Awed by our own activities, we seek to reproduce them. A skyscraper stands tall, or a majestic road snakes down a picturesque coast, or a giant dam supplies electricity. But this activity brings us into contact with the earth, which has demands and dynamics of its own.
The rock that turned out to be harder than we thought to move takes more days of labor, or more food and resources than originally planned, which have to be taken from the social pool of labor as a whole. The rock moves into us in turn, it displaces our motive energy and requires a build up of efforts contrary to it.
Otherwise we have to invent something more powerful to move the rock with, and that something that is more powerful requires more power to produce, or it produces other effects.
Dynamite implies chemistry and blast shields, which imply all sorts of institutions and materials, and bulldozers imply heavy manufacturing, refining, and mining. And so on.
With all of this power, and material buildup, which situates itself in our span of attention, it is easy enough to lose sight of the fact that we're still moved by the earth.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Plumbing the Depths
Plumbers and other similar tradespeople gain an interesting perspective into the inner workings of households, businesses and institutions, inner workings that are often shielded from view not only metaphorically but literally with burying, laying down concrete, running piping in walls and away from sight, and so on.
What happens in those places is easy enough to summarize: there is a general hollowing out of equity and resource bases, which is covered up socially with various forms of artifice to maintain the illusion of continuity. Where contradictions in narrative and resource do erupt, we see brushfires of bickering and conflict over who owns what and who is obliged to do what.
We could go on and on about those things, and I do address them quite often here. But we can probably get at the spirit of what is happening by just looking at the plumbing itself, and the profession which charges itself with maintaining it.
Shielded from view in this case due to trade specialization and then literal physical concealment, we have the deep intricacies of modern plumbing technologies and techniques, which are in the course of disintegration, a fact that is owed to changing economic conditions and social/pedagogical changes in the greater culture.
As with many other problems today, we have a self-reinforcing one. If you want your plumbing to do certain things, such as to exist within modern buildings without leaking, and for toilets to flush a certain way, and for showers and sinks to work a certain way - which are all expectations which have been conditioned over time to establish universal standards in domestic, institutional, and commercial comfort - you have to rely on certain well-established technologies like copper piping, ABS piping, acetylene torches, sealing glues, saws and pipe cutters, and all of the rest.
These technologies all behave a certain way, especially since they need to transport water, gas, and waste every which way indefinitely. The slightest imperfection in a copper pipe soldering - which is required to bind them together without leaking - such as a bur on an improperly cut and reamed pipe end can produce turbulence in moving water that over several years, punches holes in the pipe and leads to leaking, which can completely destroy the many layers of a built structure, which can be very expensive, stressful, disruptive, and basically disastrous.
Let's think about it briefly: a simple leak can produce mold and rot in wood frame, destroy drywall, weaken floors, short out electrical wiring and components, and compromise the functionality of the plumbing itself to boot. All of the building elements connected to this sphere of dysfunction must be torn out and replaced, and this is a sphere that grows in sophistication and cost the more luxuries and functions are incorporated into it.
To keep problems like these from happening, plumbers must have an incredibly deep knowledge of these technologies and have the appropriate techniques to apply them correctly for longevity and reliability, which is less and less to be seen in the trade as a whole. Add to this dynamic the constant introduction into the market of newer technological expediences which make the job easier but which don't typically produce longevity or reliability.
If we look at the plumbing trade, we see a recourse to mind-numbing and authoritarian courses stressing proper code and procedure. The knowledge is there, but there must be humans capable of learning it. And the humans in this case are shuffled through underfunded classes and then tossed into exploitative commercial endeavors which forgo further training and instruction, and which emphasize short term constructions which satisfy some sort of agreed upon warranty of service.
In other words, no one is being taught a holistic trade craft. They learn to scratch by and get some sort of certification, and/or work under some exploitative regime and do the bare minimum to finish a job, after which any further complications can be plausibly denied and brushed off in court. So at a very fine level, none of this plumbing is built to last, and plumbers themselves are not built to last as long term tradespeople.
Countless flaws in construction are built and concealed under layer upon layer, and with this process happening on a systematic level, one flaw in plumbing may exacerbate another flaw in electrical work and vice versa, which leads to catastrophic damages further in the future, adding to the unlucky party's buildup of private debt. And so this process continues, and like the hidden flaw in the pipe that produces a turbulence which eats away at piping, we see a gradual eating away at the resource base, even as it materially expands, until the disruptions are great enough to produce a crisis.
To put it in the abstract, we have a constantly growing and transforming built environment that must be constantly cared for in a highly technical and resource intensive fashion. Whatever is contrived for our comfort must be maintained and reproduced for our comfort, and when something goes wrong in this sphere it will not heal itself: it must be fixed with the same technical knowledge and resources that produced it.
Compare this to a natural environment which is constantly caring for and healing itself. This is a caring and healing which proceeds to a holistic continuity, with less of a care given to constituents outside of their participation to maintain the whole and so a given living thing in this system must resort to some manner of a manipulated and built environment to persist. But as always a balance must be struck, and we've chosen to build, build, and build some more.
What happens in those places is easy enough to summarize: there is a general hollowing out of equity and resource bases, which is covered up socially with various forms of artifice to maintain the illusion of continuity. Where contradictions in narrative and resource do erupt, we see brushfires of bickering and conflict over who owns what and who is obliged to do what.
We could go on and on about those things, and I do address them quite often here. But we can probably get at the spirit of what is happening by just looking at the plumbing itself, and the profession which charges itself with maintaining it.
Shielded from view in this case due to trade specialization and then literal physical concealment, we have the deep intricacies of modern plumbing technologies and techniques, which are in the course of disintegration, a fact that is owed to changing economic conditions and social/pedagogical changes in the greater culture.
As with many other problems today, we have a self-reinforcing one. If you want your plumbing to do certain things, such as to exist within modern buildings without leaking, and for toilets to flush a certain way, and for showers and sinks to work a certain way - which are all expectations which have been conditioned over time to establish universal standards in domestic, institutional, and commercial comfort - you have to rely on certain well-established technologies like copper piping, ABS piping, acetylene torches, sealing glues, saws and pipe cutters, and all of the rest.
These technologies all behave a certain way, especially since they need to transport water, gas, and waste every which way indefinitely. The slightest imperfection in a copper pipe soldering - which is required to bind them together without leaking - such as a bur on an improperly cut and reamed pipe end can produce turbulence in moving water that over several years, punches holes in the pipe and leads to leaking, which can completely destroy the many layers of a built structure, which can be very expensive, stressful, disruptive, and basically disastrous.
