Benjamin Franklin, Political Economy, Marx & Joy in the Morning

Attempting to write coherently of Benjamin Franklin's thinking regarding the North American British colonies' political economy, I am working my way through Marx's essay on Franklin's A Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency.


BF was perhaps the first person to ever work out that money = labor, thus, regretably one must have slave labor, at least in these colonies. Not to mention a wife. Because, extracting the most production for the least labor cost is how wealth is produced. Marx's analysis is fascinating and illuminating. But I have to work on this longer.

I might have gotten this clear yesterday except we had our Saturday errands to do, and then we had to attend the benefit gospel performance for a scholarship fund at school. When we got home it was after 8 and we still had dinner to make and eat. By then I didn't have much of a brain for either Franklin or Marx, alas. But that is how it is with we Poohs who never knew economix anyway, and have no natural talent in that area. So much so that PH, JJ and I agree that come the Revolution first we hang the economists, except for Paul Krugman. This, re chatting after the concert. Which was spectacular.

Among the several memorable words spoken by  the MC, the Rev. Clarence Hawkins, particularly about song and singing, he quoted the man in whose honor the scholarship was created, Vincent Hynson: "Volunteerism and community service are the price you pay to be on this earth."

The amount of volunteerism that has gone into the creation of the scholarship, the maintenance and administering of it, the numbers of the County's members who perform the volunteer work, including raising their voice in song -- it's not named the 100 Voice Choir without reason -- I kept trying to calculate the production extracted per hour of labor in Franklin's terms. But would he have considered this a worthwhile product at all, since all it did was bring together diverse parts of a community in celebration, worship and song?

An Afternoon With Benjamin Franklin

I've been attempting to plot a coherent course through his thinking on political economy. 

When we are speaking of Benjamin Franklin, or most of pre-Independence, colonial America in the enlightening 18th c, this term in their terms generally means how to best achieve wealth, the most wealth for an individual and for the colonies.

The first item is population, meaning people who are there already (Indians, who might be hindrences or assets), and the people who arrive, whether they wish to or not. The second item is labor, which means the most labor = production extracted from the 'population' for the cheapest price you can manage.
There is the rub for the colonies, these two inextricably bound elements which are the foundation of wealth.  Because the North American British colonies have such a small population, while having infinite access to land, labor is always expensive.  Thus products from the colonies cannot, and will never be able to, compete either in Britain's  or the global market. The price of labor, that scarce commodity, essential for an individual to make his way into secure wealth, that leads to power and influence is too high, and will always be since newcomers can always push out west to the infinite accessible land there.

Thus, alas, we cannot do without slavery, and African slavery in particular, because the members of that class of (inferior) person can be tracked through the population and not light out for the territory where there is all that free land, as indentures (including himself as a young man, for that matter, though he went to Philadelphia merely) do all too often.  Anyway, the British forced slavery on us early on and now its too late (a deeply held conviction by the colonialists, which continues in certain venues to this very day).

BF gave much thoughtful written attention to slavery, its part in the road to riches for an individual and a nation. He also was a part of the colonial trade in slaves, by which he made a decent percentage of his personal wealth. His personal slaves disgusted, disappointed and irritated him continually, enough that he writes about them in his correspondence.  He's always stating he's going to get rid of them -- or else free them.   But he doesn't do either.  As Patrick Henry and others say, it's inconvenient to not have slaves, particularly when you're used to having slaves all your life.

Slavery, slaves and slave trade are not listed in the index of that lauded (2000) study of Franklin, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands. This is the case of many a study of Benjamin Franklin; when slavery's mentioned it's usually in the unexamined context that BF was anti-slavery and an abolitionist.  This was not the case until very late in his life, when 90 and  occasionally dotty, at the time of the Philadelphia (Constitutional) Convention; I'm not convinced, either, that it was on generally humanitarian grounds.This is one of the many reasons to appreciate David Waldstreicher's (2004) Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution.

Next installment in Benjamin Franklin and political economy: what he has to say about the relationships among wealth, labor, your wife.

Could This Not Have Been In *Children of Dune*?

"Several women shouted “dirty government,” leaning from the balconies of their high-rise apartments to hurl bottles down on the police. Officers pounded their clear shields with their billy clubs and chanted in unison.

