'Deskundigen' 96

De Amerikaanse socioloog, professor George Ritzer, bekend van uitgebreid onderzoek naar het consumentisme en de globalisering, schreef in zijn boek Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption: Fast Food, Credit Cards and Casinos:

What becomes important in spectacular society is the desirable surface of images, as opposes to… the critical evaluation of knowledge and culture. In this world, domination becomes objective, universal, rational and productive: it is diffused throughout social life in a comprehensive and ceaseless barrage of images and commodities. Aimed at an attentive audience who view its predigested content positively, the spectacle saturates social life, displacing lived experience with glorious images to facilitate social reproduction.

The spectacle creates the appearance of a unity or totality in spite of generalized differentiaton, seperation and fragmentation. In toher words, the dissolution of social life, social interaction, and community in late capitalism is masked by the false unity of the attention-grabbing spectacle. For example, in the United States we are convinced of our own unity by television commentators who tell us certain events (show trials, impeachment hearings and Senate trials, spectacular invasions, elections) are of grave importance to the American people. Such reports distract individuals from the socially destructive aspect of contemporary American culture where television has displaced conversation and commodities mediate relationships. […]

Individuals are linked to the spectacle in a one-way relationship while maintaining their isolation from one another. As a result, individuals (or spectators) find themselves alienated from each other and subordinated to the spectacle… The commodity system functions as an ideological proclamation of the affluence and justness of the system as well as a means of domination – mediating, controlling, and seducing.

En dus wordt de consument juist ook in zijn vrije tijd ‘s avonds en in de weekeinden bezig gehouden met spektakel, in pretparken, bioscopen, meubelboulevards, popconcerten, sportmanifestaties en last but not least, zoals een lezer mij liet weten, natuurlijk de televisie.  Dit allemaal nadat eerst allerlei pseudo-behoeften zijn gecreerd ‘the market must [now] produce consumption, and so it must situate the subject as a consumer, address it as a consumer, and elevate the value of consumption above every other value. Its horizon, again, is infinite expansion, and this sets emergent capital culture on a collision course with planetary ecology,’ zo maakt de Amerikaanse socioloog Richard Widick duidelijk in zijn in 2009 verschenen boek Trouble In The Forest. California’s Redwood Timber Wars. Zodoende consumeert het kapitalisme zichzelf, want als één ding duidelijk moet zijn dan is het dat in een eindige wereld de materiele vooruitgang niet oneindig lang kan doorgaan. Op een gegeven moment stort ook de spektakelmaatschappij in elkaar. Wat we vandaag de dag zien is het begin van de onvermijdelijke ineenstorting van het consumptiemodel zoals we dat in de afgelopen halve eeuw hebben zien ontstaan. In Democracy At Work. A Cure For Capitalism somt de Amerikaanse econoom, professor Richard Wolff het huidige probleem als volgt op:

Cascading economic problems and crises, coupled with dysfunctional political responses, have plunged modern societies into deepening turmoil… Yet the particular versions of anticapitalism – the various forms of state socialism and communism – that actually prevailed over the last century no longer seem to offer a model or inspiration to those looking for an alternative to capitalism.

Begin 2012 luisterde ik in een volle zaal van de Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York naar Richard Wolff's verklaring van het feit we nu opnieuw één van die regelmatig terugkerende crises van het kapitalisme meemaken. Kort samengevat maakte Wolff duidelijk dat aangezien het winstprincipe heilig is en er dus een taboe rust op het ter discussie stellen ervan, de economie als het ware autonoom tewerk gaat. Dat wil zeggen, terwijl lonen en uitkeringen omlaag gaan stijgen tegelijkertijd de winsten. Dat is logisch, want om de winsten te kunnen maximaliseren moeten de productiekosten omlaag, zeker wanneer de prijzen van vitale grondstoffen almaar stijgen blijft er niets anders op dan de lonen en uitkeringen te verlagen. Het probleem is alleen dat het kapitalisme daarmee de koopkracht van de consumenten vermindert waardoor de productie en daarmee ook de winsten  dalen, en tevens de belastingen. Maar omdat het winstprincipe van eeuwig stijgende winsten onbespreekbaar is, is er geen oplossing. Richard Wolff:

Wages and benefits are trending downward while profits are simultaneously increasing. Just as these conditions force millions to need and want more from local, state, and federal governments, officials continue to announce ever more cutbacks in public services. This crisis is reminding millions about capitalism’s inherent stability, its historic failure for centuries to prevent the recurrence of downturns, and how poorly, unjustly, and cruelly it typically ‘manages’ them.

http://stanvanhoucke.net/audioblog/pivot/entry.php?id=46#body

Robert Reich, has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. Hij schreef 29 januari 2013 het volgende:

Not even the very wealthy can continue to succeed without a broader-based prosperity. That’s because 70 percent of economic activity in America is consumer spending. If the bottom 90 percent of Americans are becoming poorer, they’re less able to spend. Without their spending, the economy can’t get out of first gear. 

