Pandemic (and rebellion) on the farm. Reflections on the disavowal of the biological blow of universal human narcissism and its ecological implications.

Abstract

The pre-agreement of the Argentine government with the Chinese State to expand pork production on a mega-industrial scale in the midst of a pandemic caused by a zoonosis constitutes the immediate motivation for this work. The production system that we will problematize obeys in the first instance to financial interests, but here we will reflect on one of the long-term cultural assumptions that shape the currently dominant human disposition towards nature: the disavowal (or denial) of it. First, we will expose the meaning of the Freudian concept of "narcissistic affront", and in particular of the human biological affront. Then, we will show the systematic relationship of this idea with the notion of "disavowal". In this way, we will explain a unique feature of the present that has been traversed by the pandemic, as well as other “risks” of our societies in ecological collapse. Next, we will argue that one of the sources of legitimation of the aforementioned denial continues to be the theological account of human sovereignty. Another model of relationship with nature, synthesized by Nietzsche, will allow us to reorient the critique of ecocidal ideology towards the theological and economic-political foundations that hinder our essential biological literacy, and close the way to conceptualizations that point to ecological justice.