Upon completing my first midterm of 2016 on Tuesday this week, I was almost caught off guard by how quickly January has come to an end. There is no room to take your foot off the pedal and little margin for error now. It is time to buckle-up for a new term filled with challenges, but also plenty cheers.

This week, our ASTU 100 class has begun analyzing a short excerpt in a book entitled Frames of War: When is a Life Grievable? written by philosopher and literary theorist Judith Butler. As we started to unpack this heavyweight together, central themes and arguments Butler poses throughout her first chapter were brought to light. Various topics that were raised consisted of the frames in which we value mortality, “cosmopolitan memory,” “trauma transfer,” and the role of a global citizen. However, what really stood out to me as something that incorporates all of the those mentioned above and what I wish to expand on, is this perceived notion that, “the body is a social phenomenon: it is exposed to others, vulnerable by definition” (33).

Frames in which we interpret the value of life are fluidly changing and the vast array of opinions held are subjective to factors such as time, place, context, and the popular media. We need to understand that our stance is not formulated on our own, – interpretation is not found in a vacuum –  but is consequently reliant on others around us to form a social construct (34). What fascinates me is in the greater question of what makes a life vulnerable? For example, who is like me and who am I responsible for (36)? Are we revisiting the popular the rhetoric of “us” against “them” or “you are either with us or with the terrorists” from 2001?

Referring back to exceptionalism and the precariousness of life, there seems to be a large inconsistency in the lives we choose to mourn for. At times, we have almost become unaware of tragedies occurring halfway across the globe, but also in our backyard! Just one horrific example of the millions of tragedies that have occurred in our world: Where was the news coverage for the massacre that left 2,000 civilians dead in Baga, Nigeria during the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks? How many of us actually knew about this event on the news? I surely did not. It seems as if the world did not even bat an eye. What about the innocent civilians being caught in the increased bombings on ISIS occupied cities? You do not refer to the Mumbai attacks mentioned in Priya’s blog as 26/11. On a continental level, have we become numb and accepting to the mass shootings that occur in the United States in particular, every single day. Who chooses what events get air time on the media? Do we speak of the inevitability when we read news articles entitled “Two shootings in Abotsford overnight”? The title When is a life Grievable speaks for itself.

I certainly do not have all the answers and I know it would be nearly impossible for every event to be acknowledged or receive equal air time, but while writing this blog, it certainly made me think critically on what exactly we can do moving forward. As a society, we must be careful not dislocate our perspective from the context of tragedies in general. We must value life.

This is how we move forward as a society.

Cheers,

Nico Jimenez