a scrap of rural life

"there is no town, no townlet without its villages, its scrap of rural life attached: no town that does not impose upon its hinterland the amenities of its market, the use of its shops, its wights and measures, its moneylenders, its lawyers...it has to dominate an empire however tiny, to exist." fernand braudel. "the structures of everyday life: civilization and capitalism 15th-18th century, volume 1._________________________well...fernand is an historian and like all historians he is biased...the honest ones share their biases upfront and i have to admit fernand puts his in the title...credit where it's due...and he highlights the exploitative nature of capitalism in that quote in masterful fashion...unwittingly perhaps...he is a booster of capitalism form page one and that howler was probably written in all admiration...his contention that "towns are like electrical transformers" holds water too...because they do not produce their own energy...they get it from outside...no town is self-supporting...that's why it has to "dominate" that "scrap of rural life"...and it does so by setting up an extractive system to take as much as possible with as little return as it can give...summed up nicely in the list of things the town must "impose" on the "hinterland" to survive...like "the amenities of its market, the use of its shops, its weights and measures, its moneylenders, its lawyers..." ( "take back everything you can" william s burroughs. deposition: testimony concerning a sickness. )his honesty in exposing the exploitative nature of capital is, i suspect, accidental...he is too innocent for the history business...an ardent lover exposed as a fool...

happy christmas

"frustration aggression theories use psychological theories of individual behavior to explain civil strife, including revolutions, insurgencies, strikes, riots, and coups. these theories suggest that people become aggressive when they feel frustrated by something or someone who is blocking them from fulfilling a strong desire. and important subset of these theories suggests that this frustration and aggression can be caused by relative deprivation, which arises when people perceive a widening gap between the level of satisfaction they have achieved ( often defined in economic terms )and the level they believe they deserve. deprivation therefore is relative to some subjective standard of equity or fairness, and the size of that perceived gap obviously depends on the beliefs about economic justice held by individuals." thomas homer-dixon "environment, scarcity, and violence"_____________(bear with me...there are only forty or so page left in the book to read...it will be over soon )...perceived is one of the more operant words here i'm thinking...those "beliefs about economic justice" are mostly informed by advertizing from a consumerist culture that expects ( because it is the foundation of the system ) people to purchase more material goods than they can afford, thus being "good citizens" who create new money by going into debt...which further depletes their ability to " consume more " ( because there are limits even to sub-prime debt and the cost are astronomical..."easy monthly payments" my ass...one of the blessings of aging is that advertisers [except for cemetery plots] don't target me because they are fairly well aware that i will say "no thanks" [ or, possibly, "fuck you" ] to any sort of new cycle of debt ) and adds to their frustrations...there is a lot of perceived and very real economic inequality going on around this country these days as cohorts of small, well funded coalitions move into the government to engineer more upward redistributions of wealth to themselves and their constituents...it is obvious...so overt you have to wonder why there isn't more violence and social unrest...the tea party thinks we're stupid...not so...stunned perhaps...but the political theft is so blatant no one could miss it...the flames are fed oxygen by the "news as entertainment and manipulation" bunch at fox and cnbc who insist on lurid new programming because it sells advertizing and everyone's out for a buck...people may be "branded" by what news they watch ( or other programming for that matter ) but that doesn't make them less manipulated...only insensitive to voices other than those in complete agreement with them..i, for one, call that stupid as well as manipulated...causality is non-linear...no one knows what's going to happen exactly..all we have are "informed" extrapolations of what "Might" happen..the airwaves are alive with allegations...the only certainty is that if we don't stop listening to the nightly news or the political blather from the government and start listening to each other all this is just going to get worse...merry christmas...happy holidays..."false and commercial festival"...whatever suits your fancy.

