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.
