Matthew Gulbranson
Module 1 Meditation
Vigilant
6/15/09
If Marx were to take the time from his busy afterlife of
duking it out over coffee and crumpets with Durkheim and Weber to
sit down with us and watch The Story of Stuff, he would no doubt
use the opportunity to jump up on his chair and rant and rave
about the information that the short film presents. So in this
meditation I am going to pretend as though he had, and have him
discuss his reactions to the film, and his concerns about the
nature and consequences that hyperconsumerism has on labor, the
environment, and the nation state. I will then allow him to share
any insights, assessments and possible solutions that he might
have regarding this looming catastrophe. So from here on out,
I’ll be writing as I imagine that Marx himself would respond.
“First of all. Sorry Engels couldn’t make it. He’s been too
busy lately hanging out with Ian Curtis and GG Allin. He
developed a bit of a predilection for the music of your century
when he met Lennon and we have since lost touch. I have no time
for such banalities. So lets get going with this thing, shall we?
Well, I must say that the world is a much different place than I
left it. I can hardly believe what these capitalist pig-dogs have
done to our world- this travesty can hardly be conceived. It
would seem that I have underestimated the scope of the
capitalist’s ambition and resourcefulness, and the complete lack
of either within the ranks of my dear proletariat. My dream was
to have every man live as every other, for the good each other
and for each to live as men truly free from the dehumanizing
machinations of
the industrial factory and their bougeoise slave
drivers. But this? This is further from the dream than I can even
fathom. It would seem that the bougeiose are much more tenacious
than I gave them credit, while my dear proles in their apathy
have laid down their arms and their minds, and cashed them in for
the intoxicating allure of the new opiates of this modern age. “
“My dear boy, I am truly concerned for you, and for those
that share in this struggle; And believe me, there IS a struggle,
it would just seem that you are all too blinded by your shiny
commodity fetishes to see that you are engaged in it up to your
eyeballs. The nature of this system is what I always said it
would come to be- although I admittedly made a few
miscalculations as to the scope and the breadth that the global
capitalist system would end up swelling to. It is as if the pigs
ran the farmer off the farm, and have enslaved all the other
animals to keep their troughs overflowing and their bellies full
with the foul excrement and offal of labor tainted by the
exploitation of labor and the alienation of the laborer . And
from what I can tell, you all love them for it. You worship the
thrones upon which the mighty sit while all around you, your
brothers and sisters suffer just as you do. Yet you still fail to
recognize the power you all have! The individual can only do what
the system allows them to do within the constraints of the cage
that their masters built- however if you all were to recognize
that the walls of your cages only end where the next cage begins,
you would see that you are all much closer to each other than you
realize- and with that new found consciousness created by this
common struggle, you merely need to organize yourselves so that
you all need only push in the same direction, against those same
walls that you share with your neighbors- and inevitably this
structure within which these cages are arranged will then strain
against the stress of all your muscles flexing as one, and it
will surely crumble. Then maybe you will all stand amongst the
rubble and start to see each other as you see yourselves, rather
than seeing others as mere obstacles in the path of satisfying
your own egoistic desires (desires which you may or may not know
were never really your own to begin with, but merely the
poisonous fruit of post-modern consumerism germinated from the
seeds of false consciousness that are sewn by that flickering
bougeoise chatter box you all waste so much time reverently
worshiping in your daily lives.)”
