Comments on: Excerpt from “Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale” http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/ Making the Connections Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:07:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Stan http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-116240 Stan Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:32:41 +0000 http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-116240 It's both. More directly, it represents a claim on the labor(power) itself (this is why Marx called capital a social relation, concealed by commodity fetishism). From here, Hornborg -- in applying this same notion of mystification to the machine itself -- makes some very important points about money as "an ecosemiotic phenomenon." It is a tool of appropriation, but the process and consequences of that can be seen more clearly from the additional presepctive provided by human ecology. He calls the logic of money "an algorithm of destrcution," because "prices must be inverted related to the productive potential of the traded products [this includes the energy expenditure of labor that is the basis of the marxist account of material exploitation -SG]. This becomes apparent when we realize that production is dissipative rather than generative. It is simply a logical consequence of what the idea of money implies in a universe complying with the Second Law of Thermodynamics... An item produced from oil and metal ores must be priced as if it were more valuable than the oil and ores that were destroyed in making it, or the process could not go on. This in turn amounts to a constant <i>rewarding</i> of the continued destruction of oil and ores by giving industry access to increasing amounts of oil and ores to destroy." Mies account in PAWS -- using the same global perspective ("world system") that informs Hornborg later on -- emphasizes the global division between metropolitan women and peripheral women as two aspects of the same patriarchal system, wherein the general power of men over women is adapted to and interfused with a system (faclitated by ever more abstract general purpose money) of inter-national (global North-South) extraction and exploitation. It’s both. More directly, it represents a claim on the labor(power) itself (this is why Marx called capital a social relation, concealed by commodity fetishism). From here, Hornborg — in applying this same notion of mystification to the machine itself — makes some very important points about money as “an ecosemiotic phenomenon.” It is a tool of appropriation, but the process and consequences of that can be seen more clearly from the additional presepctive provided by human ecology. He calls the logic of money “an algorithm of destrcution,” because “prices must be inverted related to the productive potential of the traded products [this includes the energy expenditure of labor that is the basis of the marxist account of material exploitation -SG]. This becomes apparent when we realize that production is dissipative rather than generative. It is simply a logical consequence of what the idea of money implies in a universe complying with the Second Law of Thermodynamics… An item produced from oil and metal ores must be priced as if it were more valuable than the oil and ores that were destroyed in making it, or the process could not go on. This in turn amounts to a constant rewarding of the continued destruction of oil and ores by giving industry access to increasing amounts of oil and ores to destroy.”

Mies account in PAWS — using the same global perspective (”world system”) that informs Hornborg later on — emphasizes the global division between metropolitan women and peripheral women as two aspects of the same patriarchal system, wherein the general power of men over women is adapted to and interfused with a system (faclitated by ever more abstract general purpose money) of inter-national (global North-South) extraction and exploitation.

]]> By: oz http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-116151 oz Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:45:27 +0000 http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-116151 accumalated money is not simply a claim over other peoples recources ,but a claim on the products of labour. accumalated money is not simply a claim over other peoples recources ,but a claim on the products of labour.

]]> By: cj sterritt http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-84086 cj sterritt Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:54:53 +0000 http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-84086 In the 1980's there were discussions among many women about whether or not it was necessary to "play the game" in other words - if you were a woman who had a shot at entering the managerial ranks - woul dyou use the same body language and other techniques to hold control over those you were managing. For a lot of women, the answer was "Yes!" In other words, for some women it is okay to enter a patriarchal system as long as some of the power is delegated to someone whose gender in non-male. In the 1980’s there were discussions among many women about whether or not it was necessary to “play the game” in other words - if you were a woman who had a shot at entering the managerial ranks - woul dyou use the same body language and other techniques to hold control over those you were managing.

For a lot of women, the answer was “Yes!” In other words, for some women it is okay to enter a patriarchal system as long as some of the power is delegated to someone whose gender in non-male.

]]> By: Jessica http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-866 Jessica Wed, 11 May 2005 01:30:17 +0000 http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2005/05/10/excerpt-from-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/#comment-866 I was talking to a friend about this recently and they pointed out that at the time Marx was writing the family among the proletariat was dissintegrating. Women and children were part of the labour force and had more individual freedom (tho not necessarily better conditions) than ever before. The Victorian era included a drive to "implant" the bourgois family among the proletariat through campaigns against child and female labour, "immorality" etc. The purpose being to take care of the working class (ie make sure they diddn't all suddenly die off from an epidemic or slowly starve to death) without shifting the burden on to factory owners etc. Of course the burden got shifted on to women and working-class men got the chance to have their own little stake in the system through power over their wives and kids. I was talking to a friend about this recently and they pointed out that at the time Marx was writing the family among the proletariat was dissintegrating. Women and children were part of the labour force and had more individual freedom (tho not necessarily better conditions) than ever before. The Victorian era included a drive to “implant” the bourgois family among the proletariat through campaigns against child and female labour, “immorality” etc. The purpose being to take care of the working class (ie make sure they diddn’t all suddenly die off from an epidemic or slowly starve to death) without shifting the burden on to factory owners etc. Of course the burden got shifted on to women and working-class men got the chance to have their own little stake in the system through power over their wives and kids.

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