Category: Seminar Weekly

Spencer Oneal

SOS Commodification Processes & Alternatives

Week #6 February 11th 2017

Like coffee, sugar played a key role in mercantile history. Sugar along with tobacco and tea, posits historian Sidney W. Mintz, “were the first objects within capitalism that conveyed with their use the complex idea that one could become different by consuming differently.” 16

(Newman 2013: 82)

Born of a doctrine of discovery paranoia us and people driven entitlement to think wish and destroy all that which was indigenous America was framed in the mantra of manifest destiny.

In May of 2011 federal pumps on the Sacramento River and some state facilities killed 4,400,073 split tail trout and 3600 salmon in just eight days.… and continued to kill 400,000 to 600,000 each day… The primary motivation is almonds… That is why the big ad interests of California look back to the damn and to the waters to solve their problems.

(LaDuke 2016: 61,65,)

The nation’s tallest dam, on Lake Oroville, for the first time the emergency spillway has been used in the reservoir’s nearly 50-year history… which releases over 100,000 cubic feet per second…Nearly 200,000 residents who live near America’s tallest dam have to evacuate the area as the spillway could fail at any moment…The cost of repairing the dam could approach $200 million, but they noted the estimate was an early, ballpark figure.

By MICHAEL BALSAMO AND RICH PEDRONCELLI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
OROVILLE, Calif. — Feb 11, 2017, 7:09 PM ET

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/water-flowing-emergency-spillway-tallest-us-dam-45426912

From the very beginning this country has been founded on principles of exploitation greed dominance as we relentlessly conqueror and destroy all that is good and natural. Degree of destruction and suffering we have caused is unimaginable an innumerable. The costs of these conquests in the forms of stealing and ravaging the land of its natural resources as well as that of the Indigenous peoples is incomprehensible, and that does not even being to account for the unquantifiable costs associated with the greater inherent values of such assets as sacred sites and spiritual ancestries.

I am continuously appalled at how inhumane we as a species have become we go to such lengths to harm and exploit all that is good and beautiful, all in the name of a false sense of power and control.  This insatiable appetite and uncontrollable desire is equivalent to that of a toxic disease or cancer in which the foreign human bodies will consume ceaselessly at any cost to their host.   How is it that we have devolved to a place of such complete and utter disregard for all life and become so ignorant of the consequences of our actions?   As much as I may hope for and believe that we can recover from our atrocities, if we are to be judged as a species, I dare say we are not deserving of this life or being saved from our inevitable self-inflicted demise.  In all actuality the world would most likely be a better place without us.  However I do believe that there is an ultimate purpose for all of this suffering, something far greater than all of us, and if we can come to realize this we might just have a chance.

Spencer Oneal

SOS Commodification Processes & Alternatives

Week #5  February 5, 2017

216 Words

Probably a lot of counseling will be required for those with Indian Mascot Identity Loss Syndrome…They live with no cell phones no television and then they remember who they are.

(Laduke 2016: 105,106)

…a symbol of the Western desire to both know in the most intimate detail possible and to conquer with any amount of violence, the black body, especially the black female body.

(Tompkins 2013: 90)

…The poor old public must eat fresh butter and eggs…

(Newman 2013)

The main theme of these chapters that really struck me was the concept of identity.  In order to survive in this world and with an ego we must all has a sense of identity to distinguish ourselves from the other.  These quotes represent various aspects of how we identity ourselves in relation to others and the things that we give a sense of personal attachment to such as the mascot for example.  It is amazing to me to see how we have become so inextricably connected to so many false aspects of our society especially and probably most importantly food.  Unfortunately unlike the Native Americans who valued their relationship with nature and identified with these qualities we have continued to segregate and isolate ourselves from our true selves and thus perpetuating these cycles of hate and destruction and lack of fulfillment and feeling of loss because we really dont know who we are.  We are struggling and suffering from much more than Indian Mascot Identity Loss, we as a society are at a total loss of identity and has lost touch with our real human nature.  It is this lack of authentic connection that is the root cause of addictions such as food, drugs and violence and I believe most of the problems in the world.

