Abstract
In this article, we study politics as domination. From our point of view, domination, especially in the Anthropocene, has had two vital components—power and supremacy. In order to dominate, one has to have power over others. In addition, the politics of domination, such as colonial oppression of Latin America, has required reasoning, justification, and legitimation, often connected to superiority (because of religion, society, or civilization) from the oppressor’s end. Past and present political ideologies and programs, such as colonialism, imperialism, but also welfare state capitalism, neoliberalism and increasingly popular Green New Deal are examples of what we call “anthropolitics”, an anthropocentric approach to politics based on domination, power, and supremacist exploitation. In contrast to the prevailing anthropolitics, this article discusses post-Anthropocene politics, characterized by localization and decentralization, as well as a steep reduction of matter–energy throughput by introducing a theoretical frame called ecological realism.
Highlights
Throughout the history of civilization, politics has been a human-centered process
Ecological realism can be seen as an attempt to move beyond an either/or type of utopian thinking where humanism and post-humanism, or anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, are opposed [111]. This does not mean that we are sympathetic to anthropolitics or human domination in the Anthropocene, but rather, we argue that post-Anthropocene politics do not need to discard the whole humanist tradition or posthumanist hybridism on the condition that there occurs a significant shift toward more ecocentric values, practices, and structures
Anthropocene epoch is by definition a result of anthropocentric domination
Summary
Throughout the history of civilization, politics has been a human-centered process. It has broadly meant the activities and practices connected to the governance of human affairs. Following this analysis and narrative, the article proceeds to describe how anthropocentrism has manifested in inter-human and non-human domination in the modern political realm. The article turns to a closer discussion on ecological realism and post-Anthropocene politics
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