Capitalism's World-Ecology (Chapter 1)

"Cheap Nature" outlines the way that capitalist world-ecology arose and became a dominant global force.

Patel and Moore identify Descartes' philosophy as the starting point of an ordering consciousness. Here is the Renaissance shift to a single point of reference and subsequent "intellectual revolution underwritten by a new idea: Nature as the opposite of Society" (p46). This idealized opposition facilitated the rapid rise of European colonialism.

Descartes' revolutionary idea had two parts (p51). First, mind and body are entirely separate things, referred to by Descartes as "thinking things" and "extended things." Thinking things make up Society, and extended things make up Nature. Second, that Society must exert power over Nature. The results were fourfold: either-or replaced both-and thinking (a matter of perspective, as in the Harvey reading), identifying discrete 'things' became more important than the relationships between things, the domination of Nature by science became inherently good, and the idea and means of "the colonial project of mapping and domination" were born (p54). Mapping, then, became the key to conquering and cheapening nature, establishing capitalist world-ecology.

(aside, the topic of mapping made me think again about the collection, storage, and use of personal data, and of Palantir Technologies - a data analytics company that's worth checking out)

Two more vital concepts from the chapter: Proletarianization and private property. Proletarianization is forcing people into increasing dependence on the cash nexus for survival and the transformation of human activity into something that can be exchanged in the commodity system (p58). Private property reduced the commons that people could use to produce for themselves, destroying the rights and responsibilities that went along with the commons and replacing them with new relationships centered on capital. 

Patel and Moore summarize that "The three processes of cultural apartheid through the Enlightenment, proletarianization, and the privatization of property were at the core of capitalism’s cheap nature strategy, one that turned the work of human and nonhuman alike into cheap things." (p62). The result is what they refer to as the Capitalocene. The close of the chapter addresses the crises that have risen. Like the opening, it also notes the role that Indigenous People have in resisting capitalist world-ecology, and how that same ecology says that it is "developing" them while in actuality at work to annihilate them. (The popular Chinese sci-fi author Cixin Liu has come under criticism for using this language toward the Uyghur minority group)

Patel and Moore Section 1

 Sadie Inman

September 30th, 2020

Critical Geography

Response Paper 5 

    Cheap work is a combination of cheap nature and cheap lives. It has some of the most devastating and inhumane examples attached to it. The ideology that supported this concept was not produced on the fly but was carefully reviewed and debated. It was then decided that indigenous people were not a part of society and instead were a part of nature. The divide of these two concepts set up a scary power play and an understood job of society to understand and possess nature. Therefore putting indigenous peoples in the nature category wasn’t a slight at their position in the social hierarchy “it was an order to die by work’. 

    The ideas of division of labor and specialization that the Marx reading introduced at the beginning of the class is extremely strong here. Those that do manual labor are not thinking beings they are extended beings. A strong theme throughout the cheapening of work is the altruistic ring that it has when the ruling class speaks. They are rescuing the indigenous peoples and taking on the burden of introducing them to religion and society in the only way possible: through work. The close association between work and being a real human is interesting. Only those at the low ends of society work, but there is admitted merit in working. Perhaps it only holds merit for those outside of society, because it is better to be at the bottom of Society than in Nature. 

    The major cause of the shift in labor is something we are all at the mercy of every day. The clock. It began as a tool to measure labor productivity, but today it shapes everything. Many people who go on vacation don’t put their phone away, they take their watch off as the true burden of deadlines and expectations falls away along with the time. This is the true sign of capitalism and it’s one that’s truly felt. It changes space everywhere. Nowhere is my space because I am controlled by time and by deadlines. The idea of the lazy native is not just someone who doesn’t work but someone who is not accepting the mode of production, he is a burden on society. There was such a thing as “time theft” and it was a crime not to “consume” the time. 

