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Hello Interactors,
Flying provides a great opportunity to catch up on books and podcasts, but it also brings feelings of guilt. My recent trip likely contributed about 136 hot air balloons' worth of CO2 to the atmosphere. Should I feel guilty, or should the responsibility lie with airlines, manufacturers, and oil companies? We all contribute to global warming, but at least our destination was experiencing an unusually cool July. However, globally, the situation is very different and worsening faster than expected. What’s to be done?
Let’s dig in.
CLIMATE CONUNDRUMS CONFOUND CALCULATIONS
There are two spots on the planet that are not affected by climate change, and I recently flew over one of them. It’s a patch in the ocean just off the coast of Greenland that our plane happened to fly over on a family vacation to Scotland. The other is a small band around the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. I likely won’t be visiting that one.
I learned this on the plane listening to a podcast interview by the physicist Sean Carroll with climate scientist and Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Gavin Schmidt. Gavin has been at the forefront of climate science, spearheading efforts to quantify Earth's climatic fluctuations, develop sophisticated models for projecting future climate scenarios, and effectively communicate these findings to the public and policymakers.
In this discussion, they talked about the methods currently employed in climate research, while also offering insights into the anticipated climatic shifts and their potential impacts in the coming decades. Gavin is known for bridging gaps between complex science and accessible information. I’m writing this piece to bridge some of my own gaps.
For example, there’s often mention that climate change has created more extreme swings in temperature — that the weather is increasingly varying from extreme heat to extreme cold. In statistics, this is called variance. Some argue this variance may be hard for us to detect because temperatures have been shifting — a phenomenon known as shifting baseline syndrome.
Gavin says there’s more to this question than people realize. He notes that it is relatively straightforward to detect changes in the mean temperature because of the law of large numbers. Temperature varies across three dimensions - latitude, longitude, and altitude. We can calculate an average temperature for any two-dimensional slice of this 3D space, resulting in a single representative value for that area.
This video is a conceptual simulation showing a 3D volume of temperature readings (warmer toward the ground and cool toward the sky). The 2D plane ‘slices’ the cube averaging the values as it encounters them and colors itself accordingly. Source: Author using P5.js with much help from OpenAI.
With enough data, it's clear that there has been a significant warming trend almost everywhere on Earth since the 1970s. Approximately 98% of the planet has experienced detectable warming, with a couple exceptions like the ones I mentioned.
But determining changes in the variance or spread of temperatures is more complex. Calculating variance requires a comprehensive understanding of the entire distribution of data, which requires a larger dataset to achieve statistical confidence. Schmidt points out that while we have enough data to confirm that the distribution of temperatures has shifted (indicating a change in the mean), we do not yet have sufficient data to conclusively state that the variance has increased.
Recent temperature spikes tell this story well. For the last decade or more, many climate scientists have been confident in predicting increased global mean temperatures by looking at past temperatures. The global mean has been predictably increasing within known variances. But in 2023 their confidence was shaken. He said,
“Perhaps we get a little bit complacent. Perhaps we then say, ’Okay, well, you know, we know everything.’ And for the last 10 years or so, [that’s been] on the back of both those long-term trends, which we understand…”
He goes on to explain that they’ve been able to adjust temperature predictions based on past trends and the cyclical variances of El Nino and La Nina. Scientists have boldly claimed,
“’Okay, well, it's gonna be a little bit cooler. It's gonna be a little warmer, but the trends are gonna be up. You know, here's the chance of a new record temperature.’ And for 10 years that worked out nicely until last year. Last year, it was a total bust, total bust like way outside any of the uncertainties that you would add into such a prediction.”
How far outside of known uncertainties? He said,
“…we were way off. And we still don’t know why. And that's a little disquieting.” He added, “…we ended up with records at the end of last year, August, September, October, November, that were, like they were off the charts, but then they were off the charts in how much they were off the charts. So, they were breaking the records where they were breaking the records by a record-breaking amount as well. So that's record breaking squared, if you like, the second order record breaking. And we don't really have a good answer for that yet.”
There is ongoing research into why and some have speculated, but none of them add up.
For example, we’re currently nearing a solar maximum in the sun's 11-year cycle which increases solar irradiance, but that small increase doesn't fully explain the observed changes. Other factors may be at play. For instance, there have been significant shifts in pollution levels in China, and the shipping industry has transitioned to cleaner fuels, which, as hoped, could be influencing climate patterns.
However, Schmidt notes that the quantitative analysis of these factors hasn't yet matched the observed changes. Identifying potential contributors to climate variations is one thing, but precisely quantifying their impacts remains a challenge. Schmidt said climate and planetary scientists hope to convene in December to share and learn more, but the extreme shift remains concerning.
CALCULATING CLIMATE'S COUNTLESS COMPONENTS
The amount of data required to model the climate is daunting. In a separate TED talk, Schmidt reveals that understanding climate change requires considering variables that span 14 orders of magnitude, from the microscopic level (e.g., aerosols) to the planetary scale (e.g., atmospheric circulation). These accordingly have their own orders of magnitude on a time scale, from milliseconds of chemical reactions to weather events over days or weeks to long term changes over millennia, like ice ages or long-term carbon cycles.
Climate models must integrate processes across these scales to accurately simulate climate dynamics. Early models could only handle a few orders of magnitude, but modern models have significantly expanded this range, incorporating more detailed processes and interactions.
Schmidt highlights that climate models reveal emergent properties—patterns that arise from the interactions of smaller-scale processes. For instance, no specific code dictates the formation of cyclones or the wiggles in ocean currents; these phenomena emerge naturally from the model's equations.
But there is a staggering amount of data to model. And it all starts with the sun.
The sun provides 99% of the Earth's energy, primarily in the visible spectrum, with components in the near-infrared and UV. This energy interacts with the atmosphere, which contains water vapor, greenhouse gases, ozone, clouds, and particles that absorb, reflect, or scatter light.
The energy undergoes photolytic reactions. Photolytic reactions are chemical reactions that are initiated or driven by the absorption of light energy which breakdown molecules into smaller units. We couldn’t breathe without it. The earth’s ozone is decomposed into oxygen in the atmosphere through these reactions, which is initiated by sunlight — especially in the stratosphere. This too must be tracked as the Earth rotates, affecting sunlight exposure.
Upon reaching the ground, some sunlight is reflected, by snow for example, or absorbed by oceans and land. This influences temperatures which is then radiated back as infrared energy. This process involves complex interactions with clouds, particles, and greenhouse gases, creating temperature gradients that drive winds and atmospheric motion. These dynamics further affect surface fluxes, water vapor, cloud formation, and associated chemistry, making the entire system highly intricate. And this doesn’t even remotely begin to approach the complexity of it all.
To simplify Schmidt says they capture what they can in a column roughly 25 kilometers high and wide to study the inherent physics. Most of which he says,
“…is just vertical. So, the radiation you can think of as just being a vertical process, to very good order. Convection is also just a vertical process. So, there's a lot of things that you can do in the column that allows you to be quite efficient about how you solve the equations.” Schmidt adds that “each column [can] sit on a different processor, and so you can do lots of things at the same time, and then they interact via the winds and the waves and those kinds of things.”
He said most of the calculations come down to these two sets of equations: Euler and Navier-Stokes. Euler equations are a set of partial differential equations in fluid dynamics that describe the flow of non-viscous and fluids, absent heat exchange. Named after the Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler in the 18th century, these simplify the analysis of fluid flow by neglecting viscosity and thermal conductivity, focusing instead on the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy.
Navier-Stokes, named after the 19th century French civil engineer Claude-Louis Navier and the Irish physicist George Gabriel Stokes, is based on Euler’s work but adds viscosity back into the equation. Schmidt says these equations are sometimes used to measure flows closer to the surface of the earth.
This video is a conceptual simulation showing a 3D volume of vectors (randomly changing direction and magnitude) with particles entering the field of vectors. Each particle (e.g. dust, rain, aerosol) gets pushed in the direction of the vector each encounters. You can clearly see the emergent swarming behavior complex adaptive systems, like our atmosphere, can yield. Also present are the apparent challenges that come with measuring and predicting these outcomes. Source: Author using P5.js with much help from OpenAI.
These complex computational models are inherently approximations. They are validated against observations but remain simplifications of reality. This inherent uncertainty is a critical aspect of climate science, emphasizing the need for continuous refinement and validation of models.
And while human-induce climate change denialists like to say the climate models are wrong and not worth considering, Schmidt has a clever retort,
“Models are not right or wrong; they are always wrong, but they are useful.”
NAVIGATING NATURE'S NEW NORMAL
Many wish climate change predictions had the kind of certainty that comes with basic laws of physics. While there are indeed efforts in complexity science to identify such laws, we’re still in the foothills of discovery on a steep climb to certainty.
For example, to even achieve the current level of climate prediction took approximately 30 years of research, involving multiple methods, replication, and more sophisticated physical modeling. This led to accurate calibration techniques for the paleothermometers that measure ice cores which reveal temperatures from around the planet dating back three million years.
While there is some empirical certainty in this — derived from the periodic table, fundamental laws of physics, or observed correlations from spatially dispersed ice core samples — recent extreme variations in global temperatures give reason to question this certainty. These relationships were based on spatial variations observable today, but failed to account for change over time, which behave very differently.
Schmidt says,
“…it turns out that the things that cause things to change in time are not the same things that cause them to change in space. And so empirical relationships that are derived from data that's available rather than the data that you need can indeed lead you astray.”
It begs the question: how far astray are we?
We know over the last one hundred years or so the planet has warmed roughly an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius. This is a number that has been contorted in the media to mean some kind of threshold after which “something” “might” happen. But Schmidt cautions there is no way to know when we hit this number, exactly, and it’s not going to be obvious. Perhaps it already pushed passed this threshold, or it may not for another decade.
He says,
“we are going to continue to warm on the aggregates because we are continuing to put carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Until we get effectively to net zero, so no more addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, temperatures will continue to climb. The less we put in, the slower that will be. But effectively, our best estimate of when global warming will stop is when we get to net zero.”
Getting to net zero involves significant and radical changes in energy production, industrial processes, and consumption patterns. Moreover, it will require an unprecedented comprehensive and coordinated worldwide effort across all sectors of the economy, institutions, and governments.
This is true even for hypothetical and speculative climate engineering solutions like injecting sulfates into the atmosphere in attempts to cool the planet. According to Schmidt, not only would this require cooperation across borders, so long as we keep spewing emissions into the atmosphere, we’d be forever trying to cool the planet…for eternity or at least until we’ve exhausted all the planet’s fossil fuels.
It’s hard to imagine this happening in my lifetime, if ever. After all, climate change is already disrupting and displacing entire populations and we’re seeing governments, and their citizens, becoming increasingly selfish and isolationist, not collaborative.
As Schmidt admits,
“We're not on the optimum path. We're not on the path that will prevent further damage and prevent the need for further adaptation. So, we're going to have to be building climate resilience, we're going to have to be adapting, we're going to have to be mitigating, and you have to do all three. You can't adapt to an ever-getting-worse situation, it has to at some point stabilize.”
Schmidt says he derives no joy in telling people
“that the next decade is going to be warmer than the last decade and it was warmer than the decade before that.” He says, “It gives me no joy to tell people that, oh yeah, we're going to have another record-breaking year this year, next year, whenever. Because I'm not a sociopath. I'm a scientist, yes, but I'm also a person.”
Schmidt's words resonate deeply, reminding us that behind the data and predictions are real people—scientists, citizens, and future generations—all grappling with the weight of our changing world. As we stand at this critical juncture, we're not just passive observers but active participants in Earth's unfolding story, a story that's leaving its mark on nearly every corner of our planet.
The butterfly effect, as meteorologist Edward Lorenz proposed, isn't just about tornados in Texas being set off by a chain of events from the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil; it's a powerful metaphor for our collective impact. Each of us, in our daily choices and actions, creates ripples that extend far beyond our immediate sphere. In a world where only two small patches—one off Greenland's coast and another near Antarctica—remain untouched by climate change, our individual actions carry profound significance.
The path to net zero isn't just about grand gestures or technological breakthroughs. It's about millions of small, intentional actions coalescing into a force powerful enough to alter our trajectory. As we face the challenges ahead, let's remember that our individual agency, when combined, has the potential to create tsunamis of change, even in places we may never visit ourselves.
In the end, it's not just about preserving a habitable planet — it's about preserving our humanity, our connection to each other and to the Earth that sustains us. As we navigate this critical decade and beyond, let's carry with us the knowledge that every action, no matter how small, contributes to the larger narrative of our planet's future. We are all butterflies, and in a world where climate change-free zones are becoming as rare as a family vacation to Antarctica, our wings have never mattered more.
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Hello Interactors,
I recently read an intriguing article about unexpected forms of life thriving deep within the Earth's crust. These discoveries are revitalizing environmental theories and processes that mainstream science has long tried to dismiss—yet I've been exploring them over the past few summers. While working outside, I realized that some of these processes are unfolding right under my nose...and possibly even inside it!
On that note, this might sound a bit awkward, but...
Let’s dig in!
WORLDWIDE WEATHERING WHISPERS
I’m behind on my pressure washing. This can have detrimental effects here in the predominantly damp Northwest as moss spores, tiny lightweight travelers, are lifted and lofted by the wind’s wings until they land on damp concrete. A new home for moss to roam.
Upon contact, the spores absorb moisture and germinate, developing into a protonema — fine lines of sprawling verdant vines. As the structure crawls through the creviced concrete an anchored lace unfolds. Atop it grows a carpet of green and gold, down below tentacles grab hold.
The rhizoid roots anchor mounding moss, absorbing food and water nature has tossed. As the concrete crumbles into nutrient stores, the soft moss blossoms with chromophores. Over time, atop the luscious mountains and rocky moistened pours, the wind releases more lofting spores.
It turns out the contrasting boundary between soft squishy plants and hard concrete is as pronounced as the divisions between the disciplines of biology and geology. But advances in Earth System Science are starting blur these boundaries, as integrative science tends to do. Like moss softening concrete.
My expansive moss colonies, part of the plant kingdom, house communities of tiny microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and microscopic animals like rotifers and tardigrades. Many of these communities have symbiotic relationships with moss. For example, some bacteria promote moss growth through the production of the plant growth hormone auxin using specific enzymes in plant tissues.
As the moss and its associated microbes grow and expand, they can penetrate small cracks or pores in the concrete, potentially widening them and exposing more surface area to weathering processes. This can be accelerated by certain bacteria and fungi that produce organic acids as metabolic byproducts. These acids can slowly dissolve or weaken calcium carbonate and other minerals found in concrete.
The biogeochemistry contributing to rock weathering and sediment formation reveals the intricate connections between biological processes and geological phenomena. At massive space and time scales they can not only affect the meteorological conditions above ground, but also the layers of sediment below ground.
In a recent New York Times piece, Ferris Jabr, author of “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life” reveals how
“Within the forest floor [of the Amazon rainforest], vast symbiotic networks of plant roots and filamentous fungi pull water from the soil into trunks, stems and leaves. As the nearly 400 billion trees in the Amazon drink their fill, they release excess moisture, saturating the air with 20 billion tons of water vapor each day. At the same time, plants of all kinds secrete salts and emit bouquets of pungent gaseous compounds. Mushrooms, dainty as paper parasols or squat as door knobs, exhale plumes of spores. The wind sweeps bacteria, pollen grains and bits of leaves and bark into the atmosphere. The wet breath of the forest — peppered with microscopic life and organic residues — creates conditions that are highly conducive to rain. With so much water vapor in the air and so many minute particles on which the water can condense, clouds quickly form. In a typical year, the Amazon generates around half of its own rainfall.”
Below ground, he describes work by Earth scientist Robert Hazen and colleagues.
“When Earth was young, microbes inhabiting the ocean crust were likely dissolving the basalt with acids and enzymes in order to obtain energy and nutrients, producing wet clay minerals. By lubricating the crust with those wet byproducts, the microbes may have accelerated the dissolution of both mantle and crust and their eventual transfiguration into new land.
The geophysicists Dennis Höning and Tilman Spohn have published similar ideas.
They point out that water trapped in subducting sediments escapes first, whereas water in the crust is typically expelled at greater depths. The thicker the sedimentary layer covering the crust, the more water makes it into the deep mantle, which ultimately enhances the production of granite.
In Earth’s earliest eons, micro-organisms and, later, fungi and plants dissolved and degraded rock at a rate much greater than what geological processes could accomplish on their own.
In doing so, they would have increased the amount of sediment deposited in deep ocean trenches, thereby cloaking subducting plates of ocean crust in thicker protective layers, flushing more water into the mantle and ultimately contributing to the creation of new land.”
LOVELOCKS LIVING LOOPS
This kind of Earth System Science has been given a name by one of first contributors, James Lovelock — geophysiology. Lovelock describes geophysiology as a systems approach to Earth sciences, viewing Earth as a self-regulating entity where biological, chemical, and physical processes interact to maintain conditions suitable for life. It integrates various scientific disciplines to understand and predict the behavior of Earth's systems, aiming to diagnose and prevent environmental issues by considering the planet as a cohesive, self-regulating system.
This concept, rooted in Lovelock’s initial Gaia hypothesis, emphasizes the feedback mechanisms that stabilize Earth's environment, akin to physiological processes in living organisms. Gaia is named after the primordial Greek goddess who personifies the Earth. This naming occurred in the context of Lovelock developing his ideas about Earth as a self-regulating system in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Lovelock had been working on methods to detect life on Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which led him to consider how life might be detected on a planetary scale. This work eventually evolved into his hypothesis about Earth functioning as a complex, self-regulating system maintained by the community of living organisms.
As Lovelock was formulating these ideas, he was looking for a suitable name for his hypothesis. It was during this time that William Golding, Lovelock’s neighbor and renowned author of "Lord of the Flies", suggested using the name "Gaia".
In Greek mythology, Gaia is considered the ancestral mother of all life and one of the first beings to emerge from earliest chaotic stages of Earth's formation. She is often depicted as a maternal, nurturing figure who gave birth to the Titans, the Cyclopes, and other primordial deities. Gaia is associated with fertility, the earth's abundance, and the cycle of life and death.
In ancient Greek religion, Gaia was worshipped as the Great Mother and was sometimes referred to as "Mother Earth." That title, and her influence, extends beyond Greek mythology, perpetuating the concept of Earth as a living, nurturing entity — a concept that has resonated in various cultures for Millenia.
Elements of the Greek notion of Gaia likely have roots in earlier Middle Eastern knowledge. Several ancient cultures had earth goddesses that predate or are contemporaneous with the Greek Gaia. For instance, in Mesopotamia, Sumerian mythology offers Ki is the earth goddess, and in Akkadian mythology, there is Ninhursag.
It turns out “Mother Earth” birthed similar concepts all around her. Egypt had Isis, Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) had Cybele, India’s Hinduism had Parvati and Durga, Pre-Columbian American cultures featured Pachamama, Celtic cultures had Danu and Brigid, while Norse mythology features Frigg and Freyja.
In 1960’s and 70’s America, “Mother Nature” and “Gaia” emerged among some environmentalists as New Age mystical beliefs associated with alternative spiritualities. Lovelock’s decision to use the word “Gaia” thus made him and his ideas a target among many Western trained scientists and his Earth system concepts endured harsh criticisms.
It’s worth mentioning that when Alexander Humboldt put forth similar ideas in his book "Cosmos" (first published in 1845), taking a holistic view of nature, exploring connections between various Earth systems and life forms, he was heralded as the greatest scientist of his time. Even Charles Darwin took a copy of Cosmos with him on his famous Beagle voyage. Humboldt, like Lovelock, uniquely and successfully integrated knowledge from diverse fields like astronomy, geology, biology, meteorology, and even art and literature.
But the specialization, reductionism, and quantification of dominant Western science distanced itself from these holistic approaches viewing them as too spiritual and outdated. By the twentieth century, the growing New Age interpretation of Gaia often personified the Earth as a conscious, living entity, drawing on both Lovelock's scientific hypothesis and ancient mythological concepts. Many modern religions and philosophical concepts about the origin of life still incorporate anthropomorphic elements, such as the idea of a creator with human-like qualities or intentions.
These mainstream images can lead to engrained tendencies to see humans and other living organisms as being born:
* into a world as separate entities from the world they inhabit
* onto a physical plane as a separate, tangible reality
* unto which they individually acquire and consume energy to live and grow.
This perspective sees living beings as somewhat separate from their environment, rather than as integral parts of a larger system. It’s a view consistent with traditional Western science that emphasizes reductionist approaches, breaking systems down into component parts. But it contrasts with more holistic perspectives, such as those found in ecological theories like Geophysiology, other branches of Earth System Science, or Traditional Ecological Knowledge which see earth’s components, including humans, as inseparable parts of their environments.
This was confirmed at the 2001 Amsterdam Declaration, signed by the Chairs of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), International Human Dimensions Program (IHDP), World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and DIVERSITAS at the 2001 ‘Challenges of a Changing Earth’ conference. The declaration concluded:
“The Earth System behaves as a single, self-regulating system comprised of physical, chemical, biological and human components, with complex interactions and feedbacks between the component parts.”
Integrative Western scientists have now amassed enough data to recognize that living matter is born:
* into a living, interconnected Earth system,
* onto a dynamic web of relationships,
* unto which we belong as integral participants, exchanging energy and matter in a continuous cycle of life and growth.
In this view, my moss colonies and their microbial companions emerge as vital threads, weaving together the living and non-living elements of our planet. These intricate communities, from the tiniest bacteria to the visible expanse of moss, exemplify the self-regulating nature of Earth's systems that Lovelock envisioned.
As they slowly transform concrete through their metabolic processes, they participate in the larger process of biogeochemical cycling. They influence not only my cinderblock walls and concrete surfaces, but they also contribute to the broader patterns of weathering, sedimentation, and even microclimate regulation.
This interplay between the microscopic and the global, the biological and the geological, embodies the essence of Humboldt’s and Lovelock’s theory — a planet alive with interconnected processes, where every organism, no matter how small, plays a role in maintaining the delicate balance of life.
In this living system, my moss and its microbiome, like me and the symbiotic communities of microorganisms in me and on me, are not mere passive inhabitants, but active agents in the ongoing story of Earth's evolution. Together we demonstrate the profound interconnectedness that defines our planet's unique capacity for self-regulation and adaptation.
Now where’s my pressure washer?
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Hello Interactors,
We’re fully into Summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and as the earth tilts toward the sun, Interplace tilts toward the environment. And what a crucial moment to do so. Just last week, the Supreme Court made sweeping decisions that could unravel over fifty years of environmental legislation, threatening to plunge us into chaos. This upheaval comes precisely when our world’s natural boundaries desperately need regulatory stability and security to make any meaningful progress in combating global warming.
