Hegel, Logic, and material Universe
On reading Science of Logic
1.
Math and
logic can be examined at its origin, with the initial inspiration at its source
in the experience of an immediate connection with material reality.
Understandings are born out of specific experiences and are generalized to
similar occurrences. These generalizations become abstractions in order to
establish concepts used in helping us to understand characteristics in similar
situations. What is created by this technique is a system of arranging
information gleaned from the external world in away that furthers our
understanding of that world. By arrangements of specific information in gaining
an understanding, we use reason in creating a system that correlates data in
way that allows us to think about the world around us. Reason and understanding
are two separate entities that are two entities that are mutually interactive.
2.
The
interaction between reason and understanding is constantly evolving. This in
turn is closely interacting with an ever-evolving external environment. Science
can take advantage of this.
3.
Logic,
reason, understanding, with information drawn from empirical data and science
combining all of the above becomes a way to arrange information in a way that
best expands what is known.
4.
What is
known is also always changing and how we understand. What is known evolves
along with how data is arranged. This appears to be a constant of history.
5.
Our thoughts
once expressed are made known to the one who owns the thoughts and then stored
by use of language in our minds. Then the logic of language allows the meaning
of those thoughts to be expressed in an understandable form. This is achievable
by the process reason is handled in the construction of a sentence. The way
information is warehoused in our thoughts allows us to draw upon them to expand
our understanding.
6.
The logic of
a language is for communication of that meaning to others. Bits of information are communicated through
the way parts of the sentence are connected.
7.
There is a
craving and a craving and a decision created in the process of forming ideas.
This ideation is in anticipation in the cognition of concerted reflection of
the relationship between our ideas and our experience of eternal truth.
8.
From this we
take the next step of thinking about thought. This is the origin of logic.
Logic being concerned about arranging thoughts, and thought about thought and
not material reality. Logic is removed from material reality and is only a tool
to understand that reality.
9.
Logic as a
tool arranges intellectual categories. Categories are also tools to understand
material reality.
10.
Intellectual
tools should never be confused with the reality that the tools are used to help
us have knowledge of what we are attempting to comprehend. Tools can help us
construct a system to better able us in understanding. Remember a house is not
a hammer.
11.
We can
understand material reality not only through the experience of it, but also how
our ideas born from experience are arranged in a way that makes sense. These artificial tools are essential in our
understanding. The material world, our intellectual tools and our understanding
interact in a way that what we talk about can make sense to another human
being.
12.
To move from
instinct to thought requires not only reason but also careful sets of tools to
arrange that information in a way that makes sense. We can understand something
in a way that we can comprehend the appearances of truth and of the
possibilities at every stage of the on going processes of life. The trick is to
see how much appearances reflect an independent reality.
13.
This is just the beginning because tools
become real, and require assumptions about reality. These assumptions remain
hidden unless exposed through careful self-analysis of our ideas. Once exposed
assumptions see the light of day. Assumptions at this point are to be proven
and not just accepted. Unquestioned assumptions hide more than they helps to
understand. Reality is both independent of our consciousness, and an interpretation
of the external world.
14.
Not only is
the above true with the basic assumptions of thinking but so to with logic.
Also so to with the most basic principles of the scientific methods. Science in
order to proceed must at critical intervals not just question its legitimacy,
but also challenge its most primary principles as a method of inquiry. Only in
this way can science become aware of any limitations and evolve into a more
rigorous line of inquiry by avoiding simplistic dogma masquerading as research.
Through this exercise science continues to evolve into fresh insights. The
logic used in the scientific methods is the place to begin. By looking at logic
we see how methods are used. The method itself is free from content. By
examining the method we discover how much new information is learned when
content is brought back into the analysis. The information can be arranged in
such a way that patterns of understanding are established. Complexes of
knowledge are in the order of an expanding insight in the world around us. This
on going control over information gives science a living face. When dogma
replaces serious questions science dies. Yet the very foundation of science
itself changes as the limits of possibilities are exceeded. Science in the
hands of a radical cohort that is not afraid of reexamining old insights will
discover what was over looked in the past. Only that which changes and expands
will not die.
15.
Any study of logic must realize that thinking
people trying to understand the living real experiences in a world of content
formed logic.
16.
Logic is abstracted from content. Logic is a
tool to be used cautiously for it can distort as much reality as it reveals.
17.
For thought, including logic, to make sense at
some point it needs to be used in the context of understanding the external
world. The external world always remains independent of our consciousness.
18.
Things that appear are often confused because
of the tools we use understand material reality is taken for real. Symbols are
often mistaken for the external reality.
19.
When appearances are mistaken for material
reality then we react to our creations and not to what is really happening.
Because our action what follows is through our action what follows is through
our actions are unforeseen consequences. Events show up in our lives as if
magic. We flounder in understanding we are authors of history. We
fail to appreciate we are both the victims and origins of our fate.
20.
It is the connection of thoughts that allows
us to see beyond appearances and understand appearances of a reality we
experience. The reality we try to represent with our symbols needs careful
study testing and retesting the results of those studies comparing our findings
to an empirical reality we are observing. There is a material reality that is
independent of our consciousness. Yet, through careful observation and
systematic analysis we can gain an ever-closer understanding of that reality.
21.
Any and all
beliefs, knowledge or insights are represented by symbols that are embedded in
a cultural and historical context. While they represent material reality
through discrete cultural lenses this reality often appears radically different
to dissimilar peoples in differing cultural and historical settings. It is by
specifically using the methods of careful observation and detailed descriptions
that people in differing backgrounds can talk about the same objects in away
that leads to a common understanding. But, every science is embedded in its own
cultural and historical setting and woks only if all parties agree.
22.
When every new insight forces us to reevaluate
what we have previously known, we replace the older body of knowledge with a
newer one. Destruction of one set of beliefs creates the opportunity to
establish a new set of concepts to replace the older views. But, this new collection
of scientific theories is made up of parts of the older worldviews being
replaced. In this process the world of ideas follows a similar path always
ultimately tested against the material world.
When a poor fit between an arrangement ideas and knowledge and
substantive authenticity becomes apparent and the existence of serious
limitations in the adaptation to the larger environment and the conventional Weltanschauung or worldview is falling apart
it will be replaced by a new assortment of feelings, beliefs, and impressions.
23.
The evolution of science closely follows the
evolution of the larger society. Politics and economics are part of the same
changing environment that science is evolving in.
24.
Ideas
and knowledge is always changing and always evolving. But, so is the external
world. These ideas symbolize this environment.
25.
Ideas are
brought together within the context of culture and the ever changing but real
people who experience shifting culture. Culture helps people to adapt to an
ever-changing environment. Yet culture leads people not only to adapt, but also
to behaviors that alter the environment. Take an environment that is already
constantly changing on its own and add the human factor and what we get is the
continuing need for re-adaptation as a constant. Reform or revolution and their
changes cannot be avoided. Culture is a dynamic ever-changing process. Old
ideas and traditions ate continually being re-interpreted. New ideas replace older
ones. From the old dying society come the raw materials for the birth of a new
world. Conflicting parts form a larger unity. The tensions created are the
motors of history. Life and death need each other. Self-destruction is the
foundation for self-creation.
26.
Our categories and the way we connect these
categories are self-created intellectual tools we inherit from the past while
modifying them to meet current circumstances. We create imaginatively complex
logical theories in order to understand in a systematic way a multifaceted
external reality. We take these ideas founded on experience and through
thinking transforms ideas by way of actions and by the use of logical
intellectual tools and in the process produce our own understanding. The
appearances of our creation seem real enough; the hard part is to separate genuine
reality from mere appearances.
27.
This logical system we use is always defined
in a historical and cultural context. This logical system arranges information
in a way we can understand external reality. A different logical system creates
another classification arrangement.
28.
Logic arranges information, but it does not
find data. The data exists independently.
29.
What is
needed is way to see beyond what exists. With each point in history the “is”,
is a set of positional possibilities determined by objective factors in the
external world at that moment in story of a people. These tangible attributes exist in the
external world. This makes choice unavoidable. Once made a choice changes fate
and becomes a part of the determination of specifics
and actions demonstrating substantive patterns resulting from nature having
sufficient causes that are part of actual existence.
30.
To
understand the potential choices offer in any situation, we need to understand
what is determined at that time. Real choices are then separated fantasy. This
gives us an idea about the possibility of success. This is part of the
transition from potentiality to actuality.
31.
Chance of success are increased when the rules
of the logic we use connects us to the categories we created in an affective
and reasonable manner. Because logic and categories are artificial and
arbitrary they need to be continually tested against external reality. The
results being the final arbiter. If they do not fit easily into mental
constructs or match the material reality they cannot be as helpful in turning
theory into action. This is the base of superstitions.
32.
The symbols and what the symbols represent
stand together in away that reflects reality as understood in a way that
reflects reality as understood within the mind of the individual. Some systems
work better than others. But, the separations between symbols and real objects
cause a continual strain that is bringing what we know into conflict with what
is really out there. Yet the unity connecting knowledge with reality allows the
individual to live in the material world.
33.
The
subjective experience of an objective reality begins with stimulus response.
Consciousness is a response to an external something that incites to action and
causing a further response. This having a direct bearing with interposition
between contradictory parts of the whole leading to a determination that unites
the internal opposition.
34.
Slowly images forms within the mind and from
these images notions begin to form from these images. We have the origins of
thinking. Thinking process begins with direct experience and continues as a
part of the living brain.
35.
Thoughts require reflection if they are to
mean anything. Reflection on what exactly the symbols used in thought represent
forms our ideas, worldview and mind set. The language we use to think with must
then be restated in order to fit into a language we can use to communicate to
others.
36.
What people
communicate has already been filtered but, if we are to be understood, our
words must carry with it shared meaning.
37.
What we
define is a thing’s essence. Essence is itself defined from our experience of
existence. Most definitions are twice removed from material existence.
38.
While quality describes and quantity measures,
we need the first before we can make sense out of the second. Thus, our tools
are created only after a need arises in understanding and communicating what
lies before us.
39.
Quality is a
comparative relation, without something to compare something to compare the
description makes very little sense. Quantity of course is a relation telling
me how much of something there is. Concepts are an imaginative accepted to have the appearance of a relation to what really exists. Thoughts are
relationships between concepts. Communication is relationships between egos.
Yet all these relationships are unstable because nothing is permanent.
40.
This is the beginning of understanding. As
seasons change we try to understand as much as we can. The immediacy of our
lives reduces itself to the determinateness of a reality that is embedded in
the materialism of an external reality independent of our consciousness.
41.
Material
objects are assumed to exist, for how else could we respond to them? The truth about this reality of material
objects reflects how we arrange our notions about reality. This is what we
test. Reality itself is independent of notions about truth when we as observers
are removed.
42.
The insights
gathered and arranged in a statement about reality contains only what has been
perceived and interpreted about our beliefs about the world outside our
individual ego. Thought becomes as much about how we represent as what is
represented. That which is subjective is defined in a subjective manner. This
is set in a universe of self-conscious thinking. That works best reflects
material reality even though this remains independent of our consciousness
through careful observation. But, this consciousness is formed from our
experiences of that separate realism called nature. Consciousness is never far
removed from simple stimulus response.
43.
When something new is created out of the
destruction of what went before, the older parts allow for something of the old
to remain. Yet this is both trite and obvious, yet what remains is radically
changed. What happens is an attempt on our part to understand change. Yet
change itself is a concept we create to understand something that happens all
around us. We artificially create categories like determinism or necessity,
accidents or randomness, choice or agency to understand the various parts of
change. Though tools are artificial constructs it adds certain strength to our
understanding of an autonomous relationship to history.
44.
Bring together in tension and unity the
opposing forces the “positive” or what exists as a dynamic creative force and
the “negative” force or the destructive energy. These contradictory influences
form a vigorous coordination. It is through this understanding that the
diversity of the particular data can handled as a living force.
45.
From the initial experience, our
interpretation is mediated by a complex thought process, already formed and
previously navigated by earlier experiences. Through communication the
interpretation and analysis experiences of others becomes part of our intervention
that helps us to interpret our own new experiences. This relationship is part
of an inseparable whole in our on going awareness of our own thoughts and their
relation to the world around us. What
some would call the determination of immediacy and mediation and others call
the strength of mind of close relationships of conciliation is but the process
of learning.
46.
Consciousness
begins as sensuous experience of the material reality. At every juncture this
process is repeated. Everything is ultimately reduced back to simple response
to the larger environment.
47.
Ego is real and a part of the material world
outside the consciousness other egos.