Let's think about it briefly: a simple leak can produce mold and rot in wood frame, destroy drywall, weaken floors, short out electrical wiring and components, and compromise the functionality of the plumbing itself to boot. All of the building elements connected to this sphere of dysfunction must be torn out and replaced, and this is a sphere that grows in sophistication and cost the more luxuries and functions are incorporated into it.
To keep problems like these from happening, plumbers must have an incredibly deep knowledge of these technologies and have the appropriate techniques to apply them correctly for longevity and reliability, which is less and less to be seen in the trade as a whole. Add to this dynamic the constant introduction into the market of newer technological expediences which make the job easier but which don't typically produce longevity or reliability.
If we look at the plumbing trade, we see a recourse to mind-numbing and authoritarian courses stressing proper code and procedure. The knowledge is there, but there must be humans capable of learning it. And the humans in this case are shuffled through underfunded classes and then tossed into exploitative commercial endeavors which forgo further training and instruction, and which emphasize short term constructions which satisfy some sort of agreed upon warranty of service.
In other words, no one is being taught a holistic trade craft. They learn to scratch by and get some sort of certification, and/or work under some exploitative regime and do the bare minimum to finish a job, after which any further complications can be plausibly denied and brushed off in court. So at a very fine level, none of this plumbing is built to last, and plumbers themselves are not built to last as long term tradespeople.
Countless flaws in construction are built and concealed under layer upon layer, and with this process happening on a systematic level, one flaw in plumbing may exacerbate another flaw in electrical work and vice versa, which leads to catastrophic damages further in the future, adding to the unlucky party's buildup of private debt. And so this process continues, and like the hidden flaw in the pipe that produces a turbulence which eats away at piping, we see a gradual eating away at the resource base, even as it materially expands, until the disruptions are great enough to produce a crisis.
To put it in the abstract, we have a constantly growing and transforming built environment that must be constantly cared for in a highly technical and resource intensive fashion. Whatever is contrived for our comfort must be maintained and reproduced for our comfort, and when something goes wrong in this sphere it will not heal itself: it must be fixed with the same technical knowledge and resources that produced it.
Compare this to a natural environment which is constantly caring for and healing itself. This is a caring and healing which proceeds to a holistic continuity, with less of a care given to constituents outside of their participation to maintain the whole and so a given living thing in this system must resort to some manner of a manipulated and built environment to persist. But as always a balance must be struck, and we've chosen to build, build, and build some more.
Reproducing the Patriarch
Economically, the patriarchy maintains and reproduces itself through a vast series of overlapping latices which reinforce each other and beget more of their kind. Of course this is a pattern common to social formations of all kinds, though the way in which these patterns emerge and develop are particular to a given mode of social development.
At its emotional and social base, the patriarchy consists of an outpouring of grandiose generosity and prosperity, but this outpouring must necessarily come from the individual, the patriarch, which we'll see produces an effect that runs counter to the emotional commitment to prosperity, especially for those further down the hierarchy, which is established in relation to the patriarch and which maintains the patriarch's power in a given state of affairs.
The patriarch's developmental arc occurs under some previous patriarch, whose command of resources is mimicked as the standard for life attainment and satisfaction. In the beginning, the patriarch must gradually amass the resources required to mimic that previous ideal of benevolent abundance, doing so with a prideful covering up and hiding of all of the intersecting dependencies and obligations that are required for this gradual amassing.
Because as patriarchal rule gradually becomes the social standard of governance, everyone who styles themselves in the image of the patriarch is developing in the same direction, and so everyone is putting claims against each other and pulling on each other to amass their own share of abundant resources in their own direction, which tightens the web of obligations and pulls it in the direction of the most powerful and competent actors.
The hidden humiliations of debt and subordination only serve to fuel the feverish drive to amass the resources required for that sphere of abundance and magnanimity that should archetypically surround the patriarch. The brutalization and exploitation that is required to amass these resources are mere means which are more than justified, especially after the patriarch achieves his freedom from the cycles of exploitation and brutalization that he himself endured under others when he finally achieves escape velocity with the resources at his disposal.
This freedom and abundance of resources are then his to deliver to his family, friends, and loved ones, in return for reverence and worship. Here the very state of consciousness changes dramatically, as the children born under this regime of abundance of plenty experience the silver spoon in mouth, and command a vast reservoir of resources as a matter of course, by right of birth. A complacency sets in where there was once a fiery drive to conquer, which paves the way for future challengers emanating from the bottom, where they continue to be exploited and brutalized.
Doubtless, there are plenty on the bottom that are to remain that way; the pathway to the top is a narrow one, which though is constantly negotiated, pre-ordains victors of its own through ethnic, sexual, gender, and class-specific archetypes, as well as material conditions such as starting wealth, social resources, and presence of opportunity and movement.
This is a pattern which is not limited to monarchs, presidents, and CEOs, but which is reproduced further down the chain on every social threshold of activity imaginable.
At its emotional and social base, the patriarchy consists of an outpouring of grandiose generosity and prosperity, but this outpouring must necessarily come from the individual, the patriarch, which we'll see produces an effect that runs counter to the emotional commitment to prosperity, especially for those further down the hierarchy, which is established in relation to the patriarch and which maintains the patriarch's power in a given state of affairs.
The patriarch's developmental arc occurs under some previous patriarch, whose command of resources is mimicked as the standard for life attainment and satisfaction. In the beginning, the patriarch must gradually amass the resources required to mimic that previous ideal of benevolent abundance, doing so with a prideful covering up and hiding of all of the intersecting dependencies and obligations that are required for this gradual amassing.
Because as patriarchal rule gradually becomes the social standard of governance, everyone who styles themselves in the image of the patriarch is developing in the same direction, and so everyone is putting claims against each other and pulling on each other to amass their own share of abundant resources in their own direction, which tightens the web of obligations and pulls it in the direction of the most powerful and competent actors.
The hidden humiliations of debt and subordination only serve to fuel the feverish drive to amass the resources required for that sphere of abundance and magnanimity that should archetypically surround the patriarch. The brutalization and exploitation that is required to amass these resources are mere means which are more than justified, especially after the patriarch achieves his freedom from the cycles of exploitation and brutalization that he himself endured under others when he finally achieves escape velocity with the resources at his disposal.
