Ideologies vs Ecocide: A Case Study of the Play Paper for Love

Abstract

This study examines the play Paper for Love, written by Jordanian playwright Laila Al-Atrash. Furthermore, it analyzes the views of different ideologies—namely capitalism, absurdism, religious extremism, and religious moderation—regarding the play’s poisonous emissions that threaten the world's sustainability and examines how each of these ideologies views the underlying causes of Earth's environmental degradation. The research shows how the absurdist view, by criticizing the world as it is now, ends child exploitation, war, hunger, and greed. The capitalist view, on the other hand, rejects the capitalist tenets it has been pursuing by destroying the environment while pretending to be religiously fervent. This is because poisonous emissions threaten to destroy the environment. This perception gives false hopes of a redirection of exploitative practices toward the individual and the environment; however, such hopes fade with the alleviation of the impending danger. In addition, the study shows that the characteristics of religious extremism place the danger caused by toxic gases on individuals’ straying from their faith and correlating their misfortunes with a lack of devotion and moral degradation. In contrast, people brought together by love from different religious backgrounds argue that the tragedies in the world are only a byproduct of intolerance and a failure to accept diversity. The author maintains that, although there are international efforts towards establishing legal frameworks intended to prevent genocide and environmental destruction, such efforts, although necessary, are still inadequate.