-of-common-sense.html>

Helpfully, Morton makes a distinction between the typical eco-romantic
objection to hyperobjects -- which boils down to: we shouldn't have
such power, it's 'un-natural' -- and a capitalism-aware critique which
identifies the problem as the profit driven world-system into which
the hyper-Os are born.

A good example of the sort of well-intentioned, emotionally correct
yet ultimately ineffectual criticism Morton dissects can be found at
Roger Ebert's blog --

"Here's Another Fine Mess"

<http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/06/heres_another_fine_mess.html>

Ebert, a film critic and cancer survivor who has become (against his
will, it seems) something of a secular saint to the Internet clever
set, writes passionately about "greed" and our failure to turn down
the lights and reluctance to use solar panels on our roofs and
stubborn insistence on using clothes dryers and a long list of other
'personal responsibility' riffs.  The overall effect is pleasing to
our outrage and moralizing tendencies (note the many 'me too boss'
comments) but ultimately, is a bit of a glorious, liberal-think mess.

For me, the most productive way to consider the massive disaster in
the Gulf -- our ever growing hydrocarbon "hyperobject" -- is as an
example of the way capitalist enterprises are, in the age of
neoliberal degeneracy, steadily  losing (or perhaps, with the aid of
de-fanged regulatory bodies, willfully abandoning) the ability to
manage dangerous substances and processes that demand our full
attention.  Then again, this is nothing new.  I'm told that oil
production in less media saturated parts of the world (Nigeria, for
example) is routinely plagued with gigantic spills and ecological
devastation.

.d.