ABSTRACT
The previous fi ve chapters analyzed a genealogy of what I am calling the “logic of domination.” This logic is marked by foundational thinking, which I have argued results from an “ex nihilic” way of looking at and experiencing the world around us. Although there is no direct link between ex nihilo, the logic of discovery, Locke’s concepts of tabula rasa and individual property, and terra nullius, they all exhibit features of the “logic of domination” that is theo-metaphorically supported by an understanding of creatio ex nihilo. Through a process of theological inner-course, human desires to be “like” the omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal God are projected onto the transcendent space named ‘God.’ As this space does not exist within our contextual, daily, historical, ecological lives, the projection is sent out into no-place toward no-thing. In other words, there is no extant “other” to receive these projections. There is no “third space” that emerges between two others because there is no-thing, no-other to receive and create the third space of identity formation. As such, these projections return through an internalization of these omni, non-contextual qualities, much like an unobstructed boomerang returns to its user.3 As the constructed monotheistic creator ex nihilo God needs no other, so the theo-anthropology developed through this projection is one of assumed omnipotence (power-over), omniscience (universal thought), and eternal life (essentialist/substantial subject). Although this theological inner-course may be helpful for those who fi nd themselves in
the midst of oppressive political, economic, social, or ecological conditions,4 it can also be very dangerous when performed by those in dominant positions of power. In other words, this theological inner-course, when assumed by those in power (whether the Roman Empire, European colonizers, individuals with economic wealth, or contemporary corporations-legal individuals in the United States-and governments at the heart of the process of military and economic globalization), becomes a theological outer-course that wreaks havoc on human and earth others. The earth, its non-human inhabitants, and large parts of humanity end up “getting screwed.”