This freedom and abundance of resources are then his to deliver to his family, friends, and loved ones, in return for reverence and worship. Here the very state of consciousness changes dramatically, as the children born under this regime of abundance of plenty experience the silver spoon in mouth, and command a vast reservoir of resources as a matter of course, by right of birth. A complacency sets in where there was once a fiery drive to conquer, which paves the way for future challengers emanating from the bottom, where they continue to be exploited and brutalized.
Doubtless, there are plenty on the bottom that are to remain that way; the pathway to the top is a narrow one, which though is constantly negotiated, pre-ordains victors of its own through ethnic, sexual, gender, and class-specific archetypes, as well as material conditions such as starting wealth, social resources, and presence of opportunity and movement.
This is a pattern which is not limited to monarchs, presidents, and CEOs, but which is reproduced further down the chain on every social threshold of activity imaginable.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Administrative Post
Blogger has reminded me that European visitors will now be warned about tracker activity on this blog and that sort of thing. Good for the Europeans for doing it. But the notice has really just reminded me that I need to start thinking again about where to relocate my writing efforts.
I value my writing space as a place to think expansively and creatively, and the ongoing silence and relative anonymity that surrounds this space - attributable to my reclusiveness among other things - is really to my liking and helps facilitate this spiritual and intellectual state for me. So it is a bit of a downer to be reminded that Google is indeed always here leering over my shoulder, and in turn over my visitors' shoulders as well, however passive and droney the data collection mechanisms are at the moment anyway.
Of course it is increasingly difficult to shield Internet activity from all sorts of prying eyes and grubby fingers. The extent of virtual proletarianization can be witnessed on Windows 10 itself, the platform on which I currently sit, in the sense that the platform forces a perpetual mode of surveillance and data collection on its users, and the concomitant forcing of updates to keep the process running smoothly - their process, not the actual smooth functioning of the goddamn operating system itself.
One doesn't own Windows 10, it owns you, and leverages your desire for connection to extort all manner of data and personal control from your person, and etc. There aren't that many more convenient alternatives either, with "convenient" being the key word. The "gotcha" resides in the additional labor required to have a truly secure and stable computer, operating system, and Internet interaction environment, which requires technical expertise, know-how, and time and energy, which we have precious little of as it is, it being tied up in paying rents to various rentiers of various forms.
Alas, this Gresham's dynamic is all the more perverse the more concentrated and monopolistic the corruption is, and these problems are pervasive wherever there is developed society, the ultimate carrier for this complex of corruption and proletarianization.
Though I am bathed in automobile pollution and all other manner of carcinogens daily, I can still avoid smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, and not totally give in to oblivion in the forms I can personally resist, not that I'll claim too much of a moral high ground here though. In that way, I do still have the urge to relocate my writing efforts to a less invasive and monopolized platform, which will certainly be bought up by some mega conglomerate in good time. But it will feel good, I'm sure for everyone involved. And I've wanted to freshen the look and change up the format and make a clean start and enjoy that new car smell - in so many words.
When I can do this I'm not sure. When I have the energy and the time, it'll happen, and I'll put a nice big link to it. I've taken up physically intensive work again - this time in the form of construction work - so I also have plenty of writing material in formation, based on new experiences, which I can express in good time, when the time and energy is there, to repeat. Stay tuned.
I value my writing space as a place to think expansively and creatively, and the ongoing silence and relative anonymity that surrounds this space - attributable to my reclusiveness among other things - is really to my liking and helps facilitate this spiritual and intellectual state for me. So it is a bit of a downer to be reminded that Google is indeed always here leering over my shoulder, and in turn over my visitors' shoulders as well, however passive and droney the data collection mechanisms are at the moment anyway.
Of course it is increasingly difficult to shield Internet activity from all sorts of prying eyes and grubby fingers. The extent of virtual proletarianization can be witnessed on Windows 10 itself, the platform on which I currently sit, in the sense that the platform forces a perpetual mode of surveillance and data collection on its users, and the concomitant forcing of updates to keep the process running smoothly - their process, not the actual smooth functioning of the goddamn operating system itself.
One doesn't own Windows 10, it owns you, and leverages your desire for connection to extort all manner of data and personal control from your person, and etc. There aren't that many more convenient alternatives either, with "convenient" being the key word. The "gotcha" resides in the additional labor required to have a truly secure and stable computer, operating system, and Internet interaction environment, which requires technical expertise, know-how, and time and energy, which we have precious little of as it is, it being tied up in paying rents to various rentiers of various forms.
Alas, this Gresham's dynamic is all the more perverse the more concentrated and monopolistic the corruption is, and these problems are pervasive wherever there is developed society, the ultimate carrier for this complex of corruption and proletarianization.
Though I am bathed in automobile pollution and all other manner of carcinogens daily, I can still avoid smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, and not totally give in to oblivion in the forms I can personally resist, not that I'll claim too much of a moral high ground here though. In that way, I do still have the urge to relocate my writing efforts to a less invasive and monopolized platform, which will certainly be bought up by some mega conglomerate in good time. But it will feel good, I'm sure for everyone involved. And I've wanted to freshen the look and change up the format and make a clean start and enjoy that new car smell - in so many words.
When I can do this I'm not sure. When I have the energy and the time, it'll happen, and I'll put a nice big link to it. I've taken up physically intensive work again - this time in the form of construction work - so I also have plenty of writing material in formation, based on new experiences, which I can express in good time, when the time and energy is there, to repeat. Stay tuned.
On Cults
At least in the United States, the religious cult is a topic of intense curiosity and manages to consistently capture the imagination of large swathes of the public.
There are many forces at play here. On the surface it is made explicitly clear that the sordid deceptions and violent catastrophes that often accompany these highly charged phenomena make for high drama and sound entertainment.
There are elements of this curiosity that go less touched upon however, and for good reason. The cult offers the glimpse of spiritual ecstasy and radical collective belonging - at least initially before the deceptions come out and the shit hits the fan - which to the average modern denizen comes with not a small amount of envy.
It is the going bad, and the catastrophe, that frees the viewer from the suspicion that they may be missing out a little bit. After all, this is just what happens if you try to reach for the sublime in a society that posits the sublime as so much superstition, when it isn't celebrating the sublime in the exercise of warfare and competition.
There are many forces at play here. On the surface it is made explicitly clear that the sordid deceptions and violent catastrophes that often accompany these highly charged phenomena make for high drama and sound entertainment.
