We are enlightened pieces of trash. We are cheap imitations of a divine projection that we think photocopied us into the light half of the divine's bifurcation of sun and shadow.
Trash, we are all.
We are enlightened pieces of trash who will one day be tossed aside sometimes before our time, but ultimately we all join that desecrated dirt pile until we become part of it. Diapers outlast our measly frame. Discarded, shit-filled diapers will likely outlast most of the ideas that trash like us finds inspirational.
We are enlightened pieces of trash whose rhythmic cavorting in the breeze we call free will. At best our bodies serve a greater geological purpose by fixing various elements in their mineral form and releasing them slowly over the epochs.
We are enlightened pieces of trash who produce mountains more of the stuff in an effort to find that one thing that will forever satisfy us. We will find it when we succumb to the order of the trash heap.
We are enlightened pieces of trash whose lifetime is but a short glimmer among the stars but who's self-absorbed rationality and survival instincts rot us to the core with the pursuit of perfection.
We are enlightened pieces of trash.
Trash, we are all.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Living High on the Hog
The premise is that a rural economy is a natural occurrence on the basis that people own means of farm production: land, animals, and the applied knowledge of husbandry. These three are not the minimum criteria for what constitute an economic actor in such an economic setting but offer a sufficient spectrum of the “concerns” one might find in the activities characteristic of an economic actor. That being said, let’s provide a framework.
A rural economy exists out of the relative placement of individual and group holdings within a vicinity of each other that favors the economic returns over the costs of transacting with one another. The variations on what constitutes a return or a cost are wide enough to grant that the only factor for measuring rural economy of this analysis are the number and persistence of economic connections between groups and individuals. The tenacity of these connections lends character to the interactions that take place between the groups and individuals such that they are recognizable sets of behaviors in which one takes a role and secures that, as an identity, through subsequent interactions. This tenacity is not necessarily a property of what mediates these economic interactions. For those of us who want to study it realize that the observable components of this phenomenon are the transactions themselves, for there we come to find familiar behaviors. These behaviors, being coincident with what we call economic activity, we call "engagement in the rural economy."
Engagement is an apt metaphor. It carries freight not only as a matrimonial term but also conjures up the rituals of social interaction that produce a structure of inevitability in one’s life: “I have to …” The basis for such proclamations of one’s obligation get at the role one plays in some social drama. Roles are structured by a future-placed promise to consistency in the fabric of our interactions. By future I mean the next turn I take in our conversation or the next time I see you. We can consider trust the glue that sticks most of these activities together. Trust requires acting within the sphere of expectations that all those engaged in a specific activity have constructed in an ad hoc contract between one another. In interactions there is a moment of coordination akin to throwing a ball or catching a careening acrobat when the subject matter is out of one's hands. Figuring that as a sequence in an activity such as human interaction, trust rests upon a future-placed promise, which produces a trajectory to the conversation and reveals the unfolding of the relationship.
The general substance of any interaction is the fruit of a mature tree. The specific instance of selling a pig to slaughter and the residual ties between those actors engaged in this activity could be the substance of one interaction. The metaphor of fruit is apt in that it addresses the timeliness of the products of social interaction. Social ties decay if not maintained as do the significance of the interaction in those ties. Also like fruit, which has a timeframe for relevance to a social context, the substance of the interaction is a relatively new product of a historically rooted practice.
The part I want to get to is the notion that living high on the hog is consuming the best portions of that pig. This pig and its meat have been dissected by the butcher who, in turn, sells the different cuts based upon their quality at different prices. That a person could have owned this pig and sold that pig only to eat those portions of that pig that are inferior signals a form of alienation. This alienation is set in place by an economy that defines the worth of one’s products, which places one’s identity as a consumer of those products into a relation that is subservient to the economic nature of consumption. That being said, some rational actors in this rural economy choose to eat the lower parts and pocket that earned by selling the higher parts of his own pig. This person does so out of a rationalization that one is not worth the high parts or that one will just do without the higher parts in order to save for some future. In acting so rationally, this actor in the rural economy is reproducing some quality of that economy as a set of historically rooted social practice, which in turn provide certain identities for those who engage in this process.
So the themes are: social reproduction revolving around a temporal component of obligation to a future goal and fidelity to a past constructed identity, interaction genres setting a stage for relating to one another
A rural economy exists out of the relative placement of individual and group holdings within a vicinity of each other that favors the economic returns over the costs of transacting with one another. The variations on what constitutes a return or a cost are wide enough to grant that the only factor for measuring rural economy of this analysis are the number and persistence of economic connections between groups and individuals. The tenacity of these connections lends character to the interactions that take place between the groups and individuals such that they are recognizable sets of behaviors in which one takes a role and secures that, as an identity, through subsequent interactions. This tenacity is not necessarily a property of what mediates these economic interactions. For those of us who want to study it realize that the observable components of this phenomenon are the transactions themselves, for there we come to find familiar behaviors. These behaviors, being coincident with what we call economic activity, we call "engagement in the rural economy."
Engagement is an apt metaphor. It carries freight not only as a matrimonial term but also conjures up the rituals of social interaction that produce a structure of inevitability in one’s life: “I have to …” The basis for such proclamations of one’s obligation get at the role one plays in some social drama. Roles are structured by a future-placed promise to consistency in the fabric of our interactions. By future I mean the next turn I take in our conversation or the next time I see you. We can consider trust the glue that sticks most of these activities together. Trust requires acting within the sphere of expectations that all those engaged in a specific activity have constructed in an ad hoc contract between one another. In interactions there is a moment of coordination akin to throwing a ball or catching a careening acrobat when the subject matter is out of one's hands. Figuring that as a sequence in an activity such as human interaction, trust rests upon a future-placed promise, which produces a trajectory to the conversation and reveals the unfolding of the relationship.