Let’s dig in…
POLLEN, POLLUTING, AND POLITICS
I recently returned from the Midwest visiting family. I like looking out of the airplane window at the various crop patterns from state to state. Trying to discern which state I was over; I was reminded of a corny Midwest joke.
Why do Iowa corn stalks lean to the east? Because Illinois sucks and Nebraska blows. Folks in Illinois tell the same joke, but it’s Ohio that sucks and Iowa that blows. You get the idea.
The truth is the wind does commonly blow from west to east oblivious to state borders. It sends whatever it wants across the border — clouds, dust, seeds, pollen…pollution. And if there’s money to be made, borders become porous or disappear altogether.
Those rivalrous corn jokes mirror an economic reality. Bordering states all compete for federal subsidies and access to markets — mostly across international borders. Access to these markets can be impacted by corn pollen drifting from one state to another.
With the widespread adoption of genetically modified (GMO) corn varieties, there’s potential for contamination of non-GMO corn fields by pollen from GMO corn fields on state lines. One study suggest cross-pollination could be detected up to 600 feet away from the source, although counts dropped off rapidly beyond 150 feet.
But the more pressing concern isn’t pollen drift, but pollution drift. As part of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a “Good Neighbor” rule designed to reduce air pollution that crosses state lines. It requires "upwind" states to reduce emissions that affect air quality in "downwind" states which can cause significant health problems.
Last week, on June 27, 2024, the Supreme Court's ruling in Ohio v. EPA temporarily blocked this rule.
Fossil fuel companies and industry associations celebrated the decision as a win, viewing it as a check on the EPA's regulatory power. Meanwhile humans with a heart and lungs worry the decision leaves upwind states free to contribute to their neighbors' ozone problems for years.
It's worth noting that this is a temporary stay, not a final ruling on the merits of the case. The legal challenge will continue in lower courts, with the possibility of oral arguments as soon as this fall. But this ruling can also be seen as part of a pattern of the Supreme Court's conservative majority expressing skepticism towards federal regulatory authority, especially in environmental matters.
Take, for example, the ruling that came the very next day on June 28, 2024. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, curtailed EPA, and other executive agencies', power by overturning the Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council precedent. This shift endangers numerous regulations and transfers authority from the executive branch to Congress and the courts. Chevron has been a cornerstone in American law, cited in 70 Supreme Court and 17,000 lower court decisions.
The case began with fishermen challenging two similar rulings, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce. These involved a 1976 law requiring herring boats to carry federal observers to prevent overfishing. A 2020 regulation mandated boat owners to pay $700 daily for the observers. Fishermen from New Jersey and Rhode Island, supported by conservative groups opposing the "administrative state," sued, arguing the law didn't authorize the National Marine Fisheries Service to impose the fee.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times reported the fisherman case was brought
“by Cause of Action Institute, which says its mission is ‘to limit the power of the administrative state,’ and the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which says it aims ‘to protect constitutional freedoms from violations from the administrative state.’”
Liptak also reports these institutions are funded by Charles Koch, the climate change denying billionaire who has long supported conservative and libertarian causes.
It's curious how the Environmental Protection Agency came from a conservative libertarian and the first most dishonest president in my lifetime, Richard Nixon. The EPA will likely be obliterated should the least trusted former president get reelected — Felonious Trump.
GORSUCH'S GRIM GREEN GUTTING
I wrote about the formation of the EPA in July of 2021. 👇
“There was growing concern entrusting those very institutions responsible for the destruction of the environment with devising schemes to save it. The country’s air, water, and land were being smothered in waste. Something needed to be done. So, on July 9th, 1970, 51 years ago today [in 2021], the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was proposed by Republican President Richard Nixon.
This agency was intended to focus on short-term fixes targeting violators of the law, so Nixon appointed Assistant Attorney General, Bill Ruckelshaus, to the post. Ruckelshaus promptly ordered a steel company to stop dumping cyanide into Cleveland, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River. It was so polluted that it had caught fire at least thirteen times. Ruckelshaus also banned the use of DDT.”
Ruckelshaus served from 1970 to 1973 when he left public office to become a private environmental attorney. He was replaced by Russell Train who served as the second EPA administrator under Nixon and continued under another Republican President, Gerald Ford. During his tenure, he supported the expansion of EPA's international affairs, approved the catalytic converter to reduce automobile emissions, and implemented key environmental legislation.
Then came Douglas Costle, the EPA’s third administrator, serving under the Democrat President Jimmy Carter. His administration faced significant environmental challenges, including the Love Canal disaster and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. One of the most notable achievements during his tenure was the creation of the Superfund cleanup program by Congress.
In 1981, Republican President Ronald Reagan appointed Anne Gorsuch Burford, current Supreme Court Judge, Neil Gorsuch’s mother. She was the first woman to hold the position but was forced to leave in 1983 amid growing controversy and concern.
Gorsuch slashed the EPA's budget by 22%, eliminating 3,200 personnel and reducing the agency's workforce by 30%. This raised concerns about the impact on environmental programs and staff morale.
Foreshadowing her son’s actions, she rolled back environmental regulations, like clean air and clean water rules and other environmental protections and decreased environmental enforcement cases. The number of cases filed from regional offices to EPA headquarters declined by 79%, and cases filed from the EPA to the Department of Justice dropped by 69%.
Her approach to policymaking led to open conflicts with career EPA employees and several congressional committees investigating allegations of mismanagement of the Superfund program under her leadership. The House voted to cite her for contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed records related to the program[5].
Reagan couldn’t escape the fall out and forced her to resign in 1983, less than two years into her tenure. He then asked Ruckelshaus to return to his duties as head of the EPA. Ruckelshaus promptly fired most of her leadership team and got back to work protecting the environment running the EPA until 1985.
Nearly fifty years after being appointed by a Republican president to become the country’s first EPA administrator in 1970, fighting for environmental justice at the international, federal, state, local levels – and in the private sector – Ruckelshaus passed away at his home in my neighboring town, Medina, Washington in 2019.
And here we are, five years after his passing, with a Supreme Court intent on returning to the policies of Anne Gorsuch Burford with the help of a son who holds a grudge and a host of billionaire activists intent on institutionalizing libertarian law.
Neil Gorsuch not only joined the majority in a 6-3 decision to overturn the Chevron deference, he wrote a 33-page concurring opinion emphasizing the importance of this ruling. In his concurrence, Gorsuch stated,
"Today, the Court places a tombstone on Chevron no one can miss."
A cornerstone of environmental protection became a tombstone.
Perhaps hinting at his mother’s tenure and committing to his originalist interpretations of the constitution, Gorsuch argued that the decision simply means the courts will continue do ‘as exactly as it did before the mid-1980s, and exactly as it had done since the founding: resolve cases and controversies without any systemic bias in the government’s favor.’[6]
Gorsuch, like his mother, has long been a vocal opponent of the government siding with the protection of the environment, which he believes grants significant regulatory leeway to federal agencies over the judiciary. This opinion clashes with President’s Nixon (R), Ford (R), Carter (D), Reagan (R), George H. W. Bush (R), and Clinton (D) who all enthusiastically supported the need for agency oversight.
CONGRESS, COURTS, AND CLIMATE CHANGE
This ruling is seen as a significant shift in administrative law, potentially curtailing the power of federal agencies and changing how regulations are interpreted and enforced in the United States. Which is an administrative attitude that began with President George W. Bush.
His administration refused to advance a meaningful strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and opposed committing the United States to the Kyoto Protocol. He and his administration increased hostility towards climate science and resistance to significant policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
He prioritized economic considerations over environmental concerns, focusing on the potential costs of environmental policies. This approach marked a shift from the environmental legacy of his father and those before him, moving away from bipartisan cooperation on environmental issues that are unthinkable in today’s congress.
Optimists look at this ruling and claim it puts pressure on congress to write more specific and actionable legislation obviating the need for agency oversight or a need to go to court. The ruling could also clean up isolated cases of corruption between businesses and some government agencies.
But the EPA was created in part because members of congress lack the necessary scientific knowledge needed to write actionable legislation. Also, advances in science tend to outpace notoriously long legislative procedures. Besides, many members of congress today, especially on the Republican side, would rather not sponsor or partner on environmental legislation seeing it as a partisan issue.
I’m not advocating for more top-down government bureaucracy or believe federal agents necessarily always act in good faith, but this shift would transfer significant power from regulatory experts in agencies to judges. Given that many current Supreme Court judges tend to favor corporate interests, this shift likely weakens necessary regulatory oversight. Agencies, despite their imperfections, often have specialized expertise and are designed to protect public interests. Therefore, this transfer of authority to the courts may ultimately benefit large corporations at the expense of effective regulation and public welfare.
Looking back, the creation and support for the EPA reflected a broader trend in the tumultuous late 1960’s. The unease of the Viet Nam war coincided with the publishing of Rachel Carson’s literary environmental blockbuster, “Silent Spring”. The collective mood of the country yearned for solutions from environmental science to address complex environmental issues and their impacts on society. The creation of the EPA was a response to decades of rampant and highly visible pollution indicating that complex environmental problems required specialized agencies to address them.
But CO2 and other fine particulates and gasses wafting in the wind aren’t as visible as the smog of the 1970s. Nor are the effects of ozone depletion and acid rain of the 1980s. Now, with an activist Supreme Court with no term limits intent on weakening protective powers, we’re forced to breath the shifting winds of regulatory authority and environmental policy. In search of a view that embraces intention, action, and dynamism, I’m inclined toward Bruno Latour’s geophilosophy.
Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT) underscores the agency of both human and non-human actors. It’s an approach that embraces the interplay between various entities—from legal bodies and industries to natural forces like wind and pollution—that shape our environmental reality.
The recent Supreme Court decisions, viewed through history and Latour’s lens, reveal a complex network where power is constantly negotiated and redistributed. The winds of the Midwest, carrying pollen or pollution across borders, symbolizes the intricate and often invisible connections that bind us. This includes regulatory changes that cross state and federal lines, impacting ecosystems and communities alike.
In this interconnected world, Latour reminds us that environmental and social issues cannot be compartmentalized or tackled in isolation. The rise of the Keeling Curve, recording raw and relentless increases in atmospheric CO2, serves as a stark reminder of the cumulative impact of countless actors and actions across the globe. It highlights the necessity for a holistic approach to environmental stewardship, recognizing the entangled nature of our existence.
Embracing Latour’s pragmatic realism, we best foster adaptive and resilient strategies, acknowledging the multiplicity of actors involved in environmental governance whether we like it or not. This perspective urges us to move beyond simplistic binaries of nature versus society, instead advocating for a collaborative effort to address the many crises we face. Until there’s a national bi-partisan rallying cry that unites divisions, we best integrate diverse voices and acknowledge the agency of all actors. Only then, in theory, can we better navigate the complexities of our environmental and social challenges and strive for a more sustainable, albeit ever changing, future.
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Hello Interactors,
The lengthening northern days have unleashed verdant chaos in my yard and it’s challenging my desire for order. Some unruly growth demands surrendering control, embracing life's rhizomatic entanglements — an invitation to honor multiplicity over singularity, relation over individuality, and emergence over stasis.
Let’s dig in…
FERN FRENZY IN FULL FORCE
Those skinny unattractive immigrants are invading. They’re nudging their way through every nook and cranny stealing resources and opportunity from those already here. Before long, they’ll be taking over the place. I’m talking about Leptinella squalida (Derived from the Greek "leptos" meaning slender and the Latin “squalid” meaning unattractive). That is the scientific name for a New Zealand native ground cover commonly referred to as ‘Brass buttons’ and it’s taking over my garden.
Leptinella squalida is rhizomatous. It sends rootlike horizontal shallow subterranean stems — a rhizome — in a multitude of unpredictable directions. At various intervals in its journey, it progressively produces small nodules that send whisker roots below while sprouting shoots vertically to the surface to form miniature fern-like fronds — sometimes green and other times ‘brass’ colored. Once a year it produces a yellow ‘button’ blossom that can send seeds aloft leapfrogging the host to colonize another territory.
I planted it in a shady moist area of my small backyard after ripping out a grass lawn. Liptinella squalida makes an even carpet that can withstand a fair bit of foot traffic, making it an attractive alternative to grass. Unfortunately, other plants can’t withstand is aggressive propagation, starving them of light and nutrients. That’s exactly what this exponentially expanding rhizome is doing to the slower growing, less aggressively sprawling Sedum rupestre 'Angelina' — a variety I also helped colonize from Western Europe.
I suspect strict immigration laws should be applied to my little rambunctious rhizomatous island ferns. Last week I eradicated an entire section at the border with a shovel and then carefully extracted the spindly rhizomes from the starved roots and foliage of the ‘Angelina.’ I’m contemplating building a subterranean Trump-like wall to resist the invaders. I may even perform widespread extirpation and dig it all up — especially given the primary section of Brass buttons have also been colonized. They are slowly being overtaken by another aggressive invasive species — clover.
I didn’t plan for this, but I did create the conditions for it to occur. In place of a grass lawn — which offers nothing to ecology in any shape or form — I planted a variety of low growing ground covers, sedums, and clumping ornamental grasses. Many of these ground covers have now intermingled. Some are more dominant in areas than others forming a diverse kaleidoscope of height, color, and texture.
There’s little strict cartesian geometric control I can apply to this tufted tapestry without hard physical barriers. And even then, their airborne spores can gleefully fly where the wind may carry them — oblivious to any tyrannical terrestrial territorial triangulations I may map in my head.
Rhizomes are their own kind of experimental map. They randomly route with their roots. Their genes map the way as MicroRNAs modulate their sway. Meanwhile, subterranean phytohormones signal route initiation and elongation in a coordinated but random multi-directional, non-linear physical cartographic network.
Rhizomic networks have no real beginning or end. They make connections in a non-hierarchical, decentralized way without a single origin or terminus. It is in a continual emergent state of being in the middle of having been made and becoming something new. There is no dualistic hierarchical parent/child branching that dominates Western mental images of hierarchical networks — like a family tree or even a real tree where a trunk sprouts limbs with branches that terminate with leaves. Rhizomatous networks defy rational Cartesian logic.
I’ve been reflecting on the tension I’m experiencing as I wrestle and reason with my garden. On the one hand, I’m drawn to the top-down control of crafting a particular order and aesthetic as an amateur landscape architect. The same desire explains my affinity for urban and transportation planning and design…and I suppose my three decades of user interface design. I like attempts at bringing clarity to complexity.
Modern urban planning tries to achieve the same thing. Urban planning has historically relied on hierarchical models characterized by centralized control and top-down implementation. These traditional approaches often use structural or generative frameworks to shape and represent urban spaces. Emphasizing coherence and order, urban planning typically adheres to mapped zoning regulations and legally controlled growth patterns. The focus is usually on achieving defined end-states or visions, imposing order through marginated space with bordered zones and predetermined paths dictated by urban transportation planning policies.
The same can be said for the planning of countries and states. Colonial powers imposed structured urban plans to assert control and organize territories. Their maps, laws, police, and military impose order through variegated spaces at larger scales characterized by bordered zones and throughways. This reflects a continuity in the desire to manage and control urban growth and development of entire regions and even continents.
FRICTION FORMS FLUID FRAMEWORKS
The rhizome rejects arborescent structures, favoring non-linear, decentralized networks and connections, incompatible with traditional models. The French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's influential "A Thousand Plateaus" introduced the "rhizome" philosophical concept - a non-hierarchical, decentralized network characterized by multiplicity, heterogeneity, and non-linearity. Challenging Western metaphysics, it proposed rethinking reality as a dynamic, interconnected assemblage, embracing a rhizomorphic approach of continuous transformation and new connections over linear thinking.
Insisting on mapping reality through open-ended experimentation rather than tracing existing structures, the concept embraces spontaneous ruptures forming new connections within emergent cultural networks resembling rhizomes. Having no beginning or end, existing in a constant state of becoming, it resists linear urban narratives and stagnant pure identities. Encouraging "lines of flight," the rhizome breaks from constraints of traditional thinking. The urban as a "smooth space" occupied by the rhizome contrasts sharply with hierarchies of Cartesian power and order.
Human cultures also show evidence of embracing this mode of thinking. They too form new connections regardless of imaginary borders. Jean-Loup Amselle is a French anthropologist known for his studies on African societies, cultural hybridization, and postcolonialism. He introduced the concept of "branchement" (branching) to describe the fluid and interconnected nature of cultures that remind me of what I’m witnessing in my back yard.
Amselle's analysis of the N'ko movement in West Africa, which aimed to "debranch" the Manding culture from Arabic and European influences, offers parallels to the Palestinian context and others like Sudan and Ukraine.
The Palestinian struggle for self-determination and cultural preservation resists perceived Israeli/Western dominance by asserting Palestinian identity and drawing on global solidarity networks. It shows how local struggles are part of broader global narratives surrounding identities and cultures.
This conflict fuels identity-based movements reflecting Amselle's "identity wars" brought on by globalization and strict mapped borders. Amselle's framework rejects fixed identities, emphasizing the interconnections shaping Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, and Arab identities. The concept of "branchement" highlights the complex entanglements of histories and global forces in the Palestinian conflict, challenging simplistic narratives of cultural purity and separation.
The same desire for purity and separation is what led me to ponder border control in my own backyard. I’m even contemplating extermination. All because I saw friction at a border where one plant was not ‘plugging in’ to the existing root network, but ‘debranching’ another plants by taking over their lives and land.
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is an anthropologist and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She’s known for her interdisciplinary work on globalization, ecology, and the Anthropocene, and for her acclaimed 2005 book "Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection,"
She writes,
"Cultures are continually co-produced in the interaction I call 'friction': the awkward, unequal, unstable, and creative qualities of interconnection across difference."
Tsing argues that global connections and universalizing projects like dominant forms of Western capitalism, science, and politics do not spread seamlessly but encounter friction and resistance when they engage with specific localities and cultures. These interactions produce new articulations and connections that challenge the universalizing claims of global forces. This, like Amselle, emphasizes the entanglement and co-production of cultures through these encounters.
These "zones of awkward engagement" or "cultural friction" are sites where universals collide with particular situations, producing unexpected outcomes and articulations. That’s what I witnessed between my “brass buttons” and “Angelina”.
“Zones of awkward engagement” and “cultural friction” exist at a city level too as immigrant populations integrate (“plug in” or branch) into established neighborhoods. This can create “cultural friction” as neighborhoods become “zones of awkward engagement”. Zoning and racial or socio-economic redlining are attempts at legal, cartographic, and cultural purity and separation that create awkward zones of friction.
But Tsing highlights the importance of collaborations and coalitions that emerge from these zones of awkward engagement. She says,
"Despite imperial standards for civil society, I have wandered into coalitions built on awkwardly linked incompatibilities."
These collaborations create new interests and ways of being, challenging the singularity of global forces and enabling practices of collaborative knowing and working.
PLANETARY PATHS, RHIZOME ROUTES
I’m starting to see that local urban frictions, be they down the street or in the streets of Cairo, Chicago, Caraco, or Cape Town, are complex entanglements of histories and global forces. They branch like rhizomes in local frictions of awkward engagement, but also branch to entire other parts of the world. My backyard is a reflection of this. I created a ‘branchement’ by planting plants native to vastly separated parts of the globe — New Zealand and Western Europe.
Neil Brenner is a critical urban theorist at the University of Chicago and Christian Schmid is a sociologist and urban researcher at ETH Zurich. They’re known for the influential concept of "planetary urbanization." They claim urbanization processes today are no longer confined to the traditional boundaries of cities, but rather extend across the entire planetary surface.
They argue the classic "city-centric" view is inadequate to capture the multiscalar and multiterritorial dynamics of contemporary urbanization.
Instead, they propose that urbanization today is a planetary phenomenon that cuts across the urban/rural divide and transcends the boundaries of individual cities or metropolitan regions. Urbanization unfolds through the constant production, transformation, and operation of socio-spatial configurations at multiple geographic scales, from the body to the globe.
This includes the urbanization of seemingly "non-urban" zones like oceans, deserts, and wilderness areas being operationalized and transformed through various urbanization processes. While cities remain vital arenas for urbanization processes, they are embedded within and co-constituted by broader planetary urbanization dynamics that extend far beyond their boundaries. They argue urban theory must move beyond the city as its primary unit of analysis and develop new frameworks, methodologies, and cartographies to grasp the multiscalar and multiterritorial nature of planetary urbanization.
This starts by recognizing the rhizomatic interconnections and interdependencies shaping urbanization at various scales, from local to global, and the diverse socio-spatial configurations and infrastructures that form the "urbanization fabric" across the planet. They argue that the "urban" is no longer a bounded condition but a generalized, planetary condition of socio-spatial transformation.
The rhizomatic approach emphasizes non-linear and decentralized networks. It offers a valuable framework for urban planning, ecological management, and cultural integration. And even my garden. Just as Leptinella squalida defies linear control in my garden, urban spaces and cultural landscapes resist traditional hierarchical planning. This perspective promotes adaptability and inclusivity, fostering environments that evolve organically and embrace multiplicity and spontaneous connections. They reject unfair dominance or ‘debranching’ or mechanisms by which dominant cultures or systems attempt to appropriate, assimilate, or subjugate other cultures or elements within their sphere of influence.
Deleuze and Guattari's rhizome and plateau concepts critique cultural dominance and embrace multiplicity, diversity, and coexistence without imposing dominant structures. Applying these ideas to urban integration highlights the potential for hybrid solutions and collaborative networks that recognize fluid identities and dynamic cultural interactions. Amselle's "branchement" and Tsing's "cultural friction" emphasize productive tensions from encounters, challenging narratives of purity.
Randomly routing rhizomatous roots, their genes mapping the way, are like the informal settlements and migrant networks. Their sways are modulated by global flows of capital with labor signaling route initiation and elongation in random multi-directional, non-linear physical and virtual networks that reject cartographic convention. Ultimately, this rhizomatic approach aligns with Neil Brenner and Christian Schmid's concept of planetary urbanization by acknowledging the interconnected and multiscalar nature of urban and cultural processes. It calls for new frameworks to understand and address the complex socio-spatial transformations shaping our world. How do we move beyond hierarchical, top-down models that use structural frameworks to shape urban spaces through regulated mapped zones, centralized control, and predetermined paths?
Instead of aiming to impose order and coherence by striving to achieve defined end-state visions of bordered, marginated spaces, how might we embrace the interconnected rhizomatous roots and vines of the global urban interlacement — without one crowding out another? Maybe it’s time we accept the woven flows of cultures, resources, and infrastructures of the past — and the ever-emerging present middle of rhizomatous networks — made from interplace, the interactions of people and place.