There are elements of this curiosity that go less touched upon however, and for good reason. The cult offers the glimpse of spiritual ecstasy and radical collective belonging - at least initially before the deceptions come out and the shit hits the fan - which to the average modern denizen comes with not a small amount of envy.
It is the going bad, and the catastrophe, that frees the viewer from the suspicion that they may be missing out a little bit. After all, this is just what happens if you try to reach for the sublime in a society that posits the sublime as so much superstition, when it isn't celebrating the sublime in the exercise of warfare and competition.
Deep Thoughts
A thought rings true if it can be connected harmoniously with other concepts, emotions, and life experiences of given subjectivity. Thoughts can grow in space and increase in subtlety to capture more of reality and hence further understanding; otherwise they are cut off with a placeholder thought and tucked away.
A thought which itself is no longer growing or moving must be assigned a given value for it to be useful. It is this value which allows it to be compared with other thoughts and experiences, and assented to or dissented to with a judgment, or an evaluation that converts the thought into emotion and action.
We can compare this to the frozen earth, which though is actually in constant motion, is temporally continuous enough for our species and surrounding ecosystems to make sense of and act with and against.
The judged thought then is a thought which cleaves off the endless complexity of a reality that is in constant chaotic motion, and this cleaving has the benefit of forming a semantic continuity that allows action, feeling, and relation to happen, in relation to it.
The great work occupies a space somewhere between these extremes. With its sprawling scale, this collection of deep thoughts allows a freedom of movement in evaluating the realities underneath, yet it requires eventual boundaries, or the cordoning off of the endless depths of reality, to allow it to be relevant to certain affairs in a given period of space-time.
Upon cleaving this boundary, the idea in motion has initiated its birth and begun its decay.
A thought which itself is no longer growing or moving must be assigned a given value for it to be useful. It is this value which allows it to be compared with other thoughts and experiences, and assented to or dissented to with a judgment, or an evaluation that converts the thought into emotion and action.
We can compare this to the frozen earth, which though is actually in constant motion, is temporally continuous enough for our species and surrounding ecosystems to make sense of and act with and against.
The judged thought then is a thought which cleaves off the endless complexity of a reality that is in constant chaotic motion, and this cleaving has the benefit of forming a semantic continuity that allows action, feeling, and relation to happen, in relation to it.
The great work occupies a space somewhere between these extremes. With its sprawling scale, this collection of deep thoughts allows a freedom of movement in evaluating the realities underneath, yet it requires eventual boundaries, or the cordoning off of the endless depths of reality, to allow it to be relevant to certain affairs in a given period of space-time.
Upon cleaving this boundary, the idea in motion has initiated its birth and begun its decay.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Jackhammer
The jackhammer goes hand in hand with concrete. With the invention of a substance hard enough to guarantee the domination of everything underneath it, there is the necessity for a tool which has the energy and power to dislodge concrete once it has hardened and set, so as to renegotiate the shape and direction of something whose retaining strength is so potent. But the destructive power of the jackhammer is so explosive. It has the ability of going right through the body that has invented it.
Cultural Practice
There are phases in which a given practice is constantly improved upon in relation to the practice itself. There is a constant tinkering to make a given practice better. So the practice becomes self-referential.
There are also times in which one's entire world outlook is transformed, and this in turn must be transferred to the practice to improve it not for the sake of usefulness, but for the sake of harmony with the worldview.
So for example, one may be raising plants and animals in order to consume them, but that is not all that one is doing. When one is making one's food, and building one's shelter, one is also exercising an entire worldview in which one relates to the universe through mediums of labor and reproduction.
There are also times in which one's entire world outlook is transformed, and this in turn must be transferred to the practice to improve it not for the sake of usefulness, but for the sake of harmony with the worldview.
So for example, one may be raising plants and animals in order to consume them, but that is not all that one is doing. When one is making one's food, and building one's shelter, one is also exercising an entire worldview in which one relates to the universe through mediums of labor and reproduction.
Pain
In general, one turns away from pain all the more dramatically as it intensifies, without second thought. It is true that in many dire situations, pain responses make for fit adaptations. Turning the hand away from the fire is a good bet; keep the hand and in some cases keep the body too.
But this response does like to migrate to wherever it is evoked. One may turn away prematurely from something which is perceived to cause pain, which really only indirectly figures into cause. In a society governed by reason - which, to avoid freighted terms, we can insist is merely the persistent construction of symbols and logic to govern affairs - traumatic events may very well contribute to the construction of abstractions that long outlast their genesis.
Pain then may arise in places remote from its cause. It may arise in symbol, which creates a dark spot in that whole constellation of meaning as one turns away from it. To see clearly is to see through pain.
But this response does like to migrate to wherever it is evoked. One may turn away prematurely from something which is perceived to cause pain, which really only indirectly figures into cause. In a society governed by reason - which, to avoid freighted terms, we can insist is merely the persistent construction of symbols and logic to govern affairs - traumatic events may very well contribute to the construction of abstractions that long outlast their genesis.
Pain then may arise in places remote from its cause. It may arise in symbol, which creates a dark spot in that whole constellation of meaning as one turns away from it. To see clearly is to see through pain.
Float Stage Continued
The basic worry is that our society requires unlimited growth, and yet, in the era of financialization, we see a sort of material degrowth. This fact should be a blessing, yet it creates a living hell. How to reconcile this contradiction? For one thing, finance - or the greater FIRE sector - is continually in a state of growth, or attempts to be, and this is at the expense of everything else. But there's more.
It may be that the real economy continues to grow weakly, or even deflate, but the prevailing issue is a greater spiritual requirement of constant growth. A loss in economic growth could be quite the blessing. We could all simply throw up our hands and stop "working" - work which in this society means something very specific and deliberately limited - and everything would be great. We would have more time to spend with our loved ones, and we could pursue our own interests.
But the moral imperative that insists we should be growing results in the overall destructive effects of this degrowth. As the economy deflates, instead of scaling down and diverting our attention to non-material and/or non-commercial matters, we see a diverting of resources to finance and a widespread punishment of those swathes of unproductive laborers, which we should remember, have been rendered unproductive by the very authority doing the punishing.
We're awash in material abundance, yet because growth is seared into the genetic code, we cannot face the slightest indication of degrowth, and so employment numbers are doctored, pro-growth policies are pumped, faux enthusiasm is deployed to claim we are back to growing, and those threatening any forward momentum are viciously punished.
