Environmental Authoritarianism and Fascism

Question 1

Definition: Advocado politics

Answer 1

Politics that are green on the outside, but brown (hard-right) on the inside

Question 2

In late 19th and early 20th century Germany, there was a cultural synthesis of

Answer 2

Naturalism and nationalism

Question 3

Naturalism in Germany

Answer 3

Nature not inert matter to dominate through reason, but quasi-mystical entity to commune with

Question 4

Nationalism in Germany

Answer 4

Well-being of German people linked to well-being of German soil, nature, and nation

Question 5

How does the Völkisch Movement represent the synthesis of naturalism and nationalism, and how does it connect to race? (4 points)

Answer 5

1. Uniting ethnocentric populism with nature mysticism
2. Rejects modernity (capitalism, industrialization, urbanization)
3. Instead, advocates return to land, simplicity, natural purity, living in sync with nature
4. Personifies modernity as Judaism and connects it with the destruction of the environment -> naturalism and nationalism go hand in hand with antisemitism

Question 6

How was the inventor of “ecology” (Ernst Haeckel) connected to antisemitism?

Answer 6

He applied biological concepts on society by saying that human society should be governed by the same laws as nature, and he framed modernity and thus Jews as being “against the law of nature” which gave a new justification for anti-semitism

Question 7

What were the characteristics of the Wandervögel youth movement?

Answer 7

Connected nature mysticism and hostility to reason with environmental conservation and immersion in nature

Question 8

What philosophy were the Wandervögel youth movement inspired by?

Answer 8

Ludwig Klages blamed modernity’s destruction of environment and people’s detachment from nature on reason and rationality

He argued that rationality creates distance which creates alienation. This should be replaced by emotional connections, more romantic and felt

Question 9

In what 3 ways was the Nazis inspired by the Wandervögel youth movement’s philosophy?

Answer 9

1. Reducing the social to the biological
2. Mystical romantic rejection of modernity and reason
3. Requires eliminating the threat to the environment

Question 10

In what 2 ways are Nazi ideology connected to the environment?

Answer 10

Ecology and environment are key to Nazi ideology through:

1. Denigrating human agency in favor of natural order, and systems of human life must thus be moded on nature, otherwise it will lead to social and environmental devastation
2. Emphasizing organic holism, which has authoritarian implications (individual can be sacrified for totality) and racist implications (urbanized and overcivilized human race is responsible for destroying the wellbeing of the whole and must be eliminated)

Question 11

Definition: Holism

Answer 11

Parts of a whole can’t exist independently or be understood but in relation to the whole, which therefore takes priority over parts

Question 12

How was ecology and environment key thought in Nazi ideology?

Answer 12

They could under the guise of environmental protection (prioritizing nature and natural order, advocating for organic holism etc.), they found justification for racial hatred (threats to the whole and natural order must be eliminated)

Question 13

What were some Nazi policies in the fields of agriculture, industrial and technology, and environment?

Answer 13

Agricultural policy: organic farming, keeping soil healthy, government support

Industrial and technological policy: construction projects must be constructed in environmentally sensitive way

Environmental law: reforestation, species protection, preservation, restrictions on natural resource use, requirement to consult “nature-reserve” authorities in advance of development

Question 14

How was the environment used to justify genocide?

Answer 14

National Socialism personified modernity (capitalism, industrialization, urbanization) as expressions of Judaism, and thus when blaming modernity for environmental degradation, blaming Jews.

To correct for environmental degradation and returning German people to nature, Nazism sought to eliminate Judaism -> genocide developed into a necessity under the cloak of environmental protection

Question 15

Definition: environmental authoritarianism

Answer 15

The state uses environment to concentrate, entrench, and justify authoritarian rule

Question 16

3 Characteristics of environmental authoritarianism in China

Answer 16

1. Expanding state’s regulatory scope to eco and eco-related issues
2. Coopting non-state actors (NGOs, media, scientists) into state’s eco agenda, expanding discursive control
3. Shoring up state’s own power under the guise of repairing the environment

Question 17

What are the problems with environmental authoritarianism in China?

Answer 17

While there has been actual environmental progress, it has come at the expense of individual rights and social freedoms, and China is still plagued by environmental challenges (pollution, contamination)

Question 18

Why is there environmental authotarianism in China and not authoritarian environmentalism?

Answer 18

Because environmental protection is not the goal, the goal is authoritarianism and entrenching top-down, coercive power

Question 19

Authoritarian environmentalism

Answer 19

Using authoritarian means to accomplish environmental goals (with the thought that if the end goal is noble enough, the means do not matter)

Question 20

How does environmental authoritarianism increase state power?

Answer 20

Increased OUTWARD manifestation of power: moving populations, building dams -> leaving physical mark environment -> sends message of power

Increased INWARD experience of power: using morality banks to reward/punish environmental actions -> penetrating further into everyday system of citizens

Question 21

Morality banks

Answer 21

Social credit system awarding points for virtuous deeds and deducting them for immoral behavior

Question 22

How is environmental authoritarianism a modernist project?

Answer 22

Mastery and control of people and the material world are key ingredients

Question 23

How can different responses to modern ethos inform questionable eco-politics?

Answer 23

For Nazis, human domination of nature thought to be root of social and eco decline

By contrast, for China, human domination of nature and people thought to be the root of advance

Question 24

What is top-down environmental coercion also sometimes at play in the West? 2 examples

Answer 24

UNFCCC program “Recuding Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” where rich countries pay poor countries to not cut down forests and thus prevent citizens from having a say in how they want to use the land

Using the climate crisis as rational for tighter borders and stronger nationalism, where maintaining the purity of wilderness is conflated with maintaining “purity of race” (e.g. immigration pollutes the environment -> stronger borders)

Question 25

In what 3 ways can we avoid eco-coercion, according to Gilman?

Answer 25

1. Avoiding framework and language of catastrophe which can motivate environmental neo-fascism just as easily as mainstream environmental engagement
2. Understanding how past illiberal political projects took up environmentalism to reduce the chances of repeating it in new forms today (historical form connected to prescriptive content)
3. Stop reducing social systems and dynamics (contingent, mutable) to natural systems and dynamics (necessary, immutable); stop unreflectively applying natural scientific concepts onto society

Question 26

How can we avoid eco-coercion, according to Li and Shapiro?

Answer 26

We must interrogate political implications of different courses of environmental action, esp. when they seem “neutral”, as they can be used to advance other political goals