Each individual is a physical animal. Awareness of self begins through
experience as living things, because we are animals. From those humble
beginnings interpretation creates further complex understanding, reflected back
on the life of the ego. Reflection adds to and colors our interpretations, and
by communicating these insights to others a worldview evolves. Through
communication similar experiences are understood as something shared and
culture is in the process of being defined.
48.
Existence is
immediate without definition, and independent of our consciousness. By becoming
a part of our consciousness we struggle to understand and define the
characteristics of elements in the surrounding environment and the limitations
of that understanding. To recognize and express those features of fundamentals
in the neighboring milieu we construct an awareness of our lives in the world.
These self-imposed qualities become the essence of the integral part of the
habitat and sphere of activity in the circumstances and conditions external
factors surrounding and affecting our lives. These artificial definitions are
necessary for understanding. Once stated the essence becomes are real as
existence. For we react to our definitions of reality.
49.
Once an essence is defined it no longer needs
the existence of something to talk about it. Because once the definition, which
gives essence it’s meaning, is established it becomes real in our thoughts.
This is an appearance because it no longer needs material reality to give it
meaning. In fact this appearance can alter our experience of existential
reality. If existence precedes essence, essence can redefine existence.
Appearances become even more real than material reality for the believer. This
is the origin of what we can call false consciousness. We react to appearances
and not the material reality independent of our consciousness. This often led
to not only unforeseen consequences but also destructive decisions in which the
fates play cynical games with the lives of mortals.
50.
What is defined as existing is also defined by
its absence. Limits or boundaries are as important as characteristics or traits
in showing the nature of something. The essence being an artificial constructs,
which is necessary for our understanding.
This something we are trying to understand need not exist. Thus being
and nothing exist a relation that mutually defines each other. When it is
absent we can still talk about something. Even if it never has existed it can
still be something we can define in such a way as to understand it. Fiction
makes sense because it draws on enough experiential qualities as to give it
some sort of meaning. The problem is when we confuse essence for existence.
When nothing becomes more real than something we find ourselves reacting in a
way that may not lead to the results we desire.
51.
Everywhere and everything is always in
transition. It is both being and nothing at the same time and it is neither
being nor nothing. This is because what ever it is it will soon be something
else. Through abstraction and the sake of understanding we artificially freeze
things into nouns as representing items that exist in the larger environment.
Nouns are items that can abstractly be separated from its ever-evolving environment.
52.
The external always acts on the internal. This
too creates a contradiction in which the resolution is always in a state of
becoming. Readapting in the process of the transition from one thing to
another.
53.
To be is to become. Being is becoming moving
from what it once was, to what it is not yet. Being then is limited; this
limitation also defines what being is not. By becoming being is defined by what
appears as nothing. The future does not exist but it will exist someday. Beyond
existence is non-existence.
54.
Everything is always changing. Thus, what
exists is being undermined by it’s own tensions; the setting is in natural
contradiction to that which continues. This contradiction is both internal and
external decay that is always breaking down in the present, always in the
process of dying, creating raw materials for the future. This stands in
unending opposition to what is established as “existing”. This tension is the
negation of what is. Yet even as this negation is being established, the negative
also has its own internal and external tension, not the least of which was the
original entity being undermined. The negation itself is negated. Then the
negation of the negation is being undermined in turn creating a new positive
that begins to fall apart immediately.
55.
What were the results of what went before?
Therefore, there was never a creation other than the on going process that is
still going on. Even today this process is creating tomorrow. If there was
truly a beginning then the beginning was created by what went before. If there was a creator than the creator was
created by another creator, only adding another level of confusion and does not
get us any closer to solving the problem of creation. Before the big bang?
56.
Being and
nothing then resolve themselves into the on going process of becoming. Ceasing
to be negates becoming, which creates the raw material for an on going process
of becoming. Therefore nothing exists as part of being.
57.
Existence is always set in a time frame. This
is feature in which certain qualities are set in the margin of alterations of continuation.
Making existence of those qualities temporary. Because of this existence is set
up in away as to be apparent when it no longer exists. When the peculiarity of
making real changes enough to make what happens as something new come into view.
In point of fact this is an expression of what is always the case, what survives
is forever altering its nature. Only changing forms, substance and qualities is
what we can count on.
58.
In becoming something new, original and there
is an immediate and authentic response to the current on going changes in the
larger environment. This happens daily. Sometimes it may take a long time even
generations to notice changes in a culture or society, even though the changes
are daily. There is a constant mediation between a people’s current needs,
choices being made and the raw materials that jointly the environment and
tradition offers at any one time.
59.
Each entity has certain specific qualities,
which are used to define the object. While these qualities reflect
characteristics we assign to the thing being studied in order to better
understand what it is we are looking at, these characteristics have an
independent reality in the material world in that they reflect something.
Having said that because of constant change these same characteristics are also
changing. They are, in someway ceasing to be and coming into being and one
thing replaces another. Thus, what is ceases to be a will give rise to a new
becoming. Evolution is constant and creation is now and forever.
60.
From empirical observation any environment is
made up of smaller interconnected environments all the way to the interacting
subatomic particles or waves. At the same time every environment is part of an
ever-larger environment, i.e. galaxies, galaxy clusters, and strings of galaxy
clusters. These concepts are but our meager attempt to understand a reality
independent of our consciousness.
61.
Yet because
everything dies including solar systems and galaxies, there is always rebirth.
On the cosmic level galactic reincarnation. This leads to the inescapable
conclusion that even our most sacred beliefs can never being anything but
temporary. What is; is being undermined by something else, which in turn is
being undermined all of which is constantly being revolved the unending
evolution of what will be. Creation is evolution. Thus, we need to be always
creating new definitions to explain new characteristics that we become aware
of. What will exist does not exist yet, what exists now did not exist in the
past. When ever we look out on the environment something has changed radically
and will change again.
62.
The “other” is something outside of and alien
to what is. Yet the “other” slowly gives rise to what is, by ceasing to be an
“other”. What is slowly fades away and is replaced another “other”.
63.
Everything
carries within it a genetic memory of its past culture well as its physical
evolution. Also in the current the potential is set out in cogent terms.
Depending on circumstances and choices being made by the players we in part
create our own futures. This organization is a confirmation of history and a profile
of the possibility for future action.
64.
What unites one thing to another stands
outside of both yet connects them. It is almost as if this connection was a
third term and at the same time it is like it was only one term making two
separate things as part of itself. It is what unites two terms, which defines
the limits of this unity. It is a double identity it is part of both, but
unique and separate from both forming a new identity, which cannot be reduced
to what, went before. Yet because the now is in transition it creates an
unstable unity. Like every other unity it is the unstable nature of this unity
that gives it its defining characteristics.
65.
Because everything is already decaying, even
before it is created, everything is something else and it is moving toward a
future. The limits, which we use to define something, require us to constantly
rethink our definitions. These limits are not stationary and are influenced by
both internal and external tensions. Certain randomness works hand in hand with
hard determinism creating soft determinism. All events reflect this dynamic
interaction. It is with this model of soft determinism that we can understand
how human choice has an influence the outcome of history.
66.
The choice once made changes fate, closing off
other options. Once that choice is made that choice become a part of the
determinism that decides the situation.
67.
Choice is
unavoidable. Ethics plays a part in all this. Once a choice is made events
unfold in a way reflecting that choice. Moral responsibility becomes
unavoidable.
68.
The outcome of our choices becomes the “is” of
tomorrow. At every point choice has an effect. The effect of which affects real
peoples lives.
69.
Some people support one group some support
another. Once a choice is made it closes off other choices. One group taking
action limits the choices of another group.
70.
The “ought” to become affective will become
the “is”. This is the result of taking action and making choices. This always
puts people making one choice in opposition to those who make an opposing
choice. It is the relative power differential between competing groups that
determine how things turn out.
71.
The
transition is a power play. What was a free choice in the past becomes a part
of the determination of tomorrow.
72.
To transcend by taking an action means making
a choice. Choice also carries with it a judgment of the one choosing. Sometime
this choice clearly reflects some preexisting notion of goodness.
73.
To
transcend, a thing that is changed is acted upon by something from the outside.
This is true even with the material
forces of the universe or mechanical
system composed entirely of matter in motion integrated in a comprehensive
standard organization of principles
resulting from observing the natural world.
These rudiments work together shaping significant evolutionary renovation with
elements interacting forming chemical change. Many distinctive parts are worn
away by interacting with a changing environment. With people the above is
roughly similar, but with choice thrown into the mix.
74.
With reason added, thought transcends itself
through contemplation. Each experience begins again the process of new thought.
Thinking adds to this a continual process of self-renewal and change.
75.
Was there a beginning or an end? Transcendence
simply means what “Is” leads to what will be “Becoming”. The interaction as
steams of change appear to be permanent. This appearance is what we call the
infinite or eternal. These in turn are artificial constructs to help us
understand how temporary everything including the cosmos really is.
76.
The process of change, what is changing, what
is changing into are three separate and distinct parts of a single seamless
robe. The contradiction is manifest, what is changing never changes because it
is always changing this is the only thing that is permanent.
77.
This
incomprehensible absurdity is what our minds are trying to understand. We call
it a mystery and look at it as a whole, or divine, thereby avoiding any
responsibility to understand. Mysticism is a one sided copout. We can break it
down into smaller parts and record it as empirical data. In the end we create
separate disciplines that cannot even talk to each other. Empiricism is the
other side. Through rationalism we can lie about both. We are back at the
beginning.
78.
As things change from one thing into another a
series of events leads of events leads to s string of things. Each is something
different from every other event of things connected this series. Yet each is made up of those very things that
went before creating something new. The result is while they are different they
are the same. The absurdity is real therefore not absurd. The irrationality is illogical
yet can be understood only through reason and logic. From this we create a
logical system in which each moment is a moment in eternity; each finite
particular is a part of infinity. Reason, logic and empiricism are tools to
help us understand that reality that is independent of our consciousness but
never confuse the hammer for the house.
79.
On the personal level then people needs to
realize who she or he really are and become what they truly are. This is the living quality of becoming. This
becoming is always is in an on going process of transition. That is we are always
becoming what we are not. Yet by becoming what we are not is the becoming what
we will become. This is the process of self-realization. Realizing what has not
happened yet. By this process what are not leads to what we truly are.
80.
The opposing forces of what we were and what
we are not yet form a unity of rival challenging vigor in this living
contradiction. Cause and effect are mile posts in time that intentionally place
along the way in order to understand what we cannot understand without our
artificial tools. We use these constructions to understand a reality that will
remain independent of our consciousness and the universe has no real concern if
I understand or not.
81.
From trying to understand what was and what
will be I construct eternity my own fictitious god made up of an infinite series
of finite segments. Yet I construct infinity, like eternity because I cannot
understand large numbers.
82.
Ideas correspond to thoughts and thought
reflect on the in contemplation and expression of
sensation. Ideas reflect subject and object. Self and other is one such
example. Self cannot be known without an object, which is not self to relate
to. Consciousness requires an arrangement of appearances. These appearances
begin as a reaction to material reality that in order to be comprehended must
be arranged in a way that these concepts based on sensations are
understandable. But, we easily confuse appearances for what they represent.
What we are working on is a new tool to see beyond the appearances to get a
closer understanding of what is really real.
83.
The purpose that science tries to achieve is
to go beyond appearances in a way that others can understand what you did and
duplicate your findings Hopefully this will get us closer to reality.
84.
Self stands in relation to other. Self must
also stand in relation to that part of self that would exist in isolation
without the other. This would only mean that self multiple parts. Self is being
defined as changing from one thing to another because of the relation with
other.
85.
Becoming aware is being self-aware and aware
of the world out side the self. The boundary between self and the outside world
becomes even clearer when there is communication with another self. Two selves
face each other as mutually self and other.
86.
Both selves are each a self unto themselves.
Each act towards the other as each was the only self and the other was in fact
the other. The social interaction becomes a part of the definition of the self.
The ideal self then becomes an abstraction to represent all collective selves.
This allows us to talk about mutually shared commonality. Some people see these
shared identities as humanity, the human condition or even god. This is the
common ground that makes what we believe we are.
87.
At the same time consciousness is
consciousness of something. This thing is the environment no matter how it is
defined. The self is related to the other through the social group or society.
Society is a collection of other selves. Then there is the non-human environment,
which becomes the objective reality as interpreted by the self. Society and the
rest of the environment taken together is the object the self is related to.
This becomes the environment, the world, the universe or even god depending on
our already established beliefs and how they are used to interpret our
experiences. The interpretation of reality is as real as that which exists
independent of our consciousness and awareness of that “Truth”.
88.
The self remains only one ego existing in an
environment of everything else. What is not self is made up of other egos all
existing in a larger environment. The definition environment is made up of
idiosyncratic and cultural interactions with material reality.