The diversion of resources to finance is merely the consequence of this structural flaw. Now that the real economy is spread so thinly all over the globe, and its cannibalization of its own producers robs it of its own fuel, and it begins choking on its own fumes, the last possible avenue of expansion is into finance, where the smallest number can derive the greatest amount, all of which exists under illusion, an illusion that nevertheless manages to marshal the abundance of resources hitherto produced, in order to aggrandize itself.
It may be that the real economy continues to grow weakly, or even deflate, but the prevailing issue is a greater spiritual requirement of constant growth. A loss in economic growth could be quite the blessing. We could all simply throw up our hands and stop "working" - work which in this society means something very specific and deliberately limited - and everything would be great. We would have more time to spend with our loved ones, and we could pursue our own interests.
But the moral imperative that insists we should be growing results in the overall destructive effects of this degrowth. As the economy deflates, instead of scaling down and diverting our attention to non-material and/or non-commercial matters, we see a diverting of resources to finance and a widespread punishment of those swathes of unproductive laborers, which we should remember, have been rendered unproductive by the very authority doing the punishing.
We're awash in material abundance, yet because growth is seared into the genetic code, we cannot face the slightest indication of degrowth, and so employment numbers are doctored, pro-growth policies are pumped, faux enthusiasm is deployed to claim we are back to growing, and those threatening any forward momentum are viciously punished.
The diversion of resources to finance is merely the consequence of this structural flaw. Now that the real economy is spread so thinly all over the globe, and its cannibalization of its own producers robs it of its own fuel, and it begins choking on its own fumes, the last possible avenue of expansion is into finance, where the smallest number can derive the greatest amount, all of which exists under illusion, an illusion that nevertheless manages to marshal the abundance of resources hitherto produced, in order to aggrandize itself.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Interest
You can feel what you are interested in much like you can feel the solid ground that you move on. That which falls outside of your interest constantly slips away as you try to grab onto it, fading into the background, and you wobble back onto that which is closest to your heart. Each of us have our own spin, our own trajectory, which is felt in daily experience.
Get It Done
This at least applies to the U.S. Empire and its cronies, though it can probably generalize to all sorts of global phenomena. But upon watching the course of the former in current events, it becomes evident that overall the West not only saws upon the branch it sits upon, but after coming toppling down from the tree, proceeds to jackhammer the floor which it has crashed down on.
There is no collective will to actually administrate affairs in a continuous environment, but to gnash for the sake of gnashing. Damn any sort of solid branch or ground that is proximate to the process.
There is no collective will to actually administrate affairs in a continuous environment, but to gnash for the sake of gnashing. Damn any sort of solid branch or ground that is proximate to the process.
The Float Stage
For now, the best way to do this - in my mind - is to put together a loose metaphor that makes use of battery chemistry to illustrate a particularly befuddling phenomenon that crops up when one ventures into historical analysis, which in this case is - big surprise - the historical analysis of capitalism.
Let's start with the battery chemistry. So this isn't the case with all batteries, but a lot of batteries have 3 distinct stages of charge in which the energy stored in the battery features different dynamics. Smart chargers were developed to account for these three stages, so that the battery could be charged properly to ensure its stability and longevity.
There is a bulk stage, in which the battery is pretty much empty, and so a full voltage and amperage can be used to rapidly charge the battery. There is also an absorption stage, where the battery is getting close to full capacity, and amperage is dialed down to avoid overcharging. Finally there is the the float stage, where the battery is fully charged, and the voltage and amperage are taken down, and the current becomes a trickle, so as to keep the battery charged without overcharging it.
The float stage is an interesting phenomenon for our purposes, especially when using something like solar power. When the battery is in float, you can skim power off of the top and it continuously maintains its charge. You can put a heavier load on it with various electrical applications: the discharge is steadily replaced and the battery charge maintains its robustness. However after it dips below float, the battery enters a steady discharge as you use it. And if the battery just sits, it will self discharge and proceed closer to depletion, so these smart trickle chargers will keep the battery full and in float without overcharging it.
So when you are using batteries that are drawing off of solar power, you generally want to save the bulk of your electrical usage for the float stage, so that the battery is not drained as much and it can recover its charge. If you are using too much power and the battery drops below float, you start hemorrhaging charge and it takes more solar power to get the battery charged back up. This point will become more relevant shortly.
Now, this isn't perfect, but I think the case can be made that late stage capitalism in the core somewhat resembles the float stage, or at least some sort of post-float stage, with some additional dynamics involved as well.
If you look at historical accounts of early capitalism, in the core you'll see a frenzy of industrial activity. These early factories were just completely brutal places, and the factory owners seemed to be in a constant state of desperation to squeeze their workers as vigorously as possible. This is when you'd see vicious struggles to get to something like a 12 or 10 hour or so workday, which looked less agonizing then but excessive now.
I say core because if you look at developing countries today, you do see signs of early stage accumulation which look similar to those of early capitalism. As capital saturates and living standards improve, it must spread out further and into pre-industrial or developing sectors to cheapen its obligations to worker and environment.
In the core, the intensity of extraction has been relaxed somewhat. The infrastructure has been built for numerous types of transportation, there are robust communication networks, there are powerful factories, power stations, machineries, and technologies, and so living standards can improve a bit, and work days can shorten, and we see a greater abundance of consumable goods, at least for the more privileged tranches of the working class.
If this comparative "float stage" looks something like the '60s and '70s, there is a good reason for this. Because with this floating point of relative prosperity - and let's stress "relative" emphatically here - we saw the build up of vast and complex financial institutions that then accumulated greater power, as they skimmed off of the floating charge of the industrial system.
But now we've retreated back to a comparative absorption stage, and finance continues to draw down resources and charge, unable to reverse its extraction. Hopefully there are better ways to conceptualize this historical progression, and we know that it is much more complex than this, but a clunky metaphor can make do for now.
Let's start with the battery chemistry. So this isn't the case with all batteries, but a lot of batteries have 3 distinct stages of charge in which the energy stored in the battery features different dynamics. Smart chargers were developed to account for these three stages, so that the battery could be charged properly to ensure its stability and longevity.
There is a bulk stage, in which the battery is pretty much empty, and so a full voltage and amperage can be used to rapidly charge the battery. There is also an absorption stage, where the battery is getting close to full capacity, and amperage is dialed down to avoid overcharging. Finally there is the the float stage, where the battery is fully charged, and the voltage and amperage are taken down, and the current becomes a trickle, so as to keep the battery charged without overcharging it.
