Anthropocene: The Emergence of the Figure of 'Governator'

The term anthropocene has emerged as an increasingly popular and emotive trope used to suggest that the Earth may have entered a new epoch in which humans have become a global geophysical force. Opinions about its significance are characterized by an ambivalence highlighted by Arias-Maldonado (2015). Some refer to the notion to berate the fact that humans have exceeded their ecological limits, while others use it to advocate the necessity to pursue technological intervention. In this paper, I begin by positing that the trope appears to be the latest manifestation of a recurrent, ambivalent attitude towards civilization viewed as a process liable concomitantly to ameliorate the conditions of human life and to bring about the destruction of humankind. I look in particular at the myth of Prometheus, which provides an eloquent example that can be multiplied severalfold. We know that while the Sophists used the culture hero to praise the development of arts and techniques, others such as the Cynics – whose teachings were directed at living in accordance with nature understood as a state uncontaminated by human art – criticised the way human intelligence was used for purposes of luxury rather than to promote virtue and justice. Both views however used the symbol of Prometheus to extol their particular understanding of human foresight. I then go on to examine what distinguishes our contemporary ambivalence towards civilization. I argue that the term anthropocene is suffused with emotive meanings that can be evinced in three types of ideas capable of influencing politics, namely world views (understood here as dominant views of the world), normative ideas, and prescriptive ideas. As regards world views, the anthropocene conveys views of a weak and impotent world nevertheless capable of raging back against humankind with forces of destruction all the more powerful as human activity has apparently transformed them into lawless actants. The normative ideas upon which the anthropocene is founded appear to be torn between pity or indifference towards non-humans, suspicion or hope towards intentionally created hybrids (such as GMOs), and fear or enmity towards unplanned hybrids (such as ozone depletion or global warming). As for prescriptive ideas, opinions are divided between a minority that underlines ethical responsibility and a majority that supports pragmatic “response ability”. My paper concludes by suggesting that what emerges in our contemporary ambivalence towards civilization is perplexity, which takes the form of a new promethean figure – Governator – half terminator (of nature) energized by fossil fuels, and half governor of a nature gone mad by his own labours. There is need to work our way out of this perplexity. Simplicity should be aimed at. This would require focusing on terminating our unplanned hybrids while extending our alliances with the non-human world.