June 22, 2006
The convicts in Australia can be seen as the waste disposal of the UK--the latter's human waste was dealt with through relocation. Britain's waste could be 'dumped' in another other 'premodern' country (Australia) which was seen as the 'natural destinations for the export of "redundant humans" and obvious, ready-made dumping sites for the human waste of modernisation' in the UK
Today, under a neo-liberal mode of governance employment is the key to the resolution of the issues of, simultaneously, socially acceptable personal identity, secure social position, individual and collective survival, social order and systemic reproduction. Work is seen as the sole purpose of life and individuals have worth only as producers.
So what happens to those who are made redundant are distinct from unemployed? 'Unemployment' suggests a temporary ailment for which the simple cure is employment. 'Redundancy', in contrast, suggests permanence. There is no cure for being made redundant--others do not need you, they can do as well, and better, without you. If you have nothing to offer in a neo-liberal world, then redundancy is equivalent to being human waste.
While the unemployed can be recycled back into active employment through discipline the 'destination of the redundant is the waste yard'. So what happens to the human waste? Do they live on welfare in suburban ghettos? End up in prison?
|
Gary, On a worldwide scale we have the Planet of Slums (camps) which you have referred to on some of your previous posts.
Meanwhile the so called "conservatives" are frothing at the mouth re In Defense of Global Capitalism