Through decades of political and economic struggle, the changing political economy has resulted in a swarm of consolidating financial entities, many of which are private equity outfits, which snap up a portfolio of forested lands, trucking and heavy equipment companies, mills, and etc., and then retool them for shorter growing cycles to turn over a quicker profit.
Proceeds are bled away from the logging towns, certain milling and processing operations are outsourced, and the machinery itself is reconfigured to process smaller logs, as the trees are cut down at a younger age, in smaller sizes, and at a greater rate to supply existing ratios of harvested lumber. And these industrial-sized reconfigurations are expensive and time consuming, and god forbid if stocks are to take a hit.
We may say to ourselves, look we not only need to plant new trees, but let older trees continue to grow as it is the older forests which are the more effective carbon sequestration mechanisms. But that aspiration exists in tandem with the logging industry across great swathes of forested land, and not to mention a ton of other connected industries and interests, which with their strangleholds on both localities and national politics, get to enjoy huge swathes of labor as their hostages.
And so then to interfere with this runaway industry is to come up against a whole army of connected interests, much of which are tied to the health of the communities in their thrall.
So in one sense, you have this explosive dynamism in which there is permanent revolution of the processes of production, in which capital is constantly moving back on itself in stops and starts, destroying itself, and reinventing itself to grind on and continue its accumulation.
But then in another sense, you have this long, complex, and massive chain of interdependent links which all move with each other, whose momentum and directionality are difficult to influence in a pointed and intentional way.
Control is an illusion in this case, masking a struggle to shape the craterscapes left smoldering by the head of capital as it burns through its fields of exploitation, in accordance with the path of least resistance. For those insisting we need to bring capital back to heel, an image of grabbing hold of a runaway fishing line which has been seized by a whale comes to mind. It may be more realistic for that line to break, which itself is a catastrophe.
