Lecture 4

Question 1

Pre-Nazi, proto-fascistic blend of naturalist-nationalist sentiment

Answer 1

 Anti-modern rejection of industrialization, urbanization, capitalism, and rationality as environmentally destructive forces (associated with Judaism).
 Promotion of nature mysticism, traditional folk life, and romantic connection to nature (associated with German völk).
 Pseudo-scientific “justification” of this distinction in early ecology.

Question 2

National socialist ideology and practice

Answer 2

 Skepticism of modernity and anthropocentrism, argues society must be organized according to nature’s laws.
 Frames anti-modernism in racialized terms, in part by drawing on misapplied ecology .
 Pursues environmentally sensitive policies in agricultural and industrial sectors.
 Enacts assertive environmental laws National Socialist ideology and practice.

Question 3

Significance environment and ecology

Answer 3

 Environment and ecology are politically indeterminate (i.e., environmentalism and ecologism can be part of all sorts of political projects and endowed with all sorts of political meaning).
 Therefore, must be vigilant about how green concerns are interpreted and mobilized politically.

Question 4

Naturalism

Answer 4

nature is not inert matter to dominate through reason, but a quasi mystical entity to commune or connect with.

Question 5

Nationalism

Answer 5

well being of German people linked to well being of German, land, nature and nation one.

Question 6

Late 19th, early 20th century Germany

Answer 6

cultural synthesis of naturalism and nationalism.

Question 7

The völkisch movement

Answer 7

 Unites ethnocentric populism with nature mysticism, rejects modernity (capitalism, industrialization and urbanization). Advocates return to land, simplicity and natural purity. Personifies forces of modernity as expressions of judaism, naturalism and nationalism linked to antisemitism.

Question 8

Ernst Hackel

Answer 8

Coiner of term ecology (i.e. study of how organisms interact with environment), social darwinist, proponent of eugenics, proponent of racial purity.

Question 9

Early ecology - Haeckel

Answer 9

o Early ecology bound up in a reactionary political framework.
o Unmediated application of biological concepts onto societyhas complex implications
 Insisting human society governed by same laws as the rest nature cuts against anthropocentrism and the modern ethos of human supremacy and control.
 Insisting human society governed by same laws as the rest of nature lends scientific veneer to racist naturalist-nationalism of völkisch movement (i.e., modernity personified can be framed as against the “laws of nature” or “unnatural”).

Question 10

Wandervögel youth movement

Answer 10

o Neo-romanticism, nature mysticism and hostility to reason. Environmental conservation, wilderness expeditions and immersion in nature. Right wing hippies later absorbed by nazis who model their own youth movement on it.

Question 11

Environment and nazi ideology

Answer 11

o Denigrates human agency in favor of natural order and law.
o Emphasizes organic holism.

Question 12

o Denigrates human agency in favor of natural order and law

Answer 12

 Takes issue with anthropocentrism and modern ethos of human primacy.
 Anthropocentrism only valid “if it is assumed that nature has been created only for man. We decisively reject this attitude. According to our conception…man is a link in the living chain of nature just as any other organism”.
 Systems of human life must be modeled on nature and organized according to fixed laws of nature.
 Failure to organize human society according to nature’s dictates will lead to social and environmental devastation.

Question 13

Emphasizes organic holism

Answer 13

 Holism: parts of a whole (e.g., system or organism) can’t exist independently or be understood except in relation to whole, which therefore takes priority over parts.
 E.g., 1934 Reich Agency for Nature Protection biology curricula objective: “Very early, the youth must develop an understanding of the civic importance of the organism, i.e., the coordination of all parts and organs for the benefit of the one and superior task of life”.
 Nazi thought transposes ecological-biological idea of holism onto society.
 Because human society is no different from nature, rules of ecology and biology apply.
 This has authoritarian implications: individual can be sacrificed for totality.
 This has racist implications: if an “urbanized and overcivilized modern human race” is “responsible” for destroying the environment, then it must be eliminated.

Question 14

Environment and nazi practice

Answer 14

Agricultural policy, industrial and technological policy, Environmental laws

Question 15

Agricultural policy

Answer 15

 Organic farming methods introduced at mass scale.
 Goals a) re-agrarianization b) farming conducted according to “laws of life”.
 Increased agricultural productivity in harmony with nature.
 Government support for environmentally sound agriculture.

Question 16

Industrial and technology policy

Answer 16

 Massive construction projects (e.g.,. Autobahn) must be executed in environmentally sensitive way.
 Construction must harmonize with natural surroundings and complement landscape.
 Environmental criteria for industrial projects (e.g., protection of wetlands, forests, fragile eco-systems).
 Reich “Advocate for the Landscape” ensures industrial build-up doesn’t compromise environment.

Question 17

Environmental laws

Answer 17

 1933: reforestation, species protections, preservationist limits to industrial development, construction of nature preserves.
 1935: guidelines for safeguarding of flora, fauna, and natural monuments, restrictions on commercial uses of natural resources, requirement to consult “nature-reserve” authorities in advance of development.