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Hello Interactors,
In an era where Western leaders craft policies that oscillate between harsh border controls and selective humanitarian aid, our understanding risks being clouded by data-centric approaches. Through the lens of critical cartography, we see how enhanced data collection can reduce displaced individuals to mere numbers, obscuring their complex human stories behind cold statistics.
Insights into the disorienting effects of domineering multinational capitalism further illuminate how these data practices, though aimed at clarity, often mask the real experiences and struggles of those displaced.
I explore some contradictions in these policies—how they promise to protect yet perpetuate power imbalances, offering a guise of support while fundamentally failing to address the root causes of displacement.
Let’s go…
DISORIENTED BY DOMINANCE
The Dutch government recently took a giant political step to the right. Some say this is as far right as a democratically elected Dutch government has ever been. It’s probably the most intolerant since Hitler installed a Nazi occupation regime from 1940-1945 implementing racist policies which persecuted not just Jews but other minorities as well.
The Dutch government leaned right as recent as 2010-2012, when the right-wing politician Geert Wilders was Prime Minister. Wilders is now back in office, though not as Prime Minister, and has formed a coalition government seeking to implement racist immigration policies that echo an ugly past.
In one of his campaign speeches he said he desires a strict and harsh Netherlands where
"people in Africa and the Middle East will start thinking they might be better off elsewhere".
Wilders joins the ranks of intolerant European populists like Le Pen of France, Meloni of Italy, and Hungary’s Orban, using anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric as rallying cries. Meanwhile, here in the Americas, Biden and Mexico’s López Obrador have deported tens of thousands of migrants to Mexico despite known risks of kidnapping, extortion, and assault. Biden has been silent on the matter while López Obrador erodes democratic institutions by undermining judicial independence, demonizing critics, and shielding the military from accountability for abuses.
The EU practices its own repressive transactional diplomacy to evade human rights duties to asylum seekers and migrants — especially from Africa and the Middle East. While numbers fluctuated, there has been a significant overall increase in asylum seeker rates into EU countries since 2010 when Wilders first came to power. That surge was driven by conflicts like the Syrian war, which Western governments were complicit in intensifying, and broader regional instability — including detrimental environmental effects due to climate change.
The Syrian conflict triggered a surge in asylum applications to EU countries, peaking at over 1.2 million annually in 2015 and 2016. Following a dip between 2017 and 2020, applications rebounded to 962,160 in 2022, a 20% increase from 2021, with Germany receiving the most (243,800), followed by France, Spain, Austria, and Italy. From 2010 to 2022, EU asylum applications rose from approximately 259,000 to over 962,000, a near fourfold increase. The primary asylum seekers in 2022 were from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Venezuela, and Colombia.
It’s curious how fear of immigration coincides with declining EU fertility rates. The average number of children per woman in the EU was 1.46 live births in 2022, well below the rate of 2.1 needed to maintain population levels without migration.
It could be these politicians, and the populist rhetoric they spew, are suffering from a kind of globalist vertigo. As political theorist and Director of the Institute for Critical Theory at Duke University, Frederic Jameson puts it,
“a profound sense of disorientation and inability to cognitively map their position within the larger global system of economic and social relations.”
As a Marxist, he pins this dilemma on “the immense complexity and abstraction of multinational capitalism.” A primary historical feature of global capitalism is indeed to offload deleterious effects of human labor exploitation and natural resource extraction to regions far from those privileged enough to enjoy the prosperity capitalism can yield. Pushing unwanted labor and development elsewhere is a kind of global “Not-In-My-Back-Yard.” Out of sight, out of mind.
This geographical and cultural distance mirrors the historical migration of freed slaves to the industrial North after the U.S. Civil War. Much like today, these migrants and their descendants faced (and continue to face) a starkly different world of affluence and encountering significant social and economic challenges. History illustrates how geographical and cultural distances can hinder societal understanding and integration, especially when newcomers seek better lives in regions of prosperity.
When those ‘distant others’ appear at the regional doorstep of relative opulence seeking a better life, it can be uncomfortable and disorienting to those who prefer to keep them ‘distant’. In the words of Jameson, it “transcends the individual's limited experiential sphere.”
What may be even harder to imagine is the ’experiential sphere’ most of these people inhabit or inhabited. Much attention is given to asylum seekers beyond their own borders, but most of those ‘distant others’ are forced or choose to stay within, or nearby, their own regions.
A DISPLACEMENT DILEMMA MAPPING THE MASSES
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre's latest report reveals an unprecedented 75.9 million people were internally displaced across 116 countries in 2023, a significant increase from 71.1 million the previous year, driven primarily by escalating conflicts, violence, and disasters in various regions.
In terms of conflict and violence, the report notes a record high of 68.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), with the most affected regions being Sudan, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Colombia, and Yemen. These countries alone host nearly half of the world's IDPs. The report discusses specific conflicts such as those in Sudan and Palestine, which have led to massive displacement figures due to escalated violence.
Regarding disaster-induced displacement, the report records 7.7 million IDPs attributed to disasters by the end of 2023. It mentions that disasters triggered 26.4 million new displacements in 2023, with significant events occurring in China and Turkey due to severe weather events and earthquakes. The shift from La Niña to El Niño has altered global disaster displacement patterns, particularly affecting the number of people displaced by storms and floods across various regions.
The ’experiential sphere’ is unique as displacement contexts vary in different parts of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa, heavily impacted by both conflicts and natural disasters, remains the most affected region, with increasing frequency and severity of these events. The Middle East and North Africa experienced more displacements, notably from the conflict in Palestine and disasters like earthquakes and floods. Europe and Central Asia saw a significant rise in disaster-related displacements, primarily from earthquakes in Turkey and other natural events, while the conflict between Russia and Ukraine dominated conflict-related displacements. East Asia and the Pacific had the highest global disaster displacements in 2023, with ongoing conflicts like Myanmar exacerbating the situation. South Asia, particularly Afghanistan, faced substantial displacements from both conflicts and natural disasters, with significant impacts on women and girls, highlighting the continuing challenges in the region.
The IDMC report emphasizes the complexity of displacement, where many individuals face multiple displacements due to recurring or simultaneous occurrences of conflict and disasters. It highlights the need for durable solutions and calls for improved data collection to better address needs and facilitate more effective response and recovery efforts. The report concludes with a call for increased visibility and support for IDPs to ensure more sustainable solutions to displacement, stressing the critical role of international cooperation and national governance in mitigating the impact of displacement.
Through a critical cartography lens the call for enhanced data collection risks reducing displaced people to mere data points, stripping them of their individuality and complexities. This data-centric approach, while valuable in assessing the scale and magnitude of suffering (including for essays like this), can lead to surveillance and control, masking the human experience behind numbers and charts.
Frederic Jameson’s critique of the modern world’s disorientation in the face of the negative effects of multinational capitalism also reflects how such data practices might obscure the truth more than illuminate. Jameson might contend that these efforts, while well-intentioned, still fail to construct an accurate mental map of those displaced. Without being on the ground with them, technologies like remote sensing, GIS, mapping, and imaging alone can’t represent an experience that can be cruelly embedded within larger socio-economic systems that contribute to their plight.
Instead of offering clarity, the accumulation of data might reinforce the power imbalances between those with power and money and those without.
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: GUIDING OR GOVERNING?
The push for international cooperation and governance, as advocated in the IDMC report, could be seen as a continuation of Western dominance under the guise of humanitarian aid. This can perpetuate a form of moral superiority, fostering dependency rather than empowerment, and embodying cultural imperialism that imposes Western values on diverse cultures.
Such humanitarian efforts are frequently designed to align more with the interests and visions of donors from those in wealthier countries, rather than addressing the actual needs of communities in poorer countries and regions. Furthermore, these aid practices can economically benefit the donor countries more than the recipients, sometimes tying aid to the purchase of goods and services from the donor country or using it as leverage to open markets in recipient countries.
The portrayal of aid in media typically emphasizes the generosity and heroism of donors while depicting recipients as passive and helpless. This only further distorts and perverts the complex socio-economic dynamics while undermining the agency of local communities.
These structures often propose top-down solutions that do not align with the needs or the agency of the displaced. They perpetuate a cycle where the root causes of displacement—often tied to the actions and policies of powerful nations—are inadequately addressed.
This critique aligns with Jameson’s observation of a global system where the affluent West remains disconnected from the repercussions of its policies on ‘distant others’, who are left to navigate the dire consequences of conflicts and climate change that are disproportionately caused by those in distant lands of prosperity.
It seems the challenges of addressing global displacement are not merely logistical or political but deeply ideological. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how data is perceived and used and how international cooperation is structured, executed, and monitored. Only through transformative approaches can we hope to genuinely address the root causes and complex realities of displacement, ensuring solutions that are both just and effective.
Geert Wilders' resurgence signals a concerning trend where Western leaders adopt harsh anti-immigration and asylum policies, paradoxically coupled with a 'white savior complex' towards displaced people within their borders. They assert repressive border control, blocking humanitarian aid while projecting a narrative of benevolence through selective aid packages to 'distant others'.
Ironically, their military interventions, sanctions, and outsized climate change contributions exacerbate displacement crises, yet they deny resultant asylum seekers protection, claiming to 'save' their nations from this self-inflicted burden. Leaders across the spectrum from Biden to Wilders promote a narrative of moral superiority by mapping and surveilling the very displacement their policies precipitate.
This dual approach lays bare a profound hypocrisy at the heart of the Western response to global migration and displacement crises. It illustrates a cavernous disconnect between the root causes we perpetuate and the public stances of moral righteousness we profess on asylum and humanitarian issues.
In confronting this contradiction, we are called to a deeper reckoning — to evolve beyond paternalistic narratives and embrace an ethics of humility, context, and care. True progress demands forging genuine partnerships that respect local cultures, knowledge systems and self-determined priorities. It compels us to support sustainable, community-led development rather than perpetuating cycles of upheaval through military adventurism and plundering the planet's resources.
Only through such a reorientation — by taking full accountability for our complicity while deferring to the resilience and wisdom of those we have displaced — can we hope to transcend the white savior paradigm. In its place, we must cultivate an ethos of global solidarity, one which honors our shared humanity and the inherent dignity of all people, regardless of borders. For it is in this spirit of radical empathy that the path to lasting justice and healing can be found.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io -
Hello Interactors,
Biden’s recent reflective quip got me thinking about how European colonial doctrines like the "Doctrine of Discovery" and the "civilizing mission," continue to justify the dominance over Indigenous peoples, including those in Papua New Guinea.
These lingering narratives not only influence contemporary struggles for self-determination, they also impact global politics and economic globalism. Join me as I unpack the complex interplay of decolonization, sovereignty, and the roles international actors, and their maps, play(ed) in shaping these dynamics.
Let’s go…
MAPS MARK MYTHS
Biden recently suggested his uncle was eaten by "cannibals". Reflecting on World War II war veterans, he said,
"He got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea."
Military records show that his uncle’s plane crashed off the coast of New Guinea for reasons unknown and his remains were never recovered.
Papua New Guinea's (PNG) Prime Minister James Marape didn’t take kindly to Biden's remarks, stating that
"President Biden's remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such."
Marape reminded Biden that Papua New Guinea was an unwilling participant in World War II. He urged the U.S. to help locate and recover the remains of American servicemen still scattered across the country.
President Biden is a victim of depictions of "cannibals" in Papua New Guinea that are part of a deeply problematic colonial and post-colonial narrative still debated among anthropologists. These often exaggerated or fabricated historical portrayals of Indigenous peoples as "savage" or "primitive" were used to justify colonial domination and the imposition of Western control under the guise of bringing "civilization" to these societies.
During the age of exploration and colonial expansion, European explorers and colonists frequently labeled various Indigenous groups around the world as “cannibals.” These claims proliferated in PNG by early explorers, missionaries, and colonial administrators to shock audiences and underscore the perceived necessity of the "civilizing mission" — a form of expansionist propaganda.
European colonial maps like these served as vital weapons. They defined and controlled space to legitimize territorial claims and the governance of their occupants. In the late 19th century, German commercial interests led by the German New Guinea Company, expanded into the Pacific, annexing northeastern New Guinea and nearby islands as Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. In response, Britain established control over southern New Guinea, later transferring it to Australia. After World War I, Australia captured the remaining German territories, which the League of Nations mandated it to govern as the Territory of New Guinea. Following World War II, the two territories, under UN trusteeship, moved towards unification as the Independent State of Papua New Guinea in 1975.
Today, Papua New Guinea is central to Pacific geopolitics, especially with China's growing influence through efforts like the Belt and Road initiative. This is impacting regional dynamics and power relationships involving major nations like Australia, the US, and China resulting in challenges related to debt, environmental concerns, and shifts in power balances.
The Porgera gold mine, now managed by a joint venture with majority PNG stakeholders, had been halted in 2020 due to human rights and environmental violations but is resuming under new management. While the extractive industries are largely foreign-owned, the government is trying to shift the revenue balance toward local ownership and lure investors away from exploitative practices. Meanwhile, Indigenous tribes remain critical of the government's complicity in the social, environmental, and economic disruption caused by centuries of capitalism and foreign intrusion.
SUPREMACY SUBVERTS SOVEREIGNTY
Early Western explorers used a Christian religious rationale, rooted in the "Doctrine of Discovery" and the "civilizing mission" concept, to justify the subjugation and "taming" of Indigenous peoples in lands like Papua New Guinea. This doctrine deemed non-Christian peoples as lacking rights to their land and sovereignty, positioning European powers as having a divine mandate to take control.
The "civilizing mission" substantiated a European moral and religious obligation to convert Indigenous populations to Christianity, underpinned by a profound sense of racial and cultural superiority. Terms like "savages," "beasts," and "cannibals" were used to dehumanize Indigenous peoples and justify their harsh treatment, with the belief that this would elevate them from their perceived primitive state and save their souls, legitimizing the colonization process and stripping them of autonomy.
Indigenous peoples around the world continue to fight for their autonomy and right to self-determination. Papua New Guinea's path to self-determination has been fraught with the complexities of defining "peoples" and their rights to form a sovereign state. The concepts of state sovereignty and the rights of Indigenous peoples, particularly in the context of decolonization, were significantly influenced by international leaders like Woodrow Wilson. (for more on how the U.S. was instrumental in drawing the boundaries for Ukraine and other European states, check out my 2022 post on how maps are make to persuade 👇)
He promoted national self-determination near the end of World War I with the dissolution of empires and the creation of nation-states, though initially focused on Europe. This idea was further developed in the Atlantic Charter of 1941 and embedded in the United Nations charter, helping to fuel global decolonization movements in the post-war era.
However, there are intrinsic tensions between the sovereignty of states and the rights of peoples to self-determine. The rise of the US and USSR as superpowers after WWII, both of whom (at least rhetorically) supported decolonization, put pressure on European nations to decolonize. But both powers also supported autonomous self-determination only if it did not infringe or threaten their own domination. This Cold War context further influenced decolonization as newly independent nations were often courted by both blocs in the global struggle for influence and access to resources.
Newly independent states, such as India and Israel, became vocal supporters of decolonization within the UN. Meanwhile, Arab countries in the Middle East, including founding UN members like Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, played pivotal roles in shaping the Arab response to regional issues, particularly the Palestinian question. Collectively, these nations have used their UN membership to influence international discourse and actions related to the region.
The momentum for independence became unstoppable in many regions, particularly in Africa and Asia. However, economic interests, often aligned with former colonial powers, continue to influence the trajectories of independent states. In PNG, the extensive involvement of multinational corporations in mining and resource extraction poses questions about economic self-determination, intertwining with political self-determination. The struggle for self-determination in PNG is an ongoing process of negotiation among internal groups, the state, and external actors.
President Biden's recent gaffe could be seen as another instance of insensitivity toward Indigenous peoples, rooted in a "civilizing mission" mentality. Perhaps these unconscious biases influence Biden’s actions regarding other Indigenous populations lacking rights to their land and sovereignty. This mindset echoes the historical justifications used by European colonial powers to subjugate and control Indigenous societies — especially across the country he leads.
In fact, the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1960s and 70s played a pivotal role in inspiring the International Indian Treaty Council, which advocated for Indigenous rights at the United Nations. Much of the legally binding language used in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the United States initially opposed but has since endorsed, was written in the original treaties drafted by the United States.
These efforts were instrumental in forming the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) established in 1975 to address the rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination. However, the United States has not supported the CEIRPP. Curiously, while Ukraine initially found solidarity with the Palestinian cause they left the council under Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s first Jewish president.
These shifting geopolitical alliances reflect the ongoing complex dynamics surrounding the Palestinian issue. Microsoft (who opened its first R&D office outside of the U.S. in Israel in 1991) recently announced a $1.5 billion investment in a United Arab Emirates artificial intelligence holding company G42. This suggests capital interests are also shifting towards Arab countries.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been leading negotiations with Palestinian contingents, other Arab states, and Western corporate leaders putting pressure on Israel to consider a future that includes Palestinian independence, self-determination, and autonomy.
It's worth mentioning from 2018 to 2022, Saudi Arabia was the second largest arms importer globally, accounting for 9.6% of worldwide arms imports. During this period, the United States was the principal supplier, providing 78% of the total arms imported by Saudi Arabia. This included 91 combat aircraft, hundreds of land-attack missiles, and over 20,000 guided bombs.
Perhaps the rise of AI data centers is a new form of "divine mandate" — a quasi-religious techno-utopian vision of progress and control cloaked in the language of innovation and efficiency. Just as Christian missionaries once sought to "civilize" and convert Indigenous populations with surveyors of land and resources, today’s tech purveyors seek energy sucking AI data centers in pursuit of loose regulations and a new frontier of cultural and economic domination.
Have we learned anything, or will this phase of technology and global capitalism be the next chapter of environmental and human exploitation at the expense of just and equitable futures? Maybe the globally networked AI overlord many preach can teach us how to better prioritize the rights, needs, and aspirations of local communities seeking their own visions of self-determination. Or will those in control fear that may itself cannibalize capitalism?
References:
Özsu U. Fixing Selves. In: Completing Humanity: The International Law of Decolonization, 1960–82. Cambridge University Press; 2023.
Slobodian, Quinn. Crack-Up Capitalism: The Deep Roots of the Disastrous Tilt. New York: Random House, 2023.
SIPRI. "SIPRI Fact Sheet: Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2022." March 2023.
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Hello Interactors,
The horrific acts of violence in Palestine have prompted acts of violence on university campuses around the world. This post is about one thing they have in common — maps. Maps legally define territory, the rights of those who occupy it, and the rights of those in power to silence them, displace them, or ‘invisible’ them. A pattern we also see with America’s unhoused.
Let me try to map this out…
CAMPUS CONFRONTATIONS ECHO
Citing "clear and present danger," Columbia University recently called for the New York Police to intervene. On April 18th, students had set up tents on a small patch of grass on campus — a form of protest calling for the university to divest from Israel due to the violence in Palestine. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, the President of the school claimed their presence was menacing and that they were trespassing. Evidently, parts of campus are closed to students during certain hours. The incident resulted in the arrest of 108 students. But many returned and were joined by more upon their release.
Nearly a week passed before House Speaker Mike Johnson called on the school’s President to resign if she can’t suppress the war protests at her school. He went on to threaten federal funding for colleges that he sees are creating unsafe environments for Jewish students. Many equate opposition to the state of Israel as opposition of Jewish people.
Meanwhile, the Jewish Voice for Peace is claiming the university is making it unsafe for both Jewish and non-Jewish students in their actions. Of the 85 students suspended for protesting the actions of the Israeli state, 15 are Jewish. The Jewish Voice for Peace writes,
“Yesterday’s statement by the White House, like the administrators of Columbia University, dangerously and inaccurately presumes that all Jewish students support the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians. This assumption is actively harming Palestinian and Jewish students.”
Restrictions on student rights have also led to Jewish students being obstructed from observing their religious events and blocking access to their Jewish community.
Columbia University, named after Christopher Columbus and echoing his legacy of exploration and exploitation, has experienced similar conflicts before. In 1968, protests erupted over the university's plan to build a segregated gym, viewed as oppressive by Harlem residents. There was also significant discontent with Columbia's involvement with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a center providing support to the U.S. Department of Defense during the Vietnam War.
Columbia’s recent protests spawned more across the country. The National Guard have been called to many campuses to sweep protesters away echoing the deadly protests at Kent State 54 years ago. Or Yale in 1986 when police extracted a student who had erected a replica structure found in South Africa’s shantytowns protesting apartheid.
One student protester said at the time,
“We find the Administrations actions highly ironic in light of the continuing efforts of the South African Government to remove the squatter committees with which our shanties expressed solidarity.” In defense of the school, a spokesman said of the protesters, “No group is permitted to have a monopoly on the space.”
No group except, perhaps, the administration.
These university confrontations are part of a larger pattern of forceful takeovers and displacement evident in various forms, including the routine 'sweeps' of homeless encampments in cities across America. These sweeps often involve the removal of homeless individuals from public or private spaces, displacing them without providing long-term solutions to homelessness. Critics argue that such actions not only fail to address the underlying issues of poverty and housing insecurity but also perpetuate a cycle of displacement and marginalization.
Similar critiques are leveled against these universities who in many cases have been pressured by powerful donors and alumni to silence voices speaking out against the ongoing violence in Palestine. A pattern consistent with conservative efforts to squelch diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the teaching of alternative views of history and race. Such actions also serve to perpetuate, and propagate, cycles of protest against oppression.
This practice highlights how power dynamics continue to affect those with less power. From students choosing to sleep outside in solidarity to the most vulnerable populations sleeping outside in poverty. It’s a self-enforcing system where those without property and/or rights are subjected to repeated eviction from their makeshift homes. In the case of those unhoused, it only serves to further entrench the disparities and social stigmas associated with homelessness. In this broader context, both the struggle over property at a university or an urban park reflect the ongoing contention over who has the right to occupy and claim space within our communities.
MAPPING AUTHORITARIAN DISPLACEMENT
These relatively small local campus disputes over territory and legality mirror the larger geopolitical conflicts over land, territory, and displacement they are protesting.
In the Levant or Ash-Shaam (ٱلشَّام ) region of the Middle East, the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel led to the first Arab-Israeli War. In the period from 1948 to 1951, approximately 688,000 Jewish people immigrated to Israel. Many of these were survivors of the Holocaust and from refugee camps across Europe, as well as Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
This period is known as the "mass immigration period" in Israeli telling of history. In Palestinian Arabic history this period is called "Nakba" meaning "catastrophe" or "disaster" referring to the mass displacement of Palestinian Arabs.
