David DeBole: Ogallala Dreams: On the Value of Other-than-Conscious Thought in Political Resistance
Friday | June 20, 2025 | 11:15-12:00
Lounge in the University Library, Steubenstraße 6, 99423 Weimar
Abstract:
Underneath the High Plains of the United States, the Ogallala aquifer – once tapped by pumps – revitalized agriculture in this extremely arid area, just at the moment when it seemed agricultural practices in this region would have to change dramatically in response to the Dust Bowl. After decades of pumping for industrial agriculture, however, the Ogallala aquifer in some areas seems to contain only enough water for the next decade, if less. This paper, as a chapter of a dissertation on the concept of not-knowing, explores the contours of resistance to change in agribusiness practices in this area, despite clear indications that such a way of life will be eradicated through its continuation. Taking a pluralist, pragmatic approach, this paper considers how dreams can be a window for subjects dealing with the collapse of nature and a way of life simultaneously into sides of subjectivity that might otherwise go unconsolided in the Self of waking life.