Universality, Nature, and Hope

Hi friends! Today I’m thinking about universality. Critical theorists Ilan Kapoor and Zahi Zalloua write in Universal Politics “the social, as much as the subject, is punctured by an impossibility — an incompletion — which rather than serving as a barrier to politics, lays a foundation for a shared struggle.” I think about this as I read today’s headlines on Netanyahu’s just-announced goal to permanently ‘take over’ Gaza. What he and the Israeli apartheid machine wants is to erase Gaza. The growing global outrage at the manifold atrocities in Gaza is too inconvenient for Israel (though I, and many others, doubt Israel will ever truly be held to account for their crimes); the only solution, then, is to make it so Gaza does not exist — so there is no possibility of a ‘shared struggle’ with the Palestinian cause. This, I hope, will not work. There are too many people who have been moved to act, and who refuse to look away in the light of this ongoing genocide. Unfortunately, the mainstream media is not part of this cohort. They still write about the “war” in Gaza. Mention of genocide is almost impossible to find. What this moment demands is a universality rooted in solidarity with Palestine. Today’s article is an interview with Artist-Educator Kyle Peets, focusing on his recent show called Willy-Nilly. As you’ll read, Peets uses intuitive print-making techniques to subvert the colonial gaze inherent in landscape photography, particularly of the American West. These works, Peets says, is like “tapping into another wavelength or another way of seeing or thinking.” We could all use a new way of seeing or thinking right now. Click on the button below for the full interview transcript, lightly edited for clarity.

Plus, some notes from a roadtrip …

Recently Nazaaha and I drove across the country in a sort of post-graduation haze. Now that I’m getting ready to start grad school in earnest, and we are generally back in the swing of things, it is finally possible to look back on the trip which can only be described as, truly, a disaster. Problems included:

• Walked in on a gas station robbery. Promptly left.

• Bike rack broke (this is why we went to that gas station in the first place - in search of tape).

• Got stuck in Montana, it was snowing on the mountains.

• Drove through rain so heavy we kept hydroplaning.

• Maybe drove through a tornado?? Unclear.

• Could not find a single Skyline Chili in Ohio.

But we did get to see some very cool rock formations. Check it out…