"Every leap of civilization was built off the back of a disposable work force. We lost our stomach for slaves, unless engineered. But I can only make so many." This quote might as well have come from the Bible, but it's from Niander Wallace in the film Blade Runner 2049; Wallace is the film's antagonist and the creator of "replicants", the bio-engineered disposable workforce of the future...
![workers_small.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmSvE4gaZwwfM6ZZGyjMmfAioxxUBuUihvFCHuhgsCbPe5/workers_small.jpg)
source: YouTube
And make no mistake: that disposable workforce is real, has always existed and will remain as long as we keep intact the capitalist paradigm. What we generally call "civilization" has come about in our early history, right around when we first created nations or empires. The early ones, like the, Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Persian and Egyptian empires didn't have well defined borders, but they did have a government, a language and the same class division that perpetuates till this day between a few rich and powerful, and the rest. As far as we know, this division did not exist when we were tribal nomadic hunter-gatherers; only when we settled down and invented agriculture, the stratified economic classes arrived. In fact, one theory of state development poses that the early states were created to protect the private property of the few.
In all likelihood the state's sole right to exercise force through its military and police forces, as well as the imaginary lines on a map we call borders, are a remnant of the economic stratification brought about by agriculture and sedentary life. Think about that for a moment. We were free to move anywhere we want, until a few rich individuals decided we couldn't anymore because they drew lines around their privately owned territory. I want you to ponder on the sheer arrogance, the immeasurable sense of self-importance, the megalomaniacal narcissism that allows one to think it's okay to claim a portion of the planet for themselves. And to then let others work that land for ones own enrichment. Indeed, every leap of civilization was built on the back of a disposable workforce. Wallace was right for the most part. The only part I dare question is the part when he said that we've lost our stomach for slaves; they've been replaced by wage-slaves, that's all.
And when the population of a nation has reached a point where workers have become too expensive, our modern Pharaohs, Emperors and Kings simply move their production facilities to a nation that hasn't gained those expensive worker-rights yet. Or they let poor people cross their borders who are willing to work for much lower wages. What I want to say is this: almost all our grievances are caused by the class stratification that is as old as civilization itself, and exists for the benefit of the very few. Stop-signs, fences and borders are the greatest impediments on our freedom of movement, and those are also inventions of the very few who don't want the working poor to be part of, or even witness their lavish lifestyles. There's only one ideology I know of that acts as a counter to this millennia old power-imbalance, and that's socialism, economic democracy. The beautiful thing is, taking the above into consideration, that a world without classes is also a world without borders...
Today's video is partly about what I've discussed here, with an emphasis on the phenomenon of borders, states and migration. I hope you find it enlightening :-)
Borders Are Violence | Renegade Cut
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That's absolutely true... For now! Because they are running out of countries to keep this musical chair game going... So that reminds me of two points made by Yuval Noah Harari in Homo Deus. He said in it that the people were of two use to the governments: make stuff and make war. But nowadays... They don't even need people for that, they have drones and they have robots (I paraphrase). So... The lower-classes are losing all kind of usefulness in the eyes of the "superior" classes :-/
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Maybe, maybe not. and in the meantime they're normalizing sub-standard wages in the developed countries as well. And it's not as if they choose to pay the lowest possible wages; it's them following the rules of capitalism, competition and economic growth. I don't blame the people per se; it's the age old ideology that separates society in the two classes that has to change... If we don't, robots will do all the work, and we will get a UBI, which will then be "shut-up-money" to keep the masses peaceful; give them enough to not complain too much, but never allow them in the club of the upper class.
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Yeah! The UBI is exactly where David Graeber ends up his book with. It reminds me a bit of the "annonae" of the Roman Empire, the subsidized distribution of grain to the plebs to keep them happy and sated. But as you say, i don't think either it's a satisfying long-term measure.
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Indeed; most people think that economical and financial governance as we know it is fairly young; it isn't. The Romans even devaluated their money by adding cheap metals to their gold and silver coins... Thanks again for responding my friend :-)
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