Then, almost incredibly, a more than two-hour pitched street battle ended with protesters and police officers shaking hands and sharing water bottles on the same street corner where minutes before they were exchanging hails of stones and tear-gas canisters were arcing through the sky. Thousands stood on the six-lane coastal road then sank to their knees and prayed. In Cairo, too, an eerie silence fell in one section of the city at midafternoon, as hundreds of protesters began a prayer session in the middle of the street, according to live images from Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite channel. Protesters bowed their heads as smoke billowed into the air behind them from the skirmishes between demonstrators and riot police."

From the NY Times round-up of news out of Egypt, mostly via Al-Jazeera, though it claims all these reporters on the ground -- they're mostly with Al-Jazeera and other regional orgs. What I read in the NY Times, I read first mostly via Al Jazeera and or Brit publications, so I say that. In recent years our nation's official news gathering institutions and organizations, such as the NY Times, have basically shut down their overseas bureaus as not cost effective, and as cost cutting measures.

This helps fill in the picture, for those who feel confused as to what is really going on in Egypt, as to why it is looked at differently by the U.S. than is Tunis or Yemen, while others, elsewhere laud the idea of -- I quote from a story earlier this week in the U.K. Telegraph -- "Egyptian police have been fighting protesters in intensifying clashes, and demonstrations have reported from Yemen and Gabon – a sign that defiance against authoritarian rulers in the Middle East is spreading." BTW, when did Gabon become a part of the region categorized as the "Middle East?"

As for 'shutting off the internetz can't happen here,' check out this lieberman supported bill which is continuing to gain support.

In hyperlocal news, it's snowing here again. The geese are getting hungry -- they are flying, looking for accessible food that isn't closed off by the layers of snow and ice, and the very weight of stems and branches that are flattened by their casings of snow and ice.  I'm starting to get cabin fever. Also, the winter doldrums seem to have set in very early this year in many of the places I rather depend on to stimulate my sluggish brain.

The Revolution Cannot Be Socially Networked

According to a report from The Arabist, "Egypt has shut off the internet."

Here is as much info as we've got.  Even the links within the story are not responding now.


You want to change things?  It's still hands on, face-to-face, getting Out There.  Clicking and thumbing won't do it.  They can shut you off so damned fast you don't know what hit you.  On the other hand They don't do hands on, face-to-face, and that's a lot harder to shut off.

Once it was said the Revolution will not be televised. Nothing's changed since then, though the tech's now digital and more global than even Gil Scott-Heron could imagine in 1970.

Snowstorm 01/26/11 -- Backyard From Upstairs

One of the small trees in the back came down, as did some the oldest branches from the giant sycamore.  There was thunder and lightning.  Over  350,000 have lost power in the region.  Though we had a few moments -- computer was already shut down and disconnected, thank goodness -- we are not among them.  The street in front of the house looks like a small stream or creek, so much water came with this storm in the form of sleet and rain, as well as the huge, wet flakes.  Thus the downed trees and branches, then the power outages, doubtless.  That stuff weighs a ton, and some places got 15 inches.  It looks as though we received in C'town a measly 4 - 5 inches.

Snowy, Sloppy, Slushy = Ice

It's a mess out there, and the variety of all the roads' surfaces are treacherous.

Everything for today, except classes, to which the students by-and-large walk to here, have been canceled, including the Winter's Bone viewing.  I'm sorry about that, but a lot of the Ladies would have a long way to drive, and then drive home again, when the temps will have fallen below freezing for several hours by then, so I'm glad.

Classes are going to be cancelled for tomorrow, from what I understand.  I'm in the process of cooking up a hearty pea soup that contains left-over ham and left-over pork roast, among other ingredients.

A Book! A NOVEL! Not for Research!

I am going to read it, for fun.  It's been months since I did that.

It's an historical fiction, naturally -- but finding one of those I can read isn't easy these days, when what is called historical fiction is mostly historical Romance, a genre that I cannot read whether historical or not.  Also, whether historical romance or even Historical Fiction, so much is written to formula now there's nothing exciting in the book: poor, unappreciated, lost, orphaned, exiled, enslaved young female -- finds an unusual for anyone and particularly for a young woman profession in which to be trained by sympathetic older person(s), meets one or more interesting young man, men, against a background of a big historical era or event(s), she succeeds becomes married, a wealthy mother running her own business blahblahblah.  It's so predictable a/k/a boring.  Oh, yes, she also has unexpected attributes of beauty.

