Dangerous professions like construction have cultural and political effects of their own which are generated out of material conditions on the ground.
In dangerous and stressful situations, which involve dangerous materials and objects, and economic pressures which encourage unconditional competence and speed, there emerges an environment of aggression between workers in cooperation.
In stressful situations, being yelled at and appealed to with urgency tends to pump adrenaline and trigger a fight or flight reflex, which is not always great for processes which require skill and concentration, and which in the untrained individual, only bring forth confusion and hesitation, while in others it elicits reckless and aggressive action. This kind of behavior tends to elicit more yelling, frustration, and aggression, which in turn pumps more adrenaline, and etc.
These are situations which are bound to happen through the course of living. Sometimes we are threatened as a group, and stress runs its course through the group as it will.
But with our extreme division of labor, the bulk of this occurrence is concentrated on given professions, and takes the form of a daily pressure on whoever enters into this given division. It is a pressure which is constant and dramatic enough to actually influence and form the affected individual, who then enters fully formed into the greater culture and interacts with other individuals.
And through this constant pressure, and this constant wear, there emerges a resent and a sense of entitlement developed in the face of risk and daily hardship. The divisions of labor form different types of people, with differently concentrated human natures which then proceed to crash with each other.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Emergent Cruelty
Take the example of the timid driver who is trying to change lanes amidst high velocity traffic flows. Each car that passes up the timid car, and denies that car its movement into the next lane, is individually motivated by self-interest, and thanks to cultivated apathy, is unmoved and loathe to stop and let the slower car pass in front of it.
This accumulated self-interest, however, results in a cruelty in which the timid driver is trapped and despairing within the flows.
Still, the cruelty exists in the greater velocity and volume of the traffic flows which daily shape themselves, as manifested in the relations between all of the drivers participating.
This accumulated self-interest, however, results in a cruelty in which the timid driver is trapped and despairing within the flows.
Still, the cruelty exists in the greater velocity and volume of the traffic flows which daily shape themselves, as manifested in the relations between all of the drivers participating.
Move It
When an intelligence such as ourselves learns the effects of a certain transformation, we can move that transformation and spread that transformation self-consciously, so the transformation becomes a product of our localized will.
One strikes a match and produces a flame. From there one is free to move that flame wherever it shall go, combusting whatever combustibles one chooses.
One strikes a match and produces a flame. From there one is free to move that flame wherever it shall go, combusting whatever combustibles one chooses.
Alarm Clock
We engage in this strange daily ritual of blasting noise at ourselves, so as to keep ourselves in sync in relation to this precisely measured, global flow of time.
On Hierarchy
The concept of hierarchy comes in many forms. Some of those forms are not necessarily materially efficacious; they are only used to organize things or prioritize things. Here this short discussion has to do with the general form of hierarchy which involves a material efficaciousness, in which an organized power concentrates more power in itself by marshaling the organized power of other entities in relation to it, so as to diminish those other entities in proportion to its own augmentation.
In general hierarchy necessarily implies a relationship between concentrations of organized power, such as human beings or other forms of life. In this simple relationship, one organized power places itself in a position of heightened importance over another in a field of shared resources, within which emerges an asymmetrical flow of resources to the power that is positioned to receive them.
So to give a brief example, a patriarchal household implies a hierarchy in which the patriarch rests as organized power at the top of a pyramid of other organized powers such as wives, children, etc. The patriarch is socially permitted to concentrate resources and control them for the rest of the associated powers.
What is common to all organized powers in this field is the shared desire of shared resources, and so the asymmetrical flow of resources necessarily creates an antagonism between other powers. Other associated powers, to compensate for their lack of resources - and the head power's concomitant abundance of resources - attempt to concentrate power in their direction so as to divert resources, or else they attack the hierarchy or head powers themselves.
Without any further action, this is an unstable situation. The head power, and the rest of the associated powers, are to take turns concentrating power and diverting more resources to themselves, with power oscillating and proceeding towards crisis, as those oscillations tend to gain momentum.
So hierarchy creates instability through its operation, and so it must situate itself. Like one sets out tripod legs to settle a wobbling camera, the top of the pyramid, with its current abundance of power, marshals that power to situate itself and stabilize itself. The other powers, coming up against these stabilizing forces, are further antagonized, as this tends to take power away from them, even as these forces act as an alien influence within their own sphere of control.
So hierarchy, coming up against this antagonism as it situates itself, must situate itself deeper and deeper, producing ever more antagonism. Where there is power available at the top of the hierarchy to further deepen itself against this antagonism, and weaken the antagonists, this power is diverted toward this end, until there is no longer enough power available to do so.
Therefore, this form of hierarchy is necessarily terminal. The stability it produces is illusory and temporary, which is all the more convincing the longer the timescale. But when the hierarchical system can no longer maintain itself, it rapidly and explosively collapses, much like unpayable compound debt.