get a grip

"economic and technological optimists have an unrealistic faith in human-kind's ability to unravel and manage the myriad processes of nature. there is no a priori reason to expect scientific and technical ingenuity can overcome all types of scarcity...(one reason is)human cognitive limits. humans do not have infinite ability to understand and manage the nonlinear, multivariate, and often chaotic processes of ecological-social systems." thomas homer-dixon. "environment, scarcity, and violence.__________________so...we live on a finite planet with finite resources and a growing number of people to feed, clothe, and shelter...what "resource substitution" basically boils down to is replacing dwindling resources with processes dependent on increasing amounts of complexity and high quality energy...humans can handle only so much complexity before the cognitive dissonance becomes too much to handle and the returns on that increasing complexity bear a cost too high to pay in both intellectual and economic terms..in the end resources will continue to dwindle and as they do they will become rival and exclusive...there will be keen competition among groups for remaining stocks as they try to maintain a bankrupt system...since the world has been converted to a market which values everything by its monetary cost ( which discount present and future social costs because economists are apologists for greed ) wealth will be the vehicle that allows a small minority to trap vital resources for their own use leaving the rest to suffer ever more sever shortages...there is a lot of contentious violence going on in the world and if you look deeply enough the cause is rivalry for resources...israelis and palestiniand bicker and kill one another over the "west bank"...west bank of what? the jordan river...water...the arab spring started as a rising protest over surging food prices...it has widened into a factional war of haves against have nots...isis is about resources, not religion...that's just the vehicle...wealth has always had a stranglehold on the political process here...it is in the process of finishing the job of overtly converting it to a wealth-protection system base on the broad mass carrying as much of the economic burden as it possibly can...there is every possibility of collapse as the periphery looks somewhere else for a better deal...this is papered over by a distorted media in denial or owned outright as well as mouthpiece politicians...the times ahead will be interesting..especially when the current "recovery" is exposed for the smoke and mirrors paper game it is...who benefits from this "recovery" look at stock prices...look at legislation...then you tell me.

the law of averages

"average figures tell only a very limited story, however, because the inequalities in land distribution that exist in every society mean that some weaker and marginal groups will be subjected to harsher scarcity than the averages reveal. in large areas of the world tens of millions of marginalized peasants already subsist on extraordinarily small, and often fragmented, plots of low quality land. over 70 percent of all rural households in the developing world are either landless or nearly landless." thomas homer-dixon "environment, scarcity, and violence."_____________________________________________________________________tom is on about peasants, cropland scarcity, and subsistence...all subjects of interest to me...and how "average" statistics can hide real suffering...averages are pretty much distortions that can be used by...oh...say economists and government flunkies ( read bureaucrats ) to make things seem less intense or threatening or misappropriated or grossly unfair than they actually are...the dow jones averages can reflect gains or loss on the stock market bu they are an average...not everyone wins...not everyone loses...but the average spreads the gain or loss out over all investors so that you don't see at a glance who got stinking rich and who took a bath...you have to take a deeper look and who has time for that? "oh...good news...the market is up!"..it strikes me as no coincidence that many ( although not all ) of the economic indicators used by the government to assess and publicize "economic health" are averages...the national bureau of economic research releases economic data based on things like "average weekly hours"...what they don't really highlight is that figure is average weekly hours worked in manufacturing...not in service or information jobs...and, usually, not solely by minimum wage workers...so who works how long at wal-mart? government doesn't know or doesn't want you to know because it might be bad news and so much of the system runs on faith..."average weekly jobless claims"...this is a seriously cooked number under the best of circumstances and anybody who works for a living knows it...it does not include those who have flat given up on finding steady work for instance...all this number does is cloud the issue.."average duration of unemployment" is another parboiled number tied directly to the last one and just as distorted and manipulated...so the government can spout averages to bend and twist the data to fit political expedience ( and they will )...i will continue to use resources like shadowstats and a closer examination of what raw data i can find to assemble a more realistic view of what's up...these people lie to protect their jobs and a ramshackle system that has serious issues...take a hard look at what's going on in your family...in your friends and co-workers' families...put aside government and media distortions ( after all they report the "government figures" as some kind of consequentialist gospel ) and see how closely it matches the "economic recovery"...some win...some lose...the winners don't want you to know how much they are winning.

