[P2P-F] [NetworkedLabour] Into the digital void? – International Socialism

Wed Oct 19 21:51:23 CEST 2016

Hi Orsan's, sorry I can't relate to your graph, different sort of thought process. Here is my own take on the connection to nature.

I've been reading a book 'If Women Rose Up Rooted', by Sharon Blackie. The title is taken from a beautiful poem by Rilke, printed below:

How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the strongest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.

Each thing-
each stone, blossom, child –
is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we belong to
for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.

So, like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God’s heart;
they have never left him.

This is what the things teach us:
to fall,
patiently trusting our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.

From Book of the Hours by Raine Maria Rilke.

Anna

> On 19 Oct 2016, at 18:22, Örsan Şenalp <orsan1234 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Anna yes. indeed this aspect is very crucial too. and I would agree
> with you in terms of 'metabolic rift'. As well as there is a deeper
> analysis needed -of the alienation of knowledge - information workers
> in the production process.
> 
> Yet I wanted to stress more about the lack of understanding. in the
> traditional Marxist side, as well as post Marxist and non-Marxist
> ones, as the sides around the post-capitalism discussion, of the ICT
> based hegemony production, power structures, and how these are played
> out, as parts of class domination.
> 
> Here is a draft social network mapping I have been developing,
> reflecting on the history and development of
> intellectual-scientific-ideological and institutional aspects of such:
> https://graphcommons.com/graphs/64d91469-5f7d-4dba-9204-c8574945948c
> 
> Will try to lay down what I have had in mind in a longer mail.
> 
> Best,
> orsan
> 
>> On 19 October 2016 at 14:06, Anna Harris <anna at shsh.co.uk> wrote:
>> Orsan, I think what you are saying here links with the question Bob raised
>> about agroecology on small scale farms, as the answer to corporate
>> industrial agriculture. What is the difference and why is it so important?
>> 
>> It is clear that on small scale farms there is a possibility, even a
>> tendency, towards a relationship to the soil, the livestock, the crops, and
>> the environment. This profound connection raises the consciousness of those
>> involved, so that they tend to feel protective of the resources they use,
>> and respect the natural environment. This connection can address the
>> alienation experienced by most of us when we remain totally cut off from
>> where our food comes from, and how it is grown. This is not just a question
>> of information, knowing the name of the farmer etc, but also a feeling of
>> care which can be communicated by 'home grown' vegetables, or farmers
>> markets.
>> 
>> This is not to say that we should not use automation where appropriate on
>> small scale farms. But we need to recognise that the earth is our home, and
>> should be treated with some reverence. When we harm the soil with
>> fertilisers, weed killers and insecticides, we are killing our home.
>> 
>> On 18 Oct 2016, at 00:07, Orsan Senalp <orsan1234 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> It is not surprising that in this, grounded critics of digital capitalism by
>> Upchurch, in an SWP comm tool, overlooks, as its targeted perspectives,
>> namely 'consciousness-ideology-alienation-hegemony' dimensions in the whole
>> thing. I think it is time to put forward such critics instead of trying to
>> grasp only the objective aspects of the issue. In my opinion the letter,
>> subjective aspect is as important and vital the objective aspects as we want
>> to not only understand but also change the reality imposed and steered by
>> the capital.
>> Orsan
>> 
>> 
>> On 17 okt. 2016, at 09:13, peter waterman <peterwaterman1936 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> I may have previously posted this item, or another version of such.
>> 
>> However, I don't mind re-posting it in so far as it seems to be a major
>> Marxist (not to mention Trotskyist or SWP) position on the matter.
>> 
>> My feeling is that it is over-determinist. Or that it's pessimism of the
>> intellect is unbalanced by an optimism of the will?
>> 
>> Or, again, that the author does not recognise 1) the technological quantum
>> leap that ICT represents (Castells compares it to the invention of the
>> alphabet, not the steam-engine), nor 2) the contradictory nature of ICT.
>> 
>> So, finally, I would appreciate other - better qualified - opinions on the
>> matter.
>> 
>> Pw
>> 
>> 
>> http://isj.org.uk/into-the-digital-void/
>> 
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