In general hierarchy necessarily implies a relationship between concentrations of organized power, such as human beings or other forms of life. In this simple relationship, one organized power places itself in a position of heightened importance over another in a field of shared resources, within which emerges an asymmetrical flow of resources to the power that is positioned to receive them.
So to give a brief example, a patriarchal household implies a hierarchy in which the patriarch rests as organized power at the top of a pyramid of other organized powers such as wives, children, etc. The patriarch is socially permitted to concentrate resources and control them for the rest of the associated powers.
What is common to all organized powers in this field is the shared desire of shared resources, and so the asymmetrical flow of resources necessarily creates an antagonism between other powers. Other associated powers, to compensate for their lack of resources - and the head power's concomitant abundance of resources - attempt to concentrate power in their direction so as to divert resources, or else they attack the hierarchy or head powers themselves.
Without any further action, this is an unstable situation. The head power, and the rest of the associated powers, are to take turns concentrating power and diverting more resources to themselves, with power oscillating and proceeding towards crisis, as those oscillations tend to gain momentum.
So hierarchy creates instability through its operation, and so it must situate itself. Like one sets out tripod legs to settle a wobbling camera, the top of the pyramid, with its current abundance of power, marshals that power to situate itself and stabilize itself. The other powers, coming up against these stabilizing forces, are further antagonized, as this tends to take power away from them, even as these forces act as an alien influence within their own sphere of control.
So hierarchy, coming up against this antagonism as it situates itself, must situate itself deeper and deeper, producing ever more antagonism. Where there is power available at the top of the hierarchy to further deepen itself against this antagonism, and weaken the antagonists, this power is diverted toward this end, until there is no longer enough power available to do so.
Therefore, this form of hierarchy is necessarily terminal. The stability it produces is illusory and temporary, which is all the more convincing the longer the timescale. But when the hierarchical system can no longer maintain itself, it rapidly and explosively collapses, much like unpayable compound debt.
Fire and ICE
A selfish and inward obsessed late empire breaks the nations it reaches out to and colonizes, as it can no longer even manage the self control it takes to preserve its objects of exploitation. By the same token, its domestic security apparatus corrupts as it operates, destroying the possibility of justice with its cruel and selective enforcement in the face of self-generated destruction.
The unforgivably cruel and reckless mass rounding up of immigrants may sound like the right course of action to the actors of empire, who trapped within their insular milieu of selfishness, inner regard, and unyielding greed, cannot imagine alternative courses of action which would consequently diminish empire.
To the imperial consciousness, all of these superfluous peoples set free by its own destructive actions make for an alarming and threatening wave of chaos, suddenly surging towards its own heartlands, and so containing them and cruelly terrorizing and intimidating them seems the only course to stop a flood that was only previously a series of manageable trickles, at least as represented in the imperial consciousness. After all, monsters must have a somewhat favorable image of themselves to represent to themselves, one which allows for their existence in the first place.
But then what effect does this have on the body politic?
When an irrigation system pressurizes, its pipes must first fill partially with water acting by gravity, flowing from the source to the end of the pipe. When that water finally reaches the terminus of the pipe, it begins to reverse direction and fill the pipe completely from that direction, and so a surge of water comes rushing back to where it started, pressurizing the pipe. Too much water and this surge can destroy the infrastructure its housed in.
In the same way, this is a nation which has always been involved in colonization, dispossession, and terror. As long as the empire could continue to expand, and there was a capacity to absorb the chaotic forces set in motion by the turbulence of this process, the integrity of the system could be adjusted and maintained to keep the process going.
Today however there is no more room for expansion, both physically and spiritually. Just as the earth and the colonized nations which sit upon it have become exhausted, the inner dynamism of the imperial consciousness - which guides the process - has become exhausted as well. As a result, this terminus, this chain of destruction across the globe, and the waves of domestic repression that accompany it, have shattered any remaining collective notion of a republic. Each new iteration of cruelty and failure achieves this shattering for a greater proportion of the body politic, both through reactionary justifications of this cruelty and failure, and radical reactions to it in turn.
To go back to the previous irrigation metaphor, these are surges which don't bode well for the greater piping infrastructure. The formations of ICE and DHS, with their related material formations, are not institutions which can be contained within the legal infrastructure - whatever that is - that they emerged from.
To risk becoming overwrought with cumbersome metaphor, it doesn't matter what sorts of conceits are harbored by the empire: this is not like burning unwanted items in a trash barrel. The fires started within the loci of the ICE and DHS agencies will spread effects that are exponential and fractal in scope. In proportion to the restless and energetic cruelty incubated within such agencies is the hatred and disgust of the entire project these agencies are a part of.
The unforgivably cruel and reckless mass rounding up of immigrants may sound like the right course of action to the actors of empire, who trapped within their insular milieu of selfishness, inner regard, and unyielding greed, cannot imagine alternative courses of action which would consequently diminish empire.
