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.
Hi Em, yeah I noticed that as well; how it seems society was embracing capitalist ways of production before the term capitalism was even created. I wonder if we are coming to a place in time where we could advance past capitalism or shift some aspects of the modern world away from capitalism as it becomes increasingly more obvious that capitalism cannot sustain everyone in the modern world.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the authors showing the subjects (money, labor, etc.) within their historical and social relationships was an “aha” moment for me. The amount of degrading and “compartmentalizing” (another great point) that the ruling class has done to make this perfectly normal is astounding when you look through history. It has eroded humanity and I believe most of western society’s empathy.
ReplyDeleteExcellent reflection on both the content and the method of the book here, Emily. Your overview in the second paragraph is insightful both in how to understand this process as well as in how it appears on the surface--the discrepancy between these two is jarring. But you are right to pinpoint the fact that this strategy we are studying in Patel and Moore produces us. It produces our social relationships and, as we know, in producing those relationships it in turn impacts our thoughts and thought processes. The materialist method starts from the analysis of social relationships for this exact reason. Without that, indeed, everything moves like the wind (ie disconnected from our social practices which create them). Im particular interested in your question at the end of the post--what is the best way to teach these processes--and I invite you to share more about that. It is the author's goal that by making these processes known, and more noticeable in each of these seven categories, that that understanding will catalyze a process to change them. Learning and understanding that process materially is the point of departure for this book: to shift attention away from the Voldermorts of the world and toward a structural process. Secondly, keep an eye on the many examples of times the authors include the stories of resistance, and their intention in each chapter to highlight how this process has always faced continuous opposition in order to be what it is today. In an era in which there is not yet an organized group that offers an alternative proposition, perhaps calling on this history of struggle becomes a response to the times and a value in its own right.
ReplyDelete