Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee: a political ecology of change

Corporate decision makers are not driven by a desire to cause harm. It's just that the world outside of the market--the forests of the Niger Delta, the dreams of coal miners or the nesting grounds of pelicans--is not visible to them. Undeveloped regions of the earth are seen by them to be wasted resources crying out to be fulfilled through transformation into farmland, resorts or strip mines. The flows of capital, on the other hand, the sudden hot spots of investment, the jostling of exchange rates and shimmering investment instruments made out of thin air and audacity, and ultimately those sweet, sweet cascades of profit, these define the real world to them. It's a dynamic world. A beautiful world. They will defend their world as fiercely as we defend ours.

There is another world. In the marshes of Louisiana, the rain forests of Indonesia and the crevasses of the Mariana Trench there are teaming, interconnected communities of organisms who pursue their own causal paths without concern for spikes in the currency markets. Contrary to the pop caricature of Darwinian evolution as a brutal war for dominance, the drama of life consists of millions of species creating themselves in relationship with and dependence on, each other. The undersides of leaves are micro-environments for insects that in turn play host to microorganisms. Cells take in nutrients and excrete waste that serves as the nourishment for other life forms. Multiple ecosystems exist with varying degrees of separation and integration. This is no idyllic state of balance but rather a dynamic one of continual change in which living beings, by the act of living, alter their surroundings in ways which produce multiple pathways of change and feedback. Many non-capitalist cultures view humans as just one society among many in that natural world. In Indigenous South America, preserving the integrity of that world is seen as a responsibility which comes with utilizing it. The forests are cultivated as a natural garden which must be maintained as viable habitat for the plants and animals on which people depend. In this approach, natural biodiversity is preserved within a natural community instead of isolating particular species for accelerated production on farms constructed on cleared land. From the corporate window the elements of nature are seen as separate components. The disappearance of a variety of owl or a small fish is not something to get all bent out of shape about because there will be plenty of other birds and fish when they are gone.

The traits that allow an organism to prosper can also spell its downfall. A parasite that reproduces prolifically can quickly spread throughout its host's body. If it spreads too quickly, however, it can kill the host before it has had a chance to pass the infection on to others of its species. The parasite can, in its very moment of triumph, destroy the possibility for its own survival. This is the closest analogy to the insertion of capitalism into the natural world. With an insatiable drive to turn everything in its path into profit, it quickly destroys habitats and depletes the resources it consumes. It demonstrates remarkable versatility: having destroyed one natural community it can quickly adjust its appetites and move on to a very different one. If shrimp become scarce, investment can be rapidly redirected to retail, advertising or private prisons. When biofuel promised a higher rate of return than food, the nature of agriculture changed in a flash. In fact no rate of profit is ever sufficient if there is a way to get a higher one. Every system has limits beyond which it cannot stretch. A corporation exists as an expression of its demand for profit. Its flexibility lies in its ability to adapt to changing circumstances enough to preserve its essential nature. Like a lizard after a rain, if the market around it turns green, it will change its color in order to appear in synch. One way in which it has altered its own environment is through a thorough interpenetration with the organs of the state. You will observe that as the crisis engendered by the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico unfolds, it is the resilience of capitalism, not of aquatic and shoreline ecosystems, to which the US government will show unshakeable commitment.

How well we understand the essential nature of corporations will condition our ability to maneuver in an environment which they dominate. That means understanding the extent and the limits to their flexibility. A hunting bird can catch small rodents, birds and fish to eat. If these become scarce it may expand its diet to include house pets and very young farm animals. But it must eat. If it is unable to do so it will rapidly lose function and will soon disintegrate as an entity. A corporation may extract profit from dietary aids, from industrial adhesives or small arms sales, but it must extract profit. If that central imperative is compromised its component parts will collapse or attach themselves to healthier corporations. It will then disintegrate.

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