Critical pedagogy in difficult times

Abstract

We have been living in difficult though interesting times. They are difficult times in the sense that ordinary people are being made to pay for the lavish greed of a few beneficiaries of the capitalist system, a small percentage comprising CEOs and bankers, who had, early in the decade, brought the world to almost inconceivable ruin, placing the burden of austerity squarely on the shoulders of the majority. These are difficult times indeed, given that it is the prerogative of a small percentage of powerful people to determine who is allowed to thrive and whose life is dispensable or grievable (Butler 2010); who is allowed to live; and who is left to rot in abject conditions, as manifest in the wake of environmental catastrophe or in situations when social expenditure, including expenditure on health, is cut as a result of austerity measures. The issue of climate change is a case in point (English and Mayo 2019) where excessive heat rises in southern contexts are likely to result in wars, caused by diminishing natural resources, and even more massive attempts at mass migration. Corporations of the Western capitalist world have much to answer for in this regard (Empson 2016, pp. 1–2)—‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna fall’ as the Nobel laureate, Bob Dylan once proclaimed in the 60s with regard to the danger of nuclear proliferation. This ominous statement might well be applied, these days, to climate change and its consequences.