The float stage is an interesting phenomenon for our purposes, especially when using something like solar power. When the battery is in float, you can skim power off of the top and it continuously maintains its charge. You can put a heavier load on it with various electrical applications: the discharge is steadily replaced and the battery charge maintains its robustness. However after it dips below float, the battery enters a steady discharge as you use it. And if the battery just sits, it will self discharge and proceed closer to depletion, so these smart trickle chargers will keep the battery full and in float without overcharging it.
So when you are using batteries that are drawing off of solar power, you generally want to save the bulk of your electrical usage for the float stage, so that the battery is not drained as much and it can recover its charge. If you are using too much power and the battery drops below float, you start hemorrhaging charge and it takes more solar power to get the battery charged back up. This point will become more relevant shortly.
Now, this isn't perfect, but I think the case can be made that late stage capitalism in the core somewhat resembles the float stage, or at least some sort of post-float stage, with some additional dynamics involved as well.
If you look at historical accounts of early capitalism, in the core you'll see a frenzy of industrial activity. These early factories were just completely brutal places, and the factory owners seemed to be in a constant state of desperation to squeeze their workers as vigorously as possible. This is when you'd see vicious struggles to get to something like a 12 or 10 hour or so workday, which looked less agonizing then but excessive now.
I say core because if you look at developing countries today, you do see signs of early stage accumulation which look similar to those of early capitalism. As capital saturates and living standards improve, it must spread out further and into pre-industrial or developing sectors to cheapen its obligations to worker and environment.
In the core, the intensity of extraction has been relaxed somewhat. The infrastructure has been built for numerous types of transportation, there are robust communication networks, there are powerful factories, power stations, machineries, and technologies, and so living standards can improve a bit, and work days can shorten, and we see a greater abundance of consumable goods, at least for the more privileged tranches of the working class.
If this comparative "float stage" looks something like the '60s and '70s, there is a good reason for this. Because with this floating point of relative prosperity - and let's stress "relative" emphatically here - we saw the build up of vast and complex financial institutions that then accumulated greater power, as they skimmed off of the floating charge of the industrial system.
But now we've retreated back to a comparative absorption stage, and finance continues to draw down resources and charge, unable to reverse its extraction. Hopefully there are better ways to conceptualize this historical progression, and we know that it is much more complex than this, but a clunky metaphor can make do for now.
Friday, May 11, 2018
Uncanny Valley
Today's radical leftist and right wing ideologies mirror each other in some ways, such as with their deeper desires to connect to more visceral and emotional realities, and their spiritual abandonment of far-reaching state institutions and projects in favor of localization and secession.
Occasionally the two sides must face each other, with their mutual hatred, and shudder at their similarities and their ultimate binding to shared fates, by virtue of being trapped in the same trajectories.
More simply, it amounts to new, local struggles over futures set free by decaying global social systems, struggles between hope and devastation.
Bad Communication
One of the real ongoing tragedies in the daily life of the modern individual is the breakdown in basic communication, attributable in part to historical traumas, and the reproduction of daily traumas, which steadily crackle like some kind of radioactive fallout. Communication is diverted from the relations between individuals and their environments, and towards the maintenance of a vast industrial apparatus.
There is a constant production of individual projections and the interactions between those projections, held together by a common ideology and world view, which mediate communication in general. So we see the constant reproduction of myth and archetype, myths and archetypes that mirror this ongoing daily fallout, as they are given shape by a mass media eager to reflect a people's concerns and desires back at them. All of this gives shape to and mediates daily communication, at least in the mainstream.
This is a very high level, and thus abstract view. I hope to clarify further sometime in the future.
There is a constant production of individual projections and the interactions between those projections, held together by a common ideology and world view, which mediate communication in general. So we see the constant reproduction of myth and archetype, myths and archetypes that mirror this ongoing daily fallout, as they are given shape by a mass media eager to reflect a people's concerns and desires back at them. All of this gives shape to and mediates daily communication, at least in the mainstream.
This is a very high level, and thus abstract view. I hope to clarify further sometime in the future.
Illustrating The Trap
One way to illustrate part of this strange modern trap's nature is by way of contrast. Within a single type of lifestyle, it becomes difficult to spot the subtle gradients: the contrast is low. With two radically different lifestyles juxtaposed, the contrast becomes very high indeed, and a lifestyle nature which is likened to the air we breathe becomes visible in the process.
The contrast I am thinking of here is the radical differences between the traditional Hopi and modern industrial lifestyles. The Hopi elders were very wary of so much as accepting the conveniences of running water and electricity, as they were well aware of the material forces that underpinned their lifestyle.
Now what would accepting those conveniences entail? Of course with running water, water quality has to be managed somehow, and there must be some sort of infrastructure in place that keeps up water pressure and flows. Electricity also requires all sorts of generative infrastructure, which is tied up with manufacturing, heavy industry, and resource extraction, all of which require large investments from local, state, and federal governments, and the vast constellation of private business and their financial seeders, all of which intermingle and divide up obligation and the distribution of social resources.
So these conveniences necessitate constant interaction with this system in the form of taxes and fees, and the local household infrastructure itself must be maintained regularly, a maintenance that is impossible with local resources, skills, and knowledge, and so any household taking part in these material flows must also tap into the central currency, money in this case, to gain access to the maintenance and persistence of those flows.
It could be the case that all of these technologies and resources could be organized and managed collectively for the good of all, but today this certainly isn't the case. What the Hopi rightly fear is not merely the loss of traditional practices and customs, but their insertion into what can only be described as a vampiric social order which is constantly demanding more labor and privation on the part of its laborers and lower classes, so it can continuously expand and advance itself for the pleasure of its higher classes.
In so doing this, it requires an assimilation that breaks communities, traditions, and skills from local contexts, reinserting its individuals into divided and specialized labor roles in return for material convenience, and of course the permission not to be destroyed. This is all even after the previous centuries of genocide and dislocation, to be sure. To enter into such an assimilation entails such an enormous velocity: one becomes modern by way of sheer necessity, and it takes much energy to escape once it has begun.
This then is part of the nature of the trap. The industrial lifestyle, is so materially and spatially powerful, it is constantly extending itself, and to be entered into it, one's lifestyle is so radically transformed and fixed far into the future. Its power and potency have caused it to be virtually objectified, likened to the air we breathe.
The contrast I am thinking of here is the radical differences between the traditional Hopi and modern industrial lifestyles. The Hopi elders were very wary of so much as accepting the conveniences of running water and electricity, as they were well aware of the material forces that underpinned their lifestyle.