To the imperial consciousness, all of these superfluous peoples set free by its own destructive actions make for an alarming and threatening wave of chaos, suddenly surging towards its own heartlands, and so containing them and cruelly terrorizing and intimidating them seems the only course to stop a flood that was only previously a series of manageable trickles, at least as represented in the imperial consciousness. After all, monsters must have a somewhat favorable image of themselves to represent to themselves, one which allows for their existence in the first place.
But then what effect does this have on the body politic?
When an irrigation system pressurizes, its pipes must first fill partially with water acting by gravity, flowing from the source to the end of the pipe. When that water finally reaches the terminus of the pipe, it begins to reverse direction and fill the pipe completely from that direction, and so a surge of water comes rushing back to where it started, pressurizing the pipe. Too much water and this surge can destroy the infrastructure its housed in.
In the same way, this is a nation which has always been involved in colonization, dispossession, and terror. As long as the empire could continue to expand, and there was a capacity to absorb the chaotic forces set in motion by the turbulence of this process, the integrity of the system could be adjusted and maintained to keep the process going.
Today however there is no more room for expansion, both physically and spiritually. Just as the earth and the colonized nations which sit upon it have become exhausted, the inner dynamism of the imperial consciousness - which guides the process - has become exhausted as well. As a result, this terminus, this chain of destruction across the globe, and the waves of domestic repression that accompany it, have shattered any remaining collective notion of a republic. Each new iteration of cruelty and failure achieves this shattering for a greater proportion of the body politic, both through reactionary justifications of this cruelty and failure, and radical reactions to it in turn.
To go back to the previous irrigation metaphor, these are surges which don't bode well for the greater piping infrastructure. The formations of ICE and DHS, with their related material formations, are not institutions which can be contained within the legal infrastructure - whatever that is - that they emerged from.
To risk becoming overwrought with cumbersome metaphor, it doesn't matter what sorts of conceits are harbored by the empire: this is not like burning unwanted items in a trash barrel. The fires started within the loci of the ICE and DHS agencies will spread effects that are exponential and fractal in scope. In proportion to the restless and energetic cruelty incubated within such agencies is the hatred and disgust of the entire project these agencies are a part of.
Shape of the Heroic
Heroism in storytelling tends to pass through a series of archetypes in which the protagonists are actively seeking out adventure, and then ones in which the protagonists are desperately backing away from some epic fate, which is eventually reluctantly surrendered to, or else the heroic is in tatters, hanging by a thread, or shattered completely.
Or consider the situation in which the heroes are simply the last to fall in a series of failures, which carves out an image of the heroic, as opposed to a situation in which everyone aspires to a heroic ideal which is already well-established. The heroic is as much a function of the historical moment as it is a function of its constituents.
Or consider the situation in which the heroes are simply the last to fall in a series of failures, which carves out an image of the heroic, as opposed to a situation in which everyone aspires to a heroic ideal which is already well-established. The heroic is as much a function of the historical moment as it is a function of its constituents.
I'm Full of Shit
In the literal sense, only at times, after a big meal. Ha. Ha. Ha.
But in the figurative sense, all the time. Because much of what I do here is abstract away from realities which I absorb from various modalities, via empirical data, anecdotal data, direct experience, visceral experience, constant communication, belief, and etc.
I do indeed take in a lot of information, and take care to vet that information and the sources of that information so that I am receiving as clear a picture of what is happening as possible. But I'm much more interested in the generalized abstractions that can be gleaned from those things, so as to inform future organizations of said information and of course, actions based on it, due to my own nature, among other things.
It is something we tend to do anyway, so why not be aware of it, and do it as well as possible? This is a loop that tends to close over time, so it is important to continuously break it apart, interrogate it, confront competing loops, converse, doubt to the point of existential crisis, and etc, at least as much as one can as a human being.
We have observed before that as soon as one abstracts, one loses all manner of resolution, and one shifts one's attention on to limited items one is addressing. One can't get abstraction from pre-cognitive reality; it is an artifact of cognition after all, so one must construct it, and hopefully construct it well.
Here repetition is a useful thing. Once one has constructed abstraction, one can compare and contrast it to others, judge it, and then break it down again and produce more fresh, over and over again, until what persists is what is stable enough to continue on with, in accordance with what one is.
Mounting and growing abstraction, and increasing complexity in a given, limited direction is a sure sign of danger, as abstraction requires attention and energy to keep it fixed in the perception, attention and energy that is passing away from everything else. What's more is it requires more work from others to be communicable, which lowers its accessibility and universality.
It is my hope to proceed not only towards quality and stability of abstraction, but simplicity as well, so that what continues to stand is useful, clarifying, and actionable, and which does not obscure from other realities, and which gives the reader freedom to do with it what the reader will, with a decent and immediate understanding of it, with a "going back to the text" as a voluntary act.
