APRIL 2007
Honeybee Capitalism
by
Frank Scott
The debate between those who view climate change as due to human activity, and the minority who blame it on god , fails to name a cause other than 'us'. While greed, waste, rapacious use of resources and other euphemisms for capitalism are mentioned, seldom is heard that discouraging word. But whether we apply the label or not, it is clear that the burdens placed on nature, in all its forms, are pressing especially hard because of what is called the global economy. Its precarious structure is creating enormous stress on the foundation for humanity's future .
In fact, the pressure on people may be nearing that forced on the Honeybee, which is vanishing at alarming rates and for some of the same reasons that threaten humans. Economic crimes against nature are creating massive strains on all environments, and all creatures great and small which depend on them . Commonly dubbed a globalization that spreads new wealth and democracy wherever it goes, the blight on environments is really nothing but dirty old industrial capitalism in modern dress .
| Your
Bees Are Dying No one knows why, yet. What's
known, so far, is that honeybees are Whatever it is that's killing the honeybees, "It's just causing so much death so quickly that it's startling," says the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's acting state apiarist, Dennis van Engelsdorp. Apiarists are specialists in the study of bees. He and other apiarists from around the country are trying to assess the state of the nation's honeybees as a new growing season begins. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, things are not looking so good. Honeybees have had difficulties for at least two decades, including an infestation with mites which killed huge parts of the bee population. But the current problem appears to be different, almost as if the insects' immune systems had failed. In fact, Pennsylvania's Centre Daily reports that it's apparently a condition called Colony Collapse Disorder. They quote Dr. Diana Cox-Foster, a Penn State professor entomology investigating the disorder, as observing some very unusual features in the current disease outbreak. For example, Dr. Cox-Foster noted, when a bee colony is weakened by disease or other problems, normally the colony will be overrun by bees from other colonies. Today, that's not happening; and that has apiarists worried. "Some of these guys thought they had the strongest colonies they had for a long time, then came back two weeks later and the entire apiary or cluster of colonies were all gone," Dr. Cox-Foster said. |
dying, apparent victims of
multiple diseases, an no one knows why. But,
without bees, a third of the world's crops won't
get pollinated. What do you think is killing off
our honeybees?
The Honeybees are de-volving under the perversions of
corporate agribusiness, 
which has been breeding them in unnatural forms
so as to create larger crops of food products. Under the
domain of capital the noun, product, is far more
important than the modifier, food. Whether it is
clothing, housing, medical care, or manufactured consumer
desires , under the rules of market capital , sale of the
product is more important than its use, if any . That is
the substance of this cause and effect system: It causes
social loss, to effect private profit.
Capitalism produces subjects conditioned to be
individually responsible for their survival, and social
formations separated by ethnic, racial or religious
categories. Balkanized groups with identities they are
socialized to accept are fine, as long as they compete
for what are supposedly scarce resources . They must
never see themselves as a social organism that might
function best if they cooperated , as citizens in an
abundant and democratic political economy . Rather, the
private shopper is the public mechanism, trained to buy
all the things necessary to make it a successful
individual, even though success is denied most members of
an alienated consumer class.
Isolating people guarantees that even if they are
materially secure they will remain anxiously stressed,
for the marketing of items to artificially create mental
peace that might be real in a less alienating
environment. We thus have millions with physical security
who still pursue a psychological state labeled personal
self esteem. They purchase drugs, therapies, exercise
programs and other psycho-commodities in order to feel
genuine and satisfied, primarily because they are denied
a social union that might mean less tension and more
balance in their lives.
In the real world, material survival is far more
important than psychological esteem , but billions cannot
afford the first so that millions can try to purchase the
second. Global and national research
show the same results : The gap between the richest and
poorest human beings is wider than ever, and the number
of impoverished is growing. Worldwide, billions live
below the poverty line, while in the richest countries
millions suffer destitution in societies that spend
hundreds of billions on weapons, and tens of billions on
pets. This is not because of a demon ruling a country or
a corporation, nor is it thoughtless individuals
unconcerned about their fellow humans . It is the proper
functioning of a system which works best when it enriches
some , at the expense of most.
Propaganda has long had it that producing goods and
services exclusively for sale at a market and mainly to
accrue private profit, is the most natural way to
organize societies and distribute their productive
wealth. And it is as natural as a mother charging her
infant for breast feeding. Making such perverse
antisocial-ism seem natural was easier in the past, but
present conditions are so bad that even the most
committed marketeers can see survival problems for
humanity . Not an individual, an identity group, a
national or religious subdivision of people is
threatened, but the human race itself.
The Honeybee is helpless under the domain of capitalist
economics, but if we continue treating this system as
some form of cosmic power beyond our control, we may well
face the same fate as the Honeybee.
It would be simplistic to claim that all problems are
caused by capitalism; the truth is that only most
problems are caused by capitalism. The sooner we stop
identifying satanic villains as the causes of war, hunger
and depression, or angelic heroes as the reasons for
peace, a full belly and happiness, the sooner we may
learn to transform our political economy. Once we end the
production and provision of food, clothing and shelter
simply to create full bank accounts for thousands of
stockholders, we will end the hideous reality of creating
empty stomachs for hundreds of thousands of human beings
in the process.In a world where some diet because they
eat so much , while others die because they eat so
little, it isn't because of the awesome, invisible power
of universe, nor the militarily visible power of an
individual leader. It is the minority controlled ,
majority sustained system of capitalism, and it must be
changed for humanity to have a future . That majority
needs to act in its own interests, which means more than
replacing leaders at the top. It calls for transformation
from the bottom, where most of us really live, and it has
to deal with what we produce, for what purposes, and how
we see to its distribution.
Honeybees cannot take control of their economy or their
future, but humans can. And we'd better learn to do both,
and even more, or we may soon have neither. Or even less.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
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frank scott
email: frank@marin.cc.ca.us
Frank Scott writes political commentary which appears in
the Coastal
Post, a monthly publication from Marin County,
California, on numerous
web sites, and on his shared blog at: http://legalienate.blogspot.com