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Aestetix & Yo's-<br>
<br>
Re. power, continued: <br>
<br>
Agreed, language is a fundamental element of control, but it's also
a fundamental element of liberation. As a language-making and
language-using species, language is foundational to everything we
do: it's the fundamental "building material" of human culture. <br>
<br>
In physics terms, power is the capacity to do work: to convert
energy from one form to another. <br>
<br>
Translated to the human social ecosystem, power is the capacity to
have work done on one's own behalf: to compel the use of natural
resources and labor to convert energy for one's own benefit.
Usually this is done via the application of stored energy in the
form of capital. <br>
<br>
Power in human societies is also the capacity to limit the ability
of others to have work done on their own behalf. This we do via the
law, such as the Constitution (limiting the powers of government)
and statute law (limiting the powers of private parties such as
individuals and incorporated entities). We also do it via
contracts, backed by contract law. <br>
<br>
Law and contracts are examples of the use of language to define and
exercise power. They establish customs and traditions, and together
are for the most part sufficient. Outgoing presidents leave office
voluntarily, rather than by being escorted out in handcuffs by the
Capitol Police. Citizens refrain from robbing banks voluntarily,
rather than as a calculation of whether they'll go to prison. Only
if language fails to exercise its agreed power do we have recourse
to power in its application as force: arresting the recalcitrant
president or the bank robber.<br>
<br>
Interestingly, our legal system primarily deals directly with the
_means_ of accumulating or using power, and only indirectly with the
_amount of power_ that is accumulated or used. <br>
<br>
For example the Constitution forbids the executive branch from
legislating or adjudicating, but this has not stopped the vast
expansion of the executive branch and its power to affect (for good
or not-so-good) the lives of individuals. Statute law forbids
slavery and child labor, but does not forbid the accumulation by the
private sector of a degree of power that in many ways exceeds that
of the state itself. This is a bug, not a feature, and we should do
well to fix it. <br>
<br>
Liberation is the removal of oneself from the influences of
illegitimate power, or the removal of the illegitimate power itself,
expressed not only in language but in other forms such as painting,
poetry, music, and public celebration. But liberation is only a
beginning, not an endpoint: nature abhors vacuums, and human nature
doesn't much like power vacuums. In the absence of one illegitimate
power, the failure to construct limiting legitimate power usually
leads directly to a new illegitimate power arising. Somalia and
Afghanistan are the paradigm cases of "laissez-faire utopia", with
warlords, pirates, and fiefdoms exercising brutal power over
individuals, restrained only through mutual warfare. <br>
<br>
One of the primary tasks of a movement for progressive social change
(whatever ideology you want to call it or associate it with) is to
take on the issue of the _amount of power_ held by various actors in
society. And the goal we probably all agree on, is that the _amount
of power_ that any given individual or institution or entity can
hold, should be subject to checks and balances, and ultimate limits.
<br>
<br>
-G.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 13-05-03-Fri 11:30 PM, aestetix wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">You've opened a can of worms here :)<br>
<br>
Since elucidated discussion seems to be the modus operandi lately,
I<br>
have a few thoughts on this matter that are worth contributing.
Feel<br>
free to ignore at your pleasure (free listening is just as
important<br>
as free speech).<br>
<br>
I think that the two key elements of your essays, food and power,
are<br>
rather interchangeable depending on the contexts. It's (hopefully)<br>
obvious why we need food. Power in a more abstract sense is<br>
fascinating to me, though. Other words that come to mind are
drive,<br>
charisma, persuasion, but also intellect, and most important,
control.<br>
<br>
IMHO, one of the most fundamental elements of control is language,
as<br>
shared patterns are effectively a way to communicate and attain<br>
various levels of self-mastery. An easy way to experience this is
to<br>
try to understand a foreign language: there might be some hints of<br>
familiarity within the chaos, and as we find them, it's a bit like<br>
setting markers around, and using the markers to control the
direction<br>
of your ultimate understanding. You can extend that to vocabulary
and<br>
concepts as well. One of the hallmarks of a good education is the<br>
ability to curse someone out without using the generic "fuck shit<br>
damn" slurs.<br>
<br>
Language is composed of words, symbols which point to meanings,
and<br>
one of the most interesting set of words is our names. And you all
can<br>
guess where I'm going with this one ;)<br>
<br>
Hail Eris,<br>
aestetix<br>
<br>
PS: it might be worth doing another cryptoparty soon.<br>
<br>
On 5/3/13 7:58 PM, GtwoG PublicOhOne wrote:<br>
<br>
<br>
> 2) Where the power is, and where it isn't.<br>
<br>
> Now we come to the proletariat and the lumpenproletariat.<br>
<br>
> For this, credit also goes to a good friend of mine who I
won't<br>
> name here, but who's welcome to name him/herself if s/he so<br>
> chooses: s/he got me thinking down this trail a few months
ago.<br>
<br>
> The proletariat is the working class: basically defined as
people<br>
> who have full-time jobs or at least jobs that provide
sufficient<br>
> income for the core necessities (shelter, clothing, food,<br>
> transportation, sanitation, communication), but who have
little or<br>
> no ownership stake. This includes people who are in business
for<br>
> themselves, but earning a working class income: they own
their<br>
> employment, but their economic wellbeing is at the same level
as<br>
> that of a wage-worker.<br>
<br>
> The lumpenproletariat is the level below that: basically
defined<br>
> as people whose employment is marginal at best, and whose
access to<br>
> the basic necessities is frequently interrupted in some way.