Wench (2010) by Dolen Perkins-Valdez  doesn't contain any of these blahblahblahs.  I devoured the first 60 pp. last night after putting down the study of Benjamin Franklin and his thinking as well as profit-making from slaves and indentured labor, and before putting out the lights.  Also it's beautifully written.

What kind of novel Wench is can be seen here.

I've also received the new Heartstone by English author, C.J. Sansom, himself a lawyer, the tale of a lawyer in the later parts of the reign of Henry VIII, and the dissolution of the Roman Church and its properties.  This Shardlake series has been among the few new finds of recent years.  They are published usually 10 - 12 months earlier in England than here.

Cook Cook Cook! Praise Praise Praise!

Yum Yum Yum!
Or it will be when el V finishes.
The kitchen is farkin' freezing. Fortunately as soon as you turn on a burner or something it helps a lot. The PHH people should  do something to insulate those four kitchen windows, two doors and the foundations for winter one of these years. I've gotten to hating to be in there when the temps plunge, which has been most of the winter so far. But as said, as soon as the stove goes into use it improves enormously, but one must begin, and one is so put off from beginning.

Particularly as when el V is home during cooking times.  He edffortlessly re-created the sit-in-the-middle-of-it-all-to-block-C from going back and forth from HER workstation to  doing freaking anything in the kitchen.  This forces her to continuously request him to move just like in the NYC kitchen. Why? He could have set up his home office in the dining room, but no, right between the study where my office is, and the kitchen counters.

But back to it being so cold in there -- pulling dishes out of the cupboards and silverware from the drawers is taking out pieces of ice! Back in Dec. I began putting the the serving bowls, plates and flatware on the stove while making dinner so they'd warm up before eating.  If hot food went into them straight out of the cupboards the food would be cold before it got to the dining room. I keep getting a new understanding, viscerally, of so many food preparation and serving customs.  Lids and covers are essential not only for controlling heat and keeping out dirt and critters, but to preserve heat.

I do the same with my teapot and mug in the mornings too. el V thought this was brilliant, but he's never quite gotten the concept. He puts cups on the stove top, but pours his coffee into a cup he takes out of the cupboard. He does this every morning since I started doing this.  He wants to help, so he pours the hot water into my teapot -- and moves it to the counter. He doesn't understand why I laugh at him every morning.

We are eating superbly, locovorely. We made a new schedule though, at el V's suggestion: I cook three times a week, he one, we go out twice and one night we fend with whatver. It helps me to do more book work.

el V just announced: "We men may take too much credit for the little we actually do in the kitchen, but our self-promotions skills about it are superb. Come here, admire and PRAISE what I do! This is the best thing you'll have ever eaten in your life!"

Wine and music help the process of making dinner too, in o so many ways ... let's hear it for the Saturday night traditions that we follow wherever we are, when we're not eating elsewhere, which does happen.

Colder Than a *Winter's Bone*!

There is a 'Ladies Club' here. It meets monthly, eats, watches a film and discusses.
I am attending my first meeting of the Club next week. Via e-mail I got into a movie discussion with my sponsor-amiga over the superior virtues as I see them of Winter's Bone and the many failures as I see them of the Dude Bros' True Grit. She repeats the universal praise that the Dude Bros' True Grit may be the greatest movie ever made, at least since The Great StumbleMumbleBum of Seattle; she has not seen Winter's Bone. Next thing I know she's sent all I'd written about Winter's Bone* to the club president, who then arbitrarily changed this meeting's screening to Winter's Bone. She also sends what I wrote to the journal to have it published there. I am so excited about getting watch and talk about this woman-centered and woman-made film with other women!

Gadessaries! it's cold.

*  Thoughts on Winter's Bone here, and True Grit here.

Medieval Battle Field and Warfare

"Nasty, brutish and not that short; medieval warfare was just as terrifying as you might imagine."

An account of the English Wars of the Roses in The Economist Magazine, built around the injuries, including the killing one, to the head of a young soldier in the Battle of Towton, 1461.

Cuban Music History Scholar Kitty, Mr. T

A New Work Out Era Begins Today

Since around September the audio books I've listened to while working out have dealt with Lincoln in one way or another, with three short breaks for The Great Gatsby, The Virginian and The Green Hills of Africa.  Today