-Thasunke Witko, Crazy Horse
Oglala Lakota
"A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky."
-Thasunke Witko, Crazy Horse Oglala Lakota
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Robin Kimmerer, PhD Dir. of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, SUNY. Some friends saw Robin speak at a recent conference held by Chicago’s Center for Humans and Nature and suggested I listen to her TED Talk. I did and was struck by the quality of her vision—revolutionary in the best sense, which means evolutionary, again, in the best sense. An Honorable Harvest, and its foundational epistemology, may enable us to “find the soft green path”, as Robin says. Robin’s work embodies the ideas on which the Tecumseh Project began: a reclaiming of human values by looking back at indigenous epistemologies and ways of life that were crushed by expansionist modernity. She is a western scientist, a botanist and part Potawatomi, yet she says, still a new student of this culture, which is part of the Anishinaabe, or the “original people.” Her First Nations name is Light Shining Through Sky Woman, an apt description of her gift. “Instead of walking forward,” says Robin, “we should first turn around and pick up what our ancestors have left behind for us, gather up the teachings, then we will be prepared to find the soft green path.” We all have ancestors whose wisdom and knowledge and values have been swept away by the now dominant ideology. We all have some place to look for a better understanding of the world.
It is this very ideology, whose vessel of implementation is capitalism that has brought us to the edge of ecological and social collapse. We can give this ideology a name: neoliberalism, which is the transubstantiation of competitive markets into metaphysics. It is revolutionary in the worse possible way: neoliberalism divides, discards and concentrates resources and power leading to fragility and collapse. In her new book Expulsions (Harvard Press 2014), Saskia Sassen, Co-Chair of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, describes the process as an “economic cleansing”, or the expulsion of the many, whether human or nonhuman, to strengthen the few. It is evolutionary in the most painful sense: as we might overcome a disease, our immune systems are strengthened. But sometimes we don’t overcome a disease.
Over the past twenty five years of practicing, and thinking deeply about, environmental and social justice, it has become clear to me—and an ever growing many—that we cannot engineer out way out of our condition as long as we operate within the dominant ideological frame. That frame has created the World Picture and keeps us trapped, conscripted to abide by its precepts. Unfortunately, nearly all efforts to address our problems operate within this frame, whether they are “market-based” solutions or well-meaning work in the fields of social justice or ecological restoration. The pending, and inevitable collision of the economic with the ecological signals a collapse and a dystopic future. As evidence mounts this scenario becomes increasingly likely by the day. Yet it is not—not yet—a forgone conclusion. As Robin says, adopting a new understanding of the world as a place of gifts offers us the chance to flourish as individuals and communities. Indeed, she says, plants—who are higher beings than we—teach us that all flourishing is mutual; it is never singular, never concentrated. This she learned from her elders. Unsurprisingly, we can find something very similar in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics--eudemonia, or flourishing, is not accomplished alone, but within a polis, a community. And it can never be accomplished within a neoliberal frame, which today Aristotle might recognize as pleonexic. Pleonexia is a Greek word often translated as “greed” but better understood as an insatiability that leads to injustice. As I have written elsewhere, neoliberalism is a pleonexic and psychopathic system; it is a system that forbids satiety and externalizes anything that does not add to its progress. And so I hope you find Robin’s talk as enlightening and hopeful as I did. Her book, Braiding Sweetgrass appears to be sold out, but a new paperback edition is due soon. Yours faithfully, EJT Actual job posting in Chicago Tribune, Sunday May 11, 2014, Business ("Career Builder"), Section 2 pg. 9
Sr Assoc, Trdng Strtgy Dvlpmt 643901 Chicago, IL jobs@sunrisefutures.com SUNRISE FUTURES, LLC-seeks Sr Assoc, Trdng Strtgy Dvlpmt to dlvp & implmnt prprty trdng strtgs, incl wrk on implmntn of trdng infrstrctr, & dvlp mdls for automtd fin trdng strtgs usng fin engg tchnqs. Min reqs: mast deg in comp sci, math, stats, engg (any) or rel + 1 yr exp in job or 1 yr exp in automtng sftwr processes, sftwr dsgn & dvlpmnt, sftwr prfmnc analy & optimiz, & cmplx data mdlng. Exp in orig rsrch, analy & dvlpmnt of cmplx quant mdls. Exp w/Java, C++, MATLAB, R, Perl & Linux. Eff analy, orl & writ comm & pres skls. Apply w/ JobID #1210 at jobs@sunrisefutures.com. AYFKM? From Stealing Fire, True North Records 1984
