Heather Marsh's Blog, page 8
February 11, 2017
Radical science
“When capital enlists science in her service, the refactory hand of labour will always be taught docility.” – Andrew Ure, 1835i The problems with the scientific community were hardly news to scientists. Joseph Needham was concerned in 1935 about the impact of “scientific opium”, “a blindness to the suffering of others” and “a ruthlessness derived […]
Objective cruelty
“The socialist society must therefore guard against taking over from science too much of scientific abstraction, scientific statistical ruthlessness, and scientific detachment from the individual.” – Joseph Needham, 1935i The religious and political ideologies celebrating individualism and liberty were established to justify the use of the earth and all people and animals on it by […]
Science, isolation and control
“Shall we substitute for the opium of religion an opium of science.” – Joseph Needham, 1935i With the rise of dissociation came a culture of individualism and survival of the fittest. Wealth centred in individuals and happiness was expected to come from individual achievement, in both life and afterlife. The philosophy, politics and religions […]
January 31, 2017
The perils of diversity
While group affiliations by clan, tribe and nation have always created ingroups and outgroups, the bigotries we experience today can be traced through history by the demands of the trade economy. Women have been kept subservient to control ownership of their offspring in patriarchal structures for the last several millennia. The role of caregiving (but […]
People are commodity
In every single part of the world, chattel slavery has been a part of human history. No region of any significant size has not had large populations of people sold as slaves and no region has not purchased slaves. There is no era in which slavery was not a significant part of societal relations. Even […]
Witches and how they are silenced
A weed is a strong plant thriving where those in power do not want it. A witch is a strong person thriving where those in power do not want them. The Inquisition was a centuries long movement to discredit and destroy the caregivers of communities and land and put all knowledge and power in the […]
January 30, 2017
People are means of destruction
If we compare the natural duties of a Father with those of a King, we find them to be all one, with no difference at all except in their latitude or extent. As the Father over one family, so the King, as Father over many families, extends his care to preserve, feed, clothe, instruct and […]
People are means of production
Patriarchal control of women’s bodies is frequently explained as an issue of property ownership. Not just the women themselves but also any offspring were considered assets to be disposed of and therefore a source of power. Any attempt by women to limit reproduction was seen as a threat to the potential wealth of the family […]
Autonomy, Diversity, Society
The history of humanity is a history of our struggle to maintain a balance between autonomy, diversity and society. As we have moved from isolated but networked tribes to today’s fully integrated global communities, we have developed rigid hierarchical systems of control favouring either autonomy or society, a perpetual pendulum between the politics of the […]
The destruction of society
The root of society is a woman giving birth to a child. No one looking at that root could fail to see the ability of one life to affect another or the changes wrought in one individual by interaction with another. A mother’s autonomy, free will and physiology are thoroughly disrupted by the experience. Hormonal […]
