Globalization has a rather simple idea at its heart. This idea has been used to enable and justify the drive of Kapital to increase the labor pool (by as many as possible) and make workers around the world compete directly with each other for the lowest wages and the worst conditions of working and living. And this simple idea is also used to degrade environmental protections around the world by giving those willing to run roughshod over our Natural World a comparative advantage- Globalization- a simple and (to many) seemingly innocuous notion, but one whose realization is now about to thrust our natural world over the precipice...
Comparative advantage was first described by David Ricardo (the founding father of Classical Economics) in his 1817 book On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. He used an example involving England and Portugal: in Portugal it is possible to produce both wine and cloth with less labor costs than it would take to produce the same quantities in England- however, the relative costs of producing these two goods are different in the two nations. In England it is very hard to produce wine, but only slightly difficult to produce cloth. In Portugal both are easy to produce. Therefore while it is also cheaper to produce cloth in Portugal than England, it is cheaper still for Portugal to produce an excess of wine, and trade that for English cloth. Conversely, England benefits from this trade because its costs for producing cloth has not changed but it can now get wine at a lower price, closer to the costs of cloth.
The conclusion drawn in largess is that every country shall gain by specializing in the commodities where it has this kind of comparative advantage- and trading these goods for others.
But the truth is... it is not really the nation which gains- it is Kapital- those who reap the huge profits to be made by exploiting the backwardness of labor and the vulnerability of underdeveloped resource bases. But now, it is everyone who stands to lose.
This process becomes possible and proceeds by utilizing comparative advantage for profit to contribute mightily in further detaching ordinary people from the natural world which must ultimately support them- and substitutes (only temporarily) an utter dependency on a vast and complex network of trade for the very essentials of their daily existence.
Globalization- the current crime of method deployed by Kapital... until the game is up...
Kalinzskii
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Religion and Myth
The most profound philosophical question is "what is reality?"
But this is a question which is not posed by religion. The human being, in his life of struggle, attempts to bring some kind of help into play, and this is the birth of primitive religion. In its primal form, religion is a 'calling out' for aid, for assistance through comfort. Religion is psychic comfort. Its power in the mental life of humans has held sway over the entire course of our history, and even further into the dim recesses of pre-history.
What is the most basic thing about religion? It is an attempt to control Nature through supplication to spiritual beings- beings imagined to inhabit our world and our lives. Religion develops to a way of explaining things also. Of course it is utterly nonscientific. But religion always, in all times and places, constitutes the culmination of long traditions, and in its own way explains the world by story telling. The stories inform the person who subscribes - of answers to many of the serious questions of life. "How did we get here, and how should we behave?" But this faith can never pose the most profound question- because that question, once posed, is the end of religion.
Thus the masses of humanity never ask the most profound question. People are too busy with the struggle for survival, and in the context of such a struggle, the question is silly. It can be said, the mind of a given person- that is reality- whether it is true or not- and an entire universe exists in a single mind. This mental universe is the essence of religion- an ultimate reality which cannot be pierced by any truth.
There is no real conversation between science and religion.
Kalinzskii
But this is a question which is not posed by religion. The human being, in his life of struggle, attempts to bring some kind of help into play, and this is the birth of primitive religion. In its primal form, religion is a 'calling out' for aid, for assistance through comfort. Religion is psychic comfort. Its power in the mental life of humans has held sway over the entire course of our history, and even further into the dim recesses of pre-history.
What is the most basic thing about religion? It is an attempt to control Nature through supplication to spiritual beings- beings imagined to inhabit our world and our lives. Religion develops to a way of explaining things also. Of course it is utterly nonscientific. But religion always, in all times and places, constitutes the culmination of long traditions, and in its own way explains the world by story telling. The stories inform the person who subscribes - of answers to many of the serious questions of life. "How did we get here, and how should we behave?" But this faith can never pose the most profound question- because that question, once posed, is the end of religion.