89.
The self-stands outside of what are not self,
which is everything else. Yet the self like everything else is always changing.
To change is to become what it is not. The self is also part of the
environment. The self also stands outside of self once we can talk about our
selves. At this time then at this time the self is treated, as if the self was
part of the other, also part of everything else. In this discussion it become
important to note who I am different than who I will become.
90.
Each thing is in part defined by what it is
not. Yet the self is a thing and in part defined by what it is not. The other
is what it is not. Yet the self needs the other in order to understand what the
self means. The self both differentiates itself through its separation from the
other, and manifests itself in its relation to the other.
91.
Self without the other is an empty concept.
Both repulsion the separation into distinct entities and the attraction the
binding closely together of the parts into a greater whole, exists at the same
time and mutually support each other. Movement is the lack of balance, and
movement is toward balance or equalilibrium. Movement is constant and never
ending. Allays moving toward equilibrium. Equilibrium is unstable breaking down
rapidly and can never be achieved.
92.
The changes
continue with attraction and separation. Breaking down into smaller parts and
uniting into ever-larger parts. The self and the others form the group. The
group is the larger self-standing opposed to a larger other so on and so on.
Differences are minor until we realize we are talking about something radically
different. Change, unity, division are all points of interest on an ever
flowing river.
93.
Existing in
a way that affirms the self is how we live in the now. This life is part of a
larger environment. But, all this is moving so fast that we can understand it
only through abstract language. Yet successfully because we can live in the
material world.
94.
Forces in nature both attract and repulse, are
poles a part attracting opposites. Whether things stay together or become
separated depends upon which is strongest attraction or repulsion. The way we
understand this material reality depends upon how we perceive the motion of
these forces. Because like change coming together and separating are always
happening. In fact both dying and being reborn, separating and coming together
are real but arbitrary points in the artificial construct we call time. Contained
with in a single movement that other movements alter which we are studying each
part of a whole which is part of an even greater whole. Each being just a part
of the greater whole. All part at every
level is interacting with the other parts of that level and the levels above
and below.
95.
Quantity is either related to itself or it has
no meaning. This means boundaries are in place. This helps in setting up the
quantitative as well as the qualitative. Both are in part defined by what it is
not.
96.
Quantity is always limited by its boundaries.
Thus the quantity is cannot exceed the definition given a something by its
quality. If we agree on its definition then we can measure a something. If we
add to the number of counted items then the quantity changes. If we add to the
characteristics used to define something then its boundaries change and so does
its quality. What it is not now also changes.
97.
The quantity depends on what we are looking
at. Its quality must be defined first before we can know what is not included.
98.
Because everything is always changing,
becoming something different than what it is at present, the quality is always
in need of being redefined by the observer. This will have an effect on the
quantity we are counting.
99.
Quantity now allows for smaller subdivisions
and larger units of unity. Each part of an ever-greater whole occupying a space
set off from what it is not. Each part stands opposed to other forces and all
of which are also changing becoming something different than what it was and what
it is not. Each new entity has new parts and even newer oppositions.
100.
The
immediate unity and divisions are potentiality for what is becoming. Each
moment stands opposed to the moments that become before or after. Quantity and
its divisions. Discreetness is but a momentary condition that defines the
immediate.
101.
Most
mathematical tools we use exist nowhere but within our minds. They not only
lack an independent reality, they by themselves do not approximate this
reality. What they do is to allow us to manipulate data drawn from empirical
reality, in order that we can more closely understand reality that we
experience.
102.
These
mathematical tools are methods used to arrange abstract thoughts in away that
can be treated as if they were derived from material reality. Yet this is not
material reality, but twice removed from sensuous experience. They are
intellectual tools created to understand abstract thought.
103.
At some
point the genuine assessment comes back. We must test these highly abstract
tools that helps us to understand our experiences of the external world, by how
they helps to adapt to our environment. These tools help us to set off and
separate a part of reality from a larger reality. In this way we are able to
understand in greater detail the sensuous experience of life.
104.
To do this
it is necessary to separate what is not from what is. What is now from what it
may possibly become. We must stop and put up boundaries around the temporary
now. To understand what is required, we need to know what is now; in order to
understand may be perhaps sooner or later.
105.
This
movement, which is on going, has an element of being determined by a history
that has already passed over into the now. The now is not only temporary but
also arbitrary for we will decide when something has changed enough to be
something new.
106.
Everything
being in change is it’s own resolution. This resolution is bringing to an end
what is now. Yet its boundaries must be redrawn requiring decisions on our part
on what we are looking for. It is the reality that is independent of our
thoughts can only be understood through our thoughts.
107.
Everything has a beginning, born from what was
and giving rise to what will be. Yet at each new beginning eternity has already
elapsed. It is infinity that has finite boundaries. Because this is absurd and
obvious, true and false at the same time and in the same way. Both infinity and
eternity are yet another set of intellectual tools to explain in abstract terms
needed mathematical concepts taken as a matter of confidence, frenzied and apparent.
These tools both eternity and infinity replace boundless moments and immeasurable
space. These artificial concepts are our
own imaginative innovative creations like the gods a fiction to help us
understand the superlative scale and magnificent magnitude of a universe framed
in terms of space, time, forces, mass and void.
108.
Infinity and
eternity are concepts that are created by us because they have no real meaning
in empirical realty. Any quantum that can be studied in space and time has
limits in both and thus is neither eternal nor infinite.
109.
The sad
thing is many people take our intellectual tools to be real, as a part of the
external reality existing independent of our consciousness. What exists is real
but undefined until we define it. Our definitions are not what are real.
110.
What is
defined becomes real only because it can act as a guide with our interactions
with the external world. That world in turn is changed as a direct result of
our behavior.
111.
The need to
refer to the concrete when talking about the theoretical before creating
abstract formal categories is at the beginning of the study. Then the
methodology is created to arrange this information framed in way that make
sense by using these formal categories.
112.
Beginning
with very general images based upon experience of objects of material reality
we create our concepts by generalizing from abstract notions that lump similar
experiences together. This is the raw material of thoughts and thinking.
113.
To
understand the origins of these thoughts we need to travel backwards to the starting
point of our experiences. This is the only way to understand how our already
established concepts affect our experiences of reality.
114.
When we
think we have an on going process of blending together pre-existing thoughts
and concepts with continuing experiences and new insights. This is happening
almost without us being aware of what happens when we think. Our job is to
isolate the various processes of thinking into its various parts.
115.
Through careful
reflection and observation we begin to understand the contents of our
experiences. What comes from the environment independent of our consciousness
and what comes from our interpretations of that environment? None of us
experience the world directly. It is important to know how much of our already
existing notions affect our experiences.
116.
When we
define objects in reality we change our interpretation of reality. We behave as
if our interpretations are correct. By reacting to our environment we change
that environment.
117.
The stuff
from our experiences relates to the material independent of our experiences in
a way in which interactive lived sets of knowledge and beliefs play a part.
This is the foundation of what we call truth. Truth is but the most sophisticated
theoretical abstraction.
118.
Direct
experience leads to nothing. Experience means nothing until it is interpreted.
This interpretation is derived from current experiences and pervious
experiences. Interpretations also come from pervious explanations, already
existing concepts and definitions. Interpretations are the continuing synthesis
of what has gone before with what is happening now.
119.
Even history
is the experience of the study of history. All history is the history of
history. The history of history is interpretation.
120.
The sensuous
is the beginning. The self is the sensuous. Constantly examining its origins
thoughts evolve and form something new. This process does away with what has
preceded the now through the process of absorption. Birth and death are the
same process from perspective. Food is better for the eater than the eaten. To
create is to destroy. To change is to recreate. Evolution is the only real
truth. All else are only interpretation or superstitions.
121.
The mind
discovers sensations. Sensations become abstract through analysis and this is
the beginning of thinking. Thinking itself being an ever changing and on going
process is always what it is and what it is not. Thinking is a process of
moving from history to becoming.
122.
Facts represent
a mental image of a material reality independent of the mind. These facts are
arranged into larger conglomerates existing in ever-larger units. Universals,
laws, and necessity are created by the mind to arrange information. Information
also is the result of the creative literature of the mind. In this way thinking
rearranges fact in order to understand facts.
123.
The general
abstract thoughts form universal concepts. This in turn forms systems to
arrange information. These systems create an ever-larger whole. Each school
arranges information differently. Thus, not only creating different worldviews,
but also dissimilar participants from a variety of theoretical orientations
experience the world differently. These systems of thought and their corresponding
ideas lead to different lives and different passions. Yet none of these systems
are perfectly closed, some less so then others. Each system is always changing
by its own initiative and ones particular inventiveness. Each reacts to and
barrows from others, even its enemies.
124.
Like climax
communities in the ecosystem, final conclusions are only temporary. Each set of
closing stages has the seeds of their own destruction. These are it’s the
results of internal contradictions. In addition the external environment
undermines the stability of even the most stable truths.
125.
Because of
the sensuous experience of material reality are the ultimate sources of
thought, which in turn leads to ideas that which is independent of our
consciousness is the environment in which thinking, judgment and awareness are
formed. Because of this the essence of something is derived from our
definitions of that something. Essence is a reflection of existential reality
only as interpreted by us. Existence truly does precede essence.
126.
Essence is
also reflected in the definitions of what we choose as the determining factors
of that something. This requires a separation between existence and appearance.
The first is material reality independent of consciousness and the second is
interpretation based upon the cultural history of our consciousness.
127.
Essence and
existence relate to each other as an ever-changing conflict. At best essence
only imperfectly reflects existence. Existence always precedes essence.
Existence is always changing, as essence is continuously following existence.
Thus, because essence is imperfect and only reflecting something that has
already changed, essence is in part mistaken requiring continual reevaluation.
It is by continual re-reflection that a closer understanding is an on going
process. Self-correction is central to a better life.
128.
Essence is continually proving itself wrong.
By doing this knowledge comes closer to truth, and truth come closer to
material reality. Truth and material reality is always changing and so
knowledge is always changing. Essence can never keep up with existence.
129.
Essence immediately is the same as we define
it, but never is perfectly the same. Essence is always changing. Essence is
continually proving itself sort of right, but always wrong in the process of
redefining reality. Essence is both itself and the other as it reflects
existence becoming something other than what it is now. Thus what it is, or is
not, is not as important as what it is when it is in the process of becoming.
130.
The “is”, is
further divided into the essential or defining characteristics and the
inessential individual idiosyncratic eccentricities. The fundamental significant characteristics
or essence cannot change unless we are defining something different. The
non-essential single peculiar quirks can change with very little impact on essence.
131.
While
existence precedes essence, existence has meaning only through essence. Because
essence only imperfectly reflects existence, and existence is always changing
independent of essence, then existence is always negating essence.
132.
Reflection
is a response to experiencing the environment. The stimulus is born in time and
reflective of that experience. Stimulus and response lies buried beneath all
great truths. Thus concludes a Marxist and materialist reinterpretation of
Science of Logic by Hegel.
From
The
Science of Logic and
Phenomenology
of the Mind
This Marxist looks at
Hegel and Phenomenology of the Mind
In our intellectual
understanding of the Universe, we establish a current Universal, reflecting as
best we can the material world in which we live. This is continually being
undermined, negated and eventually replaced by the lived experiences that are
the result of the tensions of the conflicting trends coexisting and always
changing. Our chosen categories to reflect our reality over time become a
lesser amount of certainty in reflecting what is authentic and accurate.
Categories being intellectual creations, they are sensible formations that are
designed to understand material reality. Categories are more stable than
reality. This is forever leading to conflict between what is supposed to be
true and what actually is real. In our worldviews the conflicting parts of the
larger whole of our understanding becomes more contradictory between what is actual
and what we think is authentic. Our understandings become increasingly unrepresentative
of reality and our knowledge needs to be altered or scrapped to better
represent the material and the assurance that we are dealing with what seen as genuine
and factual by us. Eventually the intellectuals struggling with this painful
discord can resolve these evolving contradictions by creating a new Universal.
The new Universal stands in contrast to the older Universal. Past experience
helped to establish past Universals that reflected the reality of the time
fairly closely given the information that was available to work with at the
time. As the world changes these categories and beliefs no longer fit as
closely as they once did. New categories and systems of belief are created that
fit better these changes, but once established it will certainly come into
conflict with future experiences based on a continual changing reality. At
anytime you can find the evolution of tensions between current knowledge and
the external reality. As the material reality changes new understandings
continue to develop. This can only resolve itself in the beginning of a new
worldview. Once these changes in specific details have been observed in the
lived experiences of the participants in their lives that are embedded in a
continuously evolving environment that is surrounded in a constantly emergent ecological
setting. These shifting characteristics will need to be defined and isolated to
create an inventory of unique meanings. This now can be used to explain reality
in the process of becoming.
