5 Assignment 13

In her piece, “Affective Economies”, Sara Ahmed tries to explain the idea that people who are hateful aren’t truly hateful, they’re perceived or viewed differently because these people wish to protect something they love and cherish deeply. She says hate isn’t an true or primary emotion rather a byproduct when one feels that something they valued is being threaten. I feel like Sara makes a really good and valid point there, people don’t naturally hate on something or someone but do so when they feel like someone or something is going to changed or impact their interest negatively. She brings up the example of how the general view of America on immigrants isn’t that great, nationalists don’t really hate immigrants for who they are but the possibility they are going to take jobs, ruin society, and overall destroy their idea of the perfect nation. While these accusations may or may not be true, its the possibility that causes people to fear and hate theses groups of people coming in. Its fear and love that evokes hate, thinking of such makes me think of the quote, “Only thing we have to fear is fear itself” by FDR. She goes on bringing up another example of a white child seeing a black man shivering and immediately assume that it was an act of aggression, the child now who afraid of the black man goes on while the black man is now contained as he’s afraid of the actions that follow after for scaring the little boy. In this event, the two become divided, in a  way they both fear each other forcing them to walk down different paths. Sara also talks about how people see others and immediately assume that one is a threat without thinking about it even if its irrational. We judge and assess others subconsciously she says, from what we have experienced and been taught we naturally make the thought. One example would be if one got into an accident where he or she fell into the sea, as they grow up they see the sea they would immediately connect that to the accident they had years ago. This is also true when it comes to people, if we had a terrible experience with a group of people we would think about it as soon as we see someone from that group. We’re all guilty of such as it is baked into our minds.

In Ahmed’s piece, she argues that people’s emotions are not innate nor personal. Instead they are shaped by the myths perpetuated in one’s environment. The author uses psychoanalysis to show how white fears of “the other” are often rooted in unconscious beliefs shaped by deeper histories. Through the use of fear white people mobilize feelings of hatred of the perceived other. This hatred is justified through ideas of the white subject’s rights and the nation’s ground they view as under threat of the other. The nation is imagined as white which is believed to be synonymous with purity. The “others” are perceived as violating this purity and their entry is framed as overwhelming the white population viewed as the rightful owners of the land. The nation is also viewed as a white female in that the entry of immigrants is seen as a violation akin to rape. Ahmed argues that these feelings work to stick together identities such as that of an asylum seeker and the terrorist boogeyman. By conflating these two identities the nation is perceived as “securing itself” by not allowing asylum seekers. Since these people are viewed as dangerous the few that are allowed entry to make the nation be seen as charitable or righteous. White people are viewed the same way that the home owner that murdered the 16-year-old burglar is seen. Protecting property is shown to be more important than human life. Even though the boy was murdered the real victim is the home owner whose property was thought to be under threat. The grounds or nation is viewed as under threat by the other and white people who perceive themselves to be the “home owners” see themselves as having the right to secure it at any cost. The author also shows the way language in speeches reveals this fear in the use of words like “swamped.” These words carry connotations of asylum seekers as dirty and as intruders which mobilize national attitudes to be anti-immigration and refugee aid.

In the article, “Affective Economies” written by Sarah Ahmed, she discusses how hate attends to our emotions within our economic structure. Emotions play a crucial role within everyones everyday lives, Whether its talking about a sad show you saw, or something that made you laugh. In the beginning of her article, the narrative talks about how it is the love for the nation that makes other people hate one another. In this article, Sarah Ahmed want people to realize that people love to hate one another. There is a huge correlation between loving and hating. In today’s economy you need to have a job in order to earn money. Most people will get a job with something they have interest in doing. They will end up loving their job, but if the economy goes to dumps and people start getting laid off and loosing their jobs, it causes fear to rise. When fear of losing something you have happen, it can cause hatred. You can start hating the people who will take your job etc. Some people can say that our emotions are the problems, not the individual. Ahmed state on page 119, “in such affective economies, emotions do things, and they align individuals with communities- or bodily space with social space- through they very intensity of their attachments. Rather seeing emotions as psychological dispositions, we need to consider how they work, in concrete and particular ways, to mediate the relationship between psychic and the social, and between the individual and the collective.” I agree with this statement here. In oder for love and hate to come about, you need to take a step back and look at your emotions and how they can contribute to your everyday life, if your emotions are a positive impact or a negative impact. Your emotions become a property when you discuss how a certain thing may make you feel.

