Matthew+Filiault+-+Journal

3/21/2012 Thanks to Dr. Walker for posting the interview with James C. Scott. I had heard of Karl Polanyi's '__The Great Transformation__' via Chris Hedges in the quote below, and I even arbitrarily pasted it on my Wiki page in the first weeks of this semester simply because I thought it was profound and mysteriously relevant to the course. Now that I have found that James C. Scott has mentioned the book as a tremendous influence on his thinking, the connection I made no longer seems so arbitrary. Polanyi's book will be one of the first books I read once this semester is over.

"It is not accidental that the economic crisis will converge with the environmental crisis. In his book //The Great Transformation// (1944), Karl Polanyi laid out the devastating consequences – the depressions, wars and totalitarianism – that grow out of a so-called self-regulated free market. He grasped that “**fascism, like socialism, was rooted in a market society that refused to function.**” He warned that a financial system always devolves, without heavy government control, into a Mafia capitalism – and a Mafia political system – which is a good description of our financial and political structure. A self-regulating market, Polanyi wrote, turns human beings and the natural environment into commodities, a situation that ensures the destruction of both society and the natural environment. The free market’s assumption that nature and human beings are objects whose worth is determined by the market allows each to be exploited for profit until exhaustion or collapse. A society that no longer recognizes that nature and human life have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, commits collective suicide. Such societies cannibalize themselves until they die. This is what we are undergoing." - Chris Hedges ([])

3/20/2012 Here is a comprehensive collection of Rosa Luxemburg's writings: []

It is from the same website where I referenced Sartre's essay in the last paper: [] In the introduction of the paper, I made a remark about how William Cronon repeatedly made subtle critiques of the 'abstractions' made by advanced modes of production which were being developed in Chicago. I characterized these remarks as 'Marxist', but Dr. Walker pointed out that I didn't quite elaborate - the rest of the paper drew parallels between the dichotomy of first and second nature as conceived in //Nature's Metropolis//, and Sartre's statement that 'existence precedes essence'. I did not formally address anything related to Karl Marx, and basically assumed there was some vague connection between Sartre and Marx by association of the host website. I now realize that Sartre wrote on Marx, but that I am simply not familiar with his later writings - but will be soon.

3/19/2012 Today, several of my classmates discussed the possibility that Scott was presenting a skewed example of 'leftist' state projects that had failed. I thought it was interesting that Armando mentioned that the concepts of more/less government could be measured in equally varied proportions on either side of the left/right political spectrum. For me, this perception deconstructs the U.S. political dichotomy, and illustrates that they are merely two sides of the same coin: the Neoliberal state. I think it is important to make a distinction between the rhetorical use of 'conservative' and 'traditional' in reference to generic values of the political right, and the use of these same terms in reference to indigenous societies which do not share the imperial narrative of 'the state'. The two different masks worn by the state are irrelevant. What is relevant, is the distinction between the modern, hegemonic state and the 'other ways of living', as represented by the myriad of cultures and civilizations in pre-colonial times. The modern state and its institutions have engulfed these other narratives in its own linear convictions of progress.

3/15/2012 Here is a documentary called the "The World According to Monsanto", which investigates a modern, state incorporated agricultural production system in corporate form. Recently, Monsanto has continually attempted to monopolize industrial agriculture in the U.S. by manipulating and homogenizing the genetic diversity of food productive plants, patenting these genetic varieties and suing farmers who continue the logical and traditional practice of saving seeds for future planting.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto/

2/26/2012 Just found out about this today. Tomorrow is a global day of action for Occupy Our Food Supply, which seeks to end "Corporate exploitation of our food systems." []

2/17/2012 After today's discussion concerning railway systems, I am more curious about the relationship between the old railway system and the town in which I live. Behind my house is a dirt road that is part of the Flagler trail. I've walked for miles on it, but have yet to reach its end. It was once the Florida East Coast Railway, which ran from New Smyrna, through Geneva, to what is now known as Belle Glade which is near Lake Okeechobee. Throughout the years of wandering on this trail, I've amassed a collection of rusted railway spikes, bolts, amorphous metallic concretions and miscellaneous scraps of steel that I imagine were once components of the rail cars that once screeched along the path between the soaring pines. The depot itself is gone, but it would have been less than a 1/4 mile from my house, right across from the general store which still stands today [|(seen at the bottom of this page)]. When and why did the railway system fall out of use? In order to find out, I could always visit the local museum. I live on the same street as the Museum of Geneva History, however the museum has a modest budget and is only open every other Sunday of the month. I plan on visiting on 2/26/2012 to speak with Mal Martin, the local historian, so that I can learn more about the town of Osceola, the old sawmill and railroad. I wonder if there was ever a relationship between the sawmill + railway? According to this [|historic timeline] the railway predates the mill only by a few years. Although at the moment I'm interested in the saw mill, my project may evolve to encompass more of the relationships between technology, landscape, economy and demography in the history of Geneva.