[name withheld]
PERS 2450
Dr. Santas
29 August 2013
Response 1
Throughout the films The 11th Hour and What a Way to Go many issues of socio-environmental importance are addressed. Regarding these issues, both documentaries seemed to place paramount emphasis on contemporary culture, along with the increasingly globalized economic order from which this culture stems, as the primary factors inhibiting necessary change. It follows that this posited correlation between economic organization and cultural orientation is used in illuminating how we as a species, but especially those in more developed nations (MDCs), maneuver as active agents in perpetuating a socio-economic system that externalizes the true cost of our current lifestyles.These are the social and ecological atrocities disproportionately produced by patterns of production and consumption within MDCs. However, due to the affluence of these nations, such externalities are largely displaced, becoming an afflictionto the world’s underprivileged and the biosphere itself. Through this process - which serves to alleviate the populace of wealthier nations from the real cost demanded by the “treadmill of production” and consumption - capitalist culture remains relatively unscathed, comfortable in the assumption that all is well (Schnaiberg 1980). However, such suppositionsare fundamentally flawed in that they overlook the interconnected nature of social systems and the ecological environments in which they exist. Although this attribute of the natural world has become greatly skewed by the propagation of capitalist culture, it, nonetheless, remains an inexorable truth thateven the stories of empire will not dissuade.
On this subject, The 11th Hour characterizes the idea of humanitiesseparation from nature as a “thinking disorder,” and that this disorder largely stems from the industrial revolution and its rupture with more traditional ways of life. The validity of this claim is clear, for one can easily see how the rise of industrialization, accompanied by an explosion in urbanization, would result in various forms of societal disconnect from nature. However, to talk about the industrial revolution is to talk about the economic system of capitalism itself. [AS1]Therefore, what role did/does our economic organization play in establishing and maintaining a culturethat places itselfapart from the natural world?
As was addressed in The 11th Hour, the foundational structures of the capitalist system are perpetual economic expansion and wealth accumulation. Largely unaddressed in the film, but perhaps standing as an equally relevant aspect of our economic organization, is the degree of social inequality the system engenders. In other words, the very nature of capitalism demands that there be winners and losers, an oppressed and their oppressors. Given this reality and that the system produces far more losers then winners – the wealth of constant economic expansion concentrated in the hands of a few –one is left to consider how the principles of our current economic order came to be championed by the populace itself.
The question of proliferating capitalist ideologies among the general public finds many answers through examination of an increasingly integrated state and economic system. Historically, one can look to events such as the Supreme Court ruling of 1886, which entitled private corporations to many of the right and privileges afforded to a natural person under the Bill of Rights. Through this ruling, one could argue, that the foundations for the emergence of capitalist culture were laid. That is, under this court decision private capital controllers were able to influence both state policy and public discourse alike. According to Richard Robbins this ruling resulted in two important events: first, the relegation of the state as a mere instrument of economic production and expansion, which was construed to the public as the only viable avenue toward economic prosperity, second, the creation of the consumer who spurred greater economic output (1999). It follows that in subsequent decades, and with the rise of mass media outlets, the propagation of this capitalist ideology was greatly intensified, giving way to a culture of consumerism which viewed its overall interest to be aligned with and dependent upon the capitalist system and its continued expansion.It should be noted that the latest reaffirmation of the 1886 Supreme Court ruling occurred in 2009, resulting in even greater rights afforded tothe personhood of corporations.[AS2] It follows that, both in the political and socio-cultural spheres, corporations and other forms of monopoly capital are able to exercise a tremendous degree of power and influence, thus, keeping the current economic and cultural system intact. This is achieved - among many other ways - through corporate contributions to political campaigns and through the airwaves of mass media and advertising.
Likewise, the documentaryWhat a Way to Go addresses the idea of “cultural blinders,” which keep us trapped in and ignorant to the dire socio-ecological conditions in which we now exist. Concordantly, the film also points tohow state and corporate controlled mass media serves to manufacture and deliver these blinders. Again, this is primarily achieved through the cultural homogenization born of aggressive corporate advertising and its presentation of a socially sanctioned consumerist lifestyle.It should be underscored that, as of 1995, the U.S. comprised 120 billion of the 250 billion spent annually on global advertising; further, that U.S. corporate expenditures on advertising were nearly 60 percent of that which the state spent on education (Robbins 199). Due to this level of investment, and under the assumption that this degree of corporate spending has only increased in recent years, one can see how an ideal consumer populationis created and sustained on the capitalist ideology of perpetual economic expansion.Regarding the population segments that - regardless of state and corporate media spin -are still haunted by the sense that something isfundamentally wrong, there is now corporate green washing. This practice serves to pacify consumer anxieties of ecological collapse with promises of clean burning coal, gas and a host of stringent self-imposed corporate regulations that guarantee a pristineplant for future generations to come. With this level of social engineering and manipulation one is reminded of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in which the prisoners knowledge of reality is limited to obscure shadows projected on the wall before them. However, these shadows are merely the effects, not the causes of events, which are kept safely from their range of sight. Consequently, the prisoner’s capacity to perceive the need or possibility for an alternative form of reality is greatly hindered. Analogously, contemporary culture stands prisoner to the images and ideologies it has been inculcated with. It fails to recognize that this indoctrination is the consequence of external powers, which placate public castigation with grandiose stories of empire, thus keeping the system intact.
In closing, I agree that there must be a cultural reorientation in order for humanity to adequately address its current ecological crisis. Yet, how will this be accomplished? Both films touch on the subject of collaboration between state and economic entities as a facilitating factor in the rise and maintenance of capitalist culture, but in my view fail to ask the most relevant question of all: who benefits from the current socio-economic and political order and how is it sustained? In other words, I do not entirely believe that we are “trapped in a cultural straightjacket of our own making,” someone had to put it on us and until we figure who and for what reasons there will be little hope for true cultural transformation.
References Cited
Robbins, Richard H. 1999. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism.SarahKelbaugh. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Schnaiberg, Allan. 1980. The Environment: From Surplus to Scarcity. New York: Oxford UP.
[AS1]Yes...and to critique capitalism without critiquing the larger context of dominion will produce little insight. See Lynn White, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (published in 1967)
[AS2]yes, these are part of the same narrative. have you see the documentary film The Corporation?