Spencer Oneal

SOS Commodification Processes & Alternatives

Week #4  January 21, 2017′

234 Words

…Biopower is constituted by numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugation of bodies and the control of populations, including the disciplining and regulating of bodies or anatomo-polotics and biopolitics or the regulating of the species body…biopower is located in the interspace between the state, from which it was excluded as a radical movement, the public sphere where it competed with other reform movements to gain the peoples ears and the nation which it figured as an ideal futurity against which the present might the compared and regulated.

(Tompkins 2013: 70,71)

“Grain is the currency of currencies…”

“The frontier pioneers, who did not buy anything they did not directly produce themselves…”

“Corn grew everywhere and yielded more, which tended to devalue it worth…corns value revolved around its potential for feeding livestock…80% of corn production was destined for cattle…”

(Newman)

By DANIEL LOOKER

11/16/2016

http://www.agriculture.com/news/business/farm-bill-outlook-with-trump-administration

“Agriculture has benefitted substantially from trade,” he said, and many of agriculture’s great major crisis have stemmed from problems with trade.

Immigration policies also affect agriculture in vegetable and fruit production in states like California and Florida. The Midwest is also potentially affected, because immigrant labor is used in meatpacking and processing, he said.

These concepts are as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago, it is even more significant in our current political, economical and global climate.  The passages are personal to me as a farmer and steward of the land and whether we are aware of it or not we all impacted by our environment.   To the degree that we are conscious of the choices we either retain or forfeit our independence and autonomy, that is why it is imperative that we fight for food sovereignty and regain the security for future communities.   The pioneers realized how important it was to be self-sufficient and so do the major corporations and governments realize that once you control the food you control the people.

This is one form of bio power that we see in the current day society and it is one of the main tools of oppression and also one of the greatest causes of suffering.   Food is a source of great fulfillment and nourishment and while simultaneously being the epicenter for great movements of the people fighting for their natural rights.  Food gains even greater biopower in that we use it directly as a medicine, unfortunately it has be adulterated to the point of becoming a poison.  The breaking of break is symbolic for one of the most ancient and common practices uniting peoples in celebration and communion in almost ever culture and religion around the world.

Spencer Oneal

SOS Commodification Processes & Alternatives

Week #3  January 21, 2017

241 Words

…It [the hearth] was the central source by which to read and write as well as to cook, converse or simple sit.  It is no surprise then, the connection between literature and the hearth…the hearth and therefore cooking labor are associated with vernacular speech and with the fluidity of the subaltern body and finally with the boundaries that lie between seemingly dichotomous social groups…

(Tompkins 2012 :20, 51)

The starting point for the European expansion out of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic continental shelf had nothing to do with, say religion or the rise of capitalism- but it had a great deal to do with pepper.  The Americas were discovered as a byproduct in search for pepper. 

(Newman 2013: 20)

…intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, calling it a potential disaster for our country. Instead he said he would negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back…The US leaving TPP is a problem of America rejecting globalisation…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/21/donald-trump-100-days-plans-video-trans-pacific-partnership-withdraw

January 22, 2017

Tompkins depiction and of the history and place of the hearth in the home was very enlightening and gave me a new perspective on its true value and influence in the traditional American household.  The hearth holds greater significance than I had realized and represents and symbolizes many of the cultural and societal elements of colonialism.  I was also amazed at the significance and value placed on spices, especially black pepper and how it directly caused many socio-political changes and influenced entire governments.  The impact of the spice trade on the the world is quite astonishing and to see how so much of the history of this country and capitalism was founded on and dependent on the trade of the spice commodities.

In current day, there has been much controversy regarding the Trans Pacific Partnership which was an organization of 12 of the worlds major economic powers.   This trade deal would have undermined much of the rights of the lower-class peoples and given more power to the corporations in their ability to effect change and misuse the law to their advantage.  This countries involvement in this partnership would have jeopardized our economy in numerous ways.  However in light of the recent election, our new president has made one of his first actions to withdraw our involvement in this proposal which is a defining act the will shape the future of trade and commodities as much as spices may have.