»Schwein und Zeit« von Fahim Amir

» When it comes to animals, the left turns right, « postulates Fahim Amir and strikes back. Criticism of environmental degradation or industrial animal husbandry is usually based on conservative notions of » untouched nature « or eco-capitalist concerns about sustainable resource management.

Amir counters the romanticisation of nature with politics rather than ethics. Rather than culturally pessimistically declaring animals to be mere victims, their story is told from a perspective of struggle: How unruly pigs were instrumental in the development of the modern factory. How unruly crowds of people and animals resisted the taming of New York in the early 19th century. How the city’s songbirds doped themselves thanks to high levels of estrogen in the sewage, and used nicotine from cigarette butts to ward off parasites in their nests. The story of malaria mosquitoes and attempts to control them throws a stroboscopic light on the neocolonial relationship between medical and political fever.
There is no going back to a supposedly pure nature–but new urban ecologies are an opportunity for new concepts of togetherness and antagonism. This is not about moral self-aggrandisement or market-like notions of social reform through correct consumption, but about utopian moments that make the present sputter.