As far as I am concerned, the work is never done. This is a lifelong and painstaking process, as it should be. Illumination and instruction through concepts is no small thing, and corrupts and degrades the mind, and produces atrocity, at its worst.
In the meantime, if all else fails, just assume I'm full of shit.
But in the figurative sense, all the time. Because much of what I do here is abstract away from realities which I absorb from various modalities, via empirical data, anecdotal data, direct experience, visceral experience, constant communication, belief, and etc.
I do indeed take in a lot of information, and take care to vet that information and the sources of that information so that I am receiving as clear a picture of what is happening as possible. But I'm much more interested in the generalized abstractions that can be gleaned from those things, so as to inform future organizations of said information and of course, actions based on it, due to my own nature, among other things.
It is something we tend to do anyway, so why not be aware of it, and do it as well as possible? This is a loop that tends to close over time, so it is important to continuously break it apart, interrogate it, confront competing loops, converse, doubt to the point of existential crisis, and etc, at least as much as one can as a human being.
We have observed before that as soon as one abstracts, one loses all manner of resolution, and one shifts one's attention on to limited items one is addressing. One can't get abstraction from pre-cognitive reality; it is an artifact of cognition after all, so one must construct it, and hopefully construct it well.
Here repetition is a useful thing. Once one has constructed abstraction, one can compare and contrast it to others, judge it, and then break it down again and produce more fresh, over and over again, until what persists is what is stable enough to continue on with, in accordance with what one is.
Mounting and growing abstraction, and increasing complexity in a given, limited direction is a sure sign of danger, as abstraction requires attention and energy to keep it fixed in the perception, attention and energy that is passing away from everything else. What's more is it requires more work from others to be communicable, which lowers its accessibility and universality.
It is my hope to proceed not only towards quality and stability of abstraction, but simplicity as well, so that what continues to stand is useful, clarifying, and actionable, and which does not obscure from other realities, and which gives the reader freedom to do with it what the reader will, with a decent and immediate understanding of it, with a "going back to the text" as a voluntary act.
As far as I am concerned, the work is never done. This is a lifelong and painstaking process, as it should be. Illumination and instruction through concepts is no small thing, and corrupts and degrades the mind, and produces atrocity, at its worst.
In the meantime, if all else fails, just assume I'm full of shit.
Friday, June 22, 2018
Boilers
Economically, the apartment complex is a cheap and efficient way to distribute housing. But this entity requires an entire functioning urban and industrial economy to work. A brief illustration.
The boiler is a large, sophisticated, and expensive piece of equipment, and often serves scores of apartments that are in proximity to it. Boilers require all manner of pumps, piping and valves, and electrical systems to work. If any of those systems fails, the boiler doesn't work, and the boiler represents a single point of failure for the procurement of hot water for an entire complex.
There are probably other ways to deliver hot water, but this is one of the most common due to cost effectiveness, at least in the current economic moment. No boiler? No hot water.
Are You Experienced?
Where there are dramatic changes in life experience, there arise tensions between the worldviews that form out of them. That is because the nature of a given experience is noncommunicable. All that can be communicated is its result.
There is a lineage of experience, so to speak. There are a given set of life experiences that only reveal themselves after one has progressed through them. One's communication of them is possible after one has gone through them in sequence, and can situate them in relation to the surrounding world.
There is much that can be triangulated through communication and compassion, and plenty of life experiences can converge in their nature. But especially in extreme cases, the experience has to be lived through in its entirety, as it alters the landscape of one's perception and state of being, in addition to informing one's worldview.
There is a lineage of experience, so to speak. There are a given set of life experiences that only reveal themselves after one has progressed through them. One's communication of them is possible after one has gone through them in sequence, and can situate them in relation to the surrounding world.
There is much that can be triangulated through communication and compassion, and plenty of life experiences can converge in their nature. But especially in extreme cases, the experience has to be lived through in its entirety, as it alters the landscape of one's perception and state of being, in addition to informing one's worldview.
Not Me!
All too common is the tragic unwillingness of a given generation to become like their parents. I've seen too many people - and myself at times - express a fear that they are sliding into the neuroticisms of their mothers and fathers, and double down upon various personal and interpersonal reflections and correcting actions to steer themselves away from what are perceived mistakes of an older generation. For example, "I'd never treat my kids that way," and etc.
These small actions can work in ways, but oftentimes this thought slides into superstition: as long as one wards off the bad thoughts with some ritualistic reprogramming, one can avoid similar ruin. But this personal form of superstition often emerges on order to take back efficacy in the face of structural and intractable difficulties that aren't being perceived clearly.
I think it is important to remember the immense pressures of an entire civilization, which through the course of its life - especially at the tail end - becomes a greater force of compulsion, snapping its constituents into the places it wants them, so that it can continue to function, especially as its dynamism and vitality wanes. Some mistakes require the radical changing of lifestyle itself.
