12 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
and political dynamics is needed in most nations and that optimism is necessary for
collective survival and self-preservation.
Moïsi wrote his book after the 2008 election of U.S. President Barack obama,
and I wrote the first version of this introductory chapter at the time of his sec-
ond inauguration in January 2013, after what was perhaps an even more extreme
clash between fear and hope in the 2012 elections. Another clash of emotions could
be perceived in the 2011 Arab Spring, in which a young and vulnerable—though
confident—movement was inspired by the potentialities of technological globaliza-
tion as it projected a future of increased social justice and, in this process, shed light
on another facet of the deeply rooted humiliation of citizens in the Arab world—
that of change. As I was finalizing this book at the beginning of 2016, the 2011 pro-
tests in the Middle East region had given way to the largest displacement of people
since World War II, involving 60 million refugees, most of them from Syria, and
many homeless people from areas with on-going violent conflicts (UnHCR, 2015).
In a television documentary interview, the Dutch Un Special Coordinator for
Lebanon, Sigrid Kaag, noted the importance of recognizing communities’ collective
histories and emotions in diplomacy. In a country such as Lebanon, which is still re-
covering from civil war, one-fifth of the population consists of refugees. This is caus-
ing a shift in shared religious backgrounds and may have political consequences,
which is frightening to Lebanese citizens:
Societal pluralism in Lebanon can be a point of strength and power, but it can
also be easily exploited. [...] As such, when people in Europe for example say,
“Regional shelter should just continue,” [...] then they insufficiently consider
the enormous burden on Lebanon, how difficult it has been and how danger-
ous it can become. (Tan, 2016, translation mine)
This call for a reflexive and self-reflexive stance has encountered a Europe flirting
with fear as a reaction to violence, immigration, and globalization, as well as with
the recess of the values of social justice and human rights, welfare, and democracy
(Bauman, 2007, 2015; Beck, 2012a, 2012b, 2015; Braidotti, 2011; Moïsi, 2015). The
2015 and 2016 terror and suicide attacks in Paris and Brussels, which have revealed
that humiliation has grown into hatred among a group of extremists who are
exposing “the ultimate identity crisis” by killing others (“je tue, donc que je suis,” Moïsi,
2015), have intensified the need for a reflexive stance and a sustainable identity
project. At the same time of the Paris attack, there was another in Lebanon that
received far less media coverage in the Western world; this re-emphasizes that this
reflexive stance needs to be broad, inclusive, and sensitive to humanity in different
places around the world.
When obama presented his last State of the Union address in 2016, he referred
to Americans’ resilience and overcoming of fear in response to major transitions
in the past (including the Great Depression, wars, migration, workers’ movements,
and the civil rights struggle) and once more called for hope: “Will we respond to
the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, turning against each
other as a people? or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, in what
we stand for, and in the incredible things that we can do together?” The words had