irruption

the fundamental principle is this: whatever necessity is least abundantly available (relative to per capita requirements) sets an environment’s carrying capacity.” William catton overshoot________________ “without powerful restraints, humans-like all other species-exploit all available resources; the difference is that, with people, what is ‘accessible’ is defined by evolving technology” William rees the human nature of unsustainability___________ “major jumps in population, at around a.d.1300, 1600, and in the late eighteenth century, each led to intensification in agriculture and industry. as the land in the late middle ages was increasingly deforested to provide fuel and agricultural space for a growing population, basic cooking, heating, and manufacturing needs could no longer be met by burning wood. a shift to reliance on coal began, gradually and with apparent reluctance. coal was definitely a fuel source of secondary desirability being more costly to obtain and distribute than wood…” Joseph tainter the collapse of complex societies__________ “wood was also used for cooking, for heating houses, and for all industries that needed fire-power, for which demand was increasing with alarming speed even before the sixteenth century…there were many eager takers for the forest wealth which was bitterly fought over since its abundance was only apparent…” “…it was said that a single forge used as much wood as a town the size of chalons-sur-marne. enraged villagers complained of forges and foundries which devoured the trees of the forest, not leaving enough for the bakers ovens…” “charcoal reached paris in the sixteenth century by way of sens from the forest of the othe; by the eighteenth century, it was arriving form all accessible forests…” Fernand braudel the structures of everyday life: civilization and capitalism 15th-18th century, volume I__________ humans are a product of evolution and, like any species, in the absence of competition, they will expand to completely utilize the resources of an available environmental niche and human technology defines what is accessible by eliminating competition from other species…and, given the nature of humans and a close look at their recorded history, other humans as well (as alluded to in the braudel quote)…energy moves civilization…you can argue that it is technology or ideas or economics, but without some sort of energy source that meets the needs of those technologies or ideas ( economics is voodoo) they are inert…don’t think so? what happens when the power goes out at your house? get restless looking at blank screens and inert play stations? head out some wi-fi “hot spot” or a sports bar in some oasis of electricity…or just fire up the generator and turn fossil fuel into electrons? humans still devour wood…but mostly for shelter and furnishings rather than fuel these days (for the nonce…this could change...woodcutter could become a job classification again)…we moved on to coal because wood was becoming scarce…didn’t want to..wood was familiar…there was an extant infrastructure for its procurement and distribution…one for coal had to be built…costs in money and time and labor, not to mention shortages and high energy costs…new technology helped along the way and coal is still mined…still big business…but like all fossil fuels it is not a renewable resource…and all the easy stuff has been mined…it’s getting more difficult to find, harder to mine, and the quality is deteriorating…sounds a lot like oil ( current conditions are an artificial construct…the glut and low prices will not last indefinitely)…I read that fuel cell autos powered by hydrogen are the coming thing( this was on yahoo, among other places…apply salt liberally)…there will need to be a new fuel infrastructure built if this is so…the current one would just leak hydrogen dangerously…new technology…new complexity...new interconnectivity of processes…new opportunity for cascade failures and diminishing returns…when does technology become too costly to maintain…when do diminishing returns on investment in technology and infrastructure dictate a shift to simpler and more sustainable economic ( voodoo) models…that point is out there ( barring cold fusion…that could change things...but even so there is only a finite amount of matter on the planet to be changed to energy…it is not a panacea) and we will find it as a species sometime…how far will we have degraded the planet’s carrying capacity by the time we get there? as a side note to my discontent...a new "style" magazine was in the n y times today...i have not done all the math bit there were 95 full page color ads and 9 black and white...104 of 190 pages were advertizing...yet another up-scale marketing bonanza for the times...as a further note to add to this the back page of the saturday business section had a full page ad announcing a "reimagined" sunday magazine section to make its debut on february twenty-second of next year..."brands" are asked to "add your voice to the conversation...for more information about advertising and launch packages contact your account manager."...the "paper of record" panders to the elite while the rest of us watch...i haven't browsed the condominium prices in manhattan just yet...i wan to save some entertainment for later.