Thus the masses of humanity never ask the most profound question. People are too busy with the struggle for survival, and in the context of such a struggle, the question is silly. It can be said, the mind of a given person- that is reality- whether it is true or not- and an entire universe exists in a single mind. This mental universe is the essence of religion- an ultimate reality which cannot be pierced by any truth.
There is no real conversation between science and religion.
Kalinzskii
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Gaia and the Parasitoid
A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, the parasitoid ultimately sterilizes, kills, and sometimes consumes the host. Thus parasitoids are similar to parasites except in the direr prognosis for the host.
Of course there is actually no clear separation between the concepts of parasitism and parasitoidy. Many species of true parasites can cause the death of their host- if for example they are present in overwhelming numbers or the host is in poor condition, or other compromising circumstances develop, such as secondary infections. In their extreme forms the categories of parasitism and parasitoidy are patently distinct; in general, however, there is a continuum of intermediate and contingent conditions that bridge the categories in practically every respect.
The human population bomb may be said to have exploded in 1945- the explosion has brought us from less than two to more than seven billion people on the earth today; we are swarming the planet and overloading the earth's capacity to support us. In spite of our technological advances in mass agriculture (while destroying vast necessary ecosystems and biodiversity) and our new industrial fishing techniques (creating of once rich oceans a spreading desert of marine life) - in 2012 each day over a billion people go malnourished.
This terrific explosion has resulted in a mass extinction of life- and will certainly destroy our present civilization with all the horror that will come with such a collapse.
What is to be done?
Kalinzskii
Of course there is actually no clear separation between the concepts of parasitism and parasitoidy. Many species of true parasites can cause the death of their host- if for example they are present in overwhelming numbers or the host is in poor condition, or other compromising circumstances develop, such as secondary infections. In their extreme forms the categories of parasitism and parasitoidy are patently distinct; in general, however, there is a continuum of intermediate and contingent conditions that bridge the categories in practically every respect.
The human population bomb may be said to have exploded in 1945- the explosion has brought us from less than two to more than seven billion people on the earth today; we are swarming the planet and overloading the earth's capacity to support us. In spite of our technological advances in mass agriculture (while destroying vast necessary ecosystems and biodiversity) and our new industrial fishing techniques (creating of once rich oceans a spreading desert of marine life) - in 2012 each day over a billion people go malnourished.
This terrific explosion has resulted in a mass extinction of life- and will certainly destroy our present civilization with all the horror that will come with such a collapse.
What is to be done?
Kalinzskii
Friday, June 1, 2012
Modernity
Let us as a thought split human kind into a division of two.
Note how divorced we (on the one side) are from the past, as a conscious state of mind.
That second other opposing side of humanity, those who abide in "all fixed, fast-frozen relations" (after Marx) - they must live with the dead. Yet we too (all of us) are nothing but the past culminated- it's just that we are cast asunder but forward by our Marxist attitude.
In common, this history is the core of our anxiety and our need to be oblivious- the past is just too hard to bear. But we of course have to bear it, so for our part, we look away into the perpetual present, and we sometimes find it hard to even imagine a future any longer.
But still... if we love the earth... as Marxists, are better off than those for whom "the past is never dead, it's not even past" (after Faulkner) and they are cut off from the the good blue-green earth because they remain frozen in an already dead - but continually dangerous thorn sharp religion of life denial- denial of the body and the earth.
Now let us divide humanity into a further division of three: and separate the third part from the second, by recognizing that there is not just one God in this ancient desert religion- but another who lies deep in the heart of the rapacious, there where is found a safe place for this thing- the God Mammon - this one all-powerful in plunder, racing all toward oblivion.
This is why we turn away, oblivious, after a way.
Kalinzskii
Note how divorced we (on the one side) are from the past, as a conscious state of mind.
That second other opposing side of humanity, those who abide in "all fixed, fast-frozen relations" (after Marx) - they must live with the dead. Yet we too (all of us) are nothing but the past culminated- it's just that we are cast asunder but forward by our Marxist attitude.
