notes on a conversation I was in recently, metaphors
We can think of governing as posing choices. Now then, mule, do you prefer the carrot or the stick? Choose freely. To put it another way, one aspect of governance involves having a lot of power to choose the game played, which is to say, having strong influence on the sets of rules/expectations in a given social environment and the set of choices that people are likely to make. One way to ideologically defend governance is to point out the freedom people to have within the defined set of rules and choices.
Sometimes there are conflicts over rules in the game, which can result in changes in those rules. Other times the game might change – one side might kick the chessboard off the table. In those moments the current rulers might be displaced from their game-setting position or the governance relationship might come into question all together.
Generally speaking governance is relatively stable when it’s like a casino, in that the house (the governing) win most games, and things continue along with the house in control. When a given game is relatively stable – “we are playing chess” – there’s conflict within the rules of the game — the governing wish to win at the chess game. And often governance is a complex set of tasks with a division of labor and different personnel. The people assigned to play a certain game at a certain time will face costs if they lose; those costs have real stakes. The governing tend to be relatively united against the governed, and to an increasing degree as the governed become more disruptive. At the same time, the governing also conflict among themselves, up and down their chains of command and horizontally among personnel at any given rank.
This post presents some writings and some videos that give an overview of the capitalist system.
The presentation below goes over the sources of capitalist wealth.
Note: When you have finished viewing that presentation, refresh this page so you can view the videos below.
Given how bad the capitalist system is for so many people, it’s easy to wonder where capitalism came from in the first place. It’s also no surprise that the history of capitalism is both a history of power and of resistance.
People fought against the initial rise of capitalism. The song below is about the Diggers, a group who fought the beginnings of capitalism in England. The lyrics are below the video.
The World Turned Upside Down
In 1649 to St. George’s Hill, a ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the people’s will. They defied the landlords, they defied the laws, they were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs.
We come in peace they said, to dig and sow. We come to work the lands in common and to make the waste ground grow. This earth divided, we will make whole, so it will be a common treasury for all.
The sin of property we do disdain. No man has any right to buy and sell the earth for private gain. By theft and murder they took the land. Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command.
They make the laws to chain us well. The clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell. We will not worship the God they serve, the God of greed who feed the rich while poor folk starve.
We work, we eat together. We need no swords. We will not bow to the masters or pay rent to the lords. Still we are free though we are poor.
You Diggers all stand up for glory, stand up now.
From the men of property the orders came. They sent the hired men and troopers to wipe out the Diggers’ claim. Tear down their cottages. Destroy their corn. They were dispersed, but still the vision lingers on.
You poor take courage. You rich take care. This earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share. All things in common, all people one. We come in peace. The orders came to cut them down.
What the Diggers were fighting against was a process called enclosure, the changes that made capitalism possible in the first place. As the example of the Diggers makes clear, this was a violent process. Capitalism originated with violence. The video below summarizes some of the history of enclosure.
The processes of enclosure didn’t just happen in England and they didn’t just happen once. They have been repeated, and been opposed, many times. In this video, David Harvey talks about recent examples, which he calls “accumulation by dispossession.”
In another speech, below, Harvey discusses the current crisis of capitalism. He goes over the different ways that people have tried to explain the crisis.
Discussion questions
The origins of capitalism involved a lot of violence beyond England. What are some things you know about the history of violence and brutality that helped create capitalism? Where are some other places where people were pushed off the land or otherwise brutalized as part of the rise of modern capitalism? Dick Gaughan’s song is about English peasants’ resistance to being pushed off the land. They called themselves the Diggers. What are some examples we know of where people resisted these attacks? What are some other names we know that people in struggle have given to themselves? How important are these collective names?
Capitalism originated with the dispossession of people from their homes, ways of life, and ways of getting what they wanted and needed. David Harvey argues that today we’re seeing similar forms of dispossession. What are some areas today where we can see this happening? And how are people fighting back?