The World According to Corporations I've just been reading about Arianna Huffinton's new book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom and Wonder, in today's Chicago Tribune. The article is part of the newspaper's "Blue Sky Innovation" series in which editors hope to enlighten readers about what is possible (within a certain frame), and coming next (as a result of that frame). Now I've always liked Arianna--her seeming epiphany many years ago that moved her from a self-absorbed far right myopic to a leading voice on what amounts to today's liberal-left. And she's funny. And now having reached a height of "success" she appears to be having another sort of epiphany. Good for her. If you're a regular reader you may be thinking that Arianna's first two "success metrics" are quite foolish: wealth and power. But to "thrive", well that's something worth talking about--especially if that's where one starts, and aims to steer clear of the other two. Such a pursuit seems akin to Aristotle's eudiamonia, or human flourishing. But what interests me most is the corporate culture that is adopting, not only Arianna's recommendations, but a panoply of ideas aimed at improving workplaces by adding nap-rooms, recreation, classes in mindfulness and so on and on and on. There is a grand movement going on within corporate culture that is trying to humanize a very anti-human environment. Look at the picture above--a company actually makes these chairs calling it a Metro-nap Energy Pod. And then ask yourself what kind of world has been built for us--by corporations--that there is a need for one of these contraptions just to find some peace. I laughed out-loud when I saw this picture, a huge guffaw, and thought AYFKM?! In reality, the chair is not about rest at all. It's about enabling continued and constant productivity, which itself is anti-human. Where is Aristotle when you need him! That the pursuit of wealth and power and living in corporate culture requires such contraptions to treat our wounds indicates to me that there's something very wrong with what we're doing, day-to-day, year after year after year--something a metro-nap won't heal. Thanks Arianna for your well-meaning thoughts. But I think we'll all be better off if we start, and finish, with wonder and well-being. Then I'm sure we'll have plenty of time for a nap...on a couch. EJT
Revolution means "coming around," or "turning back", almost always towards justice, even if those aims are not met. It is an attempt to repair a tear in the social fabric. But it seems all revolutions fail; they become absorbed in themselves or reabsorbed by those towards whom the revolution had been directed. Perhaps [r]evolution is something different: a twining of strands that are compassionate enough to survive together. It is a question of values. As we look at the world with new eyes we can see these strands, these values--and begin to weave them together. It is a great and sad irony that Native American culture offers us rich and powerful threads to weave our way out of dystopic economics, and social and ecological collapse brought about by western extractive/accumulative civilization. Injunuity offers us an artful entrance into that culture. *** Be in a good way with everything and everything you need will be provided you. But the moment you start taking and not giving back...taking without ceremony and without prayer, that's when it all starts falling apart, your world starts crumbling... -Injunuity Learn more about Native American and Indigenous culture and work,
and the growing alliances with the Global North: Injunuity.org Indigenous Environmental Network Idle No More The Pachamama Alliance: "Connecting indigenous wisdom and modern knowledge for a just, sustainable, and thriving world." World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, Cochabamba, Bolivia 2010 Video: Awaken the Dreamer: Changing the Dream (Part I and II, 45 min. each) The Gospel of the Redman: A Way of Life, by Ernest Thompson Seton 1937 (pdf) Life of Tecumseh and of his Brother The Prophet, by Benjamin Drake 1841 (pdf) re-post from Yes! Magazine (subscribe, it's wonderful) "Cowboys and Indians" Camp Together to Build Alliance Against Keystone XL At the Ponca Trail of Tears Spiritual Camp, tribal members and their ranchers are learning to understand each other as never before. by Kristin Moe, November 22, 201 Art Tanderup gives Faith Spotted Eagle a ride to Ponca Trail of Tears Spiritual Camp
“’We hoped for this but didn’t expect it,’ said one, Roman Dakus. Mr. Dakus had been in Kiev at Independence Square, or Madian as it is known here, off and on for three months, he said. ‘It was very, very difficult to stay on the square in the cold at night. But we warmed one another with our hearts and our souls. People really changed their mind-set because of these events,’ Mr Dakus added. ‘Before people thought, “Nothing really depends on me.” They preferred to say that and to think like that. But after this situation, they think differently. They believe in their struggle when they are all together.’” (NYT Sun Feb, 23, 2014 pg. 11)
I really like that. Yes, a letter, though it was an email of course. Somehow "email" seems too lightweight, unable to carry enough substance to connote meaning. The letter is to Phil Rosenthal, copying Gail MarksJarvis, two longtime journalists at the Tribune. It is an attempt at responsive virtuosity regarding their February 5, 2014 columns that jointly appeared under the headline, "Shivers on Wall Street". I have written each before, have heard back from Gail, but as yet, not from Phil. You can read Phil's column here and Gail's here. You know how you can tell when folks are good people from what they say, do, write?...you can feel it. Both Phil and Gail are good people and I wish them the best. February 5, 2014 Hi Phil, Enjoyed your column today (Shivers on Wall St, Trib Bus. 2/5/14)—especially appreciated that you stated flatly, “The market is a barometer of corporate health, not the fiscal health of the population as a whole.” Indeed, since 10% of the population own somewhere in excess of 80% of all stocks, bonds and mutual funds (EPI, State of Working America 2011), this is surely a topic crying out for more discussion. This question of representation has important, and reverberating consequences. Of course you repeat the shibboleth about long-term investing, urging investors to hold on despite the turmoil. This is in some sense true, until it’s not. If the market represents only a small fraction of the public, one wonders when the rest of us will object strenuously to such self-serving fetishization, especially as many find themselves in difficult economic straits. And of course, as Keynes said, “In the long run we’re all dead” anyway. Which I think is a process that