You’ve Been Bought and Paid For

The measure of success is often thought of as having the ability to buy things. Individuals exhibit their worth with the zip of their credit card. The accumulation of wealth has been reduced to the ubiquitous ‘bling.’ On a larger scale, corporations buy time, space, and people. Herein, this is progress. The commodity is king.

According to Karl Marx (Capital Vol. 1), the commodity is, first of all, an external object, a thing which through its qualities satisfies human needs of whatever kind. Oil does just that from the local to global scale. It has created wealth for the smallest farmer stumbling across it in their back yard and built empires in far reaching countries. Dependence on oil currently affects the price of grain, one’s mobility, and alters intra- and interpersonal relationships.

I’ve always found the final scene of There Will Be Blood intriguing because it is a culmination of a co-dependent relationship. Oil was the external object for Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday to satisfy their needs. Neither were willing to address what was missing internally, but oil was the means of covering up their emotional wounds. Plainview was willing to kill for his desires (since the buy-off wasn’t enough).

The final line, “I’m finished” can be construed as Plainview eliminating competition or beggars for the final drop of oil. It could also be seen as his life being over now that he made an unhealthy choice. The tone in his voice may be a sign for his butler to clean up the mess. Regardless, Sunday paid for his dependence on oil and his relationship with Plainview with his life. Nothing gained. In the end, the commodity created wealth at the greatest expense: freedom.

We Are Eating Ourselves Sick

We cannot deny that the global ecology has been affected by capitalism. Natural resources have been degraded and exploited historically as industrialization increased. Some resources like oil, coal, and natural gas take generations to renew, while fresh water is not renewable when the air and soil are polluted. Food is impacted by this
demise, which directly affects our health.

Imagine living in a society where the elite are the only ones with access to food and clean water as you and the rest of the masses are reduced to eating a food source that is rationed out periodically.

The movie Soylent Green (1973) is the extreme but also not too far off the mark considering that we are suffering from periodic food recalls. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk has become our own personal weapons of mass destruction. Gastronomy beware!

Creating a local and sustainable food system can become a way to control and reduce pathogens while simultaneously bringing a community together, educating youth, honoring elders, and creating jobs. Without a sustainable environment we will erode with the planet.