University of Disasters

Efforts to thwart campaigns of deception and wrest reality from the spectacle will stumble if, in haste, data, statistics, figures, and other indicators of evidence-based practices are touted as our only bulwarks. As appeals for rationality fail to redirect the passions that constitute democratic politics and make us amenable to disinformation, the inauguration of the University of Disasters can no longer wait.

The philosopher and cultural theorist Paul Virilio describes the University of Disasters as a global convocation to commence “a collective reflection on limits.” Like other institutions of higher learning, Virilio confers the university with a motto: mea culpa. This means it is haunted by unrealized futures. Therefore, the first action is to exorcise the hubris of scientific knowledge, which, under the banner of progress, culminated in the great catastrophes of modernity. Then comes the task of revitalizing modes of thought that resist militarization. At this crucial juncture, reflection becomes generative and bypasses the pessimism of neoreactionary prophesying.