Now what would accepting those conveniences entail? Of course with running water, water quality has to be managed somehow, and there must be some sort of infrastructure in place that keeps up water pressure and flows. Electricity also requires all sorts of generative infrastructure, which is tied up with manufacturing, heavy industry, and resource extraction, all of which require large investments from local, state, and federal governments, and the vast constellation of private business and their financial seeders, all of which intermingle and divide up obligation and the distribution of social resources.
So these conveniences necessitate constant interaction with this system in the form of taxes and fees, and the local household infrastructure itself must be maintained regularly, a maintenance that is impossible with local resources, skills, and knowledge, and so any household taking part in these material flows must also tap into the central currency, money in this case, to gain access to the maintenance and persistence of those flows.
It could be the case that all of these technologies and resources could be organized and managed collectively for the good of all, but today this certainly isn't the case. What the Hopi rightly fear is not merely the loss of traditional practices and customs, but their insertion into what can only be described as a vampiric social order which is constantly demanding more labor and privation on the part of its laborers and lower classes, so it can continuously expand and advance itself for the pleasure of its higher classes.
In so doing this, it requires an assimilation that breaks communities, traditions, and skills from local contexts, reinserting its individuals into divided and specialized labor roles in return for material convenience, and of course the permission not to be destroyed. This is all even after the previous centuries of genocide and dislocation, to be sure. To enter into such an assimilation entails such an enormous velocity: one becomes modern by way of sheer necessity, and it takes much energy to escape once it has begun.
This then is part of the nature of the trap. The industrial lifestyle, is so materially and spatially powerful, it is constantly extending itself, and to be entered into it, one's lifestyle is so radically transformed and fixed far into the future. Its power and potency have caused it to be virtually objectified, likened to the air we breathe.
Thursday, May 03, 2018
The Trap
At the same time that this society further develops by further specializing, it also fragments further too, as life experiences diverge, so that all the more people it takes to organize to move in any given direction, the more diverging wills and interests must be taken into account to mobilize that organization. The same thing happens as a society expands and becomes richer in time and space, and more people are excluded from the process. This is part of what makes radical system-wide change so difficult: the further you scale out, the more difficult it becomes. A trap forms over time then.
However there are some commonalities, which can range anywhere from mutual antagonism to the collective desire to escape the trap.
However there are some commonalities, which can range anywhere from mutual antagonism to the collective desire to escape the trap.
Will to Labor
Labor begins out of necessity, and as such, contains both elements of pleasure and pain. It is the product of labor, and the end that that product is put towards, that transforms the nature of that labor as it progresses.
The products of labor transform one's own perception of that labor, and therefore one's motivations in undertaking it. If it is a product that makes one proud, and brings about one's health and happiness, or the health and happiness of others, then that labor process moves in the direction of pleasure and joy.
If it is a product that brings one shame, or damages oneself or others, or is simply taken from oneself without one's ability to enjoy its circulation in the community, then that process proceeds towards one of pain and arduousness.
The products of labor transform one's own perception of that labor, and therefore one's motivations in undertaking it. If it is a product that makes one proud, and brings about one's health and happiness, or the health and happiness of others, then that labor process moves in the direction of pleasure and joy.
If it is a product that brings one shame, or damages oneself or others, or is simply taken from oneself without one's ability to enjoy its circulation in the community, then that process proceeds towards one of pain and arduousness.
Unpaid Labor
In common parlance, the concept of labor itself betrays the nature of the society in which that concept has taken on its modern shape. Typically when we think of labor we think of jobs and paid "work," that is, wage labor.
Which is just as well, as culturally devaluing the multitude of labor forms in favor of the forms that are useful to capital serves to cheapen that labor by narrowing the range of obligation of repayment for that labor.
After all, what exactly is labor, other than the general expenditure of energy to organize and harmonize energy in the individual, social, and natural environment?
Emotional labor to maintain relationships, parental labor to raise children, physical labor to maintain one's living space and community space, all of these things must be done whether we like it or not. They are intrinsic to maintaining the stability of the human organism, as it relates to its environment.
There is a joy to much of it, yes, but much of it is simply hard work in the sense of it being psychologically and physically taxing. And yes, emotional labor can be physically taxing, as stress and strain necessarily have bodily effects.
It is taxing because any sort of movement or organization of energy and resources requires the organization and maintenance of the very structures required to move those energy and resources. Consider basic physical labor for a simple illustration.
At its base, the muscles must be replenished with proteins and other nutrients as they extend and hold themselves in order to move mass outside themselves, which itself requires the mobilization of the throat muscles, stomach, circulatory system, brain, and a host of other things.
For each different activity, a different set of muscles, memory, and skill sets must proceed from a weak state to a strong state, which is basically the process of repeating a state of organization in fast enough succession, a process which is constantly in a state of decay as time passes from its peak state.
This hurts in many different ways: it is not completely pleasant to grow and change. Even a state of rest becomes painful after too long, as boredom sets in or a certain body part is put too much pressure on for too long. What's more, as we act on the environment, and the environment itself is far from static, we find that constant change, constant development of different faculties is necessary, so that things like contentment and security can stay the same. As we see, pain, pleasure, and change form a very complicated matrix that I can't really address right now.
The more strenuous and unrewarding the work becomes, the more painful, which I'll briefly address in an accompanying post.
It is a good enough amount of work to simply account for one's immediate community's daily needs. But any sort of large scale infrastructure project, even in the form of a simple building, requires labor that is in addition to the requirements of the reproduction of the laborers themselves, labor which not only erects the buildings, but produces and maintains the instruments required for building.
Capital, with its intense drive to constantly grow, requires a constant compression of that necessary labor, so that it can squeeze out ever greater amounts of that surplus, which it uses to technologically, spatially, and temporally extend ever further.
It does this in many ways, but one of those ways is an incessant negotiation of what frequencies of the myriad labor types should actually be repaid, which comes down to: which parts of labor should be replenished, and what parts should be exhausted to their extremes? How much can it get away with, and who can it shit on the most?
We see the greatest extremes of this negotiation play out historically and ideologically in the form of phenomena like slavery, prison labor, domestic labor, and sweatshop labor. As critical race theorists have long pointed out, slaves and prisoners have been dehumanized in various ways, so that in the end they are seen to barely deserve any sort of life, and the free labor they are providing is actually some kind of favor for them.