Here’s a short video from the Jewish Voice for Peace explaining how this early history has led to current events…including the role of maps.👇
For more history on international recognition of territories in the Middle East through maps drawn by European governments, check out my post 👇 from 2021 on:
The mass displacement of Jewish people from Europe came as part of the Nazi’s European territorial expansion for resources called “Lebensraum” or “living space.” The term was coined by geographer Friedrich Ratzel in 1897 believing nations must expand their borders to acquire the resources necessary for their survival.
While written as part of a political geography text, it was a biological argument inspired by Darwinian theories of how species expand their habitats in the natural world. The concept had become a political weapon for German colonial expansion prior to World War II but was most exploited by Hitler.
Cartography was integral to the Nazi ideology of Lebensraum, underpinning its aggressive expansionist policies with maps that were used to justify and facilitate the annexation of territories. Nazi cartographers produced maps illustrating overcrowded Germanic lands to rationalize the need for territorial growth.
Historical claims were visually asserted through maps highlighting ancient Germanic territories or regions with ethnic German populations, while ethnic and racial maps of Europe reinforced narratives of Germanic superiority and the 'right' to conquer Eastern European lands. Furthermore, detailed maps served as vital tools for the strategic military planning of invasions, outlining the logistics necessary to secure Lebensraum for the perceived future prosperity of the Aryan race.
Cartography facilitated the Nazi's economic exploitation of conquered territories and orchestrated the forced resettlement of ethnic Germans while planning the expulsion of others.
This manipulation of geographical information extended into the realm of propaganda, with maps depicting an expansive and resource-rich 'Greater German Reich' designed to instill a sense of national destiny among the populace. Cartography thus transformed from a tool of navigation and exploration into a mechanism of propaganda and oppression, actively contributing to the enactment of the Nazis' genocidal and imperialist objectives.
Left leaning political and ideological groups, including students, criticized the Nazi ideology of Lebensraum and other aspects of Hitler's regime. These groups were staunch opponents of fascism and were among the first to be targeted by the Nazis for suppression due to their opposition and potential to organize resistance against the regime.
In Alberto Toscano’s book, “Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis” he writes,
“Fascism faced the necessity of making a void around itself, of making a tabula rasa of every organized force, whether political or syndicalist, proletarian or bourgeois, trade unions, cooperatives, workers’ circles, Labour Exchanges.”
After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the Nazi regime moved swiftly to neutralize all forms of political opposition. The Weimar Republic (1919-1933) was a period of significant political involvement for Jewish people in Germany. They were active in various political parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), both of which had strong connections to labor movements and were integral to the republic's parliamentary democracy.
The KPD and SPD, and other leftist organizations were soon outlawed under Hitler, their leaders and members arrested, and their publications banned. The Nazis viewed the left as one of their main political enemies, associating them with Bolshevism, which they portrayed as a Jewish conspiracy against the Aryan race and the antithesis to their own nationalist and racial ideologies.
Within days of the Reichstag fire in February of 1933, an estimated 4,000 Communists were arrested. The ensuing months saw a dramatic escalation in the numbers of those arrested, with estimates ranging into the tens of thousands. By the summer of 1933, the number of political prisoners—Communists, Social Democrats, union officials, and other perceived or actual leftists—are reported to be over 100,000.
Many leftist leaders and activists were incarcerated in the early concentration camps, where they were subject to brutal treatment. The purges were not limited to the political elite; rank-and-file members of these parties, as well as trade unionists and others who represented the workers' movement, were also persecuted.
THE TERRITORIAL ROLE OF SOCIAL CONTROL
During the later stages of the regime, especially in the years leading up to and during World War II, the Nazis intensified their crackdown on any remaining leftist elements or dissidents, many of whom were sent to prison, forced labor camps, or executed.
Resistance activities continued, albeit at great risk, and those discovered were often summarily executed, particularly as the war progressed and the regime became increasingly paranoid and repressive.
Nazism managed to garner support from the German masses not solely based on pre-existing antisemitic and authoritarian tendencies, but rather through a systematic campaign that cultivated such ideas as part of a broader nationalistic and exclusionary ideology.
Hitler, effectively used propaganda, charismatic rhetoric, and the manipulation of societal fears and prejudices to gain political power. The Nazis' antisemitic and authoritarian doctrines were indeed not uniformly accepted across the entire population at the outset so he appealed to certain ideas and emotions within a diverse population. And Lebensraum was the pretense to spread these ideas and emotions throughout Europe.
The inherent racism, economic exploitation, and violent suppression of Lebensraum are hallmarks of colonial projects throughout history. Such historical and contemporary conflicts illustrate the painful reality of colonial projects, which are often marked by forceful takeovers and the displacement of people, revealing the stark power imbalances that still shape many societal and geopolitical structures today.
Cartography is a potent force, merging power with place. Maps do more than chart lands—they govern perceptions and control hierarchies. By defining territories, maps have historically empowered states over indigenous lands and interests, solidifying rulers' authority. Trespassing laws, working alongside maps, secure landowners' wealth and status, perpetuating a system that privileges property ownership above all else.
Legal instruments like maps once laid the foundations for empires, enabling harsh extractive economies. Their influence endures in today's urban design and surveillance, with satellite imagery and GIS optimizing resource control and shaping cultural views, often sidelining marginalized groups and deepening social disparities.
The current landscape of protest and civil unrest, as seen in the widespread student demonstrations calling for divestment and decolonization, reflects a continuation of this struggle over space and representation. When Columbia’s President invoked the specter of "clear and present danger" to dismantle peaceful protests, it was a stark reminder of the power that comes with controlling space.
The reaction of institutions across the globe, echoing Columbia's, highlights a pattern where those in authority use spatial control as a means to suppress dissent. The encampments, from New York to Sydney, stand as testaments to the resilience of those fighting for a fairer world, even as they face the prospect of being swept away by the forces of order.
As echoes of historical confrontations reverberate, from Kent State to the anti-apartheid struggles at Yale to present day Columbia — or past and present brutal bombings from Yemen to Ukraine or Pakistan to Palestine — they remind us of the stakes involved in the cartographic and legal delineation of our world.
These student movements illustrate the ongoing relevance of emancipatory theories found in all three Abrahamic religions that advocate for the reweaving of our social fabric, aiming to construct an inclusive society that empowers individuals to stand in solidarity against the divisive and oppressive applications of spatial law. The fight for a more equitable social order continues, a challenge to the entrenched hierarchies of land and power.
References:
Statement on Columbia University’s discriminatory and repressive treatment of Jewish students. The Jewish Voice for Peace. 2024.
78 Are Arrested in Yale Protest Over Apartheid. The New York Times. 1986.
Friedrich Ratzel and the Origins of Lebensraum. Woodruff D. Smith. German Studies Review. 1980.
Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis. Alberto Toscano. 2023.
The New German Chauvinism – Part II. Bue Rübner Hansen. LeftEast. 2024.
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Hello Interactors,
Behind every map is intent. When it comes to making plans for a city, streets are more than mere passageways; they are the cartography of power, exacting politics and ideology for the unfolding of urbanity.
Paris is the blueprint of social order and control portrayed as a symbol of beauty and progress. I wanted to unravel the threads of intent, from communal aspirations to the heavy hand of authoritarianism — a kind of narrative map of a city renowned as much for its revolutions as for its romance.
Let’s go.
COMMON ROOTS, CONTRASTING COMMUNITIES
I’ll offer a word and you examine your emotional reaction to it. Communism. If you’re like me, you’ve been trained to have negative thoughts. Maybe even stop reading. Communism has been associated with authoritarian, repressive regimes that denied basic freedoms and human rights. Ask anyone who lived under these conditions and you can see why it’s been ideologically blackballed in America.
Now I’ll offer another word. Community. Ah, yes, good vibes. Who could possibly be against community? It’s strange how two words with common origins can differ so much by changing two letters.
The word Communism comes from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s Kommunismus as early as 1847 and is derived from the French word communisme which first appeared three years earlier in 1843. This word comes from the Old French word comun meaning "common, general, free, open, public."
A group of people in common, “the common people” who are not rulers of property, clergy, or monarchy, is from the 14th century French word comunité meaning "commonness, everybody" or community.
I had the experience of checking my own reaction to the word communist while reading about how communist ideals helped a politician in Paris help his community.
The French Communist senator, Ian Brossat, lead housing policy in Paris for a decade. He said his
“guiding philosophy is that those who produce the riches of the city must have the right to live in it.”
He and the local government under Mayor Hildago are doing their best to live up to this. Over the past decade, the French Communist Party has emphasized social justice and economic equality, advocating for stronger public services, wealth redistribution, and workers' rights. They've also focused on environmental sustainability, aligning with broader movements to address climate change and social disparities.
People from all over the world are drawn to Paris for its diverse array of small shops, cafes, expansive boulevards, monuments, and museums. It exudes old-world charm complete with cobblers, tailors, jewelers, and luthiers tucked in and among various neighborhoods — some more manicured than others. It’s a dappled array of diverse color and verdant softscapes that when viewed from afar offers an impression of a picture-perfect pointillist painting.
Paris exists as a seemingly organic and emergent unfolding of placemaking complete with public spaces and parks for the taking — by all walks of life. For many, it’s a composite of ideals that harken back to romantic images of a fashionable and stylistic ‘pick your favorite’ century in Europe making it a perennial favorite destination for tourists.
But surrounding the parks where healthy blossoms glow are stealthy property plots where wealthy funds grow. Amidst the green where healthy plants are planted longtime residents squirm as their neighbors are supplanted. Despite the city building or renovating “more than 82,000 apartments over the past three decades for families with children”, 2.4 million people are on the waiting list for affordable housing.(1)
This isn’t the first time economically disadvantaged people have been displaced from Paris. In 1853, one year after Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew Napoleon III declared himself emperor in a successful coup d'état, he wasted no time embarking on what many believe to be the biggest ‘urban renewal’ project in history.
It was famously led by a former prefect administrator, Georges-Eugène Haussmann. His swift and heavy hand pushed powerless Parisians to the periphery to build the Paris so many adore, only to have them return. A pattern that exists today.
Napoleon III, exiled in England, was reluctant to return to a France in decline, marred by unemployment and poverty. By 1848, a massive influx of laborers had swollen Paris's population to over a million. Despite its picturesque image today, 19th-century Paris was a labyrinth of dilapidated buildings and narrow streets, lacking modern infrastructure, and grappling with increasing crime and deadly outbreaks, including a cholera epidemic that claimed 20,000 lives in 1832.
The French author Honoré de Balzac wrote of Paris at the time,
“’Look around you’ as you ‘make your way through that huge stucco cage, that human beehive with black runnels marking its sections, and follow the ramifications of the idea which moves, stirs and ferments inside it.’”
By 1848, France was besieged by societal strife as the monarchy's resurgence fueled public outrage, contrary to the Republic's ideals of liberty. Mass protests and strikes became common, culminating in a tragic clash at the Foreign Ministry where troops fired on protestors, killing 50. The slain were symbolically paraded through Paris, highlighting the oppressive turn of events.
This ignited the Revolution of 1848; a diverse coalition, from students to disillusioned aristocrats, took to the streets, overwhelming the army and storming the King's palace. This mass uprising prompted the formation of a provisional government while monarchist officials, including Haussmann, fled the turmoil.
In the power struggles of post-revolutionary France, neither Socialists nor Republicans could stabilize the economy or improve living conditions. As a result, calls for Napoleon III's return gained traction. He pledged to serve if elected, mirroring the American democratic elections model. He won a four-year term by a wide margin, but he did not have dominant support within the Assembly.
Facing political opposition and public discontent as his term ended, Napoleon III dissolved the Assembly, fired his adversaries, and named himself emperor. A government for the people and by the people was attempted and failed. Long live the King. Authoritarianism was back to the cheers of many in the streets as Napoleon was pulled through the streets by carriage for three hours amidst roars of support.
PARIS: FROM SIEGE TO CHIC
By 1848, Parisians had erected numerous barricades, limiting Napoleon’s access through the city. Originating in 1588 as a defense against soldiers, these barricades evolved from rudimentary stone walls into complex structures capable of withstanding cannon fire, serving both practical and symbolic roles in the city’s history of civil resistance.
Amidst the dawn of the Industrial Age in 1848, Napoleon III aimed to modernize Paris, differentiating it from the neo-gothic style of London's "Albertropolis." Preferring the era's new materials like iron and glass. Dismissing the gothic aesthetics, Napoleon, with Haussmann—a disciplined administrator with similar architectural sensibilities—set out to reshape Paris into a contemporary urban jewel.
In the words of Hausmann reflecting in his memoir,
“We ripped open the belly of old Paris, the neighborhood of revolt and barricades, and cut a large opening through the most impenetrable maze of alleys, piece by piece.”
In Balzac’s 1843 book Lost Illusions he captures the contrasting existence of society revealing the class Hausmann sought to favor at the expense of the other.
The proletariat
“live in insalubrious offices, pestilential courtrooms, small chambers with barred windows, spend their day weighed down by the weight of their affairs.” While the bourgeoisie enjoy “the great, airy, gilded salons, the mansions enclosed in gardens, the world of the rich, leisured, happy, moneyed people.”(2)
Haussmann, satirically termed the "Artiste Démolisseur," enacted a policy akin to 'creative destruction' to achieve it. This is a concept Karl Marx alluded to and the Austrian Economist Joseph Schumpeter later popularized. In Marx and Friedrich Engels popular 1848 book “The Communist Manifesto” they used the term Vernichtung which describes the continuous devaluation of existing wealth to pave the way for the creation of new wealth.
During the 1830s and '40s, monumental ‘devaluations’ came at the expense of land and rivers paving the way for infrastructure like railroads and canals. Including other parts of the world. Americans, Indigenous and colonized, saw over 3000 miles of canals being dug by 1840 and 9,000 miles of railroad by 1850. We can all think of examples of ‘creative destruction’ today — be it from bombs that fall or a wrecking ball.
This 19th century period of transformation also saw France's first passenger train and the spread of a national railway network, all under Napoleon III's ambition to fortify France's economic stature. He promoted and founded new national banks to fund these transformations, fueling Marx's view that economic efficiencies could be gained through improved transportation.
The rise of capitalism and the concept of 'the world market,' as Marx termed it, pushed for more efficient movement of people and goods, a task complicated by Paris's antiquated layout. Although Napoleon and Haussmann are credited with modernizing Paris, initiatives to improve urban circulation were already underway. Prior to 1833, significant canals, roads, and railways were constructed, and post-1832 cholera outbreak, efforts were made to expand the city and reduce congestion.
Architectural and urban planning, including the design of the Place de la Concorde by Jacques Hittorff, aimed to push the city's boundaries. In 1843, Hippolyte Meynadier proposed major urban changes to improve air quality and circulation. Haussmann later embraced and amplified these existing plans with and without Napoleon's support. For example, Napoleon did not see the need to bringing running water to Paris, but Hausmann did it anyway.
Hausmann was fond of expanding. Whereas these earlier plans were certainly grander than any in Paris, or possibly the world, Hausmann multiplied dimensions. Hittorf had drawn plans for some streets be obesely wide, even by today’s standards, but Haussmann tripled the dimensions. For example, the road leading to the Arc de Triomphe, known now as the Champs-Élysées, was first drawn to be 120 feet wide. But Hausmann insisted it be 360 feet wide with an additional 40 feet of sidewalks on each side. He tripled the scale of a project that had already been tripled.
What resulted was a diagonally criss-crossing web of stick straight boulevards with massive monuments strategically placed at nodes and termini. The Arc de Triomphe from above looks like a shining star with roads and boulevards as glimmering spires. Some scholars believe Hausmann, and his coconspirators, were the first to view the city as a technical problem to be solved from the top down.
It was a civic product to be worked on with little regard for the people who were working within. This view of a city may have been influenced by the aerial photographer Nadar who from 1855 to 1858 perfected aerial photography in France. He patented the use of aerial photography for mapmaking and surveying in 1855.
A WHOPPER OF A TRANSFORMATION
Soon after Hausmann finished the complete remaking of Paris in 1870, Friederic Engels published his 1872 book The Housing Question where he explored the housing crisis facing industrial workers of the 19th century. He criticized what became known as the Hausmannization of cities, writing,
“By ‘Haussmann’ I mean the practice which has now become general of making breaches in the working class quarters of our big towns, and particularly in those which are centrally situated, quite apart from whether this is done from considerations of public health and for beautifying the town, or owing to the demand for big centrally situated business premises, or owing to traffic requirements, such as the laying down of railways, streets, etc. No matter how different the reasons may be, the result is everywhere the same: the scandalous alleys and lanes disappear to the accompaniment of lavish self-praise from the bourgeoisie on account of this tremendous success, but they appear again immediately somewhere else and often in the immediate neighbourhood”
Groups of people struggling to live in a city, “the common people”, those who were not rulers of property, clergy, or monarchy, began organizing as a community. Property owners spared by Hausmann’s utter destruction saw their applications for building improvement permits rejected. In the years leading up to 1871, tensions were once again mounting in a city that had yet to form a municipal government.
Meanwhile the Francho-Prussian War erupted in July of 1870 as France sought to assert its dominance in Europe fearing a pending alliance between Prussia and Spain. During the war, the French National Guard defended Paris. Given their proximity to growing working-class radicalism, sentiments began to be shared among soldiers.
After a significant defeat of the French Army by the Germans, National Guard soldiers seized control of the city on March 18, killing two French army generals and refusing to accept the authority of the French national government. The community became a commune — common, general, free, open, and public.
The commune governed Paris for two months, establishing policies that tended toward a progressive, anti-religious system of their own self-styled socialism. These policies included the separation of church and state, self-policing, the remission of rent, the abolition of child labor, and the right of employees to take over an enterprise deserted by its owner.
Predictably, the Commune was ultimately suppressed by the national French Army at the end of May during "The Bloody Week” when an estimated 10-15,000 Communards were killed in battle or executed.
The Commune's policies and outcome had a significant influence on the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who described it as the first example of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Without it, it’s unlikely Ian Brossat would have a Communist party fighting for fair living conditions. A modern day nod to those Communards slaughtered in 1871.
Meanwhile, today’s City Hall also ensures the persistence of the bucolic, romantic, idealistic — and perhaps classist — proprietors who help to sustain the manicured experience Hausmann set out to achieve nearly 200 years ago. Just as the government plays a role in controlling rent so less financially privileged can live and work there, so too does the government subsidize select city shops and restaurants that attract the well heeled. But they have their limits.
The counselor in charge of managing commercial holdings said, “We don’t rent to McDonald’s, we don’t rent to Burger King and we don’t rent to Sephora.”
These stores obviously exist, so clearly landlords across the city have long sold out to ‘world market’ chains even Hausmann may frown upon. Even as the city take steps to ensure curated theme shops continue to exist. Hausmann may not have planned for this, but Paris did become a kind of a public theme park to the world.
Given the history of radicals and conservatives toiling in a tug of war for centuries over what exactly the city should be and for whom, perhaps the conservative former housing minister now commercial developer, Benoist Apparu, put it best —
“A city, if it’s only made up of poor people, is a disaster. And if it’s only made up of rich people, it’s not much better.” (1)
I, for one, was pleased to find a Burger King on the Champs-Élysées during my first trip to Paris as a teenager in 1984. After a few days of European food, I was ready for a Whopper. Of course, I was unaware of any of the socio-political or psychogeographical implications and ramifications of all this — both historically and in that moment.
I was a middle-class mini-bougie white American eating comfort food while obliviously participating in the exploitive world of ‘rich, leisured, happy, and moneyed people’ on a boulevard designed for it. But I was also in city that birthed liberty, the potential for revolutionary change, and the promise and struggle of egalitarian policies.
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Hello Interactors,
We are fully into spring and that means a shift toward cartography. I’ll be exploring how abstract symbols, lines, and colors can both represent and misrepresent people, politics, and the physical environment. Maps are tools of power and persuasion, which can shape perceptions of space and reality, influence behavior, and maintain or challenge social norms and power structures.
Today’s post bridges Winter’s focus on human behavior with the maps, plans, and politics of cities. In this case, Los Angeles and their attempts at curbing rising traffic related fatalities through safer forms of transportation infrastructure…but not without a fight from some unlikely foes.
Let’s go…
CURBSIDE CASUALTIES LEAD TO ASPHALT ACTIVISM
Angelinos recently passed a controversial measure intended to save lives. It won 63 percent in favor to 37 percent opposed. Maybe it wasn’t so controversial after all. Why should helping save children from being violently killed be controversial in the first place? And why were firefighters leading the charge to kill a measure that saves lives.
Car collisions were the leading cause of death for children in Los Angeles County in 2022. Drug overdose and homicide have been in competition with ‘motor vehicle collisions’ for the top kid-killer spot over the last few years. Drowning, another preventable killer my wife is focused on eradicating, was the number three killer in 2021.
In January, the hyperlocal newsletter Crosstown reported data from the Los Angeles Police Department that 2023 was the “deadliest year on the roads in at least a decade, with 337 fatalities.”
More than half of these were pedestrians. In 2022, 160 pedestrians died from being struck by a motor vehicle. It’s been getting worse for some time.
If you’re not already depressed, this might push you over the edge. Hit and runs are also climbing.
In October of 2022, the County of Los Angeles Public Health Department published the “Leading Causes of Death and Mortality Rates (per 100,000) by Age Group” in Los Angeles County from January to June for 2019 to 2022. During these years, of those aged 0-17, 73 have been killed by motor vehicles. In 2022, it was the number one killer.
Alarmed by the trend, former Mayor Eric Garcetti formulated a “Mobility Plan 2035” in 2015 that “incorporates ‘complete streets’ principles and lays the policy foundation for how future generations of Angelenos interact with their streets.” This follows California state’s 2008 Complete Streets Act (AB 1358), which requires local jurisdictions to
“plan for a balanced, multimodal transportation network that meets the needs of all users of streets, roads, and highways, defined to include motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, children, persons with disabilities, seniors, movers of commercial goods, and users of public transportation, in a manner that is suitable to the rural, suburban or urban context.”
The rise in traffic deaths reveals that the aspirational goals set in various levels of government often represent legal fictions—idealized plans that simplify complex issues, but don’t always lead to action. These legal frameworks, while not intentionally misleading, can result in a disconnect between policy intentions and outcomes, promoting a status quo bias due to the complexities of change, systemic inertia, and established interests — including those of firefighters.
But a group of citizen activists organized to bring action to the fiction and gain traction amidst the friction. They drew attention to the fact that although L.A. had laid out a progressive ‘complete streets’ plan, they had only executed 5% since its inception nearly a decade ago. At that rate they calculated it would take 160 years to build a minimum network of safe streets. All the while hundreds upon thousands would die while the legal fiction would continued to paint a different picture.
