Relating to the Other and Finding Amor Mundi, a Love for the World as It Is
Reflections from the 2023 Othering & Belonging Conference in Berlin
A few days ago, I arrived back in Berlin after completing The Break Fellowship, an experience that diverged from the typical startup incubator program. It turned out to be a life lesson in becoming, which ultimately brought me closer to my curiosity about loneliness—as the other side of belonging.
“We need stories of bridging instead of breaking”, stated john powell in his opening remarks at the annual conference of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, which I had the honor of hosting as emcee. It marked the first-ever edition held in Europe, in Berlin. Over two days, it brought together 300 activists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, scholars, and artists to ponder and reimagine the idea of democracy and thus our human nature in a time of growing authoritarian populism, politics of distrust, and unspeakable suffering and loss of life in Israel and Palestine, the ongoing wars in Sudan and Ukraine, and other places around the world.
Though the circumstances were particularly challenging to me, the response of the audience proved once more, that such spaces for conversations and community are much needed in times of utter Weltschmerz.
As philosopher and post-humanist Bayo Akomolafe noted, wherever we look, in the Middle East or elsewhere, belonging itself seems to be in crisis, as “we are struggling with the ways belonging has been framed, (...) because it has been framed as nation-state citizenship, neurotypicality, as rigid definitions of what makes proper states.”
Thus being human, and deserving of dignity and freedom seems to be tied to certain conditions, categories, and normative bases—which has become particularly evident with the current war between Israel and Hamas, and the response of the international community, not just since October 7, but since the past 75 years of occupied Palestinian territories.
Whose lives are grievable and whose are not? Who gets to speak and who does not? And who gets to decide who belongs where, and who shall live with whom?
In a heartfelt dialogue between Jewish-Israeli Udi Raz, a doctoral fellow at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, and Palestinian activist Yasmeen Daher, co-director of Febrayer, hosted by Othering & Belonging Institute’s communications director Cecilie Surasky, these and more questions were explored, as well as Germany’s unique relation with Israel and the state’s role in protecting a certain self-image against all odds.
Instead of normalizing along the lines of “this is the way the world is”, giving in to the weaponization of the other, or succumbing to the values of neoliberal capitalism that, as Dark Matter Labs founder Indy Johar put it, reduced us to “units of labor” in a race to be better consumers, how might we co-liberate the idea of being human and the right to belong for all life, human or non-human?
Rather than drawing lines, we can find a third way that transcends the us vs. them binary, creating strange solidarities of mourning together, of falling to the earth, as Bayo Akomolafe suggests.
Because if we look closer to the root cause of all othering, as john a. powell referred to, we find fear and anger, both of which disguise a deeper longing to belong and reflect a profound state of loneliness. And currently, as Turkish journalist and novelist Ece Temelkuran reminded us, those people are met by growing authoritarian populist movements that are responding with masterful “politics of emotion”, making people feel heard and seen, rather than those on the progressive, pro-democracy side who seem to rely too heavily on the rational. Perhaps we might choose to acknowledge their feelings, listen, and even respond with compassion and love before we shrug with contempt or cancel the other altogether.
“I cannot stop myself from scoffing (...)” Temelkuran said, referring to coming from a place where words of love are not used lightly—and yet, she emphasized, “but it all boils down to human love. We have to find the words of love, also in politics, and especially in a time when blood is spilled (...) This new story of belonging must begin with the basics, such as faith in humankind. Faith doesn’t need proof, but it needs miracles.”
Throughout the conference, I noticed that the Jewish-German-American political philosopher Hannah Arendt was quoted several times, and as I’m currently studying her work in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), I believe that this is no coincidence. While during a different time in history, her observations on the dangerous political implications of modern loneliness still hold true today. In this crisis of belonging, in which more and more people feel lonely on an existential level, what Arendt called “Verlassenheit” in German, a state of being abandoned, coherent fictions of othering become tempting fictions of alternative realities. So in understanding, reframing, and integrating the largely stigmatized sense of loneliness with our way of living, I seek to contribute to the ways in which “a common world” or a greater we, a future “us and us”, will be possible.
Perhaps, the first step towards a third way that leads us towards a belonging without othering might be by getting back in touch with amor mundi — a love of the world, which Arendt understood as reconciling one’s self with the world as it is, with all its suffering, injustice, and darkness, and in that, rediscover our capacity to embrace truly, and love, people for their differences.
And in a world where we seek comfort in distracting ourselves with shopping and streaming as we isolate ourselves more in toxic busy cultures, single households, AI companions, and social media echo chambers, turning towards each other and holding the perhaps paradoxical tension between “my truth and your truth”, to me at least, is a radical act of amor mundi.
This article was first published on LinkedIn.