is hastening, your citing of University of Chicago professor Eugene Fama’s Nobel Prize winning work is a tell. Fama is a neoliberal economist—his work captured the central principal of that specious secular religion by “advancing the theory”, as you say, that “markets take into account all available information at all times.” Fortunately you limit the reach of this assertion with your barometer comment above, and by quoting Tyson, the investing author who says “there is a disconnect” between the market recovery and the well-being of folks generally. These empirical and generally empathic responses to theory are yours and Tyson’s. Neoliberals do in fact believe that the market is the sum total of all information—not just about the market, but about everything, literally. There is no disconnect. A group of colleagues and I recently watched a lecture given by Phillip Mirowski, a philosopher of economics at Notre Dame University in which he sketched out the difference between neoclassical and neoliberal economics and how we have moved from the former to the latter and the frightening ramifications of that movement. Here’s my blog post, which includes the lecture, introducing the talk on DePaul’s Institute for Nation and Culture online journal: http://environmentalcritique.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/is-the-market-a-hyperobject/ I encourage you to take the time to watch the lecture; Mirowski is a prolific author and highly regarded. It’s not a comforting picture, especially when you take into account the power of these true believers whose conviction rivals that of true believers anywhere. By way of comment, perhaps prematurely, any substantive reflection upon this “true belief” reveals that it is utter nonsense and must be a product of either hubris or idiocy, or perhaps both, Nobel Prize or not. (Or perhaps some very particular motivation/proclivity, which I think, would likely include measures of the aforementioned). Economics is about as self-referential as anything we do—it can only stand for itself, its precepts. In all cases representation is always just that: a singular, even myopic picture of something; and there are as many pictures as there are picture-takers. Unless, of course, a singular picture becomes everything. That, succinctly, is what seems to be happening. In the opening pages of his Simulations (1981) Baudrillard observes, “It is a generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it…[I]t is with this same imperialism that present-day simulators attempt to make the real, all of the real, coincide with their models of simulation. But is it no longer a question of either maps or territories. Something has disappeared: the sovereign difference, between the one and the other, that constituted the charm of the abstraction. Because it is difference that constitutes the poetry of the map and the charm of the territory, the magic of the concept and the charm of the real.” [1] (Emphasis mine) For neoliberals markets are the real—Fama "proved it"--the entire exercise a practical tautology since it is self-referential--and won the Nobel Prize. Metaphysics, epistemology and ontology, the problems of philosophy all solved. The mapmakers make the map and the real “does not survive it...”. Yet disregarded all along is that everything takes place in a context; everything relies on assumptions taken. Thus neoliberals go round and round in a dance of self-referential surety.
This fits well with an earlier note to you in which I encouraged you to explore privacy and data collection more deeply, citing the work of UPenn professor Joseph Turow and reporting done by NYT writers Charles Duhigg and Natasha Singer. [2] The collection, processing and returning of data to the public in the form of tangibles and intangibles is the manufacturing process of a simulacrum—and that process is becoming ever more efficient—driven by the true believers in that specious secular religion, who again, are sure they can count (represent) everything. After all, what is a market, as it has come to be defined, but data? The mapmakers make the map. Flesh and blood people, who not only have the “charm of the real”, but its suffering as well, are not accounted for in the models. But you feel them Phil; so does Tyson, and so do most of us, however bewitched by neoliberalism we are—and we are bewitched. Yet reality, in some form, has a way of upsetting abstractions. The headline for Gail MarksJarvis’ companion piece asks, “Tough year ahead or necessary correction?” My guess is both. Best to you (and to you Gail), EJTangel Chicago [1] Jean Baudrillard, Simulations (1981) PDF. For more on Baudrialld see Jean Baudrillard, Selected Writings, Edited and Introduced by Mark Poster (University of California Irvine professor of History, Film and Media Studies) [2] Articles are posted under the rubric Divide, Shape and Profit, about halfway down the page. repost from Ecology Without Nature... My Talk to the Rice Faculty in mid-Feb Posted: 08 Feb 2014 10:20 AM PST The Humanities in the Age of Ecological Emergency Timothy Morton Humans created the Anthropocene, with its global warming. Not jellyfish. Not fungi. Not coral reefs. The Humanities know a thing or two about humans. It is imperative therefore that the Humanities be in the mix of thinking that addresses the Anthropocene. Not as a decorative adjunct to science, but alongside it, fueling it, thinking it, analyzing and critiquing it. This talk is about that. And, I would add, the Humanities need to be ante-capital, as in before, so we can get a clear fix on what we are actually doing. Tim Morton is professor of English at Rice University, author of Hyperobjects (2013), Realistic Magic (2013) and The Ecological Thought (2010) and more. A wiki bio here. My favorite quote (thus far) is, "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear." (Hyperobjects) EJT |
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