So, they devised Measure HLA, the Healthy Streets L.A. initiative, inspired by other cities to bring action to ‘complete streets’ fiction. The measure states every time a street is resurfaced, any corresponding Network Mobility Plan improvements must be implemented. For example, if a street has been designated as a segment of a bike network and is due to be resurfaced, the city must install the protected bike lane (or other complete street infrastructure) needed to fulfill the city’s Mobility Plan 2050. Common sense exceptions are included to ensure public works could still fix things like potholes, utility cuts, or emergency repairs.
But installing 560 miles of pedestrian paths, 300 miles of enhanced transit lanes, 520 miles of bike lanes safe enough for an eight-year-old, 830 miles of neighborhood enhancements, and 800 miles of bike networks for all levels of cycling requires some sacrifices. Motorists will have to sacrifice space on roadways to accommodate these changes. In doing so many roads will be narrowed and speeds lowered thus sacrificing speed of vehicles.
And this is where the firefighters come in. There’s a common misperception among many firefighters and emergency responders that safe streets, that is slow streets, lead to slower response times resulting in people dying. The hundreds of people, including young people, they scrape off the pavement or extract from a car after being obliterated by a ton of metal charging at excessive speeds seem to be excluded from this calculus.
It is true there was a time when speed bumps were added to slow speeding vehicles that also slowed first responders. But civil engineers and urban planners worked through these challenges and now speed cushions can be installed that permit fire trucks (and other large vehicles) to proceed through gaps in the speed bumps. There are also ways to design safe street networks in ways that allow speeding emergency vehicles to move quickly through road networks protected from or free of pedestrians and cyclists…and clogged traffic. In many cases, it’s the same paths carved out of stalled traffic for buses.
FIRST RESPONSE AND EMERGENCY OBJECTIONS
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) seemingly haven’t gotten the memo from the Federal Highway Administration on how to calm traffic while not reducing response times. One LAFD Captain, Frank Lima, was quoted as saying “Firefighters are opposed to Measure HLA…[because] response times from 911 resources will increase…Every second in our profession means [life or death].” But Mr. Lima then exposes what is perhaps the true source of his opposition which is not related at all to his expertise or profession but likely a personal conviction.
“It’s going to hurt small businesses and it’s going to take away parking spaces,” he said. “It’s one of those projects that sounds good on paper, but when you put it in reality, it’s going to have a negative impact.”
He is right that legal fiction does sound good on paper, and on-street parking spaces may be taken away on some streets, but if done well other cities have shown small business improves as does property value. It turns out everybody wants to live on a safe and quiet street, expect maybe this LAFD Captain.
Mr. Lima is also a member of the International Association of Firefighters and presumably the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 (UFLAC) who claim they spent $100,000 fighting this measure. Their president, Freddy Escobar, said Measure HLA “is full of lies…all these confusing lanes, dangerous bike lanes, pedestrian medians, and all the chaos - and nobody is using 'em." If that was extreme enough in his attempt to scare voters, he added, “If we pass HLA we're going to see chaos all over the city.”
Not to be out done, the president of the California Professional Firefighters, Brian Rice, also revealed his personal convictions while presumably speaking on behalf of all California firefighters stating,
"I hate to tell you men and women, California - and Los Angeles in particular - this is a car community. You may not like it, but it is."
He then took a shot at bus drivers and riders who are stuck in traffic today but will benefit from bus priority signaling and bus only lanes as part of the complete streets plan. He asked,
"Do you really think you're going to see buses go faster than 12 miles an hour?"
And then, he fully exposed his motivations for wanting to deny Angelinos safe streets. Dog whistling conservatives across L.A., he claimed the initiative came from “a small group of elite...Democratic Socialists.”
It might seem unusual for firefighters to be so misaligned with most people they serve (the measure passed by a 2 to 1 margin) or for their personal convictions or biases to seemingly conflict with their egalitarian duty to serve all members of the community, but it’s not.
Firefighters are unique. They’re the only profession that attracts people who need to be trained NOT to immediately run into a burning building. As one fire chief said to his trainees,
“Risk a lot to save a lot. Risk a little to save a little. Risk nothing to save nothing. We’re all here to help people... but you need to have your priorities straight: life safety first, incident stabilization second, and property conservation last.”
These people must not only endure and survive extreme physical conditions, but they are also exposed to human pain and suffering, mutilations, and death. All of which require a healthy support network and relationships to maintain their mental health. This is why their training and work environment also includes indoctrination an institutional culture that instills comradeship, respect, and devotion to service — for each other and the communities they serve.
But within any group of people each individual member shows up with their own implicit or explicit biases toward minority members of any community they may serve, be it class, race, ethnicity, gender, or apparently pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, and those with opposing political views. How might these biases interfere with their duty to serve all community members?
Much of our behavior is subtly influenced by unconscious biases, deep-seated preferences we're often unaware of. These hidden biases can significantly impact daily decisions and societal dynamics, especially in critical areas like healthcare, where they contribute to disparities in patient treatment and outcomes.
Similarly, in the criminal justice system, implicit biases affect law enforcement actions, with studies indicating varying responses based on race. However, the connection between these unconscious biases and actual discriminatory behavior remains a topic of debate, with some research suggesting the link is weaker than previously thought, emphasizing the complexity of addressing such ingrained biases.
One researcher embedded himself in a fire crew in a small town in the southern United States to explore these complex behaviors. To be accepted as ‘one of the guys’ the researcher went through training and served on calls with the crew. It took weeks, but he eventually earned his insider status where he felt everyone was acting normally should he not be observing them. It wasn’t pretty.
AMIDST FLAMES OF PREJUDICE, A BROTHERHOOD IN THE BALANCE
As a member of a white crew serving a racially and ethnically diverse community, he indeed uncovered some alarming and explicit individual biases. In a banter of stories about various calls, he observed a trend in one-upmanship among story tellers. “Tall tales” is a form of bonding among groups of humans that have existed across time and culture. Each story becomes increasingly exaggerated and in the case of the culture of this group of firefighters, explicitly racist, sexist, and/or classist. One such crescendo culminated with this alarming tale (trigger warning, some nasty and disturbing language in here),
“Green Village is the worst because you’ve got all those Mexicans who don’t f*****g speak English. At least at Friendship Haven, you can say, ‘Listen, bro, I’m gonna call the f*****g cops,’ and they scurry off. [He simulates running, while holding up pants] These f*****g Mexicans don’t speak English, so they’re a pain in the ass. Those Jose Cuervos think they are doctors. There was that one call at Green Village, where there was this woman. It was toned out [dispatched] as a cardiac arrest, but we got there and the woman was having a seizure.
Anyway, it was me and Kelly and we pulled her out of the bed to this little spot on the floor between the bed and dresser and her two sons were like standing over her. One was flashing a light in her face, like a flashlight. And she was fat, obviously. And the other one was pulling her shirt down to cover up her fat, while yelling, “She dead. She dead.” The woman was fine. I walked out and called police on that f*****g Beaner. If I would have had a gun, I would have shot those two Speedy Gonzalezes.”
In another story, a Black woman in a hijab arrived at a residence where the crew was cleaning up after a call. Laughing, one of the firefighters asked his crew,
“Did you see what they were cooking? There were bones in that pot.” His colleague responded, “What was it? A cat? Rats? Hamsters?”
Amidst the laughter another story was shared.
“Remember we were at that fire last weekend, over in Africa, and that woman slapped the s**t out of that guy?” One of the Lieutenants replied how hilarious it was while stomping his foot performing a racist caricature and mimicking an African language saying “…she was yelling and really going off on him in Black.”
Upon hearing this, the researcher reported, one of the firefighters laughed so hard he lost his breath. As the laughter subsided another firefighter said of the neighborhood they were serving, “Friendship Haven can burn down and I wouldn’t give a f**k. F**k. That. Hellhole.”
It’s hard to read this and imagine why these bigoted firefighters bother even showing up to help these people. But according to the researcher, this is how a fraction of these “white, male, working-class firefighters cope with stress and forge solidarity” while most of the others passively laugh and follow along.
He claims these individual beliefs don’t interfere with their duty to serve because the one thing that would exclude a firefighter from the ‘brotherhood’ is allowing a human to suffer or die — regardless of how they may personally feel about them. He said that while this Southern white “working-class, locally raised, politically conservative peer culture dominates the social space…prejudiced beliefs take a back seat to enacting excellence on the fireground.”
He says because these extremely discriminatory words and actions are portrayed in private and only among other firefighters they entrust, and issued by those in command, there is little opportunity for disciplinary action. He also believes “it is a tall order to exorcise prejudice from individuals.” The best remedy to counter these individual beliefs, the researcher writes, is to start by “educating staff about the populations they serve and teaching nonviolent approaches to conflict resolution.” He also believes “organizational incentives that encourage grassroots competition to provide optimal service or community engagement can stymie discriminatory behavior.”
In the case of the LA firefighters, they are clearly more ethnically and racially diverse than those this researcher observed in the South, so attacks on minority races is unlikely happening in the open. And what discriminatory prejudices these L.A. firefighters do have are clearly not just private. After all, they just spent $100,000 to make them public.
Should a social psychological researcher embed themselves in any number of these L.A. squads, I’m sure they’d reveal disparaging language there too. Their quasi-militaristic allegiance to the ‘brotherhood’ is evidently forged in a shared disdain for ‘cyclists’, ‘pedestrians’, liberal ‘elite social democrats’, and/or some ‘others’ outside their tribe.
As for those firefighters who may be partial to, or members of, these ‘other’ tribes, and perhaps even chided for being one of ‘them’, the group likely accepts them because even if they’re a negatively branded a ‘liberal socialist’ they’d still risk their life to save another crew member or community member.
American firefighters are portrayed as heroes in America. Movies like Backdraft or television shows like 9-1-1 portray firefighters as tough, rugged, fearless public saviors. The heroic narrative can attract those seeking action, adventure, and camaraderie awash in a glamorous glow of danger. But perhaps society’s hero worship can also insulate those with hateful and bigoted views from public scrutiny. They will perform heroic acts to society’s benefit, but perhaps with a bit more education, less bravado, and more tolerance they could become better firefighters and heroes.
One veteran of emergency services, fire marshal, and U.S. Marine Desert Storm war veteran, Daniel Byne, made a plea in 2007 to,
“Take off the macho T-shirts. Take down the pictures and posters that paint our profession in an unrealistic light and encourage our firefighters to take unwarranted chances in the pursuit of living up to an unrealistic image.”
He is echoing criticisms from a Swedish firefighter Dr. Stefan Svensson, a PhD in fire engineering. He says in many countries the ‘heroic deeds’ many American firefighters are lauded for “would probably had led to inquiries, changes in training manuals, the dismissal of the fire fighter and probably even prosecution of the fire fighter for causing immediate danger to others.” Perhaps the bigoted attitudes may also.
Curiously, some of these other countries happen to be social democracies like Sweden. After this country of nearly 10 million people instituted similar ‘complete streets’ initiatives in 1997, their pedestrian deaths dropped from 134 in 1990 to 25 in 2020. Sweden and Norway have the smallest numbers of traffic related deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in the world, thanks to Vision Zero and ‘complete streets’ initiatives.
Sweden’s Svensson’s message for American firefighters is this:
“Bravery and heroic deeds must result from knowledge, not from illusions.”
Perhaps it’s time more firefighters get educated on the negative effects of outwardly expressing hatred toward others, trust their fellow public service colleagues like city planners and engineers, and learn to operate their equipment on streets designed for all — even if that means learning it from people they disparage as ‘social democrats.’ After all, as that fire chief in the South said, “We’re all here to help people... but you need to have your priorities straight.”
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Hello Interactors,
Continuing on the theme of the brain being embedded in the world in which ‘we’ interact, I explore how the brain is also embodied in a biological system with which ‘it’ interacts. The brain conjures this sense of itself inside this thing called ‘me’. How do these illusions come to be inside a tangible body?
Let’s find out…
Thank you for reading Interplace. This post is public so please do something for my brain… Share it’s thoughts with people you trust.
CONSTRUCTING BRAD
I read a passage in a book a few years ago that fundamentally changed how I think about myself. We were fully into the pandemic, and I had started walking…a lot. I would pick a green patch on Google Maps, put my earplugs in, launch a book, and walk to my little green polygon. Some journeys stretched to 15 miles roundtrip.
So, when I was browsing one of my favorite little independent bookstores, you can imagine my attraction to a book positioned to get my attention called, “In Praise of Walking”. It’s a book on the neuroscience behind walking by the experimental brain researcher at Trinity College, Shane O’Mara. I also recommend his Brain Pizza Substack.
Walking, for me (and him), is a treat. For anyone able to walk, it should be considered a treat.
I learn a lot by walking. But walking is no longer something I need to learn. I already learned how to walk. We are not born knowing how to walk, we must be taught. We are not born knowing much at all. That includes who we are.
I was born Brad. Had I popped out with internal plumbing, I learned I would be named Becky. Here is something else I learned: I was born with a body that had already learned how to pee. That’s what I apparently did in the face of the doctor who pulled me out of the womb.
I am half constructed out of the same DNA that built that womb. Though every cell that constructed that baby Brad are long gone. The body I have today is made of different cells — a result of continuous cell division and renewal processes. Something cells have they already learned to do.
I was born a unique self only in that those cells remembered how to recombine genetically out of DNA passed down for generations. My uniqueness over my life arises out of mutations — random events in the sequencing of my own DNA. Other outside events, like what was in my Mom and Dad’s blood stream just prior to conception, can also randomly cause one gene to turn on and another to turn off.
Those random mutations, some stemming from other random events, continued as I went from being enveloped in a warm viscous fluid shielded from light to my blinding, cold, stark reality. I was so happy or angry I peed on a human urinal. Every planned or random event that happened after that continued to shape my biological makeup — including the arranging, refining, and pruning of the 86 billion neurons in my little brain.
I can’t remember any of this. I can’t even remember learning to walk. But I apparently did. Once out of the womb, the world around us continues to shape us. Like those early moments of DNA expression, some genetic expression is baked into our physical genes. But the constructions of those genes are influenced through biochemical reactions which are influenced by our environment. This can lead cells to communicate and conspire to create unique and differentiating genetic expressions. Even genetically identical twins evolve to have differentiated biology — including physical skills, health outcomes, and the development of ‘self.’
Early brain development is a particularly sensitive period to environmental influences. The brain undergoes development, with processes that move neurons from their place of origin to their final position in the brain, guided by molecular signals. The formation of synapses between neurons allows for the transmission of electrical and chemical signals across the brain, enabling learning and memory.
Our neurons are then wrapped in long slender microscopic tubes made of a fatty substance that helps neurons communicate with other neurons, muscles, and glands. They can be an inch long or several feet with tiny junctions that branch off laying the groundwork for cognitive and socioemotional functions…and how to walk.
As we grow and engage with our environment, our brains evolve the ability to control our body's movements accurately and adaptively well into our adolescence. Learning to walk, we’re not just building muscle strength and balance, but creating and reinforcing the neural pathways that make walking a fluid, automatic process. These processes also underlie the brain's ability to adapt and learn from experience. Each successful step taken strengthens the neural pathways associated with walking.
As adults, the neural pathways we associate with walking become so well-trodden that they are almost automatic, requiring minimal conscious thought for each step we take. This allows the brain to shift its focus from the mechanics of walking to the navigation of the path ahead. What concerns us most these days isn’t the act of walking itself but where our feet are taking us.
BIOLOGICAL RUBE GOLDBERG
The brain uses sensory information—sights, sounds, and the feel of the ground beneath us—to map out our environment, guide us around obstacles, and towards our intended destination in life and in the world.
And this is where Shane O’Mara formed an image in my brain that changed how I think about my brain and myself. I, like most in the West, was raised being exposed to Christian traditions and philosophies that teach the ‘self’ is an immutable soul that is unique. Christians believe the soul is God-given, inherently present from birth or even conception and this belief guides much of our social norms and laws. Many people thus grow up believing we possess some essence that makes up our identity. Lady Gaga’s 2011 hit might sum it up best in that people tend to have an oversized belief that they were ‘Born This Way.’
Another view is that the ‘self’ is continually constructed to form an overlapping Venn diagram of many ‘selves’. For me, oneself is a son, oneself is a brother, a friend, a husband, a father, a former employee, a member of a community, a nation, a society, and any other ‘oneselves’ that any given situation demands. Together, they make ‘oneself’. These have all been developed, like my genes, through socialization, communication, and cultural and environmental context — through inter-place, if you will, the interaction of people and place.
More broadly, think of a human as a system of assembled biological parts, each with its distinct function yet systematically interdependent. We have a bony skeleton that supports and protects a complex array of organs. These organs include a powerful cardiac muscle—the heart—that pumps blood infused with oxygen and nutrients through a vast fractal-like network of vessels, reaching to the very edge of existence.
This circulatory system not only delivers life-sustaining substances but also carries away the metabolic byproducts with clever ways for them to be expelled. It’s coordinated with specialized systems for intake and digestion of nutrients, transforming food into fuel. The gastrointestinal tract is a winding pathway designed for the efficient processing of food, extracting vital nutrients, and compacting waste for disposal.
Containing all these gooey bits is a bag of skin. It’s the largest organ and much more than a bag. It is a reactive, dynamic interface that interacts with the world through touch, temperature sensation, and protection against environmental threats. It also plays a role in thermoregulation, maintaining internal climate through sweat and the subtleties of blood flow.
The muscular system is a Rube Goldberg web of fibers capable of delicate manipulation of tweezers to the powerful thrusts for jumping. It all remains suspended with tissue connecting muscles to bones and to each other enabling both movement and stability.
At the core is another set of muscles that operate the respiratory system, expanding and contracting to draw in air rich in oxygen and expel air laden with carbon dioxide. Lungs, nestled within the ribcage, serve as the sites of this gaseous exchange that literally breathe life into us.
Skin allows for the injection of sensory organs without springing a leak. Eyes capture light and render vision, ears detect vibrations and translate them into sound, and olfactory receptors decode molecular messages into scents and tastes.
The nervous system is an internal communication network, a lightning-fast array of signals that governs everything from the reflexive yank or a staggering reel to a cognitive think or emotional feel. It is the electrical wiring that animates our being, rooted in the brain, an organ of such complexity that it conjures consciousness itself.
When I look at these systems together, they make ‘me’. They sustain the biological necessities that enable what we call the human experience. I am a being of both strength and vulnerability, an assemblage of interdependent systems I call 'self'.
This image of myself came into focus with a simple passage from Shane O’Mara:
"As far as your brain is concerned, your body hangs down from your head, until it makes contact with the ground through your feet. You're not built from the soles of your feet up - it's more like your head is a 'castle in the air', with scaffolding reaching down to the ground."
I imagine my brain being the one going on a walk by coordinating with my body to make sure it survives the journey. This ‘castle in the air’ takes input from the world and prunes its own neural network. In the walk of life, the brain conjures an image and belief that ‘I’ exist by enacting and interacting in ways that serve changing social contexts unfolding in front of me. Part of this image of myself leads me to imagine I exist so the brain itself can survive.
‘I’ am more like an evolutionary experiment conjured in a brain working on behalf of, and in coordination with, a biological system within which it is embodied. And ‘I’ exist in a world in which my brain is embedded, attached to scaffolding that touches the ground on which it walks. Sometimes, in search of little green patches on a map waiting to be visited.
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Hello Interactors,
All the talk and evidence of AI, chips in the brain, and robotic overlords has created emotions ranging from hysteria to malaise to clinical depression. How much of this is caused or influenced by narratives spun by favored voices telling tall tales of proximal parables and are there other ways to think about our brain than just a processor?
Let’s find out…
THE MENTAL MYTHS OF SILICON AND SYNAPSES
Our brain is an energy intense organ. It consumes 20% of our energy but accounts for just 2% of our body weight. To manage this high demand for energy, the brain employs various strategies to simplify tasks and processes. One of those is to simplify how the world works. Like dividing it into discernable individual component parts.
In a world increasingly seduced by these crisp edges of in groups and out groups, there exists a tribe of techno-optimists, guardians of an old tale, who look to the brain as humanity's ultimate processor and a promise and desire for digital immortality. This romanticized notion of the “mind as computer” is facing competition as feats of AI reveal a seemingly superior capability to their own self-assuming super-intelligence. So, they want their outdated hardware upgraded. It's all positioned as cutting edge and futuristic but harks back to the clockwork dualistic and mechanistic universe of the Enlightenment.
We’ve been preached a digital gospel that suggests the warm wetware within our skulls operates like baked silicon chips, crunching data of daily existence with the cold precision of a CPU. Yet, simmering in the biochemistry that hosts these digital dreams are ripples of evidence captured and crunched by computers and displayed in the form of MRI’s, fMRI’s, PET scans, SPECT scans, NIRS, and MEG’s. These images lead some cognitive scientists, with the help of various forms of AI, to slowly dismantle the mechanistic metaphor of ‘the brain as CPU’, piece by intricate piece.
The metaphor of the brain functioning as a processor is as old as Alan Turing and the mid-20th century computational theories that birthed computer science. These ideas and experiments propagated as mass media proliferated and now serve as common conceptions of how the mind works. Other historical and cultural factors contribute to the persistence of this metaphor and perpetuated among teachers, scientists, and attention seeking tech moguls.
But it was centuries before, during the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution, that a significant shift towards rationalist, determinist, and mechanistic views of nature were put forth by figures like René Descartes and Isaac Newton. The world and its phenomena, including human beings and human thought, began to be understood in terms of mechanical laws and principles, laying the groundwork for comparing the brain to a machine.
The advancements in machinery and technology during the Industrial Revolution further reinforced the mechanistic view of life processes, including human cognition, making it easier to draw parallels between the operations of machines and the functions of the human brain. I recently wrote about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a prime example from that period.
Fast forwarding a century later, to the 1970s, I remember watching the “Six Million Dollar Man” on TV as a kid. This show was based on a Martin Caidin novel called Cyborg depicting an astronaut who survives a plane crash and is brought to life by replacing body parts with robotics. The “Six Million Dollar Man” was soon joined by “The Bionic Woman” and episodes that featured the faces of human robots being ripped off to reveal a computer inside. Naturally, these two computer-powered bionic superpowers worked as secret agents in U.S. Office of…wait for it…“Scientific Intelligence.”
Source: YouTube
This was all occurring alongside emerging discoveries in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, further cementing the brain-CPU analogy. Like science fiction writers and directors, early AI researchers and scientists aimed to replicate human cognitive processes in computers, leading to conceptual overlaps between how brains and computers function in science and society.
