3/25

 Chapter 70 introduced me to the term "counterhegemonic globalization” which is basically just globalization with a conscience. I like the idea of moving toward labor as a social contract. Reading about the solidarity between German metal workers and Brazilian metalworkers was pretty cool too. I liked that the chapter discussed the “care deficit,” and how traditionally women perform most of the home labor but get paid for none of it. I think that is something that’s not talked about enough. Reading about the different views on environmentalism was interesting as well. It’s a topic my anthropology class recently discussed. There’s a sort of western or elitist idea that to preserve land and local flora/fauna, you need to let land “rest” and keep people off of it. This is in contrast to the people who live off that land. For example, the Marind people of Papua New Guinea consider the plants around them as members of their own family. These people have farming practices that are entirely sustainable, and believe they as they care for the land, the land cares for them. Problems arose when foreign conservationists designated parts of the land as private and kept the Marind people off of it. This was done in the name of sustainability, but plants on Marind land were more plentiful and grew better than plants on this private land, and having so much land being designated as private actually forced the Marind to people to follow unsustainable farming practices in order to survive. Outsiders think conservation means healing the environment by leaving it alone, but the real conservation is in working in tandem with nature.

Chapter 76 was mostly all information I had heard before, except for the last section. I hear a lot about how patriotism becomes nationalism becomes extremism, but never what to actually do about it, and how to get people on opposite ends of the political spectrum to actually agree on something (and create good policies instead of arguing and getting nothing done). However, it was a little disappointing to read that the strategy is to just police your tone and walk on eggshells with your words so as not to trigger an authoritarian reaction. It makes sense though. If you come out of the gate accusing someone of racism when their main concern is just that they don’t want their day to day lives to change, then yeah, I’d be pretty triggered too.

Chapter 77 was a throwback to my high school European history class. I admit that I, too, have found myself forgetting the connections between the French enlightenment ideas and eugenics, nationalism, and imperialism. It’s easy to feign moral superiority as a liberal when you forget that early liberalism was the starting point for totalitarian ideas.

The e-res article was a powerful read. Referring to “penthouse Mexico” versus “mud Mexico” really conjured an image in my mind about just how absurd the wealth and social disparities are.