In common, this history is the core of our anxiety and our need to be oblivious- the past is just too hard to bear. But we of course have to bear it, so for our part, we look away into the perpetual present, and we sometimes find it hard to even imagine a future any longer.
But still... if we love the earth... as Marxists, are better off than those for whom "the past is never dead, it's not even past" (after Faulkner) and they are cut off from the the good blue-green earth because they remain frozen in an already dead - but continually dangerous thorn sharp religion of life denial- denial of the body and the earth.
Now let us divide humanity into a further division of three: and separate the third part from the second, by recognizing that there is not just one God in this ancient desert religion- but another who lies deep in the heart of the rapacious, there where is found a safe place for this thing- the God Mammon - this one all-powerful in plunder, racing all toward oblivion.
This is why we turn away, oblivious, after a way.
Kalinzskii
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Our Atmosphere and Life
Carbon that took hundreds of millions of years to form in the earth has been released into our atmosphere in the geological equivalent of an instant. The emissions of our civilization have grown (now exploded) over just this past 200 years, to now exceed 27 billion tons of carbon dioxide, annually. To pretend this isn't having any effect on the 12-mile thin atmosphere which sustains life on earth is to throw all logic and common sense to the wind. It is to succumb to belief in religious superstitions and political fairy tales- about a world where actions have no consequences- where carbon dioxide and methane, colorless, odorless gases- the effluence of industrial and population growth, can be waved off with a smirk of uninformed arrogance.
In these last few years the Capitalists have managed to create of the scientific consensus on climate change a political debate in America- and have won it! How could they do it? Perhaps it should evoke no surprise at all- big business and its political allies mobilized a concerted, well-funded effort to distort climate science. Multinational corporations, policy institutes, and think tanks began skillfully planting dubious seeds of doubt, using professional deniers, hired outlying scientists, and an array of so-called skeptical bloggers, all cherry picking the data, to provide ammunition needed to create climate confusion for a public not wanting to face the truth anyway.
And the up-side to this debate victory? Big Energy gets to keep America addicted to carbon-based fuels indefinitely, and the shareholders get to enjoy the continued flow of profits. The monetary scale of what is at stake is enormous- America may have many trillions of dollars' worth of carbon reserves left in the ground- coal, gas, and oil (as it stands, to fully utilize the proven global carbon reserves left in the ground, we commit ourselves to an apocalyptic climate catastrophe).
All the while the effects of Global Warming continue- these last years have seen us enter a new and strange set of weather patterns. The dire warnings from climate scientists from as far as thirty years back are coming true, one after another- and faster than the computer models had predicted. Data shows 37 straight years of above-average temperatures, worldwide. In 2012 our living earth is running a fever, with symptoms which include extra violent tornadoes, in size and frequency previously unheard of- massive hurricanes- and chronic, severe flooding in some areas- with oppressive spreading heat- and desertification over other areas.
It seems no use to plead with the larger society- this majority which refuses to pay attention to the 97% of published peer-reviewed PhDs - the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists who link the huge spike in greenhouse gases with a much warmer, stormier atmosphere. Of what good is our so-called representative democracy if it has brought us to this?
Kalinzskii
In these last few years the Capitalists have managed to create of the scientific consensus on climate change a political debate in America- and have won it! How could they do it? Perhaps it should evoke no surprise at all- big business and its political allies mobilized a concerted, well-funded effort to distort climate science. Multinational corporations, policy institutes, and think tanks began skillfully planting dubious seeds of doubt, using professional deniers, hired outlying scientists, and an array of so-called skeptical bloggers, all cherry picking the data, to provide ammunition needed to create climate confusion for a public not wanting to face the truth anyway.
