47: Extraction, Exhaustion, and the Problem with Resilience feat. Ajay Singh Chaudhary

Ordinary Unhappiness

Abby and Patrick welcome Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and author of The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World. In our conversation, Ajay breaks down competing left- and right-wing versions of climate “realism” and how fantasy, cynicism, and opportunism explain the gaps between carbon goals in treaties, optimistic projections, and the grim facts on the ground. But as Ajay argues, contemporary capitalism mines far more than just fossil fuels: it taps psychic resources, too. Drawing on Fanon, a major influence on his work, Ajay explains how material and libidinal forces conspire to ensnare us in an “extractive circuit,” how the packaging of “resilience” mystifies exploitation, and how exhaustion itself might serve as a political force and touchstone for solidarity.
The chapter on resilience we reference is here: https://thebaffler.com/latest/sick-and-tired-chaudhary
The Exhausted of the Earth is here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-exhausted-of-earth-politics-in-a-burning-world-ajay-singh-chaudhary/19992842
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