The general substance of any interaction is the fruit of a mature tree. The specific instance of selling a pig to slaughter and the residual ties between those actors engaged in this activity could be the substance of one interaction. The metaphor of fruit is apt in that it addresses the timeliness of the products of social interaction. Social ties decay if not maintained as do the significance of the interaction in those ties. Also like fruit, which has a timeframe for relevance to a social context, the substance of the interaction is a relatively new product of a historically rooted practice.
The part I want to get to is the notion that living high on the hog is consuming the best portions of that pig. This pig and its meat have been dissected by the butcher who, in turn, sells the different cuts based upon their quality at different prices. That a person could have owned this pig and sold that pig only to eat those portions of that pig that are inferior signals a form of alienation. This alienation is set in place by an economy that defines the worth of one’s products, which places one’s identity as a consumer of those products into a relation that is subservient to the economic nature of consumption. That being said, some rational actors in this rural economy choose to eat the lower parts and pocket that earned by selling the higher parts of his own pig. This person does so out of a rationalization that one is not worth the high parts or that one will just do without the higher parts in order to save for some future. In acting so rationally, this actor in the rural economy is reproducing some quality of that economy as a set of historically rooted social practice, which in turn provide certain identities for those who engage in this process.
So the themes are: social reproduction revolving around a temporal component of obligation to a future goal and fidelity to a past constructed identity, interaction genres setting a stage for relating to one another
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
the census
I filled out the census today.
I lied about my phone number. That's the only piece of information that I withheld.
The census didn't ask many questions. It only wanted domicile information, that is, how many people of what age and race lived on my address, in my city, in my state.
It was over before I could even fix a mental picture on it.
I placed the census in the envelope provided and licked the flap closed.
Completing the census and returning it produced information, which bifurcates along two dimesions: census information and biometric information.
Answering the census questions produced census information. This indicated my body as a resident: where it lived, what its heritage was, how old it was.
Returning the census in the provided envelope produced biometric information. My saliva is on the envelope. Small flecks of skin cling to the uneven surface of the page.
The information contained in the document is scanned while the container is filed away.
I lied about my phone number. That's the only piece of information that I withheld.
The census didn't ask many questions. It only wanted domicile information, that is, how many people of what age and race lived on my address, in my city, in my state.
It was over before I could even fix a mental picture on it.
I placed the census in the envelope provided and licked the flap closed.
Completing the census and returning it produced information, which bifurcates along two dimesions: census information and biometric information.
Answering the census questions produced census information. This indicated my body as a resident: where it lived, what its heritage was, how old it was.
Returning the census in the provided envelope produced biometric information. My saliva is on the envelope. Small flecks of skin cling to the uneven surface of the page.
The information contained in the document is scanned while the container is filed away.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
micro-transactions and the police state
Many people expend a great deal of their time conducting window surveillance on their immediate vicinity. They watch and take note of who passes by. They watch and take note of who stops where, when, and the types of traffic that frequent. People have a stake in their immediate vicinity. They covet their stuff, the stuff they worked so hard to collect.
Many people don't like to work. It's a boring and often meaningless exercise in getting up and being somewhere at a specific time. People would be willing to contract their expertise, their knowledge, their bio-power in the service of capital. They can be called into action and have their account credited for their work and their time under the right circumstances.
Technology is available to sense the world in which we live. Technology is available to tell a central office if/when a light burns out or a water main busts. Technology is available for people to call central police locations to request a unit when suspicious activity occurs. It's time to outsource this ability. Let's give it back to the residents.
The phone rings.
A person answers and is called to a domestic disturbance two doors down. This person is credited for one hour of police work: $30.
Micro-transaction complete. Both the proxy-police officer and the person who benefited from the officer's service fill out on-line quality-control forms.
All is quiet again on the city streets. People are ready to be called into action. They have their phones at hand. They are prepared to pass the sobriety tele-exam and be called to help address a police situation. Police we all are.
Is there room for gaming this system? Probably. If the policing duties are given over to the populace, it only serves that same populace to generate just enough crime and law-enforcement to serve their own livelihood.
It was wishful thinking.
Many people don't like to work. It's a boring and often meaningless exercise in getting up and being somewhere at a specific time. People would be willing to contract their expertise, their knowledge, their bio-power in the service of capital. They can be called into action and have their account credited for their work and their time under the right circumstances.
Technology is available to sense the world in which we live. Technology is available to tell a central office if/when a light burns out or a water main busts. Technology is available for people to call central police locations to request a unit when suspicious activity occurs. It's time to outsource this ability. Let's give it back to the residents.
The phone rings.
A person answers and is called to a domestic disturbance two doors down. This person is credited for one hour of police work: $30.
Micro-transaction complete. Both the proxy-police officer and the person who benefited from the officer's service fill out on-line quality-control forms.
All is quiet again on the city streets. People are ready to be called into action. They have their phones at hand. They are prepared to pass the sobriety tele-exam and be called to help address a police situation. Police we all are.
Is there room for gaming this system? Probably. If the policing duties are given over to the populace, it only serves that same populace to generate just enough crime and law-enforcement to serve their own livelihood.
It was wishful thinking.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Twitching
Am I palsied out? I don’t know sometimes. It feels all so strange now and then. I feel everything invading my space. I’m penetrated by sensation. I erect a psychic barrier out of fantasy. But I feel my body pulsing. Every limb twitches. My body is a bit frigid. I am cold. I am wearing my coat and my stocking hat inside. The ambient room temperature must be in the 60s. My lack of movement leaves my body to twitch as I prop up my feet on the table. I try to stay stationary but my body fights back with spasms. It’s strange really. I am uncertain what this indicates. It could just be a lack of sugar. My body doesn’t feel right.
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