Once changes are
understood new characteristics will need to be defined including specifics.
That which is similar to closely related to other closely related species would
need to be bracketed make clear, and recognized. Then it needs to clear up what
separates one from the other. New lists are used in updating the classification
system. Each specific characteristic is independent of other defining
characteristics. These lists are continuously being recombined and
reformulated. In this process new information about this changing environment
is learned. New definitions and new combinations help us understand and
discover new insights about older species and to discover new ones.
The above process is a
model used in understanding how we understand.
In the awareness of how we appreciate the realization of that organization
of information. Consciousness is molded out of the clay of perception. From
consciousness we develop self-consciousness that exists in an interactive
relationship with the external world. In turn, we are aware of the external
world by being aware of ourselves. This interaction is an ongoing development
in the continuing evolution of humanity from the distant past to the distant
future. This interface is an enduring adventure
in the life of the individual and the species. Always shaping resolution beyond
struggle while forming unity out of conflict.
Once we have knowledge
of the world outside our consciousness we assume what we observe is real.
Further we assume this reality both exists and is in dependent of what we
observe. Without these assumptions communication becomes problematic. When the
assumptions are taken as real to tools need to understanding reality and
reality results. The effect is idealism, a philosophy that makes communication
between individuals seemly unnecessary because ideas are taken as real. What is
forgotten is simply material reality exists independent of the observer; we
arrange all our intellectual tools in order to understand what we can of
reality. When intellectual constructs are mistaken for authentic corporeal information
or objective facts and when imaginary concepts are believed to be real ideology
becomes dogma. Dogma becomes orthodox prisons and revolutions in thought become
necessary to regain an understanding that we need to look more closely at
nature and social history. Given all this we can know what exists only if we
know what is real. Material reality exists independent of the observer. We
arrange our intellectual tools in order to understand what we can of the
reality under examination.
Even though this reality
may sound redundant. This is the beginning of communication about materialism
and material reality. Reality meaning material reality is a given. Stimulus
response is the beginning of our learning about reality. The growing awareness
of reality takes for granted an Ego. This Ego must be capable of knowing.
Things that are true are both independent of the observer and understandable by
the observer. Because, the object being observed remains in a very basic way disconnected
from the observer, what is known is an approximation of reality. Consciousness being awareness depends on how
well these tools work.
Consciousness begins
with being aware of Self and Other. Other being an object that also thinks. Ego
is a self, observing the external material reality and interacts with real
objects of that reality. Because Ego and the Other interact with each other consciousness
is formed through this interaction. Both Ego and Other form parts of a larger
environment that is always evolving. To be aware is to be sensitive to a
complex relationship between self, other, and the environment. When Other is
also aware this becomes an on going relationship in which the self is
continuously being defined. The ongoing relations between the interacting
consciousnesses of Self and Other is mutual and lays the groundwork for
culture. The Other is both an object and more than an object for Self. Self is
an object and more than an object for Other. Reality now becomes complicated by
what is understood. There is material reality, that now includes conscious
other people whose actions depend on what they understand of reality and the actions
they take. The choices I make effects them, and the choices they make effects
me. This relationship to other people is part of the larger environment.
Consciousness requires
self-consciousness. Consciousness requires being aware of non-self. Self and
Other, Ego and Object each are necessary for awareness. Consciousness is
embedded in a world of sensations. The world of sensations is embedded in
material reality. Empirical experience is the beginning of learning. But, what
we experience is guided by what we learn. The Universe of experiences centers
on the Ego, which leads to the understanding whose focal point is the Sense of
self.
At this time it becomes
apparent that consciousness is a process being defined in an interactive
relationship between the known and the knower. Along similar lines social
consciousness is set in a social environment. Because of the social nature of
these relationships, something is added to the public character of these associations.
Something is added to the relationship between Ego and Object when set in a
social environment.
Each Ego is the Other to
all other egos. Every relationship in this charged social setting has many
interacting and contradictory qualities. The process of knowing requires acting
within and on the larger environment. Each Ego is an actor in this drama.
Because of the complexity of social reality uncertainty is as real as
certainty. Reacting to the changing environment every Ego is a player that
other Egos respond too. Material reality is now expanded to include not only
the natural environment, but also the social and cultural.
Consciousness is in fact
evolving as the environment changes. Consciousness is defined as the
relationship between the knower and the known. This is true of all Egos that
co-exist within larger groups. Every Ego is in part a creation of other Egos.
Each Ego cooperates in forming this collective consciousness that in turn acts
upon our behavior, which in turn acts upon the Natural Environment changing the
material world and us in the process.
Making this collective action and understanding culture is an active
part of Nature as we are yet just another animal species. The independence and
interdependence of Egos to each other and Nature form an ever-changing mutual
dependence. Humans are co acting Egos, but also they are a small part of larger
wholes, humanity and Nature.
Now we are able to begin
to list real regularities we can observe in Nature and society. Even those
regularities independent of consciousness can now be observed. The world exists
before the birth of the Ego and a social construction also was in existence.
The changes in society and culture will be on going even after the Ego dies.
This would mean there
are real regularities in Nature and society that are independent of our
consciousness existing before we are born and continuing throughout our lives.
When we die what we have contributed is picked up by succeeding generations.
Though we each have an impact on our environment, large sectors of that
environment are outside our influence.
Reality is made up of
smaller fragments of reality pieced together forming ever-larger wholes. Total
reality is always in motion. This motion has patterned regularities that can be
observed and understood with our consciousness. These regularities are part of
the environment and exist in every part of the Universe. These regularities are
changing constantly, are born out of eternal and eternally evolving and inundated
tensions. Tensions within the very structure of what ever are being studied,
together outside interactions form the basis of change. These changes add up
until the very structure itself is something other than the original structure.
A new entity is formed with its own tensions and contradictions. At every turn
choices remain between several predetermined alternatives. The choices become a
part of the objective environment. Choices influence patterns in the
regularities in nature and society.
Because Ego is set in a
social environment, the individual is defined not only by choices of the
individual, but also choices made by other individuals. In this way the “I” is
reflected by being separated and yet united with the “Other”. The External
including, nature and society remains from beginning to end independent of the
Ego. This is possible because the “External” is made known through
acculturation into a community by the consciousness of the Ego formed in
relation to all other Egos. This is the Other that forms the reference groups
that becomes a part of the Ego’s reference group. Now, collectively Egos are
modeled and shaped by the larger environment, and through the collective
behavior of Egos the environment in turn is modified.
The External, including
nature and society remains from the beginning to the end independent of the
Ego. But, the external remains apart of the Ego. This is possible because the
External is made known through acculturation into the community. In part this
is how consciousness is formed in relations to other Egos. The Other forming an
element of the reference group is an ingredient in the large environment in
which the Ego lives. This relationship is mutual and on going.
The Relation between
Egos, and relation between Ego and all Egos and the rest of the external
environment are complex. The relationship between the community of Egos and the
External material reality exists both before and after any particular Ego’s
lifetime. This on going and ever changing relationship is the foundation of
culture. It is through culture that the Ego is able to form a relationship with
the Other i.e. all the other Egos in her life. Each Ego she has a relationship
with, forms a relationship with her in which she is the Other. It is only
through mutual, complex, shared and intricate set of associations not only
culture but identity becomes possible.
The interaction of all
Egos of the Community are delineated and formed both individually and
collectively through an increasing awareness of the External. It is the
external that forms the larger Environment. The Environment defines the Egos
awareness of the External. The Object is but a particular manifestation of the
External. The Other is just another Ego.
Each Ego is also the Other. Both the Ego and the Other are living and acting
conscious objects.
The awareness of the
External in all its manifestations, is not only the raw material of
consciousness, consciousness is also a movement and not a thing. Consciousness
is set in an ever-changing reality. In this reality both the Subjective and the
Objective is always changing. Though there is often an awareness that change is
all around us, both the real and apparent knowledge of these changes forces basic
and clear familiarity with the situation by continuously redefining Ego’s characteristics
and her relation to everything else in her life.
Consciousness is a
Subjective interpretation of the Objective. This process creates awareness.
Awareness requires learned intellectual tools to be able to interpret the Objective.
These artificial constructs are created to understand the External Objective,
without these tools life itself would be impossible. Knowledge is necessary in order to interact
with Nature allowing for our survival.
In the ever-changing environment
one artificial tool that is necessary to understanding ever-changing living
systems is continuity. Continuity is a necessary but synthetic concept. Even
though not true in itself, it helps us understand larger truths. In spite of
all of this the need for continuity, an artificial tool is used to understand,
what we understand is always changing and thus truth is always changing.
The dissidence between
continuity and change creates a mental agitation that resolves itself with the
coming into being of a new reality. This new reality is both reflective in
changes in the external environment and a different way of understanding that
environment. This new understanding develops yet another form of
dissidences.
With each resolution and
change there is a new body of knowledge and a new set of created wisdoms. What
we know now is something other than what we at first knew. These new insights
do not fit together perfectly, requiring additional fine-tuning. Coming to our
attention is the need to make sense of the changing environments. Both our
knowledge of the social and material environment is changing to fit the continually
evolving ecological surroundings, and the way we know is always changing.
Interpretations and worldviews pass into extinctions and the new understanding
and global viewpoint becomes seen as universally true.
Even the most orthodox, established
or accepted traditional judgments are always being reinterpreted. What appears
as being a constant in our philosophical systems requires taking the knowledge
we learned in the past realities and applying that knowledge to a changed
environment necessitating continual clearing up of the now obscure. In this
process one part of the established traditions becomes more important than
other parts. This becomes an article of faith in the conventional orthodoxy.
The lesser parts of the past worldview become mere shadows of its former self,
depending on the changes in the surroundings.
Materialism
Adaptation
Adaptation of a species or culture is reflective of the
relative fitness of each measurable trait taken as apart of an interacting
whole. This moving and changing will
express itself as the mean fitness of a species. This average quantifiable suitability
within a specific environment requires that it change as the environment
chances of face a real possibility of extinction.
The fitness of each individual in the population is discovered
by the degree of an individual’s reproductive success. Taking all the
individuals collectively within a population this gives us tools to work with
in understanding the possibility of survival. This gives us a selection
gradient for measuring observable changes over time. This works for both
cultural as well as biological evolution. Only with cultural evolution it is
not the biological reproduction of offspring, but the communities sustainable
use of resources in a way that allows for the survival of succeeding
generations.
As the larger environment the larger environment changes the
ability of each individual to survive changes. Some traits become more
important and others less so. In
cultural evolution, people make daily decisions based upon existing explanations
and contemporary understandings as defined in a cultural and historical setting
that is always changing requiring continual reinterpretations as defined within
a continuously evolving social backdrop reconstructing an episode, based upon tradition,
using an approach within a specific period of development. Which is always
being redefined until it no longer works and a radical paradigm shift takes
place.
By linking specific traits to changing fitness of each
individual with differing expressions of those traits, we can observe the
changes that are coming about. Some
important traits will become secondary. Supplementary traits move into traits
of primary importance. These changing mix of traits have an effect on the
ability the individual to perform within the changing environment, which
affects relative fitness and ability to survive.
By measuring both the cost vs. benefit and multivariate
interaction of each choice or characteristic we can understand the contribution
each trait or set of traits makes to an continually interacting whole. Each
trait make a contribution, but each contribution is unequally weighted in its
over involvement in the changing environment. The relative contribution of each
trait changes over time. This becomes the tool used in understanding the proximate
outcome of each trait and its influence on the permanently emergent whole.
Karl Marx, Julian
Steward, Leslie White, Marvin Harris, B. F. Skinner, Eric Wolf
Cultural Ecology or Cultural
Materialism
Marx claimed there are real regularities in nature and
society that are independent of our consciousness. This reality is in motion,
and this motion itself has patterned consistencies that can be observed and
understood with our consciousness. This material uniformity is also dialectical
in that they change over time. Tensions within the very structure of this
reality form the basis of this change; this is called dialectics. These changes
add up until the structure itself is something other than the original
organization. A new entity is formed with its own tensions or contradictions (Engels 1939: 16,
131-141).
When studying a society, the research should begin with
a people’s interaction with nature. Humans, through their labor, produce the
means of their own survival. The environment, natural and social, in which
people provide the basis of their own survival, becomes central to the analysis
of a society (Marx 1947, 42).