Sara Ahmed starts off with a passage from an Aryan web site that talks about how the emotions people feel for seeing something they don’t like isn’t hate but really love. She goes into more detail in her article “Affective Economies” about how her take on emotion and how it differs from other’s view on the subject. She goes against the notion that emotions are a private matter and that it just moves from one person to another. She goes into how emotions from my understanding are connected between the individual and the collective and this connection is important to understanding people’s views. She takes that Aryan example of how they picture the white person’s job, security, wealth, and purity and everything they love is being threatened by others. The love the Aryans have for their nation stems from their rewriting of history saying that the whites had built the land they love instead of the migrants and slave and call themselves the victim. Their telling of the story puts them as victims with their rights under danger and their nation being threatened. The hate they see the other as helps being the white subjects and the nation closer to each other. That is how emotions affect how people react and form a collective, common fear, hate, and love bring these people together. Another example of how emotions shared between people can affect the world around those people would be the 9/11 attacks. The terrorists shared the love of their religion and beliefs and used those beliefs to justify their actions. Their actions also led to the emotions Americans felt after the attacks, fear of more attacks, and hatred of the attackers and the want for vengeance. This was only spurred on by media which highlighted Americans fears. All of this now led to more groups fueled by different emotions in wake of the attacks and the following war.

In “Affective Economies” Sara Ahmed determines emotions, such as hate, as part of an economic model that have the ability to gather people together. Emotions do not reside within an object even a single person. Emotions are affected by the slightest detail that occurs in one’s surroundings. Often times emotions, like hate, are based of their counter emotions, love. For example, in the beginning of this excerpt Ahmed shines a light on the Aryan Nations Website. These groups of individual are embodying the emotion of hatred according to the minorities that the Aryan Nation protest against. Although the Aryan Nation participate and organize rallies and chants against minorities, they truthfully believe they are doing it for the well being of “their” country. They believe these sets of minorities are taking jobs, thus, devaluing their country. This in turn rallies together all “whites” who believe in this ideology and creates a community. Furthermore, Ahmed goes on to describe the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. The terrorists acted out of love of their religion and beliefs. The dedication and love they had for their religion and beliefs brought the terrorist of September 11 together. For the American people these acts were an act of hatred and provoked fear among the country. Likewise, Americans united themselves as a result of the terror attacks. Politicians and the media then used the U.S vulnerable state of fear as a chance to promote the war. The vulnerable state the American public was in allowed the war to receive positive feedback. The American public believed the terror attacks of September 11 needed to avenged. Furthermore, soon after the terrorist attacks the American public perceived anyone who appeared to be Middle Eastern, Arab or Muslim negatively. Again, fear was able to collect another group of individuals together to create a community but in this case a negative notion was created against them.

Hate and fear is inevitable in every society. As infants, we often portray some hate toward our parents when we do not have our way. As we grow, we continue to strengthen our hate based on various factor including social class. In her article, “Affective Economies,” the authors wants to address that the economic induces us to hate another. She uses the immigration issue to illustrate division among groups. For instance, a white person believes that immigrants are coming into their country and taking over their jobs, due to this Americans portray hate and fear toward these immigrants. Over time, this hatred progresses to prejudice. With the over growth of foreigners, laws are establish to reduce migrants from entering the country or administering visa in poor countries. She emphasize that we often portray some right to illustrate hate when a group interfere with our safety and security. On the contrary, it is true the unemployment rate in the US is the fault of the immigrants. Many American believe this is sole the immigrant’s faults. However, losing of a job is not the immigrants fault, and why is it believe this problem started solely because of migrants. Many jobs in the US have moved overseas because of cheap labor and in turn, many immigrants flee in hope of making more money in foreign countries, so that they can take care of their family. They author wants to point out that hate comes from within, it come from the frustration of the economy, this comes from the lack of avenue and means. Yet the only way to solve our problems is to blame the outsider. She wants us to openly share our nation and welcome all to its fruitfulness. A nation is build starting with one not me.

In Sara Ahmed’s article, “Affective Economics,” she discusses how emotions such as love and hate play a role in defining the person that we become and how society perceives us. These emotions often take us to new boundaries and make us do things that we wouldn’t do if we thought it through, but these feelings often make us act out of emotions instead of rational thinking. She explores how love and hate are correlated, more so than we know of. When people act in situations based off of hate, they usual do for a particular reason. When Ahmed, talks about people acting out of hate such as child molesters and rapists she talks about them acting out due to threat of loss. People often see hatred as an emotion that is a psychological nature, but it is important to see how they work and how they develop. There are certain economies of hate that she discusses, such as how emotions reside in objects and subjects, rather than how another person makes you feel. She also discusses how capitalism plays an important role in our emotions, how people strive for success and money often makes us think about ourselves only. Certain emotions are motivated by other feelings. The feeling of fear often makes a person act off of instinct. Fear is strong emotion, because it is what you are afraid of what is coming, but not what is actually going to happen. Fear can often take over your whole body both physically and mentally. It is not necessarily about overcoming the fear because often times even when you face that fear, it still never leaves your mind. The discussion of how a white boy was scared by a black man, shows how fear does not reside in the subject. The white boy begins to shiver and recognizes his shiver as a fear, while the black man himself feels fear, because his existence is threatened. People are not scared by others because they are fearsome, but rather fear is contained in the body. This leads to people acting involuntary due to the fact that the brain sends signs that the body is afraid. It is often that people’s emotions are based off of a related subject and for that reason together we feel and these emotions are what bring us together.

