The death of the other or the externalisation of risk

Abstract

This article addresses the collective insensitivity to global crises and the threat of extinction, arguing that an attitude of retrospective relief and externalization logics—particularly of the death of the other—numb our response. Drawing from a literature review that intertwines the domestication of death (Ariès) and the absorption of alterity (Lévinas) with social spectacularization (Debord), the text analyzes how these philosophical-existential dynamics become intrinsic conditions of modern capitalism and ecological colonialism. To ground this discussion, the article presents empirical data and a contextualized problematization within the history and territory of Argentina, exploring how territorial fragmentation and domination have been tools of internal colonialism and the marginalization of indigenous peoples, with architecture and urbanism playing a key role in the materialization of these violences. It demonstrates that vulnerability, once unequal, is now generalizing to historically protected geosocial spaces, signaling the limits of externalization. The article concludes that overcoming the dominant system requires rebuilding an expanded we through an international ethic of interdependence, essential for shared planetary justice and habitability.