Through the means of production, or technology,
environment, population pressure and work relationships, a people are able to
take from nature what they need to survive; this in turn creates what is
possible for the various parts of the super-structure to be like. Any study of
the historical change of a people must assume economic factors will be of first
importance. The economic primacy is not absolute, however, because each of the
various parts of a society has its own continual influence on the social whole.
Through the use of historical materialism sense can be made of the historical
facts that a social scientist collects (Francisconi 1998, 14).
Researchers who study non-capitalist societies become
aware that major differences do exist between individual non-capitalist
societies. One major difference that is noticed by social scientists is the
degree of complexity in social structures between one society and another. It
is argued that the differing degrees of complexity of the social relations are
directly related to different productive levels, including how efficiently a
technology can utilize a particular environment to support the people of that
social structure (White 1949, 363 393).
The interaction between social
organization, called relations of
production, and the use of a technology within an environment, called forces of production, can be used to
understand many particulars about the total culture. The evolution from band
level society to tribal level society, tribal to chiefdom, and chiefdom to
state level society has to take into consideration changes in the organization
of labor, including the growing division of labor and ultimately changes in the
technology used by a people (Harris 1979, 77-113).
With
changes in the organization of labor, there are corresponding changes in the
relationship to property. With increasing complexity of technology and social
organization, societies move through these diverse variations to a more
restrictive control over property, and eventually, with a state society, there
develop restriction on access to property, based upon membership in economic
classes (Marx
1965, 67 –83).
A social system is a dynamic
interaction between people, as well as a dynamic interaction between people and
nature. The production for human subsistence is the foundation upon which
society ultimately stands. From the production of the modes of production,
people produce their corresponding set of ideas. People are the creators of
their ideology, as people are continually changed by the evolution of their
productive forces and of the relationships associated with these productive
forces. People continuously change
nature and thus continually change themselves in the process (Marx 1947, 47;
Steward 1955, 37)
Science and ethics cannot be
separated. All science by necessity is
propaganda of action. Each action taken
by people then will change the future options by closing off other
opportunities. – Nothing is guaranteed changing contingency changes are changed
by our choices, changing our options. Pedagogical
Neutrality Is Immoral, Stupid and It Sucks. All professors are political
advocates of some position. Both anthro-centerism (idealist philosophy) and
eco-centrism (deep ecology) are seriously flawed because they are
non-dialectical they fail.
Three
themes relate historical materialism to social action. They are Materialism, Action, and Freedom.
Action within nature is central to Movement.
Freedom through action is central to Liberation and Sovereignty. By way
of action we continuously alter the orchestration we have with nature. Given
this preexisting, but changing boundaries limit freedom. Frontiers we cannot
transgress include Physical universe, biology, ecology, Social arrangements,
technology, populations, organization, social design, and mode of production.
Theory leads to Action, from Action come theory. Freedom, Determinism and Moral
Choice This interaction cannot be separated. Natural History, which is geology
and biology, is an inseparable unity with Human History or history, sociology,
anthropology, psychology.
All
species including humans through culture adapt to a specific ecosystem or
environment. While adapting to this
environment the species change that environment. This changes the historical conditions, which
change the ecological sustainability.
The
history of class struggle is the underlying theme of the history of state
society. That history is also the
historical evolution of the continuing separation of the direct producers from
nature. This premise reaches its
culmination under Capitalism. However,
because all humans are always a direct part of nature, this separation is a
harmful apparition. The illusion of
separation is the disempowerment of the direct producers. Power is necessary for all oppression and
exploitation.
Commodities
have use value and exchange value. Exchange value is calculated in money, what
the commodity sells for. Exchange value
centers on the amount of labor time it takes to make the commodity. Labor time is computed around socially
necessary labor time, which the average amount of time given the current amount
of technology.
Marxist
economics is really sociology. Sociology
studies the relationship between people.
Demand is important because it effects investments, which the key to the
flow of the labor force or movements of real people. Investments follow profits. Industries with higher profits will have
increased investments, which in turn hirer, more workers.
The
capitalist buys labor and sells commodities.
The capitalist hopes to sell his commodities more than what it cost him
to produce it. The worker gets a wage for
her effort. Because the capitalist is in
business to make a profit, the worker produces more value for the capitalist
than she gets in wages. This extra is
surplus value the ratio of surplus value to wages is the ratio of exploitation.
This is also how we figure the rate of profit.
Constant
capital is the material expenditures that capitalist invest in. Tools and material are the products of past
labor. The relationship between living labor or wages and dead labor or
constant capital is the organic composition of labor. The rate of profit is the amount of surplus
over and above total investments.
Surplus
is the source of profits, yet the two are not quite equal ever. Commodities do not sell at their value but
varies around it. Industries which produce
commodities above their value become sources of renewed investments because the
higher rates of profits. As profits and
value approximate each other then investments flow elsewhere.
Cost
price is cost of material expenditures or constant capital, wages and the
average rate of profit expected. Areas
with lower profits lose investments, and areas with higher profits gain
investments. In the long run the rate of
profit tend to average out, never perfectly. This requires the fluidity of
capital, which requires the removal of any impediments on either trade or
investments. Labor also, must remain
mobile as possible when a worker is laid off she must be ready to relocate
where the jobs are or there has to be a ready supply of workers.
Value then is an expression
of social relationships. Price is an
economic category and values a sociological term. Price and values tend to approximate each
other only in the long run.
There
is a long-term tendency for profits to decline.
This is called the Law of the Falling Rates of Profits. Remember it is the ratio of wage to constant
capital is important in figuring the rate of profit. By retooling the capitalist gain a
competitive edge over his rivals. He can
sell his products above their value.
Soon, his foes do the same thing.
Soon the new tools become standard the cost of doing business. Absolute profits may increase, but it costs
more the stay in the business.
These
drives for profits periodic crises occur at regular intervals. To get as much profit as possible leads to
over production, at which point goods cannot be sold at the expected rate of
profit. The capitalist feels it
necessary to cut back in production; this leads to increase in unemployment.
Which leads to fewer consumers and further cut backs in production and more
unemployment. When unemployment reaches
a certain point workers are willing to return to work at a much lower
wage. Profits increase and unemployment
decreases.
With
each of these periodic crises the survivors who come out in tack are much
larger with greater amounts of capital outlay.
Larger firms not only survive better; they are in a much better position
to take advantage of new investment opportunities. Less efficient companies are weeded out. This is called concentration. The far fewer survivors began to coordinate
with competitors. They, trust and
cartels, acting through the centralization of most of the major finical
institutions for the mutual benefit of the remaining giants dominated the
economy of each oh the major industrial powers.
Cultural
institutions like the colleges, the movie industry, news media, and music ran
for the benefit of for profit business.
They exist as long as the can be justified within the context of lending
support for capitalism. The non-profit organizations
are encouraged as long as they provide a special service to the capitalist at
taxpayer expense (working class). In
these public institutions the values of capitalism are carefully represented as
superior to all other cultures or ideologies. In turn the capitalist is expected to become
involved in philanthropy in order to put a human face on the crime of
capitalism. This is called hegemony or
dominance of capitalist ideology over any other cultural expression, making all
other cultural values seems as strange and silly. In the end with such power in the hands of
capitalist any real democratic concessions comes form a real united struggle of
the workers, poor farmers and the toilers everywhere (Parenti 1994:85-97).
Private corporations that operate primarily to earn their
owners a profit operate the major TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines. These radio and television stations and the
whole news media and the rest of the mass media openly propagate and sanction
or approve the doctrines of capitalism and its corresponding popular
culture. TV, radio, news papers operate
in an environment in which three or four major control each industry, thus less
the ten corporations control access to the information we Americans have to
make our important decisions. Even
public radio, and Television survive largely on grants found private
corporations, or government funding in which political concerns cannot be
easily ignored these political strings reflects capitalist concerns. Profits from TV, radio, newspapers, or
magazines come primarily from advertisements.
Offending the advertisers is a concern that cannot be ignored. Local elites more often than not will own
stations or news papers not franchised with national chains, these elite or
even more pro-capitalist than national chains.
The media reinforces general values, attitudes, and
beliefs of the dominant culture. These same attitudes and values ensure support
for official policy. They become part of
our subconscious personality feeling like patriotism, lack of expectation,
inevitability domination, xenophobic individualism, respect for private
property, the profit motive, competition, and chauvinistic reactionary values
seen normal as if part of our biological make up.
Class-consciousness has fertile ground to grow in the
lived everyday life of the workers within capitalist society. Class conciseness gives birth to class
struggle. This struggle provides the deepest meaning to life and gives a
personally spiritual experience of any individual worker, and this experience
is an intensely determined integrity of meaning. The more the class consciousness of the
exploiting classes grows the more the revolutionary become appreciative of a
deeply visionary meaning of something outside the self that is greater than the
self. This meaning is born out of
resistance; and gives life to a passion for liberty, equality, and
dignity. The growth of revolutionary
numbers becomes our community, and the bourgeois counter-revolution becomes the
final cry of inequality of injustice.
The counter-revolution can defeat, but cannot crush the revolution. The revolution springs anew from each defeat
only to struggle again. Now we dip our
banner into the blood of our fallen comrades and continue the struggle.
Spartacus of Thrace and Ali of Al Basra can never be silenced. The vision of socialism is the radical
equality of social and economic democracy and the planned production for real
human needs of all the people and not the wealth of the few. This leads to cooperation in struggle for the
future of cooperation in production for the needs of all. This is the material and spiritual
foundation of the truly human family (Trotsky 1969: 88).
Marxism at its heart obtains a sharper image on human
oppression as a primary feature of class society. Marxism resolves to go about with the
laborious responsibility of “deconstructing” the ideologies that help to
safeguard social inequalities. However,
Marxism as a political movement runs the risk of intolerance, as dose any
fundamentalist, of anyone who has a different truth (Donham 3).
The real study of history begins with the material
formulation of real people living their everyday lives. This study begins with people’s
relationship with nature (Marx 1947:42).
Thorough these relationship humans produce their own means of
subsistence. Each generation inherits
and reproduces this means of subsistence, and then changes it to fit their
changed needs (Marx 1947:42). This historically and culturally specific
setting shapes individual human nature.
This means that how people are organized and interact is determined by
production (Marx 1947:42).
Production molds all other social relations. This includes the relations of one nation to
another, as well as the internal social structure of a single nation. With
every new change in the forces of production there exists corresponding change
in the relations of production. These
changes lead to changes in the division of labor. With changes in the division of labor there
are changes in the property relations of the nation. Ultimately this means ideological changes as
well (Marx 1947:43).
The earliest division of labor is between the town and
country. Industrial and commercial
interests are separated from agriculture.
With theses changes in the division of labor are changes in property
relations. With private property
restriction to the access to the resources of subsistence become restricted.
Each type of stratified society is founded upon this unequal access to the
needed resources. Meaning each type of
society has its own type of ownership and its own type of property
relations. With this develops
historically specific relations between groups of people (Marx 1947:43). These societies are in some way based upon
material domination, which creates social tensions (Donham: 7).
The first type of property is tribal or communal. This is known to have simple technology and
an undeveloped stage of production. The
social structure is based upon the family and the extension of the family
called kinship. This evolves into the
ancient communal or state ownership.
Private property in personal belongs develops, but remains subordinate
to the communal property of the state.
With the development of an economic surplus the town or administrative
center stands opposed to the countryside off of which it lives (Marx 1947:44).
Feudal ownership begins with estate ownership. The economic foundation is the peasant
serfs. Property is organized through a
hierarchical land ownership. The nobles
are an armed body of retainers. In the
city the guilds of master, journeyman, and apprentice copies the feudal
relations of the country. Landed
property changes to meet the changes in production relations, with changes of
the status of the serfs and the changing relations between the town and the
rural aristocracy. This is because the
social; relations continuously. The
ideas of the age are the direct result of the real material life of the
people. People produce their ideas
through their productive life (Marx
1947:45 - 47).
The first historical act is the production to satisfy
material life. Following the first
historical act is the production of new needs, which are the practical result
of satisfying the needs of material life.
People reproduce themselves, their families and their culture
daily. These acts of production and
reproduction are given by the historical past of a people, but also this very
activity changes both the people and their culture. With the changes the needs of a people old
needs are changed and new needs are created.
With theses expanding need production of life is both is both social and
natural. Humans are both the animal
creations of nature and the social creations of society. With this each society creates its own social
organization based upon its own historical mode of production. The nature of
society is based upon the mode of production, and consciousness. People’s relations to nature mold their
relation to each other. People’s
relation to one another effects their relation to nature. There is then production, human needs,
population pressure, and change. With all this the family is the first social
organization (Marx 1947:48- 51).