The CPU metaphor provides a simplified way to understand the complex workings of the brain, making it accessible to people without specialized knowledge in neuroscience or cognitive science. This metaphor continues to be used in educational contexts to teach basic concepts about brain functions, reinforcing its prevalence.
The tendency toward reductionism — to reduce complex phenomena to their simplest components — is present in many scientific and engineering disciplines and has long contributed to the organ-as-part metaphor. Viewing the brain as akin to a computer's CPU aligns with reductionist approaches reminiscent of those early Enlightenment thinkers seeking to understand biological systems by dissecting their individual parts and drawing useful, but also isolated and simplified conclusions.
While the brain-CPU metaphor has historical roots and provides a convenient framework for understanding some aspects of cognitive function, many believe it is ultimately flawed. It can overlook the brain's integrated and dynamic nature, its entanglement within a larger biological organism, and its continuous interaction with a complex environment. These are themes under exposed and under explained in popular science, media, and most of the tech industry.
The growing recognition of these limitations, particularly within fields like 4E cognitive science (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended cognition), is leading to the development of more nuanced and holistic models of cognition that transcend simplistic mechanical analogies.
Do we have the energy to spare our brain so we may better understand it?
EMBODIED MINDS EMBEDDED, EXTENDED, AND ENACTIVE
The 4E framework in cognitive science highlights the brain's integrated and dynamic nature. Advances in neuroscience have shown that the brain is not a static organ with fixed functions but is highly malleable, capable of reorganizing itself in response to learning and experience. This plasticity allows for adaptability and resilience necessary for its survival, characteristics not accounted for in the rigid structure of a CPU.
The brain's structure is composed of complex, interconnected networks that support a wide range of functions, from basic sensory processing to higher-order cognitive tasks. These networks do not operate in isolation but are dynamically interacting and reconfiguring based on internal and external demands.
The brain's function is also modulated by a variety of neurotransmitters that influence mood, cognition, and behavior. This biochemical layer adds a level of complexity to brain function that is absent in computer CPUs today. This means the brain is intimately connected to the biology of the body, receiving continuous sensory inputs and sending commands to our organs and limbs. This sensory-motor coupling is foundational to cognition, emphasizing the role of bodily interactions with the world and how our brain processes it.
Research supports this concept. Cognition is something that is embodied in us, where cognitive processes are grounded in sensory and motor systems. For example, studies on mirror neurons suggest that understanding others' actions involves simulating these actions in our own sensory-motor systems.
For instance, when a child observes an adult using a tool, such as a hammer, the mirror neurons associated with the motion of hammering may fire in the child's brain, despite the child not physically performing the action. This neural activity can help the child understand the action and later replicate it, contributing to the learning process.
Another example is in the understanding of emotions. When we see someone smiling or frowning, our mirror neuron system may activate the same facial muscles involved in smiling or frowning, contributing to an empathetic response. This internal mimicry can help us to 'feel' what the other person is feeling and develop a better understanding of their emotional state.
The brain is in continuous interaction with the complex environment in which we exist. It is embedded in an environment that it continuously interacts with, influencing and being influenced by it. This interaction is not merely passive; the brain actively constructs perceptions and meanings based on environmental inputs.
This enactive perspective posits cognition arises through a dynamic interplay between an organism and its environment. Cognitive processes such as perception and action are therefore inseparable and co-determined. In the example of a child learning to use a hammer, they learn to grasp the handle not just by observing but through a process of trial and error. This involves actively engaging with the object and learning from the outcomes of these interactions thus enacting cognition through interactive processes.
These dynamic interactions are extended beyond the brain and body to include tools, like a hammer, but also computers, mobile phones, and automobiles. These tools become part of the mind's cognitive architecture. This perspective challenges traditional notions of cognition as being confined within the boundaries of the individual, proposing instead that objects and devices in our environment can function as extensions of our cognitive system when they are deeply integrated into our mental activities.
As the brains of neuroscientists interact with each other, their embedded and embodied brains are synthesizing an ever-evolving understanding of cognition that is more integral than dichotomous, more holistic than dualistic. Even as the brain employs cost-cutting simplification strategies, a rich emergent complexity emerges that further defines our cognitive reality.
The old metaphor of the brain as a CPU, once a middle 20th-century marvel, is gradually yielding to a perspective that sees the brain not as a solitary processor but as part of a dynamic, integrated system of organism and environment. As techno-optimists laud AI and digital immortality, praying to dualistic gods, the minds of some neuroscientists are extended by imaging tools powered by CPUs, presenting a model of cognition far from the mechanistic. Instead, they argue our brains are enmeshed in a dynamic and fluid biological existence.
It is here, in the flowing network of neurons and scientific narratives, that the future of understanding the human mind is taking shape. Even as I write this and you read it, we are moving our brain from the rigidly digital dualistic understanding to the fluidly enactive. In doing so, our brains are redefining our place within this emergent organism-environment system we call life using as little energy as necessary.
References:
Knyazev, G. G. (2023). A Paradigm Shift in Cognitive Sciences. Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology. DOI: 10.1007/s11055-023-01483-9
Newen, A., De Bruin, L., & Gallagher, S. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford handbook of 4E cognition. Oxford University Press.
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Enactivism. In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enactivism
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Hello Interactors,
A Frankenstein announcement from Musk this week punctuated my recent fascination with the author of that popular novel, Mary Shelley. Her isolated lived experience in a time of intense technological discovery, social and geo-political unrest, AND a climate crisis rings true today more than ever.
But she also was subtlety representing a scientific movement that is largely ignored today, but just may be experiencing a bit of a resurgence in areas like biology and neuroscience.
Let’s dig in…
FRANKEN-MUSK
“It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.”
Mary Shelley was intrigued, and maybe a little scared, by the idea of electrifying organs. She admits as much in her 1831 forward of her famous novel, “Frankenstein”, first published January 1, 1818. She wrote,
"Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth."
Bioelectrical experimentation had been happening for nearly 40 years by the time Shelley wrote this book. Luigi Galvani, an Italian physician, physicist, and philosopher demonstrated the existence of electricity in living tissue in the late 1780s. He called it ‘animal electricity’. Many repeated his experiments over the years and ‘galvanism’ remained hotly debated well into the 1800s.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Shelley and her “Frankenstein” lately. The hype and hysteria surrounding AI, human-like robots, and biocomputing make it easy to imagine. Just last week Elon Musk tweeted that his company, Neuralink, implanted its brain chip in a human for the first time. He wants to make ‘The Matrix’ a reality. Here we are some 200 years later, wanting to believe ‘perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth.’
‘Vital warmth’ seems a borrowed phrase from another scientific movement of the time, ‘vitalism’. Vitalism is the belief that living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities, like computer chips, because they are governed by a unique, non-physical force or "vital spark" that animates life. A kind of teleology for which some contemporary biologists now have empirical evidence.
One prominent vitalist of the 18th and 19th century, the German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, is best known for his contributions to the study of human biology. He developed the concept of the "Bildungstrieb" or "formative drive," which he proposed as an inherent force guiding the growth and development of organisms. Contemporary science explains these processes through a combination of genetic, biochemical, and physical principles like encoded DNA, gene expression networks, and morphogenesis — the interactions between cells and their responses to various chemical and mechanical forces.
THE INDUSTRIALIST’S VITAL SPARK
‘Formative drive’ was a vitalist response to the mechanistic explanations of life that were prevalent in the Enlightenment period. The same mechanistic fervor that endues so many technologists today, like Musk, with vital warmth. Blumenbach argued that physical and chemical processes alone could not account for the organization and complexity of living beings. Instead, he suggested that some other vital force was responsible for the development and function of organic forms.
Vitalists had their skeptics. Chiefly among them was Alessandro Volta. He was critical of Galvani’s ‘vital spark’. In Galvani’s frog leg experiments, he discovered that when two different metals (e.g., copper and zinc) were connected and then touched to a frog's nerve and muscle, the muscle would contract even without any external electrical source. Galvani concluded that this was due to an electrical force inherent in the nerves of the frog, a concept that challenged the prevailing views of the time and eventually laid the groundwork for the field of electrophysiology.
Volta, however, believed the electrical effects were due to the metals used in Galvani's experiments. Volta’s work eventually led to the development of the Voltaic Pile, an early form of a battery. Hence the term ‘volt’. The Voltaic Pile enabled a more systematic and controlled study of electricity, which was a relatively little-understood phenomenon at the time. It provided scientists and inventors with a consistent and reliable source of electrical energy for experiments, leading to a deeper understanding of electrical principles and the discovery of new technologies.
One such technology was the invention of the telegraph in the 1830s. The availability of electric batteries as power sources is what made it possible for Samuel Morse to revolutionize long-distance communication, profoundly effecting commerce, governance, and daily life. As he wrote in his first public demonstration, “What hath God wrought?”
The mechanists gained further favor as more and more scientists, inventors, and eventually economists succumbed to the allure of reductionism. They believed understanding complex phenomena could be done by studying their simplest, most fundamental, and mechanistic parts. Including body parts.
ECHOES OF THE INDUSTRIAL AGE
It was around the time of Morse’s tinkering that Mary Shelley reissued ‘Frankenstein’. She revealed in her 1831 forward how she was influenced by the scientific and philosophical ideas of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This included galvanism, the debates around vitalism, and the Romantic movement's reaction to the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and science.
This was also a period marked by significant political, social, and technological upheavals. The consolidation of nation-states and the expansion of political power were central themes of this era, leading to debates over government intervention and the balance between order and liberty. Shelley's narrative, set against this backdrop, can be seen as a reflection on the consequences of unchecked ambition and the ethical responsibilities of creators, themes that are increasingly relevant in today's discussions about artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other forms of technological innovation.
Moreover, Shelley's personal history and the socio-political context of her time deeply informed the themes of her novel. As the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneering feminist thinker, Shelley was exposed from an early age to, what were then, radical ideas about gender, society, and individual rights. Her own experiences of loss, isolation, and vulnerability were compounded by the societal upheavals of the Little Ice Age and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. "Frankenstein" is imbued with a profound sense of existential questioning. It critiques the dehumanizing aspects of technological and industrial progress — themes that resonate with many today.
Like the early parts of the Industrial Revolution, we are living in a period of transforming economies, social structures, and daily life, ushering in new forms of labor, consumption, and environmental impact. The creation of Shelley’s ‘Creature’ can be seen as a metaphor for the unforeseen consequences of industrialization, including the alienation of individuals from their labor, from nature, and from each other.
Shelley's narrative warns of the dangers of valuing power and progress over empathy and ethical consideration, a warning that remains pertinent as society grapples with the implications of rapid technological advancement and environmental degradation. Mechanistic reductionism, with its emphasis on dissecting complex phenomena into their most basic parts, undeniably continues to dominate much of science, technology, and conventional thought.
Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," while serving as a cautionary tale about the hubris and potential perils of unchecked scientific and technological ambition, has paradoxically also fueled the collective imagination, inspiring generations to dream of creating a human-like entity from disparate parts and mechanisms.
Yet, there is an emerging renaissance that harks back to the holistic perspectives reminiscent of early vitalism. As scientists increasingly traverse interdisciplinary boundaries, embracing the principles of holism and complexity science, they are uncovering new patterns, principles, and laws that echo the intuitions of early vitalists.
The groundbreaking research of Michael Levin at Tufts University, with its focus on bioelectric patterns and their role in development and regeneration, offers a compelling empirical bridge to Blumenbach’s ‘formative drive’. While Levin's work eschews the metaphysical aspects of a "life force," it uncovers the intricate bioelectric networks that guide the form and function of organisms, echoing vitalism's fascination with the organizing principles of life.
This shift acknowledges that life's essence may not be fully captured by reductionist views alone. Levin shows how it’s not the mechanisms of DNA that unlock the mysteries of biological organization but the communication between cells and their environment. It points towards a more integrated understanding of the natural world that respects the intricate interplay of its myriad components.
Shelley’s pondering remains relevant today, “perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth." Either way, "Frankenstein" continues to remind us of the need for humility and ethical consideration. After all, as we navigate the complex frontier between mechanistic ambition and our fragile, emergent, and interconnected life neurobiology tells us our own neural connections are being reshaped by both environmental interactions and cognitive activity, reflecting principles of embedded cognition those early vitalists would surely endorse.
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Hello Interactors,
It’s been a while since we’ve been together. I took some time over the holiday break. We often think of parents spoiling kids upon their return from college, but I’m the one who feels spoiled.
We’re squarely in the winter season up north and that means I’ll be exploring human behavior. With all the talk of AI, I thought I’d start with its root inspiration — the neuron. How did these come to be?
Let’s find out.
As I stand here today, the earth’s declination angle is slowly inching toward zero as its orbital tilt brings us closer to spring. This will trigger a host of biological and biochemical chain reactions. Plants awake, buds break, birds migrate, insects propagate, amphibians’ mate, seeds germinate, furs abate, and soils emanate. Algae plumes bloom, and our own metabolism’s resume.
This shared sensing of environmental change makes common sense because we can sense it with our own senses. Less common is making sense of what we can’t sense. That’s what I’m trying to make sense of. Let’s start with cells.
Cells can also make sense of their environment, and of each other. Consensus belief says cellular life emerged nearly 3.7 billion years ago on a rotating and orbiting earth that had already been oscillating in a predictable pattern for 750 million years.
Early cellular organisms learned to predict these patterns, as the theory goes, getting an evolutionary leg up on the competition. This knowledge was then stored in the cell. I was surprised to learn a cell can store information.
Ricard Solé is a prominent researcher who applies complex systems concepts to biology. He explained in a recent podcast how cells perform associative learning through reactions to different external stimuli — a process fundamental to the evolution of cognition. This learning involves associating a specific signal with a stressor in a cell’s environment. Over time, they learn to respond to the signal, even in the absence of the original stressor. A bit like a Pavlovian response.
This information is then stored within the cell. Cells have complex signaling networks that gather information from the cell membrane and transmit it internally from the membrane to the genome or nucleus. These signals act as boolean "genetic switches." The switch involves pairs of genes that negatively regulate each other, creating a kind of memory storage system. As one gene tries to regulate the other, that gene is trying to do the same. Like two magnets competing to repel or attract. This leads to a binary outcome — the conflict produces a specific protein, or it does not. This process is akin to the binary electronic circuitry found in signaling networks used to process and store information on a computer. (more on that in future posts on this topic)
Cells that can respond to the environment, or conditions within itself, can secrete something into their environment. But if there are no other cells to receive them as signals or with the intention to propagate their stored information, this operation serves no function. Over evolutionary time, however, cells began to form functionalities. For example, through expressions formed from their genetic circuitry, the cells that make up your liver and kidney evolved to conduct basic metabolic functions. Meanwhile, the cells that make up neurons in your brain evolved to send and receive information — to communicate with each other. A major step in evolution.
Another major evolutionary step, according to Solé, came with interneurons. These are neurons that form connections between sensory neurons to process information between them. Many neurons connected by many interneurons form arrays of neural circuits capable of more complex information processing. Organisms that don’t have interneurons, like plants, pose a real biological and evolutionary disadvantage among energy competing biological organisms. Though, they created their own biological functions that are so wondrous they induce jealousy, like photosynthesis. Imagine getting fed by lying in the sun with your feet in the sand. Did I mention it’s winter in the gloomy northwest?
Solé believes the invention of interneurons provided the critical step toward a key component in the evolution of complex organisms like us, but also organisms that came before us like jellyfish. Jellyfish are made of a distributed ‘nerve net’ composed of sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons similar to ours. This network conducts basic processing for various sensory and motor functions. For example, it can sense elements of its environment, like water currents and temperatures, which then trigger responses like swimming or eating.
Directed locomotion in response to sensory information processing serves as another critical step on the path of evolution — predation. Not only is the jellyfish sensing the water around them, but they’re also sensing the presence of predators and their nervous system conspires to act accordingly. As remarkable and complex a jellyfish is at storing information that allows it to predict and act to internal and external stimuli, it took another evolutionary leap to yield the kind of complex neural networks and biological systems we humans rely on.
In the words of Ricard Solé, “we tend to think [we humans], unfortunately for our planet, [] have been very, very successful.” He considers humans ‘ecological engineers’ because we can “transform the planet by changing flows of energy and matter at massive scales.” The question remains (as we transform the planet in ways that make it harder for us and the organisms we rely on to survive) is our evolutionary journey entering a phase transition? Are we teaching our cells a new lesson to be stored away for future generations, or another failed biological experiment nearing the end of the relentless and brutal path of evolutionary trial and error?
Paraphrasing the esteemed biologist E. O. Wilson, Solé offers that “if humans were not here, there would be the planet of the ants”. Ants have a form of collective intelligence that also allow them to transform the planet at massive scales, but to also survive seemingly insurmountable odds.
Is there something to be learned from ants? An ant, on its own, is as unremarkable as it is doomed. Can the same be said for us? Who are we without other humans? And even when we’re alone, are we really? We host an entire ecosystem of microorganisms for which we are mutually dependent for survival. Some feed on us, some try to kill us, while others conspire with our cells in competition and collaboration to make sense of each other — including the cells that make neurons. What kind of intelligence will they we need to survive another trip around the sun?
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Hello Interactors,
It’s been a great year hear at Interplace with subscriptions hitting (and hovering) around 1000 subscribers! Thank you!
And thanks to Substack’s recommendation engine, the vast majority of those came from Steven Sinofsky’s Hardcore Software newsletter. Thank you!
Sadly, the utility of this recommendation engine also means those Nazi newsletters Substack chooses to sponsor will also spread. It’s their choice of free speech as a publisher and seller. Just like this 1930s Aryan bookstore who was fine attracting Nazi customers because, like Substack, they believed select, uncensored ‘truth brings liberation’.
I’m not thrilled to be sorted alongside such publications, but I’m also not thrilled to be embedded among local and national right wing extremists in a country that has yet to fully come to terms with it’s own racial ideology. An ideology that intermingles jingoism and militarism propped up with related economic policies. Yes, I have the choice (and privilege) to move, but finding places void of right-wing extremism and zombie neoliberalism is getting harder and harder these days.
2024 is a big election year in the U.S. One that will surely influence this course and our nation’s discourse. Abusive forms of AI is sure to play a role in it. So, I was curious what would happen if I took my top five most viewed posts of 2023 and ask ChatGPT to provide connections between them and summarize a conclusion.
I’m impressed. Not only with the how Large Language Models (LLMs) emulate perceived human intelligence, but with the consistency with which my own convictions and intentions emerge throughout these five posts. ChatGPT, like a good LLM, is providing an illusion of consistency and coherency in my writing! It’s a reflection of external linguistic patterns arranged in a literary image of my internal goals for Interplace — an emulation of perceived intelligence! Be careful out there.
I hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2024. Please remember this interpretation of my own intention as you set your new year’s resolutions:
“our collective actions contribute to the fabric of our environments, and through awareness and choice, we have the power to reshape them for the better.”
And now, ChatGPT’s Interplace summary of 2023.
The five blocks of text you provided seem to be excerpts from different discussions or articles that, although varied in focus, share common themes about the intersection of human behavior, spatial cognition, and the environment, whether it be through the lens of a television show, research in geography, urban planning, psychological studies, or societal needs.
* Clarkson’s Farm: The Grand Tour of the Rural-Urban Divide:
This text illustrates how a TV show can provide a microcosm of the broader societal issues, including the divide between rural and urban life, environmental impact, and social stratification. It suggests that the antics of the show's host, Jeremy Clarkson, inadvertently reveal the interconnectedness of society and the environment.
* A Geography Revolution: Complexity and Connection in Successor Evolution:
This section discusses the advancement in cognitive geography, moving away from traditional, rigid spatial models to those that account for the complex, iterative interactions between people and their environments. It challenges conventional Euclidean views and advocates for a more dynamic, holistic approach to spatial cognition.
* The Universal Uniformity of Urban Mobility:
Here, the focus is on urban mobility and how patterns of movement within cities are universally similar, as demonstrated by visitation power laws. The text raises concerns about equity and inclusivity in urban planning, suggesting that current models serve those with resources while potentially neglecting others. It also touches on how legislative changes can influence urban structure and the potential for creating more walkable neighborhoods.
* Will Work for Food. A Quirk or Accrued?:
This text compares human behavior with that of rats in a study about driving and satisfaction. It draws parallels between the cognitive benefits of novel experiences and the laborious nature of maintaining a car, suggesting that there may be more rewarding alternatives to driving, such as walking, which provide more cognitive stimulation and a sense of agency.
* Hierarchy of Needs or Just More Greed?:
The final text reflects on the individual's power to enact change within large-scale systems, as evidenced by shifts in behavior during the pandemic. It questions whether adherence to traditional socio-economic constructs serves our needs and posits that conscious, alternative choices could lead to significant societal transformations.
Summary:
The amalgamation of these texts presents a nuanced examination of human-environment interactions. At the core is an understanding that our spaces, whether physical like farms and cities or conceptual like cognitive maps, are not static but are shaped by our interactions, decisions, and movements. From Clarkson's representation of rural life to the universal patterns of urban mobility, we see a pattern of uniformity in our behaviors that transcends geography and culture.
The discussion on cognitive geography suggests that embracing complexity in our understanding of space can lead to more equitable and representative models of human-environment interaction. This is echoed in the exploration of urban mobility, where data reflects not just how we move, but also the socio-economic hierarchies that dictate our movement. The potential for change is highlighted by the example of legislation affecting urban density, indicating a path towards more sustainable and equitable urban living.
The comparison of human behavior to that of rats reveals a deeper commentary on our choices and their psychological impacts. The reward system driving both rats and humans to undertake certain tasks like driving is complex and influenced by our environment. This complexity is further unpacked in the final text, which suggests that individual choices can lead to macro-scale changes in society. This ties back to the first text, where a television show, through its portrayal of the rural-urban divide, unintentionally showcases the interconnectivity of our choices and their impact on the world.
In essence, these texts argue for a more conscious and nuanced approach to how we view and shape our environments. They call for a departure from reductionist thinking, advocating for a recognition of the complex, interconnected nature of our world, and a reevaluation of our choices and their ramifications. Whether through the lens of a TV show, urban planning, geography, psychology, or societal behavior, the message is clear: our collective actions contribute to the fabric of our environments, and through awareness and choice, we have the power to reshape them for the better.
Thank you for reading Interplace. Feel free to share it.
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Hello Interactors,
On the day before many around the world pull out ‘T’was the Night Before Christmas’ to read to their kids, maybe drop a little context to the origins of this tale. This is an excerpt from a longer post I did in 2021 on Black Friday.
It touches on how the rising wealth in New York leading up to 1900 brought about shifts in attitudes around how the powerful elite should deal with ‘the masses’ of poor, and increasingly urban, immigrants. Included are themes emerging today like immigration, laws outlawing voting to non-property owners, and even calls for an end to democracy.