Patel and Moore Part 1

 

Emily Gettis

GEOG390: Professor Simpson

Reading Response 5

9.30.2020

Seven Cheap Things: Nature, Money, Work, Care

In the first part of Patel and Moore's book, we get to see the blossoming of cheapness in the organism of capitalism that we looked at a few weeks ago in the introduction. Throughout each chapter, the authors show us their argument of cheapness as a strategy in organization, with capitalism as the facilitator and architect. Patel and Moore thoroughly and intimately express and hammer out details in these chapters so, a summary from me feels a little redundant. Still, I'd like to focus on how I thought that the authors tried to appeal to me as a reader (not necessarily as a student). I felt as though it was an essential element.

While reading these chapters and looking into how their claims (an admittedly small portion of their argument that I've brought up so far) are developed, I gathered that to urge readers to shift their perceptions of how we create our worlds radically, there have to be several historical connections to be made. As capitalism transforms and cheapens, eliminates and carves, rates and disvalues, it produces narratives and knowledge that our society deems as the standard today. Patel and Moore take these familiarities (money and care, for example) and expose them within their historical, social relationships. As I continue with this class and book, capitalism—while a significant and dominating force—tends to operate like the wind. Or it bets on human's disconnectedness as we go through our days sourcing our needs. Maybe it blinds us. Whichever the way, whether one or the trifecta, the real abstractions of capital pave the way to compartmentalize and conquer. Patel and Moore parse out moments in history and those historical geographies to develop the reader's connectedness to them to unveil them for the strategies they are. Capitalism and the processes that have cheapened these familiarities are so embedded in life that my comprehension of them—on the daily—hardly considers them as the objective structures purely for consumption that Patel and Moore are saying they are. 

While the authors make a distinction that there have been populations who have not exploited and strategized their environment; once someone transformed that frontier, there was no way to backpedal. As the then weakish Voldemort stage of capitalism drank unicorn blood, and the 'profits' were undeniable, colonists didn't want to backpedal. This quote referenced something a bit different in Cheap Work yet still illuminated the bigger picture for me of the past versus present barrier that our authors seek to tear down: "There persists a powerful tendency to understand the modern world of work as somehow independent of the countryside, but all work has owed and continues to owe its existence to those countrysides" (pp. 103). Historical geographies and events as a method to stamp these claims down for the reader is a high-quality way to offer connections or explanations, but is it a valuable way to teach us? The history that unfolds in this book is troublesome because, in each stage, society puts on blinders as frontiers crumple and capitalism surges forward.

Seven Cheap Things Part 1 (Chapter 1-4)

 There was a lot to discuss in these four chapters from Cheap Lives. I'll go chapter by chapter discussing specific arguments and quotes that I appreciated and why.

1) The authors main argument, as it is for all of the chapters, is that nature has been cheapened to something that it is no longer. The invention and distiction between Society and Nature became one where life itself became cheapened. Furthermore, this new development and way of viewing the world also brought about the genderization of Nature, and distinguished a new heirarchy to organize power. This generization created many black and white binaries, where there is a significant distinction between the two options. Nature/Society, Man/Woman, Colonized/Colonizer.

"Society and Nature were not just existentially separate; Nature was something to be controlled and dominated by Society. The Cartesian outlook, in other words, shaped modern logics of power as well as thought." (P. 52) - I felt this was a significant statement by the author. It establishes that this revolution in thinking by Decartes essentially steeped the enitre thinking behind modern logical thinking, which can be argued easily as true. It was important to note in my mind, as this change of thinking got the ball rolling for all of the events to come in the future following it. Its a bold statement, but I think one that is warranted.

2) Modern imperialism and the world market are the main reasons, according to the authors, that that money has ruled the world over the past six centuries. The authors are careful to note the type of money, not simply cash, but capital and it's ability to wield power and influence are the main reasons that money has been cheapened, to detrimental effects on our current global economic system. 