And the up-side to this debate victory? Big Energy gets to keep America addicted to carbon-based fuels indefinitely, and the shareholders get to enjoy the continued flow of profits. The monetary scale of what is at stake is enormous- America may have many trillions of dollars' worth of carbon reserves left in the ground- coal, gas, and oil (as it stands, to fully utilize the proven global carbon reserves left in the ground, we commit ourselves to an apocalyptic climate catastrophe).
All the while the effects of Global Warming continue- these last years have seen us enter a new and strange set of weather patterns. The dire warnings from climate scientists from as far as thirty years back are coming true, one after another- and faster than the computer models had predicted. Data shows 37 straight years of above-average temperatures, worldwide. In 2012 our living earth is running a fever, with symptoms which include extra violent tornadoes, in size and frequency previously unheard of- massive hurricanes- and chronic, severe flooding in some areas- with oppressive spreading heat- and desertification over other areas.
It seems no use to plead with the larger society- this majority which refuses to pay attention to the 97% of published peer-reviewed PhDs - the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists who link the huge spike in greenhouse gases with a much warmer, stormier atmosphere. Of what good is our so-called representative democracy if it has brought us to this?
Kalinzskii
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Human Commodity
Capitalism is a system of thought, organization, and action. It is not of course, a product of Christian thought, but Christian thought has supported Capitalism since its rise beginning around 1700, most especially Protestantism. And to be precise, in actuality, we must say Christian thought supports only the propaganda of Capitalists, a result made possible by the naivete of the Christian mind.
Everyone should understand that the portion of Capitalist thought we address today, is in fact subterranean, not overtly spoken, or written about widely- and belongs to a kind of netherworld, where only a few, a very select few, are consciously aware. This portion of capitalist thought is dark, an outgrowth of the hardness of Nature, and the hardness Nature has created in mankind.
Humanity is a commodity. People are like Cattle, Corn, Gold, Machines, anything else that can be bought or sold, something of value to be exploited to create more value, that is more money- more wealth. The Capitalist must purchase this human commodity- and for this purchase to produce profit- the price must be right. The cheaper the price, the greater the potential profit. Of course, when speaking of humans as commodities, we mean human labor. So labor must be cheap- and the labor pool must be large for this to be the case. The population must be so large as to produce a reserve pool of labor, so that competition amongst labor occurs forcing its asking price down. Fill the world with people, lower the value of each person, make more money, create more wealth, this is the dark purpose of Capitalism.
Kalinzskii
Everyone should understand that the portion of Capitalist thought we address today, is in fact subterranean, not overtly spoken, or written about widely- and belongs to a kind of netherworld, where only a few, a very select few, are consciously aware. This portion of capitalist thought is dark, an outgrowth of the hardness of Nature, and the hardness Nature has created in mankind.
Humanity is a commodity. People are like Cattle, Corn, Gold, Machines, anything else that can be bought or sold, something of value to be exploited to create more value, that is more money- more wealth. The Capitalist must purchase this human commodity- and for this purchase to produce profit- the price must be right. The cheaper the price, the greater the potential profit. Of course, when speaking of humans as commodities, we mean human labor. So labor must be cheap- and the labor pool must be large for this to be the case. The population must be so large as to produce a reserve pool of labor, so that competition amongst labor occurs forcing its asking price down. Fill the world with people, lower the value of each person, make more money, create more wealth, this is the dark purpose of Capitalism.
Kalinzskii
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Belief and Determinism
There are two basic world views in our time: the religious view, and the scientific view. The variations and shades are innumerable, but in the broadest sense these two world views account for most of humankind. As things generally go, people are a mishmash of both, with all the conflict and contradictions which generally go with mishmash thinking.
But for both types belief plays a role that cannot be overstated. I believe in determinism. But the thing is, many religious views also posit belief in determinism- the point being there are philosophical categories which straddle both basic world views.
So, from my perspective, the question of whether life on earth can prevail is already settled- we just do not yet know the answer. Will we come to terms with our complete and inescapable dependence on the biosphere Gaia- and come to terms with her?
