The Settler-Colonial Jouissance of Western Alienation

Mapping the Ideological Terrain of Canadian Pipeline Politics

Abstract

This paper explores the settler-colonial jouissance of the subject of Western alienation, an imaginary figure with whom proponents of fossil fuel development encourage people in Alberta to identify, through an examination of the public discourses that promote pipeline projects in Canada. The aims of this paper are to explicate some aspects of the ideological-discursive terrain of Canadian-Albertan pipeline conflicts with reference to concepts from Lacanian and Žižekian theory, and to show how psychoanalysis can be a useful tool for analyzing Canadian environmental politics. I examine the rhetoric of fossil fuel industry proponents who invoke scapegoats responsible for “landlocking” Alberta oil. Pipeline proponents appeal to “new markets in Asia Pacific,” overseas sites of total enjoyment which the landlocked subject of Western alienation is perpetually denied. These social fantasies work in concert to conceal the colonial, capitalistic, and climactic antagonisms inherent to oil sands development, and mobilize consent for pipeline projects.