"The capitalist world-ecology needs cheap money: secure denomination of exchange that can be relied upon to facilitate commerce, controlled in a way that meets the needs of the ruling bloc at the time. Its cheapness includes two major dimensions. One is the appropriation of the base primary commodity (silver, gold, oil) and its regulation to keep interest rates—the price of money—low. The other is the control over the wider cash economy, which only states (cities, nations, and ultimately empires) can provide." (P. 67) This statement establishes the backbone to the authors argument. The changes highlighted by the new Cartesian revolution brought about the need for a new financial system that supports the new heirarchies and binaries established by Decartes and accentuated by the new colonial mode of production. Money is the glue that connects the new capitalistic economy with the simultaneous revolution in mindset. 

3) Work and labor itself has been adjusted to one of exploitation of certain individual groups, the authors argue. These groups include: "women, nature, colonies," and state that this exploitation is the fundamental aspect of capitalistic labor. The authors argue that this act in itself is rather a theft of the work involved by these groups, which receive little to nothing in return. This thievery is the "nexus" that holds it together as capitalism, in the authors argument, is dependant on this exploitation.

"In that time they would be schooled not just in Christ but in the proper value of dividing humanity and nature through work, while the Spanish reaped the silver and their lives. Here lies one of capitalism’s most sinister accounting tricks. Putting most humans into the category of Nature rather than Society enabled an audacious act of frontier bookkeeping." (P. 94) I felt that this quote was an excellent harbringer of what the authors were attemping to argue. Through the different binaries and dualities established in the Cartesian revolution of thinking, we see how these dualities have been weaponized in support of the subjugation of the groups listed above.

4) The final chapter is regarding the controlling aspects of capital in conjunction we reproductive labor. The authors tie in the unpaid labor of working as a childbearer in the capitalistic society to their theft comments from the previous chapter. To the authors, capitalism exploits women specifically by their ability to bear children and thus not "participate" in the process. This male/female binary is another binary weaponized, similar to the Nature/Society of the previous chapter.

"Indigenous systems of gender were far more capacious and inclusive than the ones brought from Europe, but they were incompatible with capitalism’s ecology. For the order of cheap nature and cheap work to be created, other work needed to happen without being paid at all—most of all, the creation and management of bodies to do that work." (P. 115) 

Seven Cheap Things Part 1

Eric Vilmer

9/29/20

Professor Simpson

        History of the World in Seven Cheap Things Chapter 1-4

Chapter 1 in “A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things” discusses cheap nature. On page 47

it is stated that “nature is not a thing, but a way of organizing.” The system in which we live 

categorizes nature as something that is outside of the world of humans. We as humans live in “society,"

 

and society is on the outskirts of nature. It is separate from us. Nature had to be put to work. Columbus

came to the Caribbean and wanted to find a way to make money. Trade was not profitable so Columbus

utilized his natural surroundings. It was not just white men though that had to utilize nature. There were

other racial groups using the spaces to create cheap nature. 

Chapter 2 titled “Cheap Money,” goes into how capitalism came to be. The chapter goes into how

 society created a system ran by money and how money changes over time. Chapter 2 goes into how our

 modern day society was formed and why bankers and government needed each other and how the

 military began being used for profit. Chapter 3 titled “Cheap Work” gets into details that expand more

 upon “cheap money.”

Slavery was an important part of society for cheap labor. It was stated that Indigenous People were

 not part of society but if they worked in the labor force they could become part of it. What is

fascinating is how Medieval Europe still depended on nature as a way of managing the space for 

profit. Nature is a place to extract resources from to then create a profit.

 

“Cheap Care,” the fourth chapter in the book discusses labor and how we divide race and gender 

roles in the workforce. This chapter also discusses how agriculture begins to play a role in the world.

The term “care” is not necessarily that of medical but what we as society care for. As society shifted it 

seemed people began to care for their elders and less for their offspring. 

