For a large part of this course I feel that we have been talking about uncertainty from the frame that it is a negative feature of scientific understandings and social action. Now I would like to propose that we flip this perspective and consider the benefits: uncertainty is a driver for social change.
Uncertainty is an inherent part of life, an inescapable truth that we as humans all learn to adapt to, compensate for, and to some degree, accept. Furthermore, it is a fundamental part of creativity, and thus social change.
The inaction regarding the climate crisis is evident and it can be argued that we are trapped in the cycle of trying to make changes within a system that does not want to change. Simply put, there are invested economic and political interests to keep “business as usual”. We cannot break out of the cycle without a radical rethink of our economy and values.
A challenge for us therefore, is to be creative. Uncertainty can drive the imagination, and help us to believe that another world is possible.
We are living currently in a pandemic that exemplifies this. Social and economic aspects of our society that seemed utterly permanent and fixed, were exposed as fragile facades that collapsed under this external forcing. I here take the luxury of a small tangent to my thinking, as one direction that the uncertainty of this crisis has given us the opportunity to explore.
Prison Abolition
Within a very small frame of time, large parts of the global population have had their liberty constricted and felt the colossal impacts of living without freedom. Living in such a constrained environment, it is natural to then consider the section of our community that we legitimize incarceration for. From witnessing first hand the devastating effects of being “socially distant”, it has become ever clearer the importance of human interaction with other humans, and how a lack of social contact can deteriorate ones mental health. How then, is it that we enforce isolation onto a specific demographic of the population, and justify this as beneficial? Prison abolition has never been a more logical step to take.
At a first glance, prison abolition might seem an absurd, fantastical notion. But the reality is, nothing is more counter intuitive to achieving social justice than to isolate those in our community who have caused harm. With no evident link between crime rates and the expansion of prisons including incarceration rates, it is clear that prison does not deter harmful behaviour.
If not to deter, then what else could prison be for? The secondary purpose of prison as a rehabilitation facility is also flattened when considering reoffending rates are at around 50 percent, and rises to around 70 percent for the under 18’s.
Let’s briefly examine instead the origins of the punitive justice system.
The criminal justice system is inherently flawed in that policing and the penal justice system originated as tools for preventing resistance and establishing racial hierarchies; the founder of the Met police Robert Peel was formerly employed as the Colonial Secretary for Ireland and worked on maintaining the colonial system: he developed a model in order to keep control of the colonialized population in Ireland which was then implemented as the start of the British police force. With origins that are racist and constructed to oppress, the system is unfit for reformation in that it was built for this purpose. It is failing on its own terms.
Much like our economic system, we cannot find a solution within the frame that caused and perpetuates the problem. We must use uncertainty to nurture our imaginations of what is possible, and of what future we would like to live in.
Be bold and bright with your ideas!
https://soundcloud.com/novaramedia/sets/the-lockdown
Nice and interesting post Ella!!!
I think uncertainty is just inherent to life. Daily we are facing uncertain situations and I think the way we face this uncertain has been a way to improve our performance in these situations. Also, I think that uncertainty has been something positive, because for example in science, thanks to all these “unknowns” scientists feel inspired to keep researching and finding new things.
On the other hand, what you say about the necessity to change the actual economic system to see real impacts and/or solutions toward climate change is true. Nevertheless, sadly it sounds like a utopia, and I believe the way that change has to be thought-out is through innovation and technology.
Now, with respect to prison abolition I would say it is a very controversial topic. I completely agree with Deniz when he says that most of “crimes” are a direct result of inequalities and inequities of that system. Nevertheless, my grandfather was killed some years ago and I would be very happy if the person who did it was deprived of his/her liberty (the person who did it is free, after a lot of years we never knew who was and that person is just outside enjoying while me and my family had to cry and bury my grandfather). And now that I know how social distancing feels, I would be even moooooore happy if this person were in jail, isolated, in a cube. Maybe this is not a good though but what other way is there to justice or punishment? It’s just hard. Maybe I should learn to forgive.
Maybe I’m not completely agree with prison abolition, but some crimes such as theft could be avoided with education and equal opportunities for all the people.
Uncertainty was the first and foremost driver of collective human knowledge. Science, and all the associated explorations and inventions stems from our irresistible urge towards overcoming uncertainties, which is a neuroscientific fact as the human brain needs certainty and continuity (fun fact: most of our memories are not verbatim recordings, they are rather some snapshots of the real thing tied together with self-fabricated filling material). Building upon that thought, I really appreciate this idea of using the uncertinty for turning the tables on this unreasonable system we are living under right now. One can also see capitalism as a “prison” in that sense, like you have stated. I think that the most intriguing problem we are facing right now is how to break out of this prison we have built some 150 years ago which is carrying the world in a trailer truck going downhill fullspeed with cut brakes.
On the other hand, the penal system shows the darker side of the way humans deal with uncertainty. A “nonconforming individual” is seen as a point source of uncertainty for the society and for the system. So humans tend to isolate the source from the community for keeping the status-quo. However, as many great anarchists from Kropotkin to Bakuning pointed that (apart from psychopathological disorders) most “crimes” are a direct result of inequalities and inequities of that system. So the way the community is organized is the root cause of the problem. Then the same community decides to deal with the problem with the most counterproductive way. This seems to be the exact case between climate change and capitalism as well.