Refugees are the inevitable surplus of Capitalism. Like a monolith, they control the Global Politics and State Policies. Not a single country wants to create refugees even during an economic crisis. However, the refugee crises have become an exclusive necessity for the Western, as well as Developing, nations. For these countries, it has become a sort of norm to keep refugees in a floating state. Capitalism often wants to inject the title of terrorist to some of the refugees. Such a move serves the interests of the CIA, ISIS or Boko Haram. The move also helps the capitalists to use the Palestinian, Syrian or Rohingya refugees as tools for serving their political interests.
As the global community is worried about Islamic Fundamentalism, it is also important to consider how Right-Wing Populism has gradually turned into Extremism in Poland, Hungary, Croatia and India. Even former US President Donald Trump is quite cautious about Israel's activities! When the capitalists plan to establish Extremism as a State Policy on the basis of religion, class or nationalism; the refugee crisis boosts the arms trade. Of course, some refugees shall die in boat accidents near Italy, while others shall become drug traffickers or terrorists. Some shall also become populist positivists in order to serve capitalism for the sake of their lives.
The Philosophy Of Hospitality
This is why Algeria-born French Philosopher Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 - October 9, 2004) used to consider each and every country as Rogue State while deconstructing the refugee crisis. In their 1997 publication 'Of Hospitality', Derrida and his co-author Anne Dufourmantelle (March 20, 1964 - July 21, 2017), a French Philosopher and Psychoanalyst, discussed the possible and impossible aspects of hospitality in detail. In fact, they concentrated on both Hospitality and Inhospitality of Hospitality in this book. According to the authors, capitalism always wants to consider everything from the physiological perspective, and becomes somewhat successful in doing so. Hence, capitalism has inspired the majority of people to accept the concepts of Ultra-Nationalism and Religious Fundamentalism without raising any question! This is a fine example of Capitalist Hospitality.
Derrida believes that capitalism has made a serious attempt to overshadow Karl Marx. It seems that Marx never imagined that intelligence would be privatised one day! However, capitalism has successfully turned everything, including philosophy and language, into a commodity. Interestingly, Derrida accuses philosophy, along with capitalism, of creating such a situation, stressing that philosophy has so far failed to provide people with University without Condition.
The concept of hospitality is closely linked to identity. In the contemporary world, the word identity stands for a piece of paper… identity card, driving licence, passport, visa, ration card, voter identity card, etc. Those who have at least two of these pieces of paper are considered as citizens of a country. Else, people are orphans. Leaders, like Hitler, Gaddafi or Musharraf, provide some people with these papers in order to enable them to be citizens. The rest may remain identity-less. In a sense, paper means identity, as well as anxiety! Emmanuel Levinas (January 12, 1906 - December 25, 1995), the French Philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, mentions that if one's self can accommodate or accept others, then hospitality shall become fully unconditional. Unfortunately, contemporary French leaders have failed to realise the essence of Levinas' idea.
In his 2004 publication 'Paper Machine', Derrida writes: "The paper is mine. Paper is a self or ego. Paper is me. Paper often became the place of the self's appropriation of itself… As a result, in losing that subjectivity itself, because it stabilised the personal law in a minimum of real law. Indeed, a sort of primary narcissism." (pp. 56) However, narcissism is state-enforced. If a state fails to encourage a citizen to become a narcissist, then there shall be no self-hatred in that person. And, it shall not serve the interests of the state. One can trace the root of terrorism in self-hatred. According to Derrida, self-hatred is an essential element for the success of capitalism. Former US President Trump successfully injected the concept of self-hatred among his countrymen by telling them that immigrants were the main problem of their country. With this, he won the Presidential Election, and the concept of hospitality went to coma.
Derrida was well aware of the fact that there is a basic problem in the concept of hospitality. He describes the problem as first violence from the perspective of this subject. In 'Of Hospitality', Derrida mentions: "The foreigner is first of all foreign to the legal language in which the duty of hospitality is formulated; the right to asylum to its limits, norms, policing and so on. He even has to ask for hospitality in a language which by definition is not his own." (pp. 27-28) In order to address this issue, it is important to change the law and the language of the law. The Vichy Government in France had cancelled the Crimea Decree in 1870 to provide the Algerian Jews with legal citizenship. However, Derrida explains this move from a different perspective. He states: "Now retrospectively, the Algeria of that period looks like an experimental laboratory, where a historian can scientifically and objectively isolate what was a purely French responsibility for the persecution of the Jews." (Paper Machine; pp. 68) In other words, the interests of a state are hidden in hospitality. Here, hospitality is not at all unconditional. In fact, the French State destroyed the basic concept of citizenship in 1870. On the contrary, every citizen is always-already paperless, says Derrida, adding that the "Pseudo-goddish" statesmen could cancel citizenship of any person as per their wish.
According to Derrida, each and every foreigner is an Oedipus. He explains that one has to keep her/his eyes open to understand her/his own home or space. Unfortunately, one may be forced to understand that s/he is blind when the person shall open eyes. "That the foreigner here figures, virtually, a parricide son, both blind and super-seeing, seeing in the blind place of the blind person - here… the paternal authority of the logos gets ready to disarm him, to treat him as mad…," stresses Derrida. (Of Hospitality; pp. 11)
Hence (Derrida believes), the languages of two foreigners have always failed to bring them closer. Instead, xenophobia occupies the striated space in the concept of hospitality!
Boundless Ocean of Politics on Facebook
Boundless Ocean of Politics on Twitter
Boundless Ocean of Politics on Linkedin
Contact: kousdas@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment