Re: [xmca] knotworking and germ cells and instances of kinships / affiliation

[Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>]

Phillip,
Yup, I caught this and appreciated it very much.

I consider one of Marx's major projects to be fostering a realization
(consciousness) of the kinship of humanity - for us to see that essence
which is in ourselves is in all people around the world. And as I read him,
capitalism is the great leveler that creates the conditions for this
realization - first, because we are equalized by abstract labor (vs. former
caste divisions) and second because of the processes of globalization which
makes all sorts of new forms of social intercourse possible. He was
thinking through the commodity (take a look at the tags on your clothes and
you'll quickly see how truly close you are to people from all parts of the
globe - they touched what touches you), but developments of communication
are perhaps still more important - even if they seem banal. The fact that a
video of a baby in Brazil dancing on a table can go round the world brings
into our awareness the fact that, minimally, there is a place called
"Brazil" and that there are babies there (and that they can dance!). Seems
like a starting point for realizing shared kinship. Here is that video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X0AamE1Bxs

And, more seriously, sometimes you can find videos about more consequential
happenings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCCGbJW9QoY

[Note: to Brazil colleagues, I found it difficult to find good Youtube
videos about the Brazilian protests from the protester's perspective -
seemed like most videos were sympathetic to the government side and were
produced by other state media (e.g. Pravda). Is there a youtube channel or
videos where people can go to see what is happening and to learn more about
the movements?]

I don't like to be too optimistic about these things, but perhaps there are
some burgeoning possibilities for fostering a kinship of humanity in these
new media?

-greg



On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 9:05 AM, White, Phillip
<Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu>wrote:

>
>
> check it out -
>
> as Achilles suggests, we're looking at an international shift -
>
>
> http://africasacountry.com/autonomy-in-barcelona-the-mount-zion-community/
>
>  i don't know if anyone noted Emma Goldman's connection of kinship, when
> commenting on the laborers within the interiors of the Titanic who also
> went down with the ship, so i'm including a quote here that she concluded
> with.
>
> "With neither club or statute to compel them, I wonder what induced these
> men to go to their death with greater fortitude than do soldiers on the
> battlefield? Why, it is human nature, stripped of all social artifice, of
> the deadening and dulling chase for material gains. Human nature, come into
> its own! Into its deep social kinship which so far has only expressed
> itself in great stress but which points to still greater possibilities for
> the future, when man shall no longer his brother maim!"
>
> social kinship - a germ of an idea... a theory...
>
> phillip
>
>
> Phillip White, PhD
> Urban Community Teacher Education Program
> Site Coordinator
> Montview Elementary, Aurora, CO
> phillip.white@ucdenver.edu
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>



-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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