‘T’was the Night Before Christmas’ was intended for the elite literate ruling class. It can be interpreted as a nostalgic romantic tale about how Christmas should be less about sharing with ‘the unruly masses’ — communally seeking good tidings — and more about barricading private homes from potential invasion and keeping your wealth to yourself. It’s a fantasy about letting a poor, kind peddler in a red tattered coat labor to bring gifts to affluent kids, quietly and calmly through the chimney of a fancy New York apartment.
Merry Christmas!
CLOTHES WERE ALL TARNISHED WITH ASHES AND SOOT
But the dawn of a new century, and the industrial age, brought a shift in attitudes around Christmas. The elite, like in centuries past, distanced themselves from the occasion. As urban cities grew and jobs shifted from the farm to the factory, winter brought new dynamics to the onset of the season. Some factories closed in the cold months as did shipyards along frozen waters.
This brought unemployment and idle time to laborers. Whereas historically wealthy farm owners were willing to amuse the working class in a societal roll reversal – through transient and theatrical wassailing – the urban elite power structures were unwilling to participate. But it didn’t stop the working class from venting.
The once faint mockery of their employers – imbued with subtle hints of revenge should they not offer them gifts, food, or alcohol – turned fierce and riotous in the 1800s. Papers in both England and the United States barely mention Christmas at all between 1800 and 1820. But that was about to change.
In the first decade of 1800, one of New York’s most influential men, John Pintard, became particularly peeved by the seasonal banditti. He reminisced on ‘better days’ when the rich and the poor got drunk together. And while he wished his wealthy friends reveled more among themselves, he grew concerned that “the beastly vice of drunkenness among the lower laboring classes is growing to a frightful excess…”
And in a familiar tone, echoed to this day by many, he feared “thefts, incendiaries, and murders—which prevail—all arise from this source.” Which is why he helped create the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism. This was an organization that sought to curb money directed at care for the poor, but to also stop them from begging and drinking. The white elite ruling class of the 1820s –- as well as many in the 2020s – complained of what one New York paper described as, “[t]he assembling of Negroes, servants, boys and other disorderly persons, in noisy companies in the streets, where they spend the time in gaming, drunkenness, quarreling, swearing, etc., to the great disturbance of the neighborhood.”
Pintard was also hopelessly nostalgic. He founded the New York Historical Society in 1804 and was instrumental in establishing Washington’s Birthday, the Fourth of July, and Columbus Day as national holidays. Pintard also introduced America’s icon of nostalgia, Santa Claus. Seeking a patron saint for the New York Historical Society, and for all of New York City, he commissioned an illustration to be painted of St. Nicholas giving presents to children. While the icon was not intended to be seasonal, it was nonetheless printed on December 6th, St. Nicholas Day, in 1810.
He pined for the days when the rich and powerful could rule over what was becoming a burgeoning working class. In 1822, as Jefferson had just passed a law allowing non-property owners to vote, Pintard wrote to his daughter,
“All power is to be given, by the right of universal suffrage, to a mass of people, especially in this city, which has no stake in society. It is easier to raise a mob than to quell it, and we shall hereafter be governed by rank democracy.… Alas that the proud state of New York should be engulfed in the abyss of ruin.”
WHAT TO MY WONDERING EYES SHOULD APPEAR
1822 was also the year his friend, and wealthy land owner, Clement Clark Moore, wrote what was to become the most influential Christmas poem ever: “A Visit from St. Nicholas” or as it is known today, “T’was The Night Before Christmas.”
This single poem, written for the elite upper class, encapsulates the nostalgia of wassailing Pintard and his friends pined for, while self-indulgently feeling good about themselves for ‘giving to the needy.’ Moore did this by substituting the unruly lower working class, begging for gifts from their master, with children expecting presents on Christmas morning.
He kept the gift giving mysticism of the centuries old St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, but removed the judgmental elements of a Bishop who may make them feel guilty for maintaining class divide by making him “merry”, “droll”, “rosy”, and “plump.” He also made him a lower class “peddler”. And while Santa made a loud noise “on the lawn” with a “clatter”, just as a lower class wassailer would have, he was but a small and unthreatening “right jolly old elf” who kindly left toys he had labored over for the children.
And he asked nothing in return. With a “wink of his eye” and a “finger aside his nose” (a gesture meaning “just between you and me”) Moore gave the privileged class, who were fearful of home invasions at Christmas time, assurance they “had nothing to dread.” All they needed to do, was keep their wealth within the family and buy their kids and friends gifts at Christmas time. Forget the poor, they thought, they’re as hopeless as democracy.
The vision and version of Christmas and Santa Claus that Moore provided his haughty affluent peers, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, was soon to be read by a growing middle class and an increasingly literate lower class. That’s as true then as it is today.
And while Moore was a country squire who never worked a day in his life, and hated the gridding up of property in a growing New York City, he grew to love the money he earned selling off family property he inherited. Geographer Simeon DeWitt was chopping Manhattan into a Roman style grid to make room for a population that grew from 33,000 in 1790 to nearly 200,000 by the time Moore’s poem was written in 1822. He even included a chimney in his poem for Santa to climb down as a way for city folk to better relate to a scene he’d rather have happened in his bucolic hills of a New York of yore – an area today we call Chelsea.
Reference:
The Battle for Christmas. A Social and Cultural History of Our Most Cherished Holiday. Stephen Nissenbaum. 1997
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Hello Interactors,
This is the last post on economics for 2023. Next up for winter is human behavior. This post bridges where we left off with traditional colonial nation-states by talking about how similar philosophies are motivating the formation of neocolonial micro-states. What causes people to seek freedom in new places by limiting the freedom of those found in such places?
Let’s dig in…
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
In 2009 the venture capitalist, techno-optimist, and libertarian political activist Peter Thiel ‘reasoned’.
“[he] no longer believes freedom and democracy are compatible.”
He said,
“The great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms.”
Back then Thiel was introducing his ‘seasteading’ project — building or repurposing platforms in ocean waters not covered by international law as micro-nations.
He continues to lead his friends and followers, like tech mogul Marc Andreessen, toward these promised lands. They seek sophisticated legal spaces opportunistically drawn inside pre-existing territories with curious jurisdictions, legal structures, and rights. They take on names like ‘innovation hubs’ or ‘high-tech parks’ — techno-libertarian utopian ‘enclaves’ and ‘havens’ for those willing to adopt and adhere to their techno-optimist religion.
My last two posts talked about the creation of nation-states by powerful governments over the centuries and how they contributed to the current wars in Ukraine and Palestine. But there are also battles in the courtroom between these neocolonial libertarian venture capitalists and the people resisting colonization.
This is why, as The Economist says,
these libertarian colonies “will have their own government, write their own laws, manage their own currency and, eventually, hold their own elections.”
And they have the backing of powerful European and U.S. governments. Sound familiar?
The original European colonial nation-states were qausi-governmental entities conceived by rich and powerful private entities to further enrich themselves — often at the expense of local people and land. It’s a concept that emerged out the European Enlightenment boosted by new scientific discoveries, technologies, and philosophies.
Thinkers like John Locke advocated for the concept of natural rights, including life, liberty, and property, which belonged inherently to individuals. These ideas inspired people to seek places where they could express personal autonomy and the freedom to pursue one's own goals and desires free of rule. This contrasted with long held beliefs that placed collective or communal goals above individual aspirations.
The Enlightenment is also often associated with the Age of Reason. Influential philosophers like René Descartes and Immanuel Kant emphasized the role of reason in understanding the world and making decisions. They argued that individuals should use their capacity for rational thought to question traditional authorities and beliefs, thus promoting a more individualistic approach to knowledge and truth. Reason is the hallmark of libertarian political philosophy today.
But they’re not alone. Rationalism has long been a cornerstone of human understanding, though faces many challenges today. Advances in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and philosophy reveal that rationality is not a neutral tool but is often influenced by power structures, cultural biases, and subjective experiences. What is considered 'rational' can vary across different cultural and social contexts.
For example, the ‘rational actor’ theory on which mainstream economics rests doesn’t factor in confirmation bias — favoring information that confirms preexisting beliefs. A growing number of neuroscientists are revealing confirmation bias triggers activity in brain regions involved in reward processing, suggesting some biases may be rooted in fundamental neural mechanisms.
One of the preexisting beliefs of early Enlightenment thinkers, theologians, and colonial settlers is the idea that morality and ethics are not solely dictated by external authorities (like the church or state) but can be discerned through personal reasoning and rational introspection. This led to a more personal and individualistic approach to moral decisions. This may a form of confirmation bias suggesting moral principles should be followed out of a sense of personal duty over a duty to the community.
This shift played a crucial role in shaping modern Western societies, influencing everything from political theory to personal identity.
These ideas are intermingled in European colonialism and state-making. European powers, perceiving themselves as more 'civilized' and 'rational', used these beliefs to legitimize the domination of other peoples, whom they considered less enlightened or rational. This paternalistic view was used to rationalize the spread of European control and influence across the globe, often disregarding the autonomy and cultural values of colonized peoples.
While Enlightenment thinkers championed personal freedom and autonomy, these ideals were selectively applied. Colonial powers often deny these rights to the people in their newly formed colonies, leading to a glaring contradiction between Enlightenment ideals and colonial practices. This paradox is what fuels anti-colonial movements to argue for independence and self-determination just as colonizers did against their religious, feudal, and imperial tyrants.
The individualistic approach to morality and ethics of the Enlightenment era led to significant debates and critiques regarding the moral implications of colonialism that are alive today.
Some Enlightenment thinkers, like Denis Diderot, Rousseau, and Voltaire and later the abolitionists, criticized colonialism and slavery on moral grounds. Even early American colonizers like Roger Williams, John Woolman, and Thomas Paine criticized the inhumane treatment of Native Americans and the unjust rights of exploitation of land and labor. However, the cloak of moral and civilizational superiority ultimately justified colonial practices then and now.
LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
Are these neocolonial ‘zones of opportunity’ just another cloak of moral and civilizational superiority that ultimately justifies total disregard for the autonomy and cultural values of the local people and land? And like other attempts to support colonization, are they endorsed by powerful governments and Western financial institutions? Yes, they are.
In 2013, the Honduran government under President Juan Orland Hernández, after controversially reconstituting its Supreme Court, passed the "ZEDEs law" to create "Zones for Employment and Economic Development." These zones, inspired by former World Bank Economist Paul Romer's Charter City concept, involved selling Honduran territory to foreign investors at low costs.
The Society for the Socioeconomic Development of Honduras, later known as Honduras Próspera LLC, was established in Biden’s home Company State and tax haven, Delaware.
Próspera is funded by Peter Thiel and Marc Andreesen and was envisioned as a libertarian utopia.
They want to develop a ‘zone’ in Crawfish Rock, a small, historically significant community located on the island of Roatán, part of the Bay Islands in Honduras. Its English-speaking origins can be traced back to the early 19th century when the British Empire exerted influence over the region, leading to a significant influx of English-speaking Black Caribbean descendants.
Over the years, Crawfish Rock has maintained its unique cultural and linguistic identity, with English remaining the primary language, a testament to its historical ties to the British colonial era and the diverse migration patterns in the Caribbean. An organization has formed to protect these people, their homes, and their heritage — as well as other areas like it in Honduras from ‘neocolonial invasion’.
The Vice President of the Crawfish Rock governing council Venessa Cardenas Woods put it plainly,
“If you take away our land, if you take away our cultural heritage, our way of living, you take away everything, the entire identity of the group as English-speaking blacks, then you would be eliminating an entire people.”
Meanwhile, Prospera’s President, Joel Bomgar, who also happens to be a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, believes,
“The concept of free private cities and charter cities, specifically what Próspera is trying to do, is the most transformative project in the world.”
Bomgar previously started and then sold a remote access software company for support technicians.
Lest you think this is purely a conservative GOP libertarian affair, it was the Obama administration that created a “U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America.” Optimistically stating,
“While the United States will need to invest significant resources in such an effort, the success of the strategy will depend far more on the readiness of Central American governments to continue to demonstrate political will and undertake substantial political and economic commitments to bring about positive change in the region.”
Their efforts and dollars instead supported a government coup and the rise of Hernández which ultimately reshaped the Honduras constitution, reassembled the supreme court, and forced the formation of U.S. backed ‘zones’ into law. The coup was unanimously condemned by the UN General Assembly.
In a made-for-tv twist, fast forward to 2022, Honduran President Juan Orland Hernández was arrested, detained, and then extradited at the request of the United States government on drug and arms charges. The Hondurans then elected Xiomar Castro as the country’s first female president. She is also the wife of Manuel Zelaya who was ousted in the coup. Her mandate is political platform, social justice, poverty reduction, and opposition to neoliberal policies.
She wasted no time. The Honduran Congress voted unanimously to repeal ‘zone’ laws and appointed a committee to oversee their elimination. Próspera also wasted no time. Months later the corporation filed a $10.7 billion dollar claim against the Honduran government. This equates to 80% of the Honduran total governmental expenditures. They claim it’s a violation of the U.S. Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).
Members of the U.S. Congress and Biden administration sought to defend and expand CAFTA provisions to further protect U.S. investments. This system of public-private strong-arming of weaker countries is embedded in U.S. bilateral investment treaties. It can create legal and power imbalances that allow corporations to sue governments for regulations affecting profits without reciprocal accountability for corporate crimes — including violations of the very labor laws and environmental protections Libertarians seek to avoid in the creation of their so-called ‘havens’.
The Biden administration's approach to international trade law and the ongoing case of Honduras challenges existing trade norms. Honduras is actively resisting this system, with President Castro's government seeking to reform the international trade system and restrict corporate power from neocolonial expansion.
As Honduras prepares to lead the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in 2024, this issue is set to become a central topic in hemispheric discussions. The case underscores the importance of eliminating unfair provisions from U.S. trade agreements to safeguard democracy against corporate interventions. The stakes are high, not just financially but also in terms of the autonomy of cultural values, community identity, and environmental protections.
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Hello Interactors,
Part 2 talks about the failures of borders, some recent alarming and revealing data about America’s ‘shared identity’, and some potential paths toward embracing the shaky state of states.
Let’s get into it…
NEWLY PROMISED LANDS
Part 1 left us at the Paris Peace Conference and Western-style cartographic geo-political mandates. Amidst these mandates was an admission by one leader that these arrangements would need subsequent alterations. Take this quote, for example:
“There are many complicated questions connected with the present settlements which perhaps can not be successfully worked out to an ultimate issue by the decisions we shall arrive at here.
I can easily conceive that many of these settlements will need subsequent reconsideration, that many of the decisions we make shall need subsequent alteration in some degree; for, if I may judge by my own study of some of these questions, they are not susceptible of confident judgments at present.”
These are the words of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in January of 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference. Sadly, ‘subsequent alterations’ over the last century have proven a tougher challenge than Wilson may have fully appreciated.
Whether his intentions were noble or not, rigidly draw borders on maps are obviously failing to truly encapsulate and represent the diverse and multifaceted spectrum of human communities — especially in a world where the negative effects of climate change know no such borders.
Could it be that identities and experiences resist being neatly delineated by Cartesian maps inherently based on political philosophies steeped in Cartesian dualities? Is it conceivable that nations and nation-states should not be confined to a singular, homogeneous identity?
Perhaps they are incapable of such definition. It may be these concepts have reached their limits. A suggestion that can compound feelings of uncertainty about what lies ahead in tumultuous times. This discomfort drives many to search for past eras that seemed more safe and certain — a time when there appeared to be a common shared national identity.
The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) seeks such shared identities among those living in the United States in their annual ‘American Values Survey.’ It’s one of the more respected surveys offering a pulse on American views of religion, culture, and politics. They recently released their 2023 results which can serve as one pulse on national identity. They project, based on their statistically valid sample, that
“Three in ten Americans (31%) agree that ‘God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world. Just less than half of Republicans (49%) agree with this, compared with 26% of independents and only 18% of Democrats.”
PRRI data also reveals,
“Those who most trust conservative media (66%) and Fox News (54%) among television news sources are much more likely than those who choose no television source (29%) or mainstream media sources (24%) to agree that God intended America to be a new promised land.”
“Two-thirds of Republicans (66%) believe things have changed for the worse since the 1950s, compared with half of independents (50%) and only 30% of Democrats.”
The 1950s are often remembered as a time of economic prosperity, cultural growth, and the rise of the middle class in America. This era is seen as the embodiment of the 'American Dream,' with a booming post-World War II economy, expanding consumer culture, and significant advancements in technology and suburban living.
The period is characterized by strong family values, community cohesion, and distinct gender roles, often contrasted with the rapid social changes and complexities of modern life. Television, automobiles, and household appliances symbolize this era's progress and American ingenuity, reflecting a sense of unity and optimism about the United States' role in the world.
However, this romanticized view of the 1950s overlooks many critical social and political issues of the time, including racial segregation, gender inequality, and the fear and paranoia of McCarthyism. The decade, while remembered for its strong leadership and perceived lack of political division, also faced significant challenges.
The popular nostalgia for this era often represents a simplified and selective interpretation, failing to fully recognize the complexities and struggles that defined the 1950s, and inadvertently promoting a cartoonish, oversimplified version of history.
This difference in opinion is increasingly leading more Americans to embrace violence as a means of establishing a ‘shared identity.’
“Americans who believe that the country has changed for the worse since the 1950s are more than twice as likely as those who say that it has changed for the better to agree that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country (30% vs. 14%).”
MAPPING THE AMORPHOUS
The idea “that God intended America to be a new promised land” is what many believe is the ‘shared identity’ representing the nation-state of America. It’s derivative of visions across centuries of European expansionism and colonialism prior to dominance of the United States of America as a nation and economic juggernaut.
Just as feudalism marked the beginning of a new social order and the political-economic apparatus of the nation-state, I wonder if our modern-day lords of geopolitical economic power are similarly controlling the toiling vassals and serfs — especially in regions with particularly low-wage labor.
The modern-day dynamics between the economically dominant Western and Northern Hemispheres offer metaphors to feudalism. Much like the concentration of wealth among feudal lords, powerful nations hold a significant portion of global wealth and resources, leading to pronounced economic disparities with less developed areas.
This situation mirrors the decentralized power structure of feudal times, where today's global landscape is fragmented, with Western and Northern countries wielding substantial influence, creating varying levels of power and development worldwide.
The strong economic and political alliances within these hemispheres, akin to feudal loyalties to local lords, often exacerbate global divisions leading to patterns of regional allegiances and wider communal divides.
Furthermore, the influence exerted by these dominant regions over global policies, economic trends, and cultural norms is reminiscent of the control feudal lords had over their territories. They shape international trade, governance, and cultural exchanges in ways that echo the hierarchical and power-centric nature of feudal societies. This power and dominance, under the guise of a ‘shared identity’ is then used as leverage in exchange for military and monetary protection for survival.
Survival was very much on the minds of those living through the 15th-17th centuries. Generation after generation witnessed catastrophic meteorological events brought on by the Little Ice Age. This had devastating impacts on people around the world and played a significant role in shaping the social, political, and economic structures that followed. Might we be on the verge of a new world order?
Survival is also on the minds of those suffering the travesties of wars nation-state border disputes create. Including those living the through the lead up to and aftermath of World War I and World War II.
I wonder how those feelings of uncertainty compare to feelings of uncertainty today. Scholar, podcaster, and fellow Substack writer Christopher Hobson recently reflected on quotes from intellectuals struggling to make sense of the aftermath of World War I and II. Here’s a quote from the 1922 Austrian writer, Robert Musil, in his book ‘Helpless Europe: A Digressive Journey’ that could just as easily be written today.
“And so we arrive at the present day. The life that surrounds us is devoid of ordering concepts.”
Cartesian maps of nation-states are politically charged, legally binding ordering concepts, but their certainty is imagined. When Woodrow Wilson cautioned the agreements at the Paris Peace Conference are "not susceptible of confident judgments" he was suggesting the matters in question were too intricate, uncertain, or evolving to allow for definitive, confident decisions.
Wilson is indicating that, due to the complexity and fluidity of the issues, any judgments or decisions made during the conference might be provisional and subject to change.
Let’s consider some alternatives traditional mapping of nation-states.
* Could psychogeographic maps, reflecting the emotional landscapes of diverse groups, provide a more nuanced understanding of human geography?
* Perhaps powerful nations and states should be leading exercises in participatory mapping offering communities themselves more accurate and meaningful representations of their own spaces and identities.
* Maybe counter-mapping or decolonial mapping practices that challenge the established narratives and power structures inherent in traditional cartography could offer new perspectives to those so sure of a ‘shared identity’?
* Critical Geographic Information Science can reveal underlying patterns of inequality and socio-political dynamics commonly overlooked, shifting conceptions of what could be?
* And in a world increasingly influenced by feminist perspectives, how might feminist cartography reshape our understanding of spaces and places, especially in relation to gender dynamics?
These questions, rooted in the alternatives to Cartesian cartography, invite us to consider new paradigms in mapping and understanding of human geography. They are emerging as new tools just as anthropography was emerging at the time of the Paris Peace Agreements.
We are clearly in need of a new shared understanding that could offer new directions in our politics, economics, and global societies, but we should heed the advice of Woodrow Wilson and be cautious of our confidence.
Christopher Hobson encourages mindfulness and carefulness as we attempt to make sense of what comes next. He suggests we
“…resist the lure of comfortable frames and easy explanations, and instead to fully reckon with ‘the brittleness of the world’ and what potentialities might be present in these conditions.”
Perhaps it’s best to embrace the shaky state of states and the ambiguity of the unknown as we try to make sense of the state of our world. As Hobson offers,
“The post-Cold War era has passed, (hyper)globalization has peaked, the unipolar moment has finished, neoliberalism has perhaps entered its zombie phase.”
We live in…
“A time defined by what it is no longer, what is ‘not quite here, but yet at hand’.”
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Hello Interactors,
There’s a lot of talk of states these days. Palestine and Israel, one state or two? Ukraine and Russia. One state or two? The United States. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one…right? What about that one D.C. federal district, or those five territories, and a bunch of ‘minor’ islands? And don’t forget the many tribal nations within the nation-state of the United States which can often spread across many state borders!
I started writing about all this and it got long, so I’m broke it two. Ex uno plures, from one, many. I suppose there’s a lesson in all this. No matter how fixed a given state of affairs may appear, we have to be prepared for bifurcations and reconfigurations.
Let’s dig in!