The division of labor begins within the family. After
that within the rest of society the division of labor continues to evolve to
become the division between mental and physical labor. With this division of
labor is also an unequal distribution both quantitative and qualitative of
property and its resources. This leads
to the development of private property.
Private properties are the result the activity of the properties and its
growth is the result of that activity.
Because of the division of labor developing there also develops the
contradiction between the individual and the community (Marx 1947: 51-53).
With theses divisions between ownership and work, mental
and physical labor, and between the community interests and particular deeds of
labor property becomes an alien force and with it the alienation of the worker
within society. The tools, resources,
and human activities appear to control people and not controlled by the
producing people. Through increasing
specialization labor is imposed upon the individual as source of
exploitation. The job also appears to
own the individual. What we produce
becomes an objective power over us. This
illusion takes on a reality that frustrates our best-laid plans (Marx 1947: 52 - 53).
During all this the state develops as the community
divorced from the realities of the individual. The state becomes a community unto
itself. What cannot be forgotten though
is the fact that the struggles within the state are class struggles. These struggles are class wars for mastery of
the political powers of the state, be they peaceful or violent. Power conflict can be that understood by
representing the best interests of any class each class tries to conquer
power. The divisions of labor of that
particular mode of production and the class that control the state determine
what cooperation that exists. This
cooperation is not for benefit of all.
The goal of cooperation is for the benefit of the property owners who
control the power of the state. The
property relations, the cooperation and the state all change as a result of
this class struggles. Society changes
and its culture itself change because of the changes brought on by this class
struggle. Because any kind of property
relations that restricts access to the resources, brings about resistance by
the people who have limited or no control over the property the work with to
produce a surplus going to the non-producers.
Because to of the world market economy these on going class struggles
are always worldwide as well as native
(Marx 1947:53 -55).
Through property that restricts peoples access to needed
resources, the direct producers become cut off from themselves. Material and intellectual production as well
as the producers themselves do not belong to the producers, but to the
non-producing minority. Until people are
reunited with their creativity, work becomes a painful experience. When people
become united with there own creativity activity theses it people become
capable for joy. Cooperation must be transformed from cooperation for the
benefit of the few, into cooperation for the benefit of all for work and joy to
be reunited. With the universal
development of the productive forces of a market economy, a contradiction
between the worldwide interdependent social economy and the private control of that
economy for the benefit of the few is established. Only a world revolution can resolve that
contradiction (Marx 1947: 51 - 56).
Universal development of production of production means
that most people will become properties around the world. At the same time world history replaces local
history. Civil society is the result of
historical development of a world New World system of production. Civil society is seen as the material
relations between people, people and nature, and the forces of production. This civil society only comes about because
of the rise of the bourgeoisie, and along with the evolution of the modern
state, industrial production, world commerce, and professional bureaucracy
(Marx 1947: 57).
History is the succession of economic systems, along with
changing ideological traditions that change along with the changed
circumstances. History modifies old
circumstances by changing activities.
The products of consciousness are the products of social life. Ideas reflect material production and its
social relations that are passed down historical. Circumstances make people just like people
make their circumstances (Marx 1947: 58-59).
Humans in fact need each other for survival. People cannot be free if they are
hungry. Freedom is a historical action
and not a state of mind. Freedom if it
is to come about must have historical and technological foundations. Because the world is altered by the changes
in industrial production, it can either increase the alienation and
exploitation of the direct producers or it can increase their freedom depending
on who controls the means of production.
In the end society changes according to the changing needs of social
production (Marx 1947: 60 -62).
Human unity with nature exists through industry. Social science must reflect this if it is to
understand the deeper underlying connections between specific social actions
and global trends. In this Industry,
commerce, production, and exchange establish distribution, which in turn give
birth to ideological possibilities.
Along theses lines social-economic classes are determined by the mode of
production. The needs of every class
society creates its own ideological support, with bourgeois society science
develops to meet the needs of its mode of production. This is possible because the ruling ideas of
any class society are that of the ruling class.
Those who control the material forces of society, rule also in the ideas
of that society. Workers are subject to those
ideas. The dominant ideology reflects
the dominant material relations (Marx 1947: 62 -65).
Nature is constantly altered through human labor. After that nature become a product of human
labor. The separation between town and
country develops with the separation of mental and physical labor, and this
leads to the development of state society.
The class of non-producers controls the coercive powers of the state and
the means of production. With this
private property develops out of the surplus created by the producers now
without their own property (Marx 1947: 68 -69).
The problem of understanding the relations between the
economy and the non-economic systems in non-capitalist has been problematic for
Marxism. To Anthropologists sympathetic
to Marxism either Marxism was designed to study capitalism and thus
inappropriate to communities traditionally studied by anthropologists; or the
economy is every where determinant, but not directly dominant. In this second model it is the economy that
creates the possibilities and sets the limits of which institutions will share
as the dominant forces in any particular society depending its cultural and
historical setting. Capitalism has, as
some see it, the purest form of economic exploitation, surplus extracted by
employment of wage workers who in turn create a surplus for the capitalist
(Donham: 9).
The problem of understanding the relations between the
economy and the non-economic systems in non-capitalist has been problematic for
Marxism. To Anthropologists sympathetic
to Marxism either Marxism was designed to study capitalism and thus
inappropriate to communities traditionally studied by anthropologists; or the
economy is every where determinant, but not directly dominant. In this second model it is the economy that
creates the possibilities and sets the limits of which institutions will share
as the dominant forces in any particular society depending its cultural and
historical setting. Capitalism has, as
some see it, the purest form of economic exploitation, surplus extracted by
employment of wage workers who in turn create a surplus for the capitalist
(Donham 9).
The natural economy is founded upon the necessary
survival of the group. This is the same
all over the world, before the advent of the market economy. The individual’s economic activity is to
support one’s social standing within the community. Neither production nor distribution is
important for wealth for wealth’s sake.
The social standing of the individual is dependent upon the donation
they make to the community through the role they play. Their contribution and not their wealth judge
each individual independent of their social contribution. Because in all non-capitalist economies the
economy is integrated into non-economic social concerns, the health and well
being of the community and all its members take precedence over the personal
economic gain of the individual. Any
individual will gain in importance as long as their economic activity
contributes to the well being of others.
A person will act to protect her social position, her wealth is not a
problem as long they are seen as generous and her social standing is seen as
important to everyone else well being.
In band and village society leveling mechanisms keep any one from
becoming wealthy and make poverty impossible unless all suffer equally until
the crisis ends. In state society wealth
is justified be through patrimonial obligations of the powerful toward the
meek. Even in stratified societies of
the past, production was never openly for personal gain, and the social
distribution reflected in part the needs of all the people. Procession of material goods for their own
sake was a foreign concept. Every step
in the production process must meet some social claim to other members of the
community. These social claims are the
bases of the economic philosophy and the motivations which people organize
their labor around. This larger moral
philosophy completely buries the economy.
The resources necessary to live are insured to everyone, simply because
they are a member of the community. To
disregard these social responsibilities would remove the greedy culprit from
the affection of others; this would affect the aristocrat as well as the
peasant. In an egalitarian society the
greedy individual would only separate themselves out from others to become
totally alone. All social obligations
are reciprocal in the long run and everyone’s survival is at stake. Economic self-interest is
incomprehensible. Generosity and social
prestige are very closely linked.
Personal material gain would only be seen as a cancer that would
threaten the social security of the whole.
This is the reason that any personal passion must be geared toward
non-economic ends. This is the absence
of the motive of gain.
Until very recently no economy was ever so thoroughly
controlled by the market as it is today.
The idea of a self-regulating economy controlled only by market
processes would have been very dangerous thing to even think about. The market was carefully regulated in all
societies to either a very minor role or was prevented from controlling the
necessary subsistence resources. The
substantive environmental factor for survival remained under social control at
all times. The economy was immersed in
other social relations. If a person were
to safeguard his personal interest in the ownership of material goods this
would be anti-social. Production and
distribution remained closely tied to the large social ethic. Each person’s economic interest was very
seldom supremely important, for the public prevents any of its members from
dying of hunger barring the very rare condition when the community is
dispirited by natural devastation, in which case welfare is again
collective. The preservation of the
social connections is acute. There is
compelling pressure on every individual to get rid of her own economic
self-interest. There is a lack of any
consideration of personal accumulation of wealth, the absence of working for
wages, and a non-appearance of an attempt to minimize their social responsibility
is nearly universal (Polanyi 1944: 68-76).
Division
of labor begins with the separation of physical and mental labor. Class antagonism soon develops, with the
separation of control of the resources of production by the producers who
become dependent on the non-producers.
The exploited classes become the revolutionary classes. Each new ruling class in its turn represents
its particular interests as the interests of society as a whole. This means the class making the revolution
speaks for the entire society as its new leader. In the beginning the revolutionary class
leads the opposition against the old ruling class. The revolutionary class at this time is
connected with the oppression of the other exploited classes. Only once the new class gains control of the
state and the new means of production do opposition to the new class fully
develops out of the other exploited classes.
The old ruling ideas die with the new ruling class, and their new ideas
become the dominant ideology. A new
opposition develops a new alternative ideology for a new struggle against the
current ruling classes (Marx 1947: 65-67).
The self-regulating market controlled by market prices is
the central organization of a market society.
This is a very recent historical phenomenon. The market has always been controlled to keep
it from interfering with the smooth running of the rest of society. This means that the market was always but a
minor part of the total sociological reality of a people. Because the economy is immersed in other more
important social relations most people are concerned with larger issues of the
community if they are to maintain their social standing. Concern for processions is seen as having a
character flaw. A person’s rank may lead
to wealth, but that wealth can only be justified as long as it is seen that the
wealthy persons primary concern is the community welfare. Production and distribution is organized
first and foremost to meet the needs of the community of the whole. Everyone’s interests most protected lord or
farmer. In Tribal society no one
individual can be allow to threaten the security of others by putting their
interests first. If no individual can be
allowed to become of superior of the productive forces and system of distribution,
then everyone would be protected from starvation. In times of extreme need a welfare system is
in place. This welfare is always cloaked
in other terms than economic aid. The
maintenance of social ties is framed in terms of kinship concerns, religious
obligation, honor and etc. By neglecting
the accustomed code of honor, integrity, charity, generosity or responsibility
and person cuts herself off from the rest of the community. All social obligations are reciprocal; this
mutual aid is mutually beneficial. There
is always social pressure to eliminate open economic self-interest from one’s
life. Personal material gain is
incomprehensible. Give and take is the
essence of the family. Reciprocity
protects the family governing both the production and distribution needs of the
family. Sharing within the family goes
without saying, but sharing with other closely related families is the
benefactor’s own social security. That
generosity is reward when the beneficent that are in need others are more likely
to help. Equilibrium is achieved in the
long run, while it really the same people who are helped that may be in a
position to help you, complex networks of helping everyone eventually benefits
even it is the indirect route that comes through. Redistribution is mainly can be effective
through some sort of institutionalized centralization locally. Territory becomes important in this
endeavor. The organizational arrangement
of centralization standard for storage collecting a small surplus for
redistribution latter as the need may arise.
The bigger the area in land and population, the more expanded is the
redistribution system, the more diverse the product, the more this system of
redistribution will lead to a division of labor connecting up ecologically
different groups of producers (Polanyi 1944: 269-273).
Redistribution needs a broker of some sort who is a
distinguished individual others in the group trusts, this individual receives
and stores and distributes the supplies as needed. The economy behind this system of storage and
distribution socially defined outside of any purely economic motives. The motivation is not defined as wealth in
material affluence. Sharing and
mutuality of reciprocity is furthering supplemented by the welfare of
redistribution with any economic system of record keeping of over all estimate
expenditures. Through a social
organization of unity and incorporation of all into a larger social entity
economic motives of cost vs. benefits and material gain need not play an important
role in the daily operations of society.
The idea of the profit motive is strange indeed to traditional
people. Competition over prices and open
generosity within the group is the norm.
Inclinations of bargaining over prices also do not exist outside of the
peripheral market. Interdependence
between the exploited and the exploiter is a social arrangement based upon a
moral and not an economic explanation of the relationship in peasant
society. Before capitalism of the free
market type, stratification was explained as a mutual relationship ordained by
honor and obligation and was the non-economic organization of
redistribution. The great provider could
rule only because parental guidance they officered in the role in society. The approach is that all-economic system
before a market economy of capitalism was some combination of a household
economy producing for use, reciprocity or redistribution with market very minor
and carefully controlled. Even the
mercantile economy of Europe after 1500, markets were the main concern of
government and were always careful run by the government. There was no way to predict that markets
would come to control government and the rest of human society. Under mercantile capitalism markets were too
important not to be strictly controlled.
The notion of self-regulating market was not present.
