Sovereignty
The Anthropocene Project. An Encyclopedia
Being sovereign, independent and autonomous. From superanus, “found above, superior.” Standing above things. Ideally. But how, as we cannot live from air and love? Biopolitically speaking: who has access to resources? Water in Palestine or Bolivia, phosphorus in the Western Sahara, black gold in Nigeria, etc. The links have been dawning on us since the beginning of globalization, but who regulates the whole thing and how? Which national state is sovereign enough to step back from its own interests? Who will decree the laws to keep multinational companies in check, power politics, somewhere between the nation state and the idea, or the illusion, or a universal governmentalism. That is a contradiction in itself. What remains is idealism, a dream from a time before the Anthropocene?