To give a brief example, the Pacific Coast Highway, that widely revered piece of infrastructure that passes through the illustrious Big Sur, a region that has grown preposterously rich due to the magnetic worldwide attraction its natural beauty creates, and which has rewarded its private and passive private landowners most, was built with the help of free prison labor, with the excuse that the work was a form of rehabilitation for "brutish" convicts, themselves caught in a battle for basic survival and sustenance. It was the infrastructure that made the regional wealth possible, so given our premises, the wealth was stolen, especially when one takes into account the land itself was stolen, and overlaid with an alien colonial political economic system.
In this way, an industrial society bangs its most vulnerable and damaged about the head with one hand, and with the other points with a disapproving finger when those being hit react to that banging, giving it ever the more self-justification to go on banging a bit harder.
Similarly, as feminists have also long since pointed out, traditional domestic labor, which is just as necessary for any sort of decent quality of life, is downplayed and attributed to the nobility of those meek sacrificers toiling away hidden in that sphere, which has historically been relegated to women.
What we see ultimately played out is a reward system put in place that spreads benefits mapped out to those closest to the image of the individuals in greatest control of the direction of capital: that of the binary heterosexual "sane and white" man, a designation which has undergone struggles and negotiations of its own.
More historically, labor becomes ever more legitimate the more wealth is attached, and the wealth in turn circulates and builds up where various families and institutions, positioned socially and temporally as they are, are able to benefit from the walling off and privatization of the commons, and the profit that is made available by this.
In the end, to the dominant culture, what counts is labor is that which maintains and augments money, and more broadly, wealth. Those who perform the labor, and those who are rewarded for it are given in turn rights to dispose of what spheres of wealth they have accrued, while the rest of the labor hovers somewhere in the ambient environment, under various designations like sacrificial domestic labor, rehabilitative ventures, community service, and criminal activity.
Which is just as well, as culturally devaluing the multitude of labor forms in favor of the forms that are useful to capital serves to cheapen that labor by narrowing the range of obligation of repayment for that labor.
After all, what exactly is labor, other than the general expenditure of energy to organize and harmonize energy in the individual, social, and natural environment?
Emotional labor to maintain relationships, parental labor to raise children, physical labor to maintain one's living space and community space, all of these things must be done whether we like it or not. They are intrinsic to maintaining the stability of the human organism, as it relates to its environment.
There is a joy to much of it, yes, but much of it is simply hard work in the sense of it being psychologically and physically taxing. And yes, emotional labor can be physically taxing, as stress and strain necessarily have bodily effects.
It is taxing because any sort of movement or organization of energy and resources requires the organization and maintenance of the very structures required to move those energy and resources. Consider basic physical labor for a simple illustration.
At its base, the muscles must be replenished with proteins and other nutrients as they extend and hold themselves in order to move mass outside themselves, which itself requires the mobilization of the throat muscles, stomach, circulatory system, brain, and a host of other things.
For each different activity, a different set of muscles, memory, and skill sets must proceed from a weak state to a strong state, which is basically the process of repeating a state of organization in fast enough succession, a process which is constantly in a state of decay as time passes from its peak state.
This hurts in many different ways: it is not completely pleasant to grow and change. Even a state of rest becomes painful after too long, as boredom sets in or a certain body part is put too much pressure on for too long. What's more, as we act on the environment, and the environment itself is far from static, we find that constant change, constant development of different faculties is necessary, so that things like contentment and security can stay the same. As we see, pain, pleasure, and change form a very complicated matrix that I can't really address right now.
The more strenuous and unrewarding the work becomes, the more painful, which I'll briefly address in an accompanying post.
It is a good enough amount of work to simply account for one's immediate community's daily needs. But any sort of large scale infrastructure project, even in the form of a simple building, requires labor that is in addition to the requirements of the reproduction of the laborers themselves, labor which not only erects the buildings, but produces and maintains the instruments required for building.
Capital, with its intense drive to constantly grow, requires a constant compression of that necessary labor, so that it can squeeze out ever greater amounts of that surplus, which it uses to technologically, spatially, and temporally extend ever further.
It does this in many ways, but one of those ways is an incessant negotiation of what frequencies of the myriad labor types should actually be repaid, which comes down to: which parts of labor should be replenished, and what parts should be exhausted to their extremes? How much can it get away with, and who can it shit on the most?
We see the greatest extremes of this negotiation play out historically and ideologically in the form of phenomena like slavery, prison labor, domestic labor, and sweatshop labor. As critical race theorists have long pointed out, slaves and prisoners have been dehumanized in various ways, so that in the end they are seen to barely deserve any sort of life, and the free labor they are providing is actually some kind of favor for them.
To give a brief example, the Pacific Coast Highway, that widely revered piece of infrastructure that passes through the illustrious Big Sur, a region that has grown preposterously rich due to the magnetic worldwide attraction its natural beauty creates, and which has rewarded its private and passive private landowners most, was built with the help of free prison labor, with the excuse that the work was a form of rehabilitation for "brutish" convicts, themselves caught in a battle for basic survival and sustenance. It was the infrastructure that made the regional wealth possible, so given our premises, the wealth was stolen, especially when one takes into account the land itself was stolen, and overlaid with an alien colonial political economic system.
In this way, an industrial society bangs its most vulnerable and damaged about the head with one hand, and with the other points with a disapproving finger when those being hit react to that banging, giving it ever the more self-justification to go on banging a bit harder.
Similarly, as feminists have also long since pointed out, traditional domestic labor, which is just as necessary for any sort of decent quality of life, is downplayed and attributed to the nobility of those meek sacrificers toiling away hidden in that sphere, which has historically been relegated to women.
What we see ultimately played out is a reward system put in place that spreads benefits mapped out to those closest to the image of the individuals in greatest control of the direction of capital: that of the binary heterosexual "sane and white" man, a designation which has undergone struggles and negotiations of its own.
More historically, labor becomes ever more legitimate the more wealth is attached, and the wealth in turn circulates and builds up where various families and institutions, positioned socially and temporally as they are, are able to benefit from the walling off and privatization of the commons, and the profit that is made available by this.
In the end, to the dominant culture, what counts is labor is that which maintains and augments money, and more broadly, wealth. Those who perform the labor, and those who are rewarded for it are given in turn rights to dispose of what spheres of wealth they have accrued, while the rest of the labor hovers somewhere in the ambient environment, under various designations like sacrificial domestic labor, rehabilitative ventures, community service, and criminal activity.
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