In the Middle Ages the urban rabble controlled no
resources, thus they were the most oppressed of all. The Journeymen and apprentices were organized
to meet the interests of the guild masters.
The peasants remained isolated and weak and controlled by the
lords. The fear of the rabble united the
nobles, the masters, the journeymen, and the peasants against this element of
the towns (Marx 1947: 70 -71).
Separation of production from commerce comes with
trade. Merchants become the new
class. Manufacturing grows out this
marriage of merchants and the guilds.
Merchant capital becomes moveable capital not tied to any town, the
guilds needing the merchants become increasingly dependent. The merchant free of the town can hire
workers outside of the guilds for manufacturing. With the new types of manufacturing
unemployment becomes common (Marx 1947: 72 -73).
Historical conflicts grow out contradictions between the
coexisting productive forces in a society, and these productive forces and the
rest of the non- productive parts of society.
The industrial capital of an advanced nation exports these conditions
all over the world. Big industry is social
production while it is privately owned.
This type of private property is the result of the accumulated labor of
others. The division between ownership
and labor is completed under capitalism.
Forces of production do not belong to those ho work with the tool of
production, but they belong to the non-producers. In modern industry the workers are separated
from the tools, their work, the products the make, themselves, and their
coworkers. In addition the state loom
over them as an alien power opposed to the workers as a class. The ruling class
sets in motion forms of distribution that reproduce this inequality. Revolution becomes the only hope of the
oppressed and exploited (Marx 1947: 88 - 95).
Market economy is an economic system that is regulated by
market prices. This in fact is
production for profit in a self-regulating market. Until “modern-times”, no other economy was
controlled by market concerns. Markets
where they did exist, were a secondary part of the over all economy. Social relations were more central to the
economic concerns of the people in any community than profit. This was a true of all historical economic
systems until very recently in human history.
The economy everywhere was primarily submerged in social relations of
that society. Economic activity was
motivated in the most part by concerns for social responsibility, social
prestige, and social security. The
repeat of the word “social” clearly indicates that in tribal and peasant
societies that the economy remained an adjunct of the sociology of the
community. In the production of material goods value was seen as central to the
ends of meeting an individuals of groups social responsibility. Production was not for profit in the majority
of economic activity, and the distribution within society never reflected
wealth for wealth sake. Social interest
of the whole must be used to justify the economy including systems of
production, distribution or exchange.
All social relations within the economic system reflected a person’s
moral position within the community. If
the society was an egalitarian society, everyone was guaranteed access to the
economic resources necessary to their survival by their membership in the
community. Among stratified societies a
person’s inherited rank was only justified by their culturally defined ethical
responsibility to the social whole. It
is the social interests as outlined by the moral philosophy that ensure that
the economy runs the way that it does.
To a Marxist, Karl Polanyi offers a way of viewing the manifest or
super-structural feed back loop to the economic core with in a non-capitalist
society. Polanyi created a model that
can be helpful in understanding the articulation of modes of production in most
national economies today. The World
capitalist (market) economy does dominate the globe, but the continuation of
non-capitalist and sometimes anti-capitalist local traditions must be
explained. Production for use and not
for exchange according to market principles, means production is to ensure that
issues of over all social welfare takes priority over individual economic
interests. The poverty of a community
was collective and not individual.
Social ties were social security.
To be an outcast is to die.
Social obligations are reciprocal in both the material and the moral
concerns of all and affect each individual of the community. Economic self-interests threaten the
community and the individuals within the community by undermining the
collective identity and solidarity of the community (Polanyi 1944: 44-46).
With the rise of manufacturing the nation-state
increasingly compete with each other.
Trade wars become common. Within
the nation the capitalist and the worker relate and compete with each other. The big bourgeoisie comes to dominate the
means of production, but not the state.
Commerce and navigation expand rapidly, making the national big
bourgeoisie international in scope.
Navigation and colonial monopolies went together. Protective laws sheltered the older
bourgeoisie, making them dependent upon the state. The colonial monopolies controlled the
market, and at home the market was administered and protected. Free trade was banned (Marx 1947: 74 -76).
Economic exchange for an increase in personal wealth,
transport of good to sell or barter for a profit and bargaining for the best
price is a specific type of economic behavior called the profit motive. While this type of behavior is found in many
if not most known cultures beyond the band level at least, it is not the
dominant economic form in any except a market economy. In all peasant societies there is a market
place and a market day. This is a
meeting place set aside specifically for barter or buying and selling. Within the village society of subsistence
farmers, within peasant society, self-sufficiency is the major economic philosophy
of the households. This is and must be
supplemented by symmetrical pattern of social organization called reciprocity,
centralization of redistribution, and a market place separated in time and
space and importance from the rest of the economy. Without the domination of a market economy
buying and selling can never achieve anything like efficiency. Without a market economy barter can only take
a secondary role in the overall economy.
Within a market economy both reciprocity and redistribution continue to
exist in a supplementary roles. The
self-sufficiency of the household is also an institutionalized philosophy
within a capitalist society and yet is very dependent on the market economy
with the necessity to sell ones labor power for a wage to support the
household.
Before the market economy is established the economy is
only a minor part of the equilibrium of a larger sociological arrangement. The
give and take of reciprocity is a moral and not an economic concern. Overriding
nuclear centricity of a redistribution mechanism does not have a separate
function within society but is closely tied to other more important social
considerations. Economic independence of
the household is only a supplementary idiosyncrasy of a currently existing
closed group, only during the good years, and only when no relatives are down
on their luck. Only a market economy
makes production for economic gain a major motive for economic activity. Only in a market economy does economic profit
become independent of sociology. The
market economy is based upon the historically specific philosophy of production
for profit that creates the institution of a market freed form the market
place. The universal market makes all
other institutions subordinate reversing the sociological relationship found
between the economy and the rest of society in traditional societies. Instead of the economy being embedded in
other social relations, all other social relations are now embedded in the
economy of the market. Once the economy
becomes separate from its sociological constraints the rest of society becomes
reshaped to meet the needs of the economy.
Totally new economic laws become so all-powerful they take on the
illusion of being as universal. The
truth becomes hidden in the mechanism of the economy itself a market the
economy cannot live outside of a market society artificially created (Polanyi
1944: 56-67).
Competition came with big manufacturing. Real private property began with moveable
property. Competition separates the bourgeoisie
and the workers from their own classes.
Through private property the state becomes independent of other forces
in society. This is done even though the
state organizes society for the general interests of the bourgeoisie. Through the state individuals of the ruling
class assert their common interests in spite of internal conflicts of the
capitalist class. This is done because
the state mediates the larger common interests of the capitalist class. There is a disintegration of natural
communities with the evolution of private property, and the growth of civil law
to defined private property natural interests (Marx 1947: 78 -80).
Market exchanges developed to the degree where goods are
bought and sold with money. Some
specific set of objects are set aside as a medium of exchange, with the rates
of exchange being set in the prices, though this can be negotiated. During the process of setting a price each
side wants to get the best deal possible.
Because each side wants to gain the advantage, economic exchange must
become free of any and all social obligations.
Money is an agreed upon product, that can be exchanged for any other
object. Barter is now indirect through the
medium of money. Money becomes the
standard by which the values of all other commodities are measured. Money is how all value is stored. Money becomes all-purpose (Polanyi 1944:
43-49).
All-purpose money now replaces special purpose
money. The laws of supply and demand set
prices and not any other social agreements like before. All goods and services have a monetary
price. Most people now make a living by
selling something on the market. People
who have no other resources sell their labor power for wages, because these
workers do not have their own capital goods and raw materials to produce the
goods sold. With a market economy land,
labor and capital are all bought and sold.
The economy follows no other law other than the laws of supply and
demand thus it becomes self-regulating (Polanyi 1944: 43-55).
Civil law defines property as if it were the general
would of the people, not the property owners.
Slowly the bourgeoisie as a class absorbs the other propertied ruling
classes, as its mode of production becomes dominant. The proletariat without property develops at
the same time as the development of this capitalist class. Industrial, financial and commercial property
becomes the dominant theme that all forms of property are related too. With private property limited access to
necessary resources, those with access to these necessities conflict with the
non-producers who own the access to theses resources. One class will have antagonisms that conflict
with another class. One class position
limits ones life changes, and defines the limitations and potential of every
individual. This division of labor
creates a reality independent of the will of the parties involved. Freedom can only be established on material
grounds in a community in which the division of labor has been out grown. In
the past economic reality acted independent of the will of the individuals of
that society. Class is communities who
share a common interest. Class is a
condition of life and life style (Marx 1947: 81-85).
With the industrial revolution tools of production was
marvelously improved. This marvel of
technology was supplemented by devastation in the dislocation and disarray of
the multitude in their lives and in their communities. The liberal revolutions and the corresponding
liberal philosophy never took into consideration the lack of sociology of
liberal economics and the devastation it would bring into the live of the
people when it becomes policy. Sociology
as a science was separate from economics at not as it should be the parent
discipline for economics. Also
government was a minor aid to business and not as before; the economy was the
concern of government and was dominant over the economy during the mercantile
period of Europe. The skill of
statecraft was more important the business skills in the control of society in
the 1500’s until 1800. Statecraft was
discredited by laze fare free trade philosophy.
The liberal philosophy of free trade and the industrial technology of
the day mutually supported each other.
The farmer bought land to produce crops to sell on the market. The
complex machinery of the day was sold to produce commodities to sell. The merchant became the model of
society. Complicated machines are very
costly and cannot pay for themselves unless the goods the produce can be sold
cheaply and in very large quantities.
Mass production requires that the market can reasonably understand only
if all the factors going into production is itself are sold on the market
without any other restrictions. After
the market arrangement is set up it ought to be allowed to operate removed from
any outside intervention. Prices will
regulate themselves. The change to a
market economy means a change in the psychology of the people of the society
from concerned with making a larger social obligation, social prestige, and
social standing in the community. To one
of the individual responsibilities, which is individual merit and personal gain
in material items becomes a cornerstone.
All transaction is turned into money transactions. Money can now buy any all things in
life. Everything can be lost if you lake
the money to buy it. All of industry is
organized around this fact (Polanyi 1944: 44-55).
It is through the supper structure that capitalism comes
to dominate. Liberal norms of capitalism
not only legitimate the capitalist system; the capitalist ideology or
superstructures in turn create an environment needed for capitalism to thrive
and expand. Free labor and contracts are
two examples of norms that are supported by a moral code but are back up by
laws, police and courts. Theses moral
codes of capitalism not only reflect the economy but also are necessary for the
economy to survive. Capital is as much
ideological as it is economic.
Capitalist economy is the material base of a society, yet it is
culturally defined, ideological.
Capitalism like any other economy is both the material pre-condition for
capitalist culture but is an economy embedded in its culture. The economic base supports the superstructure
and the superstructure in turns defines the economic base. Polanyi didn’t go
far enough.
Freedom is possible in resistance to oppression. Communism overturns all earlier forms of
relations of production. Control over
the needed resources returns to a community of individuals. This struggle is shaped by the material life
of the history of a people. The
conditions of real human activity, which are the preconditions for the
movements of a society, at a certain point become a fetter to further movements
of a people. In this one type of
material activity replaces another (Marx 1947: 86-87).
To a Marxist, Karl Polanyi offers a way of viewing the
manifest or super-structural feed back loop to the economic core with in a
non-capitalist society. The Polanyi
model can be helpful in understanding the articulation of modes of production
in most national economies today. The
World capitalist (market) economies do dominate the globe, but the continuation
of non-capitalist and sometimes anti-capitalist local traditions must be
explained. Production for use and not
for exchange according to market principles, means production is to ensure that
issues of over all social welfare takes priority over individual economic
interests. The poverty of a community
was collective and not individual.
Social ties were social security.
To be an outcast is to die.
Social obligations are reciprocal in both the material and the moral
concerns of all and affect each individual of the community. Economic self-interests threaten the
community and the individuals within the community by undermining the
collective identity and solidarity of the community (Polanyi 1944: 44-46).
Multi-linear Evolution searches for regularities in
cultural change. Cultural laws can be
defined that explain these changes.
Determinism is not the issue, but patterns of historical change follow
patterns of an interaction between parts of a society and the larger
environment. Cultural traditions have
distinctive elements that can be studied in context. Similarities and differences between cultures
are meaningful and change in meaningful ways. The evolution of recurrent forms,
processes and functions in different societies has similar explanations. Each society has its own specific historical
movement through time. This prefaces
cross-cultural studies.
Cultural
Ecology is the adaptation by a unique culture modified historically in an in a
distinctive environment. This is a
creative process of cultural change. We
can focus on recurrent themes that are understandable by their limited
circumstance and distinct situation.