The first presentation, about where capitalist wealth comes from, is about exploitation. Capitalists sell the things we do and make. The source of capitalists’ profits lies in the difference between our wages and the amount that they sell that stuff for. The material below that presentation points out that capitalists get wealth in another important way, through dispossessing people of their livelihoods. Exploitation and dispossession are important parts of capitalism today and the history of capitalism. David Harvey talks about the importance of uniting struggles against exploitation and struggles against dispossession. How well are movements today doing at this? What examples can we think of when this was done well in the past?
The last presentation is about the current economic crisis and where it came from. Understanding where the crisis came from is important, but it’s also important to talk about the meaning of the crisis. Many people suffered greatly and are still suffering from the crisis. And many people have been suffering under capitalism for a long time. How has the crisis had an effect on your life? What problems of life under capitalism have persisted under the crisis?
Suggested Reading on dispossession
Karl Marx discussed the origins of capitalism under the term “primitive accumulation.” Reading chapters 27-31 of his book Capital give a good overview of how Marx understood the origins of capitalism at least in England. These sections are much more readable than a lot of other things Marx wrote, they’re short, and they can be read without reading the rest of the book first. Chapter 27 is available online here, and the rest of Capital is online here.
Harry Cleaver’s commentaries on Marx’s writing are definitely worth reading as well. Cleaver discusses the historical origins of capitalism, more recent forms of enclosure, and resistance to enclosure.
Below is a thing I made, sort of animation illustrating some basic aspects of capitalism, put in the vocabulary of the Occupy Wall Street stuff. There’s an earlier and longer version of this somewhere else on this blog. The presentation may look blurry in the preview and it may take a minute to load.
The presentation works best if you click the “more” button in the lower right hand corner then click “full screen.” If the “more” button doesn’t appear at first then click the arrow icon once. When viewing the presentation, use the arrow icons or the left and right arrows on your keyboard to move forward and backward. You can pause the presentation by clicking on it. You can navigate among the components of the presentation by clicking and dragging the background. You can resume the presentation by pressing the arrow button.
Like I mentioned in my last post, I’ve started blogging at libcom. My thought is that this blog here (the one you’re currently reading) will be for notes and half-formed thoughts, so business as usual around here. I’ll also use this one for self-archiving. The libcom one, I will there aspire to have stuff more finished, like I’ll write a rough draft that’s fully finished then post it there.
So, for self-archiving purposes, I’m pasting below another libcom blog post of mine. If you go read the post at libcom you can see the picture and the links will work.
By “you” I mean “me”, but you probably knew that (and that time by “you” I mean “you” not me). Anyway. I’ve just started blogging at libcom. The URL ends in 1578 so I’d like to think I’m blog 1578 because for some reason that’s funny to me. “What’s your blog called?” “Blog 1578.” (I suppose then that I shall be Blogger 789711610113. Since we’re all friends here you can call me 0113.)
So yeah, pasted below for self-archival purposes is the inaugural post at Blog 1578. If you check the original post over at libcom you will find links in the text. Read the rest of this entry »
I want to take a crack at some thought I have here in relation to conversations I’ve had with my friends Scott and Adam. Scott has ideas on dispute resolution and institutions of dispute resolution and the functions that these have in our society. Adam has ideas about justice and universal vs particular, that we want expansive concepts of justice and expanding notions of justice and belonging. Scott’s going to write something on this soonish and I’m trying to get Adam to write something as well. I can’t really do it justice here but I can riff… Read the rest of this entry »
I recently wrote a short piece as part of a debate, where I politely but polemically argued about the turn to collective bargaining by state economic planners in the U.S. in the mid 1930s, a turn which involved earlier experiments by law (and perhaps by state statute, I’ve not looked into that). Read the rest of this entry »
I did this blog for a few years at another site that’s just recently shut down. I’ve migrated all the old content over here including dumping what were pages into blog posts (the next few posts under this are of that type). I’m going to continue here, the same schtick. Nothing really on my mind to say right now, just wanted to sort of mark the occasion (however anticlimactically) of the successful import of the old content, as I’d been having trouble doing that.