It depends on whether we can defeat Capitalism and particular forms of fundamentalist religion: (those which posit the belief that humans are essentially dis-embodied spiritual souls created by a primitive patriarchal deity... and thus privileged relative to Nature).
Kalinzskii
But for both types belief plays a role that cannot be overstated. I believe in determinism. But the thing is, many religious views also posit belief in determinism- the point being there are philosophical categories which straddle both basic world views.
So, from my perspective, the question of whether life on earth can prevail is already settled- we just do not yet know the answer. Will we come to terms with our complete and inescapable dependence on the biosphere Gaia- and come to terms with her?
It depends on whether we can defeat Capitalism and particular forms of fundamentalist religion: (those which posit the belief that humans are essentially dis-embodied spiritual souls created by a primitive patriarchal deity... and thus privileged relative to Nature).
Kalinzskii
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Mythos of Democracy.
All high ideals ultimately fail us. We humans, in the aggregate, for all our exceptionalism, remain deeply flawed, and thus, we continually fail to build a just and equitable society. Demonstrably, human nature eventually defeats and perverts every noble intention. Wrecks litter the landscape of history- and each effort at purposeful utopia devolves to dystopia.
In the West, the democratic ideal reigns supreme, despite the unreal status of its historical application; but of course, the western democracies are an obvious reality- and seem to represent a kind of progress- yet the actual state of affairs belies that the democratic ideal has been only a cover for an omnipresent plutocracy- a plutocracy at times apparently beneficent, but persistent with its own opaque agenda- captured conceptually, neatly, and absolutely, by the single word: Capital.
Furthermore, this power structure of the West is not monolithic; it is to the contrary, fragmented, competitive, and even after a manner of speaking, ephemeral. Its concrete manifestation is to be found in the vastness of accumulated and concentrated wealth, of real property-
sadly, democracy on the ground is an illusion, and stands as a product of a supreme propaganda- a high ideal only, and probably useless for the goals of deep ecology...
Kalinskii
In the West, the democratic ideal reigns supreme, despite the unreal status of its historical application; but of course, the western democracies are an obvious reality- and seem to represent a kind of progress- yet the actual state of affairs belies that the democratic ideal has been only a cover for an omnipresent plutocracy- a plutocracy at times apparently beneficent, but persistent with its own opaque agenda- captured conceptually, neatly, and absolutely, by the single word: Capital.
Furthermore, this power structure of the West is not monolithic; it is to the contrary, fragmented, competitive, and even after a manner of speaking, ephemeral. Its concrete manifestation is to be found in the vastness of accumulated and concentrated wealth, of real property-
sadly, democracy on the ground is an illusion, and stands as a product of a supreme propaganda- a high ideal only, and probably useless for the goals of deep ecology...
Kalinskii
Thursday, May 24, 2012
The United Nations.
World Capitalism has failed humanity and egregiously damaged the vast biodiversity of our planet. Thus this political economic system must be dismantled and replaced with a Global Socialism. As part of this process the now out-dated notion of the nation state, with complete sovereignty, must be relegated to the past, and a new World Government established based on the United Nations. The traditional values of Western Civilization must be superseded and a new higher, more enlightened set of values established based on deep ecology.
Deep ecology is defined as respect for life- a depth reverence for life which comes with the recognition and appreciation for the value of the entire biosphere of the earth. It is this biosphere as a living system which allows for the existence of the biodiversity of individual creatures and forms. This biodiversity must be restored and protected and nurtured for the good of all living things and it is the living system which must constitute the highest value against which all other values are formulated.
These are the measures which will be necessary to save our living mother earth- Gaia. And with her salvation comes the salvation of humanity.
Kalinzskii
Deep ecology is defined as respect for life- a depth reverence for life which comes with the recognition and appreciation for the value of the entire biosphere of the earth. It is this biosphere as a living system which allows for the existence of the biodiversity of individual creatures and forms. This biodiversity must be restored and protected and nurtured for the good of all living things and it is the living system which must constitute the highest value against which all other values are formulated.
These are the measures which will be necessary to save our living mother earth- Gaia. And with her salvation comes the salvation of humanity.
Kalinzskii
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Madness of Western Civilization.
Regard with your attention this strange community madness which characterizes our present civilization. The source of this madness is known and perfectly understandable. The madness springs from the human condition itself- and has arisen out of our deep evolutionary past- with the long memory of want and struggle. The early desperate struggle for survival was hard- and created a hardness in man. This hardness did not leave human nature after the arrival of success and ease. Rather, the hardness persisted over the many generations and the millenia- to continually generate a compulsive need for activity and acquisition. This is the primal source of the obsessive neurotic condition called greed.
Our civilization was built upon this hardness. Yet this hardness, which enabled our species' survival while we were few and weak, moves now to provide also for our eradication- along with the greater part of life on earth.
Hardness is now transformed into madness, having produced its crowned achievement- the political economic system we know as Capitalism. And now, Global Capitalism as a system marks at one and the same time both the apex and nadir of Western and World Civilization.
Kalinzskii
Our civilization was built upon this hardness. Yet this hardness, which enabled our species' survival while we were few and weak, moves now to provide also for our eradication- along with the greater part of life on earth.
Hardness is now transformed into madness, having produced its crowned achievement- the political economic system we know as Capitalism. And now, Global Capitalism as a system marks at one and the same time both the apex and nadir of Western and World Civilization.
Kalinzskii
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Our Garden of Eden.
The riches of the earth provide us with a true Garden of Eden- generally human life could be of superlative quality- so especially in comparison with the dismal reality of today. The comparison of what the physical and spiritual comfort level for all of us could be- with the situation as it today is- should, after reflection, be persuasive to anyone with an abiding compassion. In our time, more than one billion people live under-nourished each day in an utter and abject poverty. And most of these hungry people are children (!) all the while as our enormously wealthy capitalist culture abides self-satisfied.
Obviously, despite an earth of such abundant resources, our global economic system has failed to meet the needs of the world's population levels. Early on, two significant points should be noted- first, this present economic system is inherently unable to provide for the welfare of the billions living in underdeveloped nation-states; and second, no economic system can make this provision at the present increasingly explosive levels of population growth.
There are simply too many people in the world today, and the condition of want and privation for the millions and millions stands now only to get ever worse.
So, what then is to be done to counter this massive suffering- this massive degradation of human and life dignity?
Kalinzskii
Obviously, despite an earth of such abundant resources, our global economic system has failed to meet the needs of the world's population levels. Early on, two significant points should be noted- first, this present economic system is inherently unable to provide for the welfare of the billions living in underdeveloped nation-states; and second, no economic system can make this provision at the present increasingly explosive levels of population growth.
There are simply too many people in the world today, and the condition of want and privation for the millions and millions stands now only to get ever worse.
So, what then is to be done to counter this massive suffering- this massive degradation of human and life dignity?
Kalinzskii
Monday, May 21, 2012
Begin the Malthusian Commentary.
This is to begin my commentary of looking at the path of history- and of looking to the future also. My motivation is the love of life- all life- life as a living system, as the biosphere of this good living earth- our Gaia.
And this is how the commentary proceeds- as a tale of our humanity not as historically mythologized, rather as a portrait of seared truth, supported by all our science, and in juxtaposition to all our religion.
The malthusian commentary is a lonely discourse generated by rage- but always, in the posture of a sure and directed righteous wrath-
and so we begin.
Kalinzkii
And this is how the commentary proceeds- as a tale of our humanity not as historically mythologized, rather as a portrait of seared truth, supported by all our science, and in juxtaposition to all our religion.
The malthusian commentary is a lonely discourse generated by rage- but always, in the posture of a sure and directed righteous wrath-
and so we begin.
Kalinzkii