conscient podcast

e154 riel schryer - the art of history and gaming

Episode Notes

• There's a sort of pulling back and forth between these two ideas. Out of the idea of fundamental inferiority comes slavery. And out of the idea of cultural inferiority come things like residential schools, right? The logics that fuel those two things are different, but they both obviously have negative results. And I think in the modern world sometimes we still fall into that trap of thinking that moving away from just beliefs of fundamental inferiority is enough. When, you know, beliefs of cultural inferiority can be similarly damaging.

Riel Schryer is a student of history, a gamer and … my 26-year-old son. In December 2023 we spoke about how history informs the present, ethical issues in science, gaming as a form of ecological awareness and his feelings about the theme of this 5th season of the conscient podcast 'preparing for the end of the world as we know it and creating the conditions for other possible worlds to emerge'. 

You’ll also hear excerpts from a winter soundwalk we took around the block of our home here on the unceded traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin nation, in the city of Ottawa.  

It’s especially interesting for me to start this 5th season with the thoughts from a young adult (such as this one):

• I don't think there's going to be any serious response to the climate crisis until real catastrophes start happening. That tends to be how it works. And once you start seeing that, then you'll start seeing very serious action being put in place. Although, we'll see at that point, if it's too late or not.

Episode Transcription

excerpt 1

• There's a sort of pulling back and forth between these two ideas. Out of the idea of fundamental inferiority comes slavery. And out of the idea of cultural inferiority come things like residential schools, right? The logics that fuel those two things are different, but they both obviously have negative results. And I think in the modern world sometimes we still fall into that trap of thinking that moving away from just beliefs of fundamental inferiority is enough. When, you know, beliefs of cultural inferiority can be similarly damaging.

excerpt 2

• I don't think there's going to be any serious response to the climate crisis until real catastrophes start happening. That tends to be how it works. And once you start seeing that, then you'll start seeing very serious action being put in place. Although, we'll see at that point, if it's too late or not.