“It is of my opinion that based on what I’ve seen in this
short film, the dearth of true consciousness among you- that is
to say class consciousness, has serious, dare I say catastrophicconsequences for mankind and this planet that gave birth to us
all. The implications for labor, the environment, and the very
nature of the nation-state itself are legion- and at this point,
as inconceivable as it is to me- each passing day only serves to
make a dire situation even more so. The urgency of my call to
action was sincere in my time, and with the passing decades the
necessity for change has grown to exponential proportions. The
men and women that engage in labor have been further enslaved by
the capitalists to the point that they no longer notice that
there is a collar that controls them or a cage that contains
them. False consciousness has risen from the false consensus that
modern media portrays- showing happy, smiling, pretty people
engaged in artful and rosy depictions of consumption of
commodities, thereby masking the underlying toils and
implications that are involved in the production of that
particular good. The third world sells itself to the first world
falsely believing that they too might reach such a level
themselves, while those first world falsely believes that they
are somehow doing the third world a favor by giving them a
purpose. Based on what I’ve seen here, the beast has grown so big
and so hungry that it has clasped its teeth tightly around the
throat of the whole planet, only waiting for that tipping point
to be reached where there will be no chance for the planet to
fully return to its natural state from the degradation that we
(or is it they?) have rendered upon it. Regarding consequences to
the nation-state, one merely has to be told one simple fact to
summarize the current state of affairs- and that is that 51 of
the worlds 100 largest economies are not nation-states, but
multinational corporations. These corrupt conglomerates have
discovered the fatal flaw within the international system- that
is that international law is ill equipped to properly deal with
and regulate the unethical, exploitative and disruptive practices
of these ambiguous entities that have so ruthlessly snatched the
reins of the world order. The basis for this is grounded in the
rule of sovereignty, which was intended to limit the ability of
other nations to legislate for others. This becomes the crux of
the multinational’s power, since they are not restricted to the
boundaries of any particular Nation. Instead they can set up shop
wherever they are welcome- and with their immense capital they
are welcome across the globe- free to pick and choose between
which laws they are subjected to- this has led to a trend of
multinationals that started in the Americas or Europe migrating
to the third world, where labor, resource, and thus production
costs are optimized to generate the most profit by robbing these
countries of their material wealth and exploiting their
population’s willingness to work for suppressed wages. “
“In my lifetime, I always wondered how the capitalists
would resolve the problem of consumer salience, that is what
happens when the consumer has everything they need? Their answer
is a hammer with two heads, planned obsolescence and perceived
obsolescence. The unyielding ingenuity of the capitalist seems to
know no bounds when it comes to overcoming any obstacles that may
impede them from continuing to expand their endless procession of
production and consumption. These concepts drive your world. They
have designed the goods you work so hard to produce and attain to
fail after it’s predetermined lifespan is reached. Not only thatbut for goods that they are unable to make useless, they have
instead fooled you into believing that they are useless so that
you will throw it away. This manifestation of the capitalist’s
greed goes further than I could have ever conceived in my
lifetime- for which I am thankful for it would have probably led
to even myself abandoning hope of freedom for the human species.”
“So you come to ask me, ‘Hey Karl, so what do you think
about the ascension of the bougeoise? What assessments would you
make?’ My first response to that question would probably be to
spit on the ground at your feet and walk away in disgust, for I
simply would not wish to think about what I would have to say. My
answer would be that for a much as I hate the bougeoise and
everything they stand for and stand in opposition to, I would
have to concede that they are a much more conniving, resourceful,
durable and dangerous foe than I had given them credit during my
life and in my work. The level of investment that they have put
forth to construct, endorse and enforce their paradigm on the
citizens of the world surpasses anything that any one man can
truly conceive. The world is no longer divisible by the arbitrary
lines that compose a nation’s borders, so one can no longer focus
on any one aspect of the picture without neglecting to take
another into account. They may have think that the game is overhowever I will never concede for I believe that for as long as
the desire to recapture the spirit of man lives within at least
one human being on this Earth, then the game is far from
finished.”
“Ahhhh, so now you are inevitably going to ask me ‘But
Karl, what do we DO?’ and my response will most likely go
something like this, ‘Ok so, first off I told, you so, See? TOLD
YOU SO. Ok, now that that’s out of the way, I would suggest that
you all read what I had to say in the nineteenth century and
extrapolate them into today’s world, taking into account the
exponentially larger problems you now face. First of all people,
if you are pissed off and you want things to change for you, then
you are going to have to react. No more sitting on the sidelines,
waiting for someone to call you into the game- because the coach
is working for the other team. Instead, smash your televisions-
burn your dvd collection- and get out there and organize you
fools. Your situations are more similar than they are different
and concentrating on such petty differences only serves to keep
power firmly under the control of the Capitalists that have come
to like the taste of the sustenance made from your wasted
essence. These are the people you must shun and exile. These are
the ones that made this world what it has become by rendering
upon it the wounds from which the life of this planet is slowly
bleeding out. This world has been gut-shot, and they casually
stand there, pockets full, holding the pistol, and smoking
cigars- laughing because not one of the billions of people
inhabiting this world has the sense to call 911. It’s a sad state
of affairs you must live with, and for that you have my sincerest
sympathies, but my time has passed and it is not for me to decide
your fates, I have merely pointed the way- it is for you to
soldier on up the hill, pushing that boulder on your shouldersand it is for you to have the endurance to not drop it now.’ That
would be my response. As that odd Morrison fellow once said- ‘The
time to hesitate is through.’ So proletariat, go forth- and
prosper.”
So it would seem that the ghost of Marx lives on,
somewhere. Even if it is only in my head. Marx would have a lot
to say about the world today, if he could only get himself
through the string of profanities he would no doubt express. I
would venture to guess that even in his resting place, he must be
an incredibly tired man- for it would seem that the course of
history would have him rolling over in his grave until the end of
time- or history, whichever comes first.