These small actions can work in ways, but oftentimes this thought slides into superstition: as long as one wards off the bad thoughts with some ritualistic reprogramming, one can avoid similar ruin. But this personal form of superstition often emerges on order to take back efficacy in the face of structural and intractable difficulties that aren't being perceived clearly.
I think it is important to remember the immense pressures of an entire civilization, which through the course of its life - especially at the tail end - becomes a greater force of compulsion, snapping its constituents into the places it wants them, so that it can continue to function, especially as its dynamism and vitality wanes. Some mistakes require the radical changing of lifestyle itself.
Weight Spread Out
One can contemplate the progressive visions of dense, vertical, towns and cities, where a certain population is concentrated, and the displacements and destruction wrought by heavy infrastructure is limited to a smaller area, and then the surrounding earth is left alone, with suspended transportation networks and green buildings with the appropriate low and sustainable energy usages, and one could imagine such a project working a little better.
Of course it could be the case that whole other sets of unforeseen problems would arise, that could only be experienced through the course of development in that direction. But conceptually these visions do indeed sound pretty good.
If only we could reorganize our powers of manipulation and the patterns of development in which that manipulation unfolds. But today we are left overwhelmingly with sprawl, automobile proliferation, monoculture crop concentrations, industrial parks, and the like. The scale and mass of our society, and its momentum from past trajectories forecloses upon these utopian visions.
The weight is spread out everywhere, and the destruction spreads. There is no off switch, or even direction, for the growth, other than further and outward. Those disfavored superfluous folk are left to starve, waste away medically, or are rounded up in prisons and holding centers. Those great concrete labyrinths of glass and steel can only absorb so much human activity; the rest must be expelled and/or contained.
Of course it could be the case that whole other sets of unforeseen problems would arise, that could only be experienced through the course of development in that direction. But conceptually these visions do indeed sound pretty good.
If only we could reorganize our powers of manipulation and the patterns of development in which that manipulation unfolds. But today we are left overwhelmingly with sprawl, automobile proliferation, monoculture crop concentrations, industrial parks, and the like. The scale and mass of our society, and its momentum from past trajectories forecloses upon these utopian visions.
The weight is spread out everywhere, and the destruction spreads. There is no off switch, or even direction, for the growth, other than further and outward. Those disfavored superfluous folk are left to starve, waste away medically, or are rounded up in prisons and holding centers. Those great concrete labyrinths of glass and steel can only absorb so much human activity; the rest must be expelled and/or contained.
Weight of the World
One fact that repeatedly stands out in the construction world is that all of this building material is incredibly, incredibly heavy. On top of that, it has the attribute of a deep persistence. There are several things to take away from this.
On many projects, the sheer heaviness and scale of the infrastructure either requires extensive and punishing physical labor, or heavy machinery which is incredibly dangerous, and which itself must be produced by either intense physical labor, more heavy machinery, or both, and so on for the natural resources and materials that go into these things.
This is due to not only the sheer physical weight of the materials involved, but the rigid property of the materials involved, which due to the persistence of their physical bonds, require high velocity, sharp, corrosive, and/or extreme temperature processes to bind and separate them, all processes which can easily be applied to things with less strong and persistent bonds, such as human flesh.
The heaviness and rigidness is necessary for both size, scale, structure, reliability, persistence, functionality and a host of other desired attributes in our modern infrastructure.
And so to have the infrastructure that we have, and to have the divisions of labor and disempowerment of labor that we have, it is required that whole classes of laborers are steadily grinded away - or rapidly crushed - underneath the whole of it, while others get to enjoy it to various degrees of advantage.
This is by no means an original observation, and it certainly wasn't original back when Thoreau wrote that the "railroad rides upon us."
And it isn't just that the infrastructure "sits upon us" while we sit upon it. To repeat, concrete is very, very heavy, and this fact is even more impressive when one simply cuts out a trench in a foundation, and removes the little concrete that that involves: just the accumulation of that concrete waste is incredibly heavy, so that by implication, all of that foundation is pressing upon the earth over time, and compacting the soil, removing air pockets and permeability and destroying organic material, and shutting off water from percolation into the soil.
In a way, we're sitting squarely upon the earth's chest. And by doing so, we sit upon our own chest in the process.
On many projects, the sheer heaviness and scale of the infrastructure either requires extensive and punishing physical labor, or heavy machinery which is incredibly dangerous, and which itself must be produced by either intense physical labor, more heavy machinery, or both, and so on for the natural resources and materials that go into these things.
This is due to not only the sheer physical weight of the materials involved, but the rigid property of the materials involved, which due to the persistence of their physical bonds, require high velocity, sharp, corrosive, and/or extreme temperature processes to bind and separate them, all processes which can easily be applied to things with less strong and persistent bonds, such as human flesh.