That’s a big reason why the recovery continues to be anemic, and why the International Monetary Fund just lowered its estimate for U.S. growth in 2013 to just 2 percent. 

Almost a quarter of all jobs in America now pay wages below the poverty line for a family of four. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 7 out of 10 growth occupations over the next decade will be low-wage — like serving customers at big-box retailers and fast-food chains.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/29-2

De enige ‘oplossing’ voor het kapitalisme was tot voor kort de oude en beproefde methode van een nieuwe wereld-oorlog waarbij zoveel verwoest wordt dat alles weer op volle toeren kan gaan draaien. Maar die ‘oplossing’ bestaat niet meer omdat er zoveel massavernietigingswapens klaar staan. Een grootschalig conflict zal tenslotte voor alle partijen desastreus zijn. Bovendien speelt op de achtergrond de klimaatverandering een doorslaggevende rol. De parasitaire consumptiecultuur is in een cul de sac terecht gekomen. Op de een of andere manier zal de mensheid een mutualistisch symbiotisch alternatief moeten verzinnen wil het niet ten onder gaan. De soort die zich niet kan aanpassen is gedoemd uit te sterven. Maar kan de mensheid overleven? Waarom zou de mens niet de evolutionaire intelligentie bezitten die bijvoorbeeld de wortels van een bristlecone pine wel heeft, terwijl deze boom in veel moeilijkere condities moet zien te overleven? In The Bristlecone Book schrijft de Amerikaanse botanicus Ronald Lanner over de mutualistische overlevinsstrategie van pijnboomwortels het volgende:

In rocky terrain, roots wrap tightly around boulders, forming a strong anchorage, and they seek water in cracks in the rocks. Like most pine roots, Great Basin bristlecone roots stay close to the surface, mainly in the first foot of soil, and there is usually no taproot. Instead, lateral mother roots leave the trunk like the arms of an octopus, sinuously passing to the side of the roots of neighbors and extending as far as 50 feet…

Pine mother roots subdivide into finer roots that bear new white tips during the spring growth flush. Most of those tender tips die within days or weeks. Luckier ones form a beneficial symbiosis with fungi living in the soil, in which the fungal tissue covers the root tips like a glove covering fingers. These roots will live several months and be replaced the next year. During that brief lifetime, the mycorrhizal tips will outperform non-mycorrhizal tips in the uptake of water and nutrients, and they may even ward off root-rotting fungi. Compared to the relatively fungus-rich soils of lower-elevation forests, the soils of the Great Basin bristlecone stands in the White Mountains have been found to harbor only a few species of fungi capable of linking up with the pines’ roots. The fine roots are of great importance in drawing up soil water with its hoard of dissolved minerals, but water is absorbed through the bark of larger roots as well.

Alles in de natuur is afgestemd op het overleven van de soort, alle intelligentie van het leven spant zich om zich aan te passen aan de bestaande omgeving. Alleen de soorten die dit slecht doen verdwijnen voor eeuwig, terwijl de andere soorten de meest ingenieuze methoden vinden om voort te bestaan. Ronald Lanner over de steunberen, de luchtbogen die de brislecone maakt:

the roots of very old Great Basin bristlecones often form buttresses, or walls of rot wood, extending from tree trunk along the ground. These buttresses are up to 3 feet in height (with about a foot of that beneath the soil) and about 6 inches thick. They form this way because, after growing for perhaps several hundred years, soil erosion begins to uncover them, killing the cambium on their upper surface and sides. But the cambium on the lower surface stays alive and adds new wood annually… Buttresses resting on rocky soil and unable to penetrate deeper might exert an upward force that slowly raises the level of the tree,

zodat de boom steviger verankerd wordt en kan overleven. Zo mogelijk nog fascinerender is het volgende:

Trees that grow in dry places  may enhance their water-gathering ability in some creative ways. For example, it is very common for a tree’s roots to form anatomically integrated grafts with the roots of other trees of the same species. Water, hormones, and sugar solutions can pass through these grafts from tree to tree. If one such tree should die, its root system may be preempted by the trees to which it is grafted, thus making more water available to the survivors. Another way a tree can optimize its water resources is to draw excess soil water from wetter areas tapped by its root system, and to pump some of it out into drier areas in the soil, making it available for later uptake.

