The Leprosy of Empire
To borrow from poet Derek Walcott, empire’s rot has spread everywhere but we cannot let this landscape of ruins, decay and death numb us into submission. By Bhakti Shringarpure.
There has been a feeling of eerie calm. Not because there is actual calm in the world but because our shock sensors have dulled considerably over the last three years. It might be an overused line but it holds: this is the new normal. Horror upon horror piles up but visceral outrage feels distant for those of us not directly experiencing the violence. I mostly speak for myself and maybe some others who have admitted to a similar low lying sense of helpless resignation.
The last shock waves came when the US attacked Iran and killed hundreds of little schoolgirls. Nowadays we try to vaguely keep with a hawkish game of negotiations, memorandums and broken ceasefires.
The last shock waves came when ICE grabbed 5-year old Liam Ramos with a Spiderman backpack from his father’s arms and threw him into detention. It was soon after the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in the bright light of day.
The last shock waves came when the satellites captured the bloodied earth after the massacres in Sudan’s El Fasher.
The last shock waves came when Israel passed the mandatory death penalty for Palestinian prisoners, and reports of savage rape and torture in Israeli prisons was splashed across our screens.
The last shock waves came when Israel carried out a massacre in Lebanon and called it Operation Eternal Darkness. Over 360 people were killed, thousands injured.
Not much has changed. Today, US and Iran continue to trade deadly strikes. Settler terrorism in the West Bank has escalated. India’s youth have risen up against rightwing rule only to be disciplined with pellet guns and nail-infested batons. Thousands of people sheltering in Sudan’s El-Obeid are under threat of an impending massacre. People are dying in ICE detention and fatal shootings continue in the US as Trump’s mass deportations plan remains in place. The US blockade of Cuba has left millions without electricity, medical help and food. Over a thousand have been killed in Gaza since the supposed ceasefire.
The news gets worse and worse but the body has gotten used to it. The pain jolts have seized. The spasms of shock have receded. But this might be our turning point, our cue. There is a choice: become comfortably numb or become intellectually and politically heightened.
The leprosy of empire has spread through our world and we might feel overwhelmed with the ruins, decay, disease and death. But we cannot wait around to feel something. We need to start activating our brains and asking what we can actually do, however little and un-immediate it might seem. I always advocate for becoming foot soldiers in the war of the cultural narrative, and where we’re finally seeing some perceptible effects. An entire generation across the planet have wisened up to the horrors of capitalist tyranny everywhere thanks to the tireless work of independent media and publishing, the vociferous campaigning on social media, and the unofficial dissemination of information due to the sheer strength of connectivity and social networks. This is a significant victory yet the rotten and the cannibalistic remain in power.
It is time to take our individual part seriously but within a collective framework. Today, empire has laid its hands on AI and we are hurtling faster than ever towards catastrophe. Stop using ChatGPT and Claude and whatever other AI app. We are completely marinated in it without our consent and empire’s gluttony to invest in it should raise all our alarm bells. I like to think of using AI as littering. When we were told how bad it is to litter in public, we trained ourselves to stop. AI is literally littering our brains and our environment. It is directly helping in genocide. So why not stop.
There are lots of ways to move past resignation and numbness. We have to push ourselves. It is wonderful but not enough to read a book on your own and think that you’ve educated yourself. Find a way to engage, discuss and spread whatever knowledge you have gained. It is wonderful but not enough to boycott Israeli settler products or unsubscribe to the New York Times but even more important to become the killjoy who pokes at everyone within your reach to do the same. People are being slaughtered. Go and become unpopular by having the unpleasant conversations. It is the literal least you can do.
Love and solidarity❤️🔥
Bhakti Shringarpure
We have had a busy season at the Radical Books Collective with conversations that have centered anti-coloniality, queerness, Palestine and Sudan. Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, we would appreciate your contribution.
In case you missed it👇🏾
Book Club: How To Date a Fanatic by Aruni Kashyap is a queer campus novel set against the backdrop of rising right-wing Hindu fanaticism in India.
Book Club: Homosexual Intifada, edited by Hannah Moushabeck and George Abraham, is a groundbreaking anthology of queer Palestinian writers.
Event: Alyson K. Spurgas, Madhuri Sastry and Bhakti Shringarpure unpack the dark side of wellness, self-care and yoga industries. It has never only been about Gwenicide(!).
Event: Aruni Kashyap, Madhuri Sastry and Bhakti Shringarpure discuss the moral and ethical dimensions of the rapidly increasing presence of AI, and ways in which it impacts reading, writing, publishing and teaching.
Book Club: At Sea by Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a workplace novel featuring a gritty Sudanese female protaganist who takes charge of an isolated offshore oil rig with an entirely male crew.
Leprosy is such a perfect metaphor because it kills nerve endings so people never feel the damage and rot
✊🏼