THE RISE OF STATES
I easily confuse states with nations. Nations are loosely defined as a group of people with a shared identity. A nation-state is a political structure represented by a territorial boundary claiming to contain a common identity. I used the words ‘loosely’ and ‘claim’ because so many territorially bounded areas or nations contain a multitude of identities. The United States, a notoriously diverse country, is a great example.
Nations and nation-states seem to have chicken-and-egg origin story. I believe those who claim the nation-state rose out of folks like those early European colonizers. Fueled by the thought of amassing wealth, land, and power once only believed to be wrangled by feudal lords and monarchs, influential and enterprising European intellectually ‘entlightened’ elites pooled their resources and got to work.
The idea of a nation-state, and their bordered geographic territories, began to take shape through 14th-17th century Europe. The late Middle Ages and the rising Renaissance witnessed a gradual decline of feudalism and the rise of centralized monarchies who were incented to consolidate power within defined territorial boundaries. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe, is often cited as a key moment in the history of nations as it established the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity fundamental to the nation-state concept.
The 18th and 19th centuries saw the rise of nationalism, a significant driving force behind the nation-state concept. Nationalism emphasized a shared identity based on language, culture, and ethnicity, often aligned with a specific geographic territory. The French Revolution (1789–1799) and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars accelerated the spread of these ideas across Europe.
Language invention and reconstitution burgeoned across Europe. One example is from 1820 Finland. Born out of an interest in Finnish tradition and culture a groundswell of nationalism by Finnish writers, teachers, pastors, and attorneys took hold. They stitched together their collective past stories and dialects and published dictionaries and grammar guides that differentiated them from the Swedes. This forged a more confident and self-determined government and national identity defined by their borders and their language.
In 1819 the first publication of Ukrainian grammar was printed. Russian grammar was defined just 17 years prior. By 1830 more Ukrainian writers were published in their native language. This is the date that established the language as a bonding element of Ukrainian nationalism. In 1846 the first Ukrainian nationalist organization was founded. And not by a politician with a sovereign agenda, but by a historian.
The 19th century also saw the unification of various nation-states. Notable examples include the unification of Italy in the 1860s and Germany in the 1870s. These unifications were driven by shared cultural, linguistic, and ethnic identities, as well as by political and economic interests.
It took Germany just 40 years to rise as a dominant and powerful nation-state in Europe. This led to tensions around Europe, especially with France and Britain. But it was a Serbian nationalist group and their assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in 1914 that triggered war. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and Europe erupted into World War I.
The United States entered the war in 1917, in part fearing a potential alliance between neighboring Mexico and Germany. This was also the same year they began preparing for peace agreements and the redistricting of territories of nation-states.
In 1918 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson boarded a ship for Paris bringing with him a team of cartographers to create materials for the Paris Peace Conference. This included chief cartographer Mark Sylvester William Jefferson who had invented a form of thematic mapping based on ethnography, demography, and population distribution called anthropography.
Comfortable with nearly thirteen languages, he and a team of ethnographers, linguists, and anthropologists set up offices in a Paris hotel. They drew convincing maps used by Wilson and his allies to sell other world leaders on the formation of nation-states that would best serve their interests. U.S. interest in one of those nation-states invented in Paris remains today — Ukraine.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER, ALLIED BY RANCOR
Out of this conference emerged the first worldwide intergovernmental organization, the League of Nations. With it came a set of treaties that shifted power principally to the United States, Great Britain, and France while mandating political power to newly drawn, U.S. directed, and ethnically and linguistically determined nation-state maps.
Just four years after the formation of the League of Nations, in 1923, the League of Nations turned their attention to the Middle East declaring Palestine a state. A British mandate, it was based on a cartographic line originally drawn in 1906 by the British and the French between Palestine and Egypt. This was the first internationally recognized boundary in the Middle East.
Having already colonized Egypt as part of their growing empire, England then wanted control of the Suez Canal. So they invented another border that awarded them the Sinai Peninsula. Then, in 1916, the English and French met in secret to create a dividing line between Egypt and Turkey. They decided Egypt would go to England and Turkey would go to France. Four years later they determined Lebanon and Syria would go to France, and Palestine and Mesopotamia to England.
It took the end of the second World War in 1947 for the League of Nations, now rebranded the United Nations, to recommend a plan to divide Palestine into two “independent Jewish and Arab states.”
The Jewish organization that had long been helping resettle the area begrudgingly accepted the proposal, but most of the Arab contingent did not. In 1948 the British mandate expired, hundreds of Palestinians were expelled, 78% of the land was handed to Israel, and before the year was up the region had their first Arab-Israeli war. And here, again, like in Ukraine, today we have borders and states defined by the West roiled in controversy and war.
History reveals how European and American colonialism spread the concept of the nation-state globally. And economics were a central theme. Local and regional agrarian and mercantile economies of the 17th century led to regional specialization, with certain areas developing specific industries based on their geographic advantages. This specialization then influenced economic structures within nation-states and their interactions with other states. Those with common religion, language, or cultures conspired against the ‘others’.
Natural resource acquisition, deprivation, and distribution brought needs for trade routes and resource accessibility at a time when the world was being both mapped and explored by Europeans. Geographic features that facilitated or hindered trade, such as rivers, seas, mountains, and plains, all impact the development and power of nation-states. For example, access to trade routes along the Dnieper River has played a critical role in trade and distribution from Greece to Kiev dating all the way back to the first millennium BC.
The Suez Canal was built it in the late 1800s by the French and remains an important international trade route to this day. The industrial revolution and subsequent urbanization and modernization that followed all hinge on economic geography. And its nation-state status that awards a nation’s entry into competing and cooperating or demoralizing and destroying.
I’d like to think cartographers like Jefferson, and social scientists like him, were well-intentioned and hopeful they could use human identities forged from language, culture, ethnicity, race, creed, or tribes to empower and protect vulnerable peoples politically and socially. Perhaps they believed these cartographic mandates, sensitive to human geography, could lead to peaceful and eternal coexistence.
But it seems fictitious fixed borders drawn on a map fail to convey, capture, and contain the amorphous and pluralistic panoply of peoples. Maybe identities can’t be drawn by a Cartesian map using political philosophies rooted in Cartesian dualities. Maybe nations and nation-states shouldn’t be defined by one common shared identity. Maybe they can’t. Maybe these concepts have run their course and we don’t yet know what comes next.
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Hello Interactors,
A series of U.S. federal legislation under the Biden administration has spawned a manufacturing boom at a scale not seen in decades. Unfortunately, the country is repeating the same socio-economic, land use, and transportation policy mistakes that have lead to many of the ills we’re seeking to remedy. Are we missing an opportunity to build back better?
A MANUFACTURING RENAISSANCE
Clearcut a forest and build a factory. Now build an even bigger parking lot around the factory for workers and make them drive from miles around to work. Parts and supplies? Yeah, those will have to be trucked in too. Now, stand here in front of the camera and wave this earth flag alongside a U.S. flag and brag about job growth and how EV’s are going to re-green the earth.
This scene captures what’s currently unfolding across the United States. Legislation such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, alongside increased Department of Defense spending, is catalyzing a 'manufacturing renaissance' in the United States with a supposed emphasis on infrastructure improvement, clean energy, and national security.
Paradoxically, this familiar pattern in economic geography is partially responsible for the historical socio-economic inequities and environmental destruction the U.S. is struggling to remedy. Research by Drexel University’s Nowak Metro Finance Lab, in cooperation with the Aspen Institute’s Latinos and Society Program, is investigating the spatial dimensions of this shift, seeking to enhance opportunities for minority-owned businesses within this new economic landscape.
They’ve uncovered how the burgeoning manufacturing boom in the United States is showcasing a remarkable geographic distribution of investment and industry specialization significantly benefiting a diverse array of states and metropolitan areas. A substantial portion of funding aimed at bolstering the semiconductor supply chain is pouring into states like Arizona, Texas, New York, Ohio, and Indiana.
Additionally, to streamline supply chain efficiencies, battery plants are emerging alongside automotive factories in a vertical alignment from Michigan to Georgia. On the energy front, the Eastern seaboard is focusing on offshore wind power, while states such as California, Arizona, and Texas lead in solar panel production. This broad dispersion of high-tech manufacturing indicates a shift towards a more equitable distribution of economic growth across the nation.
This industrial transformation is not only geographically dispersed across many states and regions, but also spread to the outskirts of metropolitan areas. This raises challenges in harnessing this growth for the benefit of all, particularly Black- and Latino-owned firms and workers. It’s shaping into another form of ‘white flight’ where firms seek the cheapest land away from populated areas, which typically are exurban and rural farmland and forests, toward smaller cities and towns which are predominantly white. And mostly poor, offering a needed economic boost.
However, these regions, cities, and towns have also historically deprioritized public transit alongside decades of car dependent land use policies. So whatever jobs and growth these new manufacturing facilities bring, they’re destined to also bring more cars, which means more traffic, more pollution, and more time alone in cars isolated from interactions with community members. Meanwhile, the decades of neglect and decay of our rail network also means more truck traffic.
I’m reminded of geographer David Harvey's concept of the 'spatial fix'. It suggests capital movement, including the re-shoring of manufacturing, seeks new low-cost geographical frontiers to overcome drains on profit and expansion. This exploitation of geographical ‘space’ through industrial policy and investment reflects a 'fix' for capital investments and investors. By now, however, the meaning of the word 'fix' has less to do with a correction and more to do with an addiction.
There’s an addiction to a dynamic complex interplay of local and global economic geographies — a form of economic development and spatial restructuring that has shown to bring about both positive and negative outcomes. Parking lots and roads may have paved the way for many to cruise to a better quality of life, but the quality of the paradise we call home — our communities, cities, health, and environments — are suffering, if not lost, from decades of addiction.
This boom, while creating opportunities for some, may continue to be a bust for many. They may also spawn new forms of social stratification. The concentration of certain industries in specific regions, for example, could lead to a polarization of skill sets and economic opportunities. This, in turn, may result in localized booms benefiting a segment of society while leaving others behind, thereby reinforcing regional disparities rather than truly leveling the playing field and remedy the disparities that already plague this country.
Furthermore, the inter-regional competition for investment can spark a race to the bottom in terms of labor standards and environmental regulations. The suburbanization of industry, while beneficial for regional decentralization, often neglects urban cores leaving central areas, and underprivileged members of society, to grapple with the growing donut hole of decay from decades of lack of investment and attention.
This shift raises questions about the urban-rural divide, land use, and environmental sustainability. The dispersion of these new manufacturing initiatives does indeed offer opportunities for restructuring regional economies. There is potential for the country to move towards a multi-nodal metropolitan model where economic activities are spread across a wider area, including existing urban centers. Provided it is managed with an eye towards sustainability and inclusivity…and today it is not.
POWER, PEOPLE, AND PLACE
Now would be an ideal time to update and expand transportation infrastructure like rail and public transit to address decades of decay and neglect. By enhancing connectivity, metropolitan areas and their cities can become more resilient and inclusive, enabling a diverse workforce to access employment opportunities.
This would help mitigate socio-economic inequities while reducing car dependencies and the country’s outsized contribution to local, regional, and worldwide transportation related pollution. While renewable energy investments are worthy, as are roads, bridges, pipes, and electrical grids, most federal, state, and local transportation dollars are spent bolstering car sales and car dependency and all the physical, psychological, social, economic, and environmental health declines it’s shown to contribute to.
These infrastructure deficiencies underscore a more profound need for more adaptive strategies that align with principles found in complexity science, like resiliency. The resilience of these increasingly brittle social systems is tested not only by burgeoning demands but also by the unpredictable shocks like those experienced during the pandemic.
Increasing frequency and amplitude of weather shocks also reveal the fragility of underinvested frameworks. The capacity to adapt to emerging needs and stresses — be it climate change impacts, congestion, or energy supply — requires a systemic rethinking that transcends traditional silos of urban planning and regional economic development.
Moreover, the underrepresentation of minority-owned firms in strategic sectors, as still found in federal spending patterns, hints at an oversight resulting in an exasperation of existing inequalities and social tensions. As the report demonstrates, these will likely persist unless addressed through targeted interventions. As we learned with the BLM movement, and similar social movements in the past, interventions must start by understanding lived experiences and power relationships on the ground, locally and regionally. This is essential to building the socio-economic political systems that enable or disempower them.
Space and place are often viewed by the powerful and by policy makers as neutral, abstracted points, polygons, and numbers on a map or spreadsheet. But they’re more than that.
The work of geographer Doreen Massey reminds us space is a product of interrelations and interactions at all scales across institutions and individuals and therefore can’t be regarded as neutral. In her influential book “Space, Place and Gender” she reveals how space is politically and socially charged — imbued with power relations. She introduced the idea of "power geometry" to describe the complex and dynamic ways in which different social groups and individuals are positioned within the "flows" of the globalized world.
Recent global events and current local investments across the country are examples of power geometry. We can see how different social and political groups have distinct relationships with these new flows and movements — how they are able to command space and assert influence over it. Some have the power to shape networks and connections across space, which includes the ability to accelerate the pace of movement and interaction for themselves, while others are placed in positions where they are restricted or excluded. This can be true even for those who can afford to own cars and those who cannot.
Owning a car, while a necessity for most, is still a form of power that when asserted only serves to diminish the power of those who do not. Many of these new manufacturing hubs are being built to build more cars and computer chips for them by people who need cars to get to work. This reveals the powerful influence the federal government has over the global geographic geometry required to build cars, and their parts, the local geometries needed to build the plants, and the car dependent network of roads needed for employees. Cars are miraculous modern appliances until they are concentrated within clustered collections of cities which then become problem areas for which firms seek a spatial fix.
Even as federal investment feeds the manufacturing of more cars, along with more regional development that requires more roads and maintenance, society laments climbing car related deaths, worry about the effects of social isolation that can lead to decreased physical and mental health, stress over income disparities, all while watching a polluted planet burn. It all seems as counter intuitive as it does counterproductive. The more we invest in perpetuating car dependency the less money and attention is put toward more healthy and resilient alternatives.
As this new industrial sprawl unfolds, sustainable transportation becomes increasingly vital for connecting industrial zones with urban centers, addressing the dislocation of workspaces, and fostering economic and social robustness and resiliency. We need to urge policymakers to consider the broader implications of the current manufacturing boom on the social fabric of the nation. If we don’t take a comprehensive, diversified, and integrative approach to planning our regions and economies we not only risk perpetuating existing social and environmental woes, but also suffering collapse from another unforeseen emergent disaster.
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Hello Interactors,
Trick-or-treat! It’s that time of year for Americans, and a growing population worldwide, to dawn a favorite costume and consume copious amounts of candy. It’s also a time for kids to parade for treats and for adults to decorate with ghoulish goblins, ghosts, and other frightful festoons. And excuse to cosplay without criticism.
Americans will spend an ungodly amount of money on this conspicuous occasion. Like most holidays in America, it’s a chance to fire up the capitalist contraption and watch money burn like a Halloween bonfire. But why? How did this holiday emerge and what does it all really mean?
Let’s find out.
CANDY, COSTUMES, AND CONTESTATIONS
I once handed out toothpaste to trick-or-treaters at Halloween. Trick your teeth. My wife’s dad was a dentist and we ended up with a box of toothpaste samples. Realizing we forgot to buy candy to hand out at Halloween, we poured the box of samples into a bowl. Kids loved it, and so did their teeth.
Some parents giggled, many groaned, and some thought it was downright mean. Realizing kids will happily take just about anything from the bowl, some years we’ve even opted for pencils, erasers, and stickers. We’re so mean.
But let’s face it, Halloween, in its modern form, is mostly about candy and costumes. The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates 68% of Americans will spend a total of $3.6 billion on candy handouts this Halloween. That’s up from $3.1 billion last year. Burp.
Nearly three quarters of the country are expected to buy decorations to the tune of $3.9 billion dollars. The percentage of folks intent on buying costumes have hit an all-time NRF high of 69%, up from 67% last year, amounting to $4.1 billion dollars. All told, they project the average American Halloweener will spend around $108 this year. It’s all been climbing since Covid. Either we need sugar to sooth each other, or costumes to excuse each other. Or both.
Their data suggests those aged 25–44 are the most eager to spend, claiming social media inspires early costume and decoration ideas and decisions. Adult spending on themselves and their pets dwarfs spending on kid costumes accounting for nearly three of the four billion dollars in total spend…and climbing. Adult spending increased a whopping 18% from a year ago.
The NRF says to expect a lot of Spiderman and princess costumes on kids, pets as pumpkins, and a variety of adult witches, ghosts, and vampires. And Barbie. Lots of Barbie. It seems trendy pop culture is challenging the traditional spooky gothic culture Hallows Eve is known for. Though there are some interpretations of history that suggest Halloween really was more of a moment of merriment among the masses than some pagan spiritual spook fest.
A quick search on the history of Halloween and you’ll quickly learn it comes from Ireland via a Celtic festival called Samhein (pronounced “sow-win”). Irish immigrants then brought it to America in the 1800s and here we are. Searching on Samhein will reveal text that says it stems from a spiritual festival by pagans — a religious celebration with imagery of mysticism and the occult where people on earth attempt connections with the dead through fire and rituals. It was believed to be the interaction of pagan people and place seeking interactions with people of another time and place.
But a more truthful approximation of historical fact reveals the story of Samhein may be a victim of what one historian calls a combination of “fakelore and folklore”. Professor Robert Davis studies religious and cultural education at the University of Glasgow as it relates to people, place, and social change. He writes that much of Irish history stems from the work of a seventeen-century historian named Geoffrey Keating. Davis joins a chorus of critics who argue Keating's work, while beautifully written, is mostly a form of exaggerated romantic nationalism.
Keating wrote during a time when Irish history and culture were under threat from English influence and rule. Critics believe his narratives therefore assert a particularly noble Irish identity and history, which led him to possibly embellish or reinterpret certain historical events or figures. Keating was also a Catholic priest, which influenced his historical interpretations. Including the notion that these ancient Irish clans and respective nobility were Catholic.
His intertwining of religious and secular perspectives is seen as a reflection of Keating's worldview. But it doesn’t always live up to academic scrutiny expected from histography. But because Keating was also a poet and had a compelling command of the Irish language, his writing was accessible and enjoyable. This further endeared him to readers while also allowing his work to endure. His influence is present today despite his critics, as evidence by the dominant narrative surrounding Sanhein found in history books and online.
Keating’s recalling of this autumnal event is unique in its reference to mythological religiosity by pagans of the past. There are legal and agricultural Irish texts and calendars that indeed show there was a festival on or around November 1, just no mention of any worship for the dead, paranormal occurrences from the ‘underworld’, or the observance of a celebratory ‘Eve’ stemming from some form of ancient pre-Christian calendar. These pagan accounts are commonly associated with Sanhein and thus Halloween and appear to all lead to Keating himself. Meanwhile, his interpretation has since branched into every account of history paraded as historical fact.
Historical records from neighboring regions like Wales and Scotland also show no evidence of Halloween-like celebrations occurring, apart from those areas populated by Irish immigrants! But like in Ireland, there were indeed agrarian celebrations commemorating the end of the harvest season. And those included autumnal festivities we may recognize today as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even New Year.
SONGS, SPIRITS, AND THE SOUL OF TRICK-OR-TREATING
Keating wasn’t alone in weaving pagan lore into Christian mythology and dogma. He probably picked up from the Christian bible. The Roman Catholic Church, especially in its earliest centuries, borrowed heavily from the imagery and ceremony of pagan folklore and fakelore to lure non-Christians into their faith. This summer our family went to see the Swedish rock band, Ghost, who’s leader, Tobias Forge, leverages this history, and its imagery, on stage and in costume to call attention to this appropriation. It’s a presentation, I might add, fit for Broadway.
Indeed, Pope Gregory III of the Roman Catholic Church, established All Saints Days as November 1st in the 8th Century and eventually made its way to the British Isles. Also known as All Hallows Day. The word “Hallow” stems from the Old English word “hālig” which means “holy”. The celebration before All Hallows Days, on October 31st, or on the “evening” or “even” — as commonly shortened in Old English, which could also be written and pronounced as ‘e’en’ — became known as Halloween.
Halloween most likely originates from the rotation of the earth and the shift in seasons. Fall has always been a time of collecting what food you can, sharing any abundance with less fortunate community members, and mourning the loss of organic life that relies on photosynthesis. A requirement for keeping animals like us alive. It’s a time to take stock, hunker down, and hope you survive the impending harsh winter.
It was also a convenient time to take spoiled and fermented fruits to make wine and be merry. Fields and piles of debris were set ablaze in preparation for next season. Migrant field workers, with no rows to plough or crops to pick, went door to door in search of food, clothing, work, or compassion. It’s not hard to see how these rituals stemming from the rhythm of life could be woven into religious tales of death, renewal, and purifying fire — but also compassion and charity.
Professor Davis believes the best image of the history of Halloween can be resurrected by the lyrics of the songs sung in the British Isles on Halloween, Hallows Day, and even a third day of celebration less known today, All Souls Day. These songs were sung at gatherings, but also by beggars going door-to-door seeking food or gifts. It’s a tradition known as “souling”, but today many of us would recognize it as either trick or tricking, thanksgiving feast, or caroling. All three of which, are born — one way or other — out of the loss of sun in the northern hemisphere brought on by a tilting earth.
Here's one song Professor Davis offers up as representative of the spirit of Halloween.
A soul, a soul, a soul cakePlease, good missus, a soul cakeAn apple, a pear, a plum or a cherryAny good thing to make us all merryOne for Peter, two for PaulThree of Him who made us all
God Bless the master of this house, the mistress alsoAnd all the little children who around your table growLikewise your men and maidens, your cattle and your storeAnd all that dwells within your gatesWe wish you ten times more
The lanes are very dirty and my shoes are very thinI’ve got a little pocket I can put a penny inIf you haven’t got a penny, a half penny will doIf you haven’t got a half penny, then God bless you.
This song reveals the fusion of the wants and needs that come with scarcity and misfortune blended with the hope and charity promised by various forms of Christianity. Professor Davis puts it best, Halloween is
“Steeped in the peculiar religious imagery of Halloween, with its refining fires, its muffled imploring voices and its traffic with the supernatural.” Together they attempt to bridge “the past, the present and the future into a momentarily inspiring alignment around the axis of hope.”
I’m reminded that where I grew up in Iowa, home to many an Irish immigrant — including one of my Grandparents — we had to tell a joke before we were given candy while out trick-or-treating. I wonder if this derives from ‘souling’?
My wife and I insist on jokes before little goblins and witches are allowed to dip into the candy bowl. How mean. Maybe this year, we’ll demand a song. Spiderman has a good soundtrack, and so does Barbie. But a song from Ghost might be most appropriate. “Hunter’s Moon” anyone? The B-side is “Halloween Kills”.
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