In her article “Affective Economies,” Sara Ahmed explains how our emotions ties us to different communities in society and how emotions are a cultural practice rather than a psychological disposition. For example, in the beginning of her piece she talks about the mixed race couple, the rapist and child molester, immigrants and foreigners and their relationship towards the ordinary (the white nationalist, the white farmer, the white Christian, the white working man and the white housewives). We see that in society “white” is seen as ordinary and everyone else that doesn’t fit that description are viewed as “others” and are separated into different circles. In an excerpt from the Aryan Nations she explains how the emotions of love and hate shows the boundaries between the individual subject and the nation. She explains how the white “ordinary” feels endangered by the “other’ because of their fear of losing something. So, it is suggested that their love of their nation is what prompts them to hate anyone that posed a threat. When she discusses the speech on asylum seekers given by William Hague, she explains that the repetition of “sticky words” can generate an emotional response from people. These are words that are sort of powerful and unforgettable. So using those same words will evoke a certain response for the public. She supports this by showing how the current British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, used the same “sticky words” as Hague and still brought about the same implications. Hague used words like “flood” and “swamped” to associate asylums and the loss of control and “dirt” and “sewage”, to portray the anxiety of being “overwhelmed” by potential proximity of others. Blunkett these words to describe the effect that children of asylum seekers would have if they were taught by local schools. However, he was criticized and replaced overwhelmed. Although it may seen that “overwhelmed” cleared up the implication of “swamped” it still evoked the sensation of being overtaken by “others”. Ahmed says that by doing this the nations was constructed as a subject that couldn’t cope with the presence of “others”. Therefore, the “others” are a threat to the nation as a whole (Ahmed, 122).

Sara Ahmed opens her essay by with a quote from the Aryan Nations Website. Many people view them as being hateful with the way they view others, but they perceive their feelings as coming from love. They have a love for their country, people, and culture and they view others as being a threat, even comparing interracial couples to child molesters and rapist. It is the love of preserving themselves that they believe other people confuse for hate. This is an alternative way of viewing their lifestyle and it is accomplished through the use of emotions. This has the power to change they way they are perceived. She talks about the rights of the people and the grounds of the nation in this essay both of which are under attack according to the Aryans. One emotion that was discussed was fear, and how it is something that is felt from the outside and works its way in. There was a white child that saw a shivering black man and interpreted his action as aggression causing him to be scared. His perspective gave him the right or the grounds for feeling scared. Fear creates a divide between people and by expressing his fear the white boy is said to expand while the black man being the one who is feared is said to be contained because he is afraid of the impact of scaring the little boy. Emotional work has the power to bring people together, spread them apart and/or develop places in societies. Ahmed describes what they Aryans say as imaginations and fantasy and through emotional work they can bring them to life. Once people become conditioned to view the other as dangerous, it validates mistreatment. The boy was taught that black men are dangerous so seeing a black man with a natural human reaction produces fear. Once he has that real intense feeling it is hard to dissociate fear from the black race. He will feel he has a right to want to protect his own and his nation.

In Sara Ahmed’s article, “Affective Economies,” she discusses her views on emotion and states that it’s not hate that makes people react to things in a certain way but it’s actually love. According to the narrative in the beginning of the article, its the love for the nation that makes the white supremacist hate others who they recognize as strangers because they’re taking away their jobs and their future in a way. Hate doesn’t make people act a certain way but love does. The love of the nation makes people who love it act out of hate when their nation is being threaten. It interesting to think that people hate actually comes from love. The correlation between love and hate is odd but makes a lot of sense. Love is what makes people act with hate toward others because they’re defending what they love. When people feel like their nation is being threaten or their jobs they start to form hatred toward what is threaten it. According to Ahmed the hatred people express is form within them and it express outward toward people, places and objects. Ahmed argues that fear works to give people a sense of being overwhelmed and makes them feel like they can’t achieve to be contained. She states that people fear certain object in an effort to avoid dealing with the true and bigger cost of their fear. According to Ahmed emotions are within us and dealing with our emotion isn’t the problem but the subject of it, is almost like our emotion are the victim. Our emotions are what makes us do what we do on a daily base and our emotions are what makes us form opinion on things and people, it’s hard not to form opinion on things when we let our emotions blur our judgement.