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)
Hi Matt you did a good job summarizing the 4 chapters. It is interesting to see how similar our system is set up today with capitalism and how people were still embracing capitalist ways before the term capitalism was invented.
ReplyDeleteHi Matt,
ReplyDeleteI like your introduction to chapter and you could not have said it better. Nature has been cheapened to the point of cheapening lives as well. As I read distinctions you brought up, one thing that stood out to me in chapter 1 was the idea that "Nature was the opposite of Society"(46).The authors Nature and Society assumed their meaning after 1550. Nature: A kind or class usually distinguished by essential characteristics. Society: a community or group of people that have common traditions, collective activities and interests. My struggle her is to see how opposite they are as the authors states.
The quote you pinpoint from page 52 is a crucial one indeed. not simply a distinction but a hierarchy of domination is thereby validated according to the intellectuals. In thinking back to previous readings, we can also make the connection to Marx in the German Ideology who associated this distinction between mind and body as a product of the division of labor set in place by capital's unique social relationships. The ideology at work is how the author's make the equally important statement that the concept of Nature becomes a means of violence, precisely by way of the logic you identify in point #3. The shifting relations between land, knowledge/ideology, and labor is at work in each section and keep an eye on the similarities here to Marx's materialist method. This book is a textbook example of that methodology at work. Great points here throughout.
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