The heaviness and rigidness is necessary for both size, scale, structure, reliability, persistence, functionality and a host of other desired attributes in our modern infrastructure.
And so to have the infrastructure that we have, and to have the divisions of labor and disempowerment of labor that we have, it is required that whole classes of laborers are steadily grinded away - or rapidly crushed - underneath the whole of it, while others get to enjoy it to various degrees of advantage.
This is by no means an original observation, and it certainly wasn't original back when Thoreau wrote that the "railroad rides upon us."
And it isn't just that the infrastructure "sits upon us" while we sit upon it. To repeat, concrete is very, very heavy, and this fact is even more impressive when one simply cuts out a trench in a foundation, and removes the little concrete that that involves: just the accumulation of that concrete waste is incredibly heavy, so that by implication, all of that foundation is pressing upon the earth over time, and compacting the soil, removing air pockets and permeability and destroying organic material, and shutting off water from percolation into the soil.
In a way, we're sitting squarely upon the earth's chest. And by doing so, we sit upon our own chest in the process.
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Technological Tradeoffs
If you go backwards in a tree of a given technological advancement, you often get an assortment of benefits and setbacks, which tend to go together. Typically, the older the technological iteration, the more reliable and self-contained it is. That is, once you purchase it, you are free to continue using it indefinitely, and it is likely you can keep it up in good shape for its lifetime without the need for additional resources or services. For a simple example, take a regular screwdriver versus an electric one. Straightforward enough.
Now, at the same time that you get greater reliability, you get an increase in labor time, and required labor. In the case of the screwdriver, there are also things you simply can't do with a manual one combined with human muscle: you can't drive screws into wood as easily. But saved labor and convenience is a big one. A lot of older technologies also don't have as many built-in safeties and as much ergonomic relief as new ones.
You can even see this in gradations, such as with the shaving razor. The latest disposable razors are very easy to use, they make quick work of facial hair, and they're difficult to hurt yourself with them. But the razors are constantly wearing out, so you have to constantly buy new ones, the costs add up, and you are producing a constant stream of waste.
Going back, safety razors produce less waste. A single quality disposable razor may last months. But they do take a little more skill to use and maintain.
Further back, with a straight razor, you can buy a good one and have it work for you for life. But it takes a good amount of skill to use and you have to sharpen it, which also takes learning. It takes more time and effort to use. You can also hurt yourself with it.
Some old technologies are simply no longer useful and are obsolete for good reason, while some newer ones are very useful and simple. Some technological trees deteriorate over time and finally bottom out, and so they are reinvigorated out of embarrassment, apology, or determination.
But the bulk of the trend is this: older technologies are developed to simply work, while as economic time passes on, the technologies become much more convenient, labor saving, and in some cases more effective and powerful, but you also have to deal with the pressures of increased material complexity and further dependence, as well as forces like planned obsolescence and capital accumulation, which tend to encourage inferior quality and longevity.
Now, at the same time that you get greater reliability, you get an increase in labor time, and required labor. In the case of the screwdriver, there are also things you simply can't do with a manual one combined with human muscle: you can't drive screws into wood as easily. But saved labor and convenience is a big one. A lot of older technologies also don't have as many built-in safeties and as much ergonomic relief as new ones.
You can even see this in gradations, such as with the shaving razor. The latest disposable razors are very easy to use, they make quick work of facial hair, and they're difficult to hurt yourself with them. But the razors are constantly wearing out, so you have to constantly buy new ones, the costs add up, and you are producing a constant stream of waste.
Going back, safety razors produce less waste. A single quality disposable razor may last months. But they do take a little more skill to use and maintain.
Further back, with a straight razor, you can buy a good one and have it work for you for life. But it takes a good amount of skill to use and you have to sharpen it, which also takes learning. It takes more time and effort to use. You can also hurt yourself with it.
Some old technologies are simply no longer useful and are obsolete for good reason, while some newer ones are very useful and simple. Some technological trees deteriorate over time and finally bottom out, and so they are reinvigorated out of embarrassment, apology, or determination.
But the bulk of the trend is this: older technologies are developed to simply work, while as economic time passes on, the technologies become much more convenient, labor saving, and in some cases more effective and powerful, but you also have to deal with the pressures of increased material complexity and further dependence, as well as forces like planned obsolescence and capital accumulation, which tend to encourage inferior quality and longevity.
Social Respect
It is a real shame. You can put all sorts of time and energy into learning some sort of material skill, and then it shows quite readily for one's peers: "My my you can really swing a hammer, and wow that's a beautiful house you built," and etc.
But put all of that time and energy into learning about political, cultural, and personal relationships, and then display the fruits of that labor, and then watch as the insults fly, and you are labeled the transgressor and madperson.
This disconnect is partially owed to a set of shared values, which impose a sort of objectified structure of evaluation, outside of which exist what we refer to as transgression and/or nonsense. Currently the dominant cluster of values happen to be largely material, and so people are primed to recognize them and appreciate them more readily.
