Snaza, Nathan. “Posthuman(ist) Education and the Banality of Violence”

In his discussion of Adorno’s statement that “the premier demand upon education after Auschwitz is that it not happen again,” Snaza states that Auschwitz is emblematic for other systemic violences in which not only humans are implicated, such as slavery and imperialism, but also concern animals, such as the destruction of ecosystems and factory farming. These violences, he maintains, are rooted in our equation of humanity with the humanist (and thus limited) conception of ‘Man,’ a term which Snaza borrows from Sylvia Wynter. Anyone who falls outside of this definition of ‘Man,’ as such, is an object of systemic violence. Snaza maintains that Adorno’s analysis of the conditions for these violences, in which he leaves ample room for individual factors, is deeply informed by dominant humanist thought of ‘Man.’ This is the same way of thinking currently taught in schools, Snaza maintains, where children learn to conceive of themselves as ‘Man,’ which he argues is perpetuating violence. Alternatively, Snaza promotes a post-humanist approach to education, in which affect is central and ‘Man’ is substituted with a more integrated conception of people and their environment. Moreover, Snaza makes use of Rothberg’s notion of multidirectional memory. Multidirectional memory, in a nutshell, is the idea that different violent events are co-implicated. Snaza integrates biopolitics, or exercising the power to ‘make live,’ as Foucault states it, into Rothberg’s theory as a new way of linking systemic violences against all forms of life. In this broader context, post-humanist pedagogy would move past our humanist conception of the human to take a more inquisitive and less authoritative shape. When adopting this perspective, Snaza argues, violence will not be repressed and ignored, and the perpetrator will no longer be a distant Other to shift blame upon. Rather, students will learn to approach violence in a more self-reflexive way, expanding the notion of the perpetrator to become more inclusive and less polarising. Snaza strives for an education that promotes children’s awareness of their everyday implication in systemic violences, such as (post)colonialism, the fast fashion industry, or factory farming. In Snaza’s post-humanist education, the student will work towards recognising their position in the world as a living being among other living beings, rather than Man against the world.

Author of this entry: Lisanne van Rossum

Nathan Snaza, “Posthuman(ist) Education and the Banality of Violence,” Parallax 23, no. 4 (2017): 498-511.