Monsieur Le Capital creates an artificial nature, which is implied as even more natural than nature. By instituting credit, capital creates the illusion that there can be continual self-creation, instead of an interrupted, episodic self-creation, like nature. The crisis that besets capital is, in fact, cyclical. Madame La Terre reminds us of her existence, and tears to pieces the facade of artificial nature . . .
Creation of credit or money representing claims on future wealth is not the creation of wealth. A lot of wealth has to be found within the earth and recovered, and there is no guarantee that any particular search for it will prove successful.- Roberto Calasso, The Ruin of Kasch
It is hard for me to know what to make of the book I have cited above. I am not convinced that it is not a practical joke on the reader. As befits a book about the onset of modernity, there are some gems appropriate to our current situation. However, in the book, the onset of modernity is marked by a loss of tradition--especially the tradition of sacrificing youth to the gods.
I don't believe we have done away with sacrificing our youth. It's merely done in a way that isn't as bloody. But they are sacrificed on the altars of corporate wealth.
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Good news--I am now very busy with a new contract, and will likely be heading off to Sierra Leone in the near future, where I may have a little more time (but less bandwidth) to post the occasional thought. So postings may be quite sparse and a little spare over the next month or so.
Do you have more time because of less internet bandwidth?
ReplyDeleteI'll have more time because there won't be all the distractions after work that there are over here. And that may well include web-surfing, which was mostly pretty frustrating the last time. Except for pages with no graphics.
ReplyDelete