Imagine if our values were to shift radically, and suddenly one's amazing technical skills are regarded with: "what are you doing pouring all of that concrete and metal over that perfectly fine soil, what is the matter with you?"
But put all of that time and energy into learning about political, cultural, and personal relationships, and then display the fruits of that labor, and then watch as the insults fly, and you are labeled the transgressor and madperson.
This disconnect is partially owed to a set of shared values, which impose a sort of objectified structure of evaluation, outside of which exist what we refer to as transgression and/or nonsense. Currently the dominant cluster of values happen to be largely material, and so people are primed to recognize them and appreciate them more readily.
Imagine if our values were to shift radically, and suddenly one's amazing technical skills are regarded with: "what are you doing pouring all of that concrete and metal over that perfectly fine soil, what is the matter with you?"
Friday, June 15, 2018
Elaboration on Patriarchy
To repeat, patriarchy contains at its base a universal human need to inundate one's community with abundance and security, and to be appreciated for it in turn. This is the human kernel that produces a continuity, a desire to mimic in would-be patriarchs.
For most, fulfillment of this universal need is stolen away by those with the resources and socially-sanctioned opportunity to pull away and fulfill it at a greater scale and magnitude.
Patriarchy, as a response to and progenitor of historical violence and catastrophe, is a warping of this natural tendency, like a fist punching through the living fabric, forcing everyone into a mountain-valley relation, as opposed to a level one.
For most, fulfillment of this universal need is stolen away by those with the resources and socially-sanctioned opportunity to pull away and fulfill it at a greater scale and magnitude.
Patriarchy, as a response to and progenitor of historical violence and catastrophe, is a warping of this natural tendency, like a fist punching through the living fabric, forcing everyone into a mountain-valley relation, as opposed to a level one.
And this warping encourages reactions to it, reproducing mirror images of it, which in turn form new warpings, like rolling waves. One can only attempt to buttress the living fabric against this warping, holding sway against a churning ocean.
Traffic
It is difficult to understate the way in which a car-centric city deteriorates the quality of life for all of its inhabitants, and this deterioration cuts right across class lines, though as usual the disadvantages are more heavily stacked the lower class you occupy.
We could go on indefinitely describing the bubble-like qualities of the urban sprawl that accompanies the proliferation of the automobile, wherein soaring maintenance costs follow in the footsteps of short termist public/private development outwards, and disfavored races and classes of people are abandoned within chunks of "sacrifice zones" where business and industry have pulled out, and the destruction of the land through paving and strip-malling have rendered those vacated zones as basic deserts.
The traffic pollution settles alongside the freeways and into the basins, where the not-so-well-to-do are shunted into settled clouds of poisonous gas and gradually eaten by cancer, and those wealthy enough to take most advantage of the road system have the levity to hover above the smog on the high real estate hillsides.
But even those wealthy enough to own vehicles are entered into a grinding commute that wreaks spiritual devastation wherever it stretches. If you talk to a disgruntled person in Southern California, and you ask what it is they don't like about the place, it is more than likely you'll get something like, "I love the weather, but it is too expensive here, and the traffic..."
It is true, if you are driving in Los Angeles, at any time of day, you can find entire stretches of clogged freeway, with stopped vehicles and red brakelights curving far into the horizon. In a curious twist of language, the "freeway" has become an endless stream of constraint, and with every multi-million dollar widening project, on and off ramp project, or traffic lighting project, the volume and velocity of the flows are increased, and there emerges a faithful augmentation of car counts on the road until the new channels are once again filled and clogged.
Trapped in their glass and steel cages, separated by sight and sound from others, everyone is dehumanized in each others' eyes, and constantly poked and prodded by the stress of stop and start, and the fear of financial ruin or even death. Each vehicle like a soda can, repeatedly shaken and passed around, and you have this transportation system overlaying the workplaces and the schools, sites of daily humiliation and degradation.
Here is but one glimpse of the general environment we have built. And we sit back and wonder as all that built up pressure pops off, a regular pitter patter. It isn't a home we're collectively producing and reproducing, but a great thunder storm. Or some such.
We could go on indefinitely describing the bubble-like qualities of the urban sprawl that accompanies the proliferation of the automobile, wherein soaring maintenance costs follow in the footsteps of short termist public/private development outwards, and disfavored races and classes of people are abandoned within chunks of "sacrifice zones" where business and industry have pulled out, and the destruction of the land through paving and strip-malling have rendered those vacated zones as basic deserts.
The traffic pollution settles alongside the freeways and into the basins, where the not-so-well-to-do are shunted into settled clouds of poisonous gas and gradually eaten by cancer, and those wealthy enough to take most advantage of the road system have the levity to hover above the smog on the high real estate hillsides.