The <br>
> unemployed, homeless, couch-surfers (another form of<br>
> homelessness), people who live at the margins of the law in
order<br>
> to survive, and people who earn their livings on criminal
activity.<br>
> This also includes wage-workers whose wage income is not
sufficient<br>
> to provide their basic necessities from month to month: they
have<br>
> jobs, but their economic wellbeing is at the same level as
that of<br>
> someone who's marginally employed at best.<br>
<br>
> Decades ago, the Bay Area left/radical community made the
deadly <br>
> strategic error of embracing the (essentially Maoist)
analysis that<br>
> the lumpenproletariat is the revolutionary class. This error<br>
> continues to this day, in the ideology of Black Block
tactics,<br>
> which are founded on the idea that expressing rage and
provoking<br>
> police over-reaction will somehow spark The Revolution.<br>
<br>
> The very same tactic in more obviously violent form pops up
in the <br>
> ideology of the extreme right: such as the Hutaree, a group
that<br>
> was busted by the FBI for planning to shoot a bunch of cops
and<br>
> then set off bombs at their funerals, in the attempt to
provoke<br>
> martial law and thereby set off a "revolution" from the
extreme<br>
> right.<br>
<br>
> But here's the nexus of the problem:<br>
<br>
> To the oligarchy, the lumpenproletariat is disposable: their
roles<br>
> in production and consumption are so minimal that they can be<br>
> totally disregarded. They have NO power. N-O power. As<br>
> individuals or as any kind of collectivity or class.<br>
<br>
> When a social movement identifies with the lumpenproletariat<br>
> and/or attempts to organize the lumpenproletariat, the
movement<br>
> effectively short-circuits its efforts into something that is<br>
> inherently doomed to failure. They may as well be trying to<br>
> organize the squirrels on the Cal Berkeley campus to strike
for<br>
> better teaching-assistant salaries. How seriously do you
think the<br>
> UC Regents would take the threat of a squirrel strike?<br>
<br>
> The proletariat is where the power is: the power to produce
and<br>
> consume at the level that drives the engine of oligarchy, is
also<br>
> the power to refuse consent in a meaningful way.<br>
<br>
> The power of the proletariat takes two forms:<br>
<br>
> One, the power to remove themselves from the oligarch's
engines of <br>
> production: by going on strike (which translates to the power
of <br>
> collective bargaining), by going into business for
themselves, and<br>
> by developing alternatives to conventional capitalism such as<br>
> cooperatives and other forms of production that subordinate
capital<br>
> to labor.<br>
<br>
> Two, the power to remove themselves from the oligarch's<br>
> consumption matrix: by boycotts (consumer strikes), by<br>
> anti-materialist or "simple living" principles that reduce<br>
> consumption levels (the equivalent of consumer general
strikes), by<br>
> shifting their consumption to alternative institutions such
as<br>
> coops, credit unions, and small local producers (e.g. buying<br>
> veggies at the farmers' market rather than Safeway), and very<br>
> importantly for _us_ as hackers/makers/etc., the power to
build<br>
> for our own use.<br>
<br>
> This is real power. It's the power that makes the oligarchs
quake<br>
> in their boots and have nightmares. And it's the power that
gives<br>
> the oligarchs strong incentive to keep us distracted,
digressed,<br>
> and disempowered by wasting our time trying to organize a
squirrel<br>
> strike.<br>
<br>
> -G.<br>
<br>
> _______________________________________________ sudo-discuss<br>
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<br>
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