 

 

Our innovations and our technological advances are aspects of human dominance over the world, the position we occupy as beings created with phenomenal potential to preserve what is good in nature and create sustainable instruments for social, economic, and environmental change. By relinquishing this position in the world in the pursuit of short-term financial gain humanity is only commiting an act of self-harm, using technological innovations to harm nature (exploitation of natural resources) and undermine civil liberties and institutions that make human creativity possible, as in the case of the social credit system in China being used as a tool against minorities. This challenging moment will reveal that while we are succeeding in global integration, we are failing to consider the ethics of our advances. Who can blame themselves for the pandemic? Despite having originated in China, it does not belong to China as some politicians claim. Our global supply chain and decompressed sense of space and time, where the world can be crossed in less than two days, and our economies are dependent on the exchange of international raw materials into consumable products. The flow of US dollars was a prototype for the rapidity of the spread of covid, and the correlation is obvious. The US had a high potential to mitigate losses, but instead the virus was politicized and our response lags heavily in comparison to our international partners. When corona is eliminated from Europe, signs indicate that it will still be ravaging the US - 30% of those in a recent poll claimed they would abstain from vaccines, this in combination with an anti-mask mentality, may prove to be devastating. Without a rigorous and scientific understanding of the virus and human behavior, we are at the mercy of the new corona-virus just as people have been at the mercy of the pandemics of the past. After the virus left China and invaded the "free world", misinformation about the virus and its effects began to spread faster than the virus itself, masks were determined as useless, social distancing ineffective, and the virus itself is being framed as a method for global control by the elite - we've all heard about the Bill Gates conspiracy, many believe the vaccine is going to contain a microchip. This wealth of misinformation and anti-intellectual repudiation of professionals and experts who know how to interpret data may be the prototype of future governmental responses from everything including climate change responses and future disasters.
Our doubts and individualism are being played against our need for social responsibility and community - perhaps encouraged by media and corporate interests to patch up the hole leaking in the metaphorical boat of the economy.

Covid19 Articles

Emily Gettis

GEOG390: Professor Simpson

Reading Response 4

9.22.2020

            The Social Contagion article looks into how the virus Covid-19 in China is less of a random, catastrophe that infiltrated and warped essentially every aspect of the country, and more of an expected (and repeatable) link in the effects chain of capitalism production and development that reach global scales. The Chuang blog post explains that the contradictions and levels of exploitation which are required in capitalist production to foster an environment primed for a plague to exist are a collapsing of non-human spaces (“natural”) and human spaces in full capitalist production style. The stage of capitalist production is maintained by industrial environments. Here, wilderness is no longer present but warped into ‘hinterland,’ and the circuit belt for virus distribution among our global products to sustain—and placate—us is facilitated and executed.

Throughout this piece, we see the tug of war between striving for maximum production of goods by laborers against the urgency to protect those laborers and civilians from the virus. The Chinese government’s “clamp-down” or stay at home orders does not seem to come in the form of simply protection from the virus, but as an oppressive social control mobilized through the vessel of crisis response. This gives insight to the flexibility and ease with which Western ideologies calibrate to confirm negative narratives about the Chinese government. Here in the U.S, we can see those ideologies manifest themselves creating a positive feedback loop of perspectives about the Chinese government. We see capitalism exploit and magnify the crises around us and intensify social control.

In this thread, mechanisms of control that Foucault demonstrated last week can be pinpointed. The mechanism of discipline via the “clamp down” designs current beliefs and social systems as we slip into a changed way of how we view and experience the world. This article claims that we should expect those circuits to accelerate and all the while “…capitalism takes on a seemingly non-economic character, new epidemics, famines, floods and other “natural” disasters will be used as a justification for the extension of state control, and the response to these crises will increasingly function as an opportunity to exercise new and untested tools for counterinsurgency” (pp. 25). Similarly, in the article “The Pandemic is a Portal,” we see how the lock down in India shed light on the gravity of inequalities present there. Roy states “the lock down worked like a chemical experiment that suddenly illuminated hidden things,” and I believe this is an example of how Foucault’s claims’ position themselves.