But even those wealthy enough to own vehicles are entered into a grinding commute that wreaks spiritual devastation wherever it stretches. If you talk to a disgruntled person in Southern California, and you ask what it is they don't like about the place, it is more than likely you'll get something like, "I love the weather, but it is too expensive here, and the traffic..."
It is true, if you are driving in Los Angeles, at any time of day, you can find entire stretches of clogged freeway, with stopped vehicles and red brakelights curving far into the horizon. In a curious twist of language, the "freeway" has become an endless stream of constraint, and with every multi-million dollar widening project, on and off ramp project, or traffic lighting project, the volume and velocity of the flows are increased, and there emerges a faithful augmentation of car counts on the road until the new channels are once again filled and clogged.
Trapped in their glass and steel cages, separated by sight and sound from others, everyone is dehumanized in each others' eyes, and constantly poked and prodded by the stress of stop and start, and the fear of financial ruin or even death. Each vehicle like a soda can, repeatedly shaken and passed around, and you have this transportation system overlaying the workplaces and the schools, sites of daily humiliation and degradation.
Here is but one glimpse of the general environment we have built. And we sit back and wonder as all that built up pressure pops off, a regular pitter patter. It isn't a home we're collectively producing and reproducing, but a great thunder storm. Or some such.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
On Maintenance
The different tranches of economic activity feature definitive shapes that are held together by a certain kind of tension, and this is another way in which the division of labor maintains itself. Because of the extreme material complexity of an industrial society, any given sphere of the built environment implies an entire galaxy of knowledge and techniques. Because the built environment is so valuable, and because that value is bound up with so many interests, there is a constant and pervasive fear of its alteration, barring the expertise of a specific professional.
One of the things that the plumbing pipe, the electrical wire, or the wooden beam have in common is that their mere appearance can serve as a signal of permission to modify, or a warning to altogether avoid, based on the observer.
For example, without the requisite plumbing knowledge, the general maintenance person regards plumbing pipes with a vague suspicion, and calls upon the knowledge of the plumbing professional to alter them in any way, as any mistake could result in expenses that eventually come back to claim a large chunk of life of the offender, and this is not an exaggeration.
Often this is a structural truth: it is indeed dangerous to tinker with an extremely materially complex system that does not belong to oneself.
But it also results in a profound destruction of the individual's basic ability to alter the environment. A proportion of material maintenance is quite simple, if only one has the basic and general knowledge. But everyone is pressed so far into their chosen specialization in the division of labor, and shut off from all the rest, and then threatened so intensely not to veer from the path if they want to maintain economic security, that one becomes helpless to solve a large proportion of completely soluble problems, and conditioned to call upon the economic services of the professional, wherever a given problem arises, which becomes internalized to a large extent for many.
And the unscrupulous professional, if perceptive enough, can navigate a dense social environment and charge sizable sums for their exclusive services. But this sort of behavior depends on the scale and complexity of the work, the averages in market practices, social relationships in the work, and a host of other factors.
One of the things that the plumbing pipe, the electrical wire, or the wooden beam have in common is that their mere appearance can serve as a signal of permission to modify, or a warning to altogether avoid, based on the observer.
For example, without the requisite plumbing knowledge, the general maintenance person regards plumbing pipes with a vague suspicion, and calls upon the knowledge of the plumbing professional to alter them in any way, as any mistake could result in expenses that eventually come back to claim a large chunk of life of the offender, and this is not an exaggeration.
Often this is a structural truth: it is indeed dangerous to tinker with an extremely materially complex system that does not belong to oneself.
But it also results in a profound destruction of the individual's basic ability to alter the environment. A proportion of material maintenance is quite simple, if only one has the basic and general knowledge. But everyone is pressed so far into their chosen specialization in the division of labor, and shut off from all the rest, and then threatened so intensely not to veer from the path if they want to maintain economic security, that one becomes helpless to solve a large proportion of completely soluble problems, and conditioned to call upon the economic services of the professional, wherever a given problem arises, which becomes internalized to a large extent for many.
And the unscrupulous professional, if perceptive enough, can navigate a dense social environment and charge sizable sums for their exclusive services. But this sort of behavior depends on the scale and complexity of the work, the averages in market practices, social relationships in the work, and a host of other factors.
Volatility
Most life confronts the forces of nature and experiences them as a volatility which must be carefully anticipated and navigated. Here we have discovered that concrete and steel can fix nature in place, and lead and steel cleave it away, but the volatility never quite goes away. Instead it turns up wherever one presses down upon or cleaves apart nature the hardest and most intensely. All is in circulation, even when - and perhaps especially when - it appears to be still.
Clapback
One strikes with the hammer, but the hammer strikes back. One transfers one's muscle energy into the built environment; that driving force which fixes things in place where they ought to stay for one's comfort is the same force which seizes upon and exhausts one's muscles, which in turn must be replenished by various forms of consumption and rest.
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