This helps to establish precise means of identifying and classifying
cultural types. Cultural type is an
ideal heuristic tool designed for the study of cross cultural parallels and
regularities. This analytical instrument
allows assembling regularities in cultures with vastly different
histories. This type of classification
is based upon selected features. It is
important to pick out distinctive configuration of causally interdependent
features of cultures under study. These
features are determined by your particular research problem within its own
frame of reference. The specific chosen
physiognomy should have similar functional interrelationship with one another.
Economic
patterns are important because they are related to social, cultural and political
patterns. These comparative
correspondences are the particular attributes of patterned organization in an
evolutionary sequence. Universal
evolutionary stages are much too broad to tell us anything concrete about any
particular culture. The changes from one
stage to another, is based upon particular historical and cultural ecological
arrangements unique for each society.
Exceptionalism is the norm.
Global trends and external influences interact with a locally specific
environment making each society have a unique evolutionary trajectory.
Cultural
ecology is a look at cultural features in relation to specific environmental
circumstances. Behavioral patterns are
related to cultural adjustments to environmental concerns.
Cultures
are made up of interrelated parts. The
degree of interdependence varies in way in which some traits have more
influence than others. The cultural core
is grouped around subsistence activities and economic relationships. Secondary features are more closely related
to historical contingencies, including diffusion. Cultural ecology focuses upon attributes
immersed in the employment of the environment in a culturally directed
fashion. Changes are in part alterations
in technology and productive arrangements.
Whether these technological innovations are accepted or not depend upon
environmental constraints and cultural requirements. Population pressure and its relative
stability are important. Also, internal
division of labor, regional specialization, environmental tension, and economic
surplus create the cultural conditions in which technological innovation
becomes attractive, leading to other cultural changes. These social adaptations
have profound affects upon the kinship, politics, and social relations of a
group. Bands relying on foraging and
frequent movement require small-dispersed groups. If agriculture is introduced more settled
communities again is required.
Culture
is a means of adaptation to environmental needs. Before specific resources can be used the
necessary technology is required. Also
social relations reflect the technological and environmental concerns. These social relations organize specific
patterns of behavior and its supportive values.
A holistic approach to cultural studies is required to see the
interrelationship of the parts.
We
begin with the study of the relationship between technology of a people and how
they exploit their environment fort their survival. To use this technology within an
environmental setting certain behavior patterns are established. The interaction between labor (behavior
patterns), and the connection between technology and the environment has a
reciprocal relationship with other aspect of culture including ideology.
Education, Revolution, and Democracy
1.
Explore
options of a diversity of worldviews to expand our narrow cultural
deprivations. The world so much broader
than Democrat or Republican.
2.
Democratic
class room meaning the university as a community of students.
3.
De-legitimate
social institutions and expose class or national interests behind all theories
in science. All history is propaganda.
All science is propaganda, all art is propaganda, and propaganda is proactive
for some vested interest or another.
Neutrality or objectivity is not only a lie and claim to attempt it is
both cowardly and immoral.
4.
Knowledge is
power. Education should be pursued to
empower the powerless to reconstruct the society to achieve real political,
economic, social, and cultural democracy. Institutions of power, privilege,
wealth and property must be undermined.
5.
We learn in
the streets, our homes, farms, job sites and carry that understanding to the
classroom. In the classroom develop a
strategy to radically transform society and transfer it back to the streets. This strategy includes the stamina and
movement to change the community in which we live, from one of wealth, power,
privilege, property, hierarchy and despair to one of equality, universal
empowerment, justice, reciprocity, symmetry, and hope.
6.
Teach of our global community.
Theory vs. Practice is as old as Marxism. The
question is how to live Sociology/ Anthropology, not just teach, or study the
science of society. Intelligent action requires knowledge, and knowledge
requires a disciplined study of the society we mean to change. The Ivory Tower
is a luxury we cannot afford. We educators have only our words to fight with,
and the words should reflect careful analysis of what is in fact the case.
Everyday is the Revolution; any and every opportunity to challenge apathy, power
and bigotry must be taken. The good teacher is a Revolutionary, a threat to
those in power, and a saboteur to all that stands in the way of radical
equality. Teaching is dangerous.
Radical education defines as its primary goal to
minimize the political and economic prevailing dominance by a small favored
oligarchy. In the US the educational
system cannot be allowed to threaten power, wealth privilege or property. The American Dark Ages must be preserved at
all costs. Ignorance is redefined as
liberal education. If this educational mission was ever to stumble than the
ruling elite’s control over the economy might slip. The American political culture exists in a
holding cell of repression. Higher
education is the prison guard. College
professors carefully manage the ideas being discussed in the classrooms in
order not to overstep the limits defined appropriate by those in power both in
the university regents and in the nation as a whole. The market place of ideas is the market
place of the oligarchy. If all science,
history, literature and education is really propaganda, and it is, than
objectivity of the professor is a lie.
Liberal education is designed to limit debate as far as the ethics of
private property, a market economy, and an elite hierarchy. Empirical evidence is arranged that never
challenge these basic assumptions. Ephemeral truth is seen as factual. Imperials rule that is both social and
cultural become the pedagogical foundation of the university. If educations is dangerous, subversive and
offensive or threaten the power, wealth privilege or property the tiny number
of the chosen patricians of America is not education. Our institutions of higher education are
founded upon the principle of miseducation.
In American history the debate on the moral
foundation of the Republic should take center stage. Revisionist history is not given equal
billing. To say the founders were racist
murders of the American Indian, were criminals who enslaved and raped Africans,
is not a blind assertion but a legitimate debate. What is at stake here is the ethical
ramification of the legitimacy of the Republic itself.
The historical sociology of the scientific
revolution needs to ask the question which groups supported science,
rationalism, and empiricism? What was
the nature of the supporters of science and their struggle against the
church? Which groups in society
benefited from the advances of the scientific method, and who wanted to slow it
down? What is the relationship between science and capitalism? What is the role of science in the expansion
of commerce and industrialization?
During the enlightenment the 1600’s and the 1700’s we witnessed the ebb
of an extremely oppressive oligarchy based upon the monarchy and religion. The
old order was to be replaced by the oppressive twin oligarchies of capital and
the professionals. Without asking these questions, education only furthers a
most undemocratic the oligarchy and oppressive stratification.
One of the questions we must ask, education for whom
and why? Large groups of people are not
being assimilated through our educational process and cannot be ignored. Migration and immigration has created a mixed
population all over the globe. Higher
education has remained white bourgeois studies, with a bias for European and
capitalist orientation. It is clearly true in the science and the humanities,
legitimate colonialism. The social
science the bastard cross between the two is twice as guilty of the worst
accesses of colonial and class exploitation.
Professors in all disciplines need to deal with the metamorphosing class
constellations globally. Failure to do
so, is to continue to fail to comprehend academia’s role legitimating a
hierarchy of oppression. The denial of
class realities is directly related how we teach math, science, social science
or humanities.
Capitalism is more than an economic system; it is an
aggressive ideology that is fiercely assimilative in destroying all freedom in
the name of freedom. Human rights
crushed underfoot in the name of human rights.
Alternative views on democracy are crushed in the name of academic
freedom. Real democracy is re-murdered
with each generation. Radical professors
were fired in 1930’s and 1940’s with the colleges themselves. The thought control of the 1950’s and 60’s
black listed innovators. Today between
tenure review and the pressure for grant writing the breath of the debate is
continuously being limited. The sham
democratic life that is America is a major responsibility of the crimes the
University publicly gives birth to.
Because government and the international business community support the
university financially, we professors are expected to become the shock troops
of the international capitalist economy.
Through we professors the student is given knowledge that is framed,
distorted, manipulated to render the college student the domesticated show dogs
groveling for the approval of the professor.
Most multi-educational education that does not
directly confront the ridged class hierarchies of exploitation and privilege is
founded on the vested interest in the direct oppression of the poor and the
powerless. Most ethnic studies by
failing to consider class, is prepackaged diversity that cannot be allow to
challenge property or dominance. This
type of multi-cultural education is a basic tool of marketability and
assimilation because it leaves the source of oppression and exploitation
unchallenged. Self-determination of the
powerless and the poor communities is directly undermined by defining the
advocates of economic equality beyond the pale of reason. Under such circumstances, nothing is left but
making higher education subversive and revolutionary. The professor must join the intellectual
struggle to fight against the highbrow millstone of tyranny of neo-liberal
pedagogy placed round every student’s neck.
Every student must be given the right to the moral right for the college
to even exist.
If education is to become a medium of liberation,
the university must expose as an agent for class oppression. Higher education becomes a necessary
contingency for economic exploitation of the poor through out the world. By rationalizing the system of exploitation,
and vitalizing assets of capital, validating the social stratification as it
exists, and legitimating the ideology of power.
The cooperation with most Universities and college
professors with policy makers during the cold war seriously compromised any
possible virtue we could claim for moral justification of higher education in
the US. The University was used to train
these policy makers and to justify their crimes. The University participated directly and
indirectly in worldwide aggression and state supported terrorism. The University was a tool to undermine any
possible alternative to imperialism. The
University was central the destruction democratic alternatives and the direct
supervision of Pax-Americana.
The corporate- Pentagon, state department, interior
department alliance along with state and local elates control of the financing
of the University. This includes tax
dollars. These means the primary concern
of the University is to protect the power elite all else is secondary. Community Colleges, and small four-year
institutions, are allowed to exist cool out working aspirants, who receive and
education with out a future threat to the elite.
Academic freedom exists as long as it does not
threaten the economic freedom of the wealthy few, and the consumer freedom of
those who can afford to choose. We are
to teach our students in our economic classes that the robbery of the poor by
the owners of corporate property is not theft just rewards; and enslaving the
toiling poor is not slavery but freedom.
Science is research for profits and not the democratic and ethical
responsibility to the planet and human culture. The earth and all its inhabitance become the
economic colony of the few and that’s ok.
We professors are to train the managers in corporate theft. The moral justification of a Liberal Arts
agenda is to create critical thinking as an intensely insubstantial surface
treatment to we collaborators, the professors, feel good about our moral
cowardice.
The answer then is through seditious sabotage with
in the ranks. Call everything into
question including higher education. Expand
the options beyond what is acceptable.
Explore the historical and sociological roots of all are academic
departments. Who benefits and who don’t
by the underlying assumptions? How does
what we teach tie into the ideology of hegemony. What is the empirical evidence supporting
this corroborating dogma of dominance?
The students need to democratically explore by de-legitimizing
unexamined presuppositions before investigating alternatives. Education is both democratic and subversive,
or it is not education.
Education is America has been
compromised. Public Higher education is supported because of the service
rendered to Capitalism, Imperialism, and hierarchical systems of oppression and
exploitations. We train corporate human capital, with values of liberal
capitalism, which "man" not "people" the positions that
preserve human suffering around the world. White, male, bourgeois studies are
still the order of the day. We legitimate therefore justify cultural and
economic imperialism. We Rationalize there make more efficient the daily
operations of political colonialisms and economic imperialism. Silly ranking
and academic arrogance buy us off. Next year I will work with two of the most
intelligent people I have ever met neither with a PhD. Meaning Doctorial
programs may be a way of learning, and may not. It certainly is not the only
way of learning. I propose we replace professor with the title of educational
worker. This would put the janitor at the same level as the full professor same
pay and the same security. What I do is fun, and certainly not more important
than cleaning toilets. I humbly propose the following.
By investigating the opportunities of
a multiplicity of worldviews to escalate our joy of life in opposition to the
thin cultural dispossession of xenophobic nationalism. The Democratic Classroom not only making the
university a community of students, but also letting everyone teaches what they
know. Exposing lawful social institutions as preserving the suffering of the
powerless and presenting the description class or national interests behind all
theories in science. I said it before I say it again. “All history is
propaganda. All science is propaganda, all art is propaganda, and propaganda is
proactive for some vested interest or another. Neutrality or objectivity is not
only a lie and claim to attempt it is both cowardly and immoral”. Education
should empower the powerless and further their oppression. Education ought to
be engaged in to give power to the defenseless to rebuild the society to
realize real political, economic, social, and cultural democracy. Institutions
of power, privilege, wealth and property by necessity need to be smashed. Teach
ourselves of the international neighborhood we live in.
We learn through action in our everyday
lives. This line of attack incorporates the resistance and progress to alter
the world we live in, “from one of wealth, power, privilege, property,
hierarchy and despair to one of equality, universal empowerment, justice,
reciprocity, symmetry, and hope”.
This leave with the question of the day I have a PhD does this
make me a cowardly whore of imperialism who wears a whole in his ass for the
man?
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