Question 18

Environment and genocide

Answer 18

o Anti-humanism and preoccupation with natural purity feed into genocide.
o National Socialism personified forces of modernity (capitalism, industrialization, urbanization) as expressions of Judaism.
o National Socialism blamed modernity’s environmental degradation on “destructive influence” of a race.
o To correct for environmental degradation, and return the German people to their supposedly innate closeness to nature, Nazism sought to eliminate that race.
o Legacy of eco-fascism in power: “genocide developed into a necessity under the cloak of environmental protection”.

Question 19

Environmental authoritarianism

Answer 19

o Environmentalism as means to the end of authoritarianism.
o State uses environmentalism to concentrate, entrench, and justify authoritarian rule.

Question 20

Environmental authoritarianism in China

Answer 20

o Expansion of state’s regulatory scope to environment and environment adjacent issues.
o Cooptation of non-state actors (e.g., NGOS, media, scientists) into state’s environmental agenda.
- Environmentalism and ecology are politically volatile, both can be used for many political ideologies.
- There is a distinction between authoritarian environmentalism and environmental authoritarianism.

Question 21

China’s environmental accomplishments are real but compromised

Answer 21

o China has made environmental progress (e.g., clean tech industries, enshrining of “ecological civilization” in Constitution).
o But is still plagued by environmental challenges (e.g., pollution, contamination).
o What progress has been made has come at the cost of individual rights and social freedoms.

Question 22

Environmental authoritarianism in China

Answer 22

o Environmental authoritarianism is different in different parts of the country
o In less developed areas, it can take the form of forced relocations in the name of environmentalism.
o Relocation to facilitate reforestation, building of renewable energy sites, conservationism, etc.
o Often targets ethnic minorities.
o Can allow state to advance several goals at once.
o E.g., with forced relocations, state can pacify border regions and secure green energy at the same time.
o For Li and Shapiro, this isn’t authoritarian environmentalism, but environmental authoritarianism.

Question 23

Environmentalism and the growth of state power

Answer 23

o Increased outward manifestation of state power
 E.g., state moves whole populations and builds new hydropower dams in their wake, leaving physical mark on environment.
 That mark sends a message: the state is powerful and authoritative, so much so that it can dramatically reorder both people and environment.
o Increased inward experience of state power
 E.g., morality bank: part of social credit system awarding points for virtuous deeds and deducting them for immoral behavior.
 Environmentally virtuous deeds like recycling rewarded, environmentally unvirtuous deeds punished.
o Taking up environmental concerns can expand authoritarian state reach and increase its resilience.

Question 24

China and high modernism

Answer 24

o Mastery and control key ingredients of modern ethos.
o Li and Shapiro see this in China.
o People mastered and controlled.
 E.g., morality bank.
 Citizens legible or transparent to state.
 Can be monitored and evaluated according to environmental conformity with regime.
o Environment mastered and controlled.
 E.g., hydropower dams.
 Water and land its channeled through subjected to technological command and direction.

Question 25

• Both the eco-fascistic skepticism of modernity and the eco-authoritarian embrace of modernity can issue in coercive politics. (2 contrasts)

Answer 25

o For National Socialism, human domination of nature yields social and environmental devastation.
o For China, human domination of nature yields social and environmental advancement
o Environmental assessments of modernity may be politically indeterminate.
- Environmental coercion and illiberalism at play in the West too.

Question 26

Environmental coercion and illiberalism at play in the West too. (2 contrasts)

Answer 26

o E.g., UNFCCC REDD+ program (“Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation”) (Li and Shapiro).
o Rich countries effectively pay poor countries to not cut down forests.
o This policy can be unpopular among citizens in target countries who can no longer use their environments as they’d like to without having had much say in the matter.
o Here it’s not the state, but an international organization that issues coercive environmental policy.
o E.g., Climate crisis as rationale for tighter borders, stronger nationalism (Gilman).

Question 27

Gilman 1

Answer 27

o Cautions against framework of catastrophe.
o Which can motivate new forms of eco-fascism just as easily as it can motivate mainstream environmental engagement.
o E.g., apocalyptic framing of climate change may invite extreme opposition to immigration and “us vs. them” antagonisms.
o Argues disaster talk should be replaced by more temperate narratives.

Question 28

Gilman 2

Answer 28

o Makes a bid for the importance of historical awareness.
o If we understand how past illiberal politics took up environmentalism, then maybe we can reduce the chances of environmentalism being co-opted by present and future illiberal politics.
o The historical form of Gilman’s argument is in this way connected to its prescriptive content.

Question 29

Gilman 3

Answer 29

o Cautions against dangers of unreflectively applying natural scientific concepts onto society.
o E.g., National Socialists thought ecological holism must dictate socio-political life, but this authorizes absolutism and shuts down debate, negotiation, and compromise.
o Argues against reducing social systems and dynamics, which are contingent and mutable, to natural systems and dynamics, which are necessary and immutable.

Question 30

Li and Shapiro

Answer 30

o Caution to be wary of environmentalism as disguise or Trojan horse.
o Overtly protecting the environment can be a way to covertly advance other political goals.
o Suggest we must interrogate political implications of different courses of environmental action.