Dankzij het feit dat de bristlecone op grote hoogte in onherbergzaam gebied staat konden ze niet commercieel worden geexploiteerd. Ze bomen getuigen in al hun glorie van het raadselachtige vermogen van de natuur om telkens weer te integreren in de meest onwaarschijnlijke omgevingen, op grote hoogte en diep in de oceaan, in bittere kou en zinderende hitte. In 2011 berichtte The Daily Galaxy ‘syndicated globally by Reuters News’ dat

Among discoveries in 2006 were shrimps, clams and bacteria living by the searing 407C vent on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean north of Ascension Island, the hottest sea vent ever documented and more than hot enough to melt lead.

‘This is the most extreme environment and there is plenty of life around it,’ said Chris German, of Britain's Southampton Oceanography Center and a leader of the Atlantic survey.

He said one big puzzle was how creatures coped with shifts in temperatures -- water on the seabed at 3,000 meters (9,842 ft) was just 2C yet many creatures withstood near-boiling temperatures of up to 80C from the thermal vent.

Researchers had not yet probed how hardy the microbes nearest the hottest part of the vent were -- a type of bacteria called ‘Strain 121’ found in the Pacific in 2003 holds the record by being able to withstand temperatures of 121 Celsius. Another expedition found crustaceans, jellyfish and single-celled animals living in darkness in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica under ice 700 meters thick and 200 km (125 miles) from open water. 

‘You can think of it as a cave, one of the remotest caves on earth,’ Ausubel said of findings by a robot camera. ’Wherever we've gone on earth we've continued to find life,’ German said. He said recent discoveries could be encouraging for the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

Astronomers speculate that Jupiter's moon Europa could hide an ocean beneath its frozen surface and Ausubel noted life has been found on Earth beside subsea methane seeps -- Saturn's moon Titan also has methane. And NASA said last week it had found signs of liquid water on Mars.

Among other 2006 finds by the census, due for completion in 2010, was a ‘Jurassic shrimp’ in the Coral Sea east of Australia and previously thought extinct 50 million years ago.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/02/volcanic-life-sources-discovered-deep-in-chilly-waters-of-southern-ocean.html

Zou de mens niet in staat zijn, net als microben en zelfs bacteriën en miljoenen andere levensvormen, zich aan te passen aan veranderende omstandigheden? Het lijkt er veel op. De globalisering van de westerse cultuur is een gevaarlijke bedreiging van de diversiteit van culturen. Die diversiteit ontstond doordat elk volk zich op zijn eigen wijze heeft aangepast aan de geografische en klimatologische omstandigheden waarin het leeft. Only  mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun, nietwaar? Om twee extremen op te noemen: het San volk in de Kalahari woestijn en de Inuit op de ijsvlakten in Canada zijn fysiek niet in staat om volledig te integregren in een 24 uur’s vrije markt economie die in de gematigde zone is ontwikkeld. Bij slechts 30 graden Celsius spreekt de Nederlander al van tropische temperaturen. Het feit dat desondanks de westerse monocultuur overal wordt afgedwongen vormt een ernstig gevaar voor de diversiteit en daarmee de overlevingskansen van de mens als soort. Vandaar het wereldwijde groeiende verzet tegen het neoliberalisme. Zelfs de westerling rebelleert bewust dan wel onbewust tegen het toalitaire karakter van het kapitalisme. In 1875 schreef de grote Amerikaanse milieubeschermer en auteur John Muir:

No dogma taught by the present civilization seems to form so insurperable an obstacle in the way of a right understanding of the relations which culture sustains as to wildness, as that which declares that the world was made especially for the uses of men. Every animal, plant, and crystal controverts it in the plainest terms. Yet it is taught from century to century as something ever new and precious, and in the resulting darkness the enormous conceit is allowed to go unchallenged.

Desondanks lijkt het alsof wij ons systeem niet kunnen stoppen. Slechts twee jaar nadien constateerde Muir over de laatste ongerept wouden in Californie in On the Post-Glacial History of Sequoia Gigantea:

Unfortunately, man is in the woods, and waste and pure destruction are already making rapid highway.

De natuur was en blijft voor de blanke christen het domein waartoe hij na de zondeval verdoemd is, en dus onderworpen moet worden aan zijn wil. Het paradijs is elders. De natuur blijft de vijand. ‘We read our Bibles and remain fearful and uncomfortable amid Nature’s loving, her beautiful deaths,’ merkte Muir op. En omdat het verdoemd gebied was kon het misbruikt worden. In de hel kan men geen zonde begaan. Dr. Michael Williams, die aan de University of Oxford geografie doceert, beschrijft in zijn 599 pagina’s dikke studie Americans & Their Forests. A Historical Geography hoe

To the early American pioneers the forest was repugnant, forbidding, and repulsive. Some of those feelings and reactions had roots that went back a long way, into the culture of their ancestors in Europe, but were to be reenacted in a dialogue between the European pioneer’s mind and the American environment… The forests were the wild areas, alien to man and in need to felling, firing, grazing, and cultivating so that they could become civilized abodes. The forests were dark and horrible, places were there were very real dangers drom wild animals, particularly bears and wolves. The word ‘wilderness’ was almost synonymous with forest; etymologically, it was the ‘place of wild beasts.’

Dit wereldbeeld staat diametraal tegenover de visie zoals opperhoofd Luther Standing Bear die verwoordde:

We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth, as 'wild'. Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness' and only to him was it infested with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.

Opmerkelijk genoeg gold deze houding ook voor de blanke dissident, zoals Michael Williams opmerkt wanneer hij schrijft over ‘a curious contradiction, even paradox’ in de westerse houding ten opzichte van de natuur

because many holy men retired to the uninhabited solitude of an island or the depths of the forest to escape the corruption of society and to purify their souls. This tradition had strong roots in the Judeo-Christian experience of the wilderness, from the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, to Moses on Mount Sinai, to Christ’s temptation on the Mount – all were exercises in freedom and purification of faith. It was with such a varied background of cultural traditions, which had evolved from antiquity and were laced with biblical metaphors, that the first settlers arrived in the New World, which afforded such an abundant opportunity to extirpate the forest, reclaim the ‘waste,’ and create some sort of new Eden, Paradise, a New Canaan.

Sinds de eerste kolonisten voet aan wal zetten in de VS is er rond een miljoen vierkante kilometer bos verdwenen, een proces dat nog steeds doorgaat.

Employing satellite imagery researchers found that over a million square kilometers of forest were lost around the world between 2000 and 2005. This represents a 3.1 percent loss of total forest as estimated from 2000. While the study did not look at forest gains during the same time period, it reveals some surprises about where and how much forest was lost: including the fact that from 2000 to 2005 both the United States and Canada had higher percentages of forest loss than even Brazil.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0427-hance_forestloss.html#osSVI04S5Qzz9Lf1.99

Deze ontwikkeling kwam goed op gang in de tweede helft van de negentiende eeuw toen robber barons als John D. Rockefeller een deel van hun oliewinsten in de houthandel investeerde. Die industrietak groeide uit tot ‘the second largest industry’ in de VS. Omdat er miljoenen emigranten het land binnenstroomden waren de grote kapitaalverschaffers permanent op zoek naar nieuwe wouden en was in de tweede helft van de negentiende eeuw de Westkust aan de beurt. De geograaf Michael Williams:

Thus the embryonic timber industry of the West Coast – dominated by California capital, operated by New England lumbermen, and largely dependent on overseas and coastal trade – was changed. Eastern capital and technology, Great Lake lumbermen, and a national American trade replaced them. It was the prelude to a great boom and the transformation of the forest scene.

Door de introductie van machines konden steeds grotere bomen worden gekapt en over steeds langere afstanden worden afgevoerd. Zo verdwenen razendsnel de prachtige oude sequoias en ook reusachtige pijnbomen. Alle moesten wijken voor de Amerikaanse droom, ‘the dream of betterment,’ zoals de Amerikaanse historicus en ‘The Dean of Western Writers,’ Wallace Stegner, het noemde in The American West as Living Space. Het kenmerkende daarbij was dat

the interior West was not a place but a way, a trail to the Promised Land, an adventurous, dangerous rite of passage… If, as Wendell Berry says, most Americans are not placed but displaced persons, then western Americans are the most displaced persons of all... The principal invention of western American culture is the motel, the principal exhibit of that culture the automotive roadside. The principal western industry is tourism, which is not only mobile but seasonal. Whatever it might want to be, the West is still primarily a series of brief visitations or a trail to somewhere else; and western literature, from Roughing it to On the Road, from The Life of a Cowboy to The Big Sky, has been largely a literature not of place but of motion.

Trying to capture America in a sentence, Gertrude Stein said, ‘Conceive a space that is filled with moving.’ If she had been reared in Boston she might not have seen it so plainly; but she was reared in Oakland. She knew that few Westerners die where they were born, that most live out their lives as a series of uprootings.

In tegenstelling tot bomen gunden de Amerikanen zichzelf nooit de tijd om te wortelen en in wezen is dat het achterliggende grote nationale en internationale probleem. Meer daarover morgen.