Jesse Ernst
1/26/21
GEOG 101
Capitalism Overdone
Capitalism as Moore describes it reminds me of a whirlpool and those who participate (most not by choice) either get sucked down the hole, deeper and deeper into despair and poverty, or stay on top circling others sinking down. I can understand why many throughout the known world are ready for capitalism to be put away and a new system reborn. Nietzsche thought the time was coming for the God worshipping society to end. In a similar way, Moore compares Nietzsche’s writings to Capitalism today.
Moore described capitalism using in a term “Capitalocene… taking capitalism seriously, understanding it not just as an economic system but as a way of organizing the relations between humans and the rest of nature” (p. 3) This type of capitalism has shown its controlling force in all aspects of life throughout history as illustrated by “seven cheap things: nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives” (p. 3). Moore explained how capitalism has become almost completely unchecked by the world powers by having control over those seven things through the “complex relationships between humans and the web of life” (p. 3).
Moore used both the modern chicken industry and Madeira Island as examples of how capitalism capitalized on everything and everyone for the profit of itself or a few. These few are never satisfied. I saw this first hand how “capitalism thrives not by destroying natures but by putting natures to work - as cheaply as possible” (p. 19) when working for a large oil company. The company wanted the appearance of safety and care for the environment unless the protocols cost the company profits.
It is no wonder that there are Radical ecologists such as climate change activists, domestic worker organizers, the Occupy movement, and others that “want to change the way we think about all of life on earth” (p. 42). “Each of these movements might provoke a moment of crisis” (p. 42), and when it does I hope that the new system will not just look good in words in a textbook but improve humanity in this “web of life” (p. 43).
Jesse- your work experience is a great example of companies putting profit before all else- I feel like this sort of thing is happening all over the place!
ReplyDelete-Alce
Jesse- I really liked your intro paragraph and how you introduced the topic, it really grabbed my attention. I think the world also needs to take a step back and see how we can fix these problems. Great work!
ReplyDeleteJesse, good work connecting this to your own experience. Do include in your repose papers the ways the authors propose to contribute to changing these destructive processes. Patel and Moore outline a few concepts that will be helpful as we move forward. Collect them in your response papers and see how they connect to future readings to come.
ReplyDeleteOk, thanks for the feedback.
Delete