Slow violence is marginalized by converging forces of inattention

Evidence

Some writer-activists are fly-by-night operators, others are in for the long haul, as they strive to bring an attention-grabbing urgency to issues that might otherwise be marginalized by technological, neurobiological, and political forces of inattention. Whether our era of heightened connectivity and intensified distraction compounds or alleviates destructive environmental short-term thinking will be shaped, in large measure, by the politics of the commons. Will the vast, insurgent digital energies directed at defending the information commons help mount an equally spirited defense of the commons in its oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial forms? — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 850

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘forces of inattention’ (technological, neurobiological, political) connect to Soundscape’s chronic noise/information overload undermining attentive capacity. — connects to: Slow violence differs from structural violence in foregrounding time and change — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 39; Who counts as a witness determines whether slow violence registers as violence — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 49; Fiction must dramatize time’s occlusions as much as geography’s to expose slow violence — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 121 (+6 more)
• QUESTION: The commons linkage — information commons as proxy training ground for environmental commons defense — is a testable hypothesis worth pursuing.

Broader Connections

• Slow violence’s layered invisibility makes even sympathetic articulation of joined threats nearly impossible #expands (0.90) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 863
• The civilizing process makes violence invisible rather than eliminating it #qualifies (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 285
• Violent action functions as an attentional-control tool against distracted viewers #exemplifies (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 953
• Power works by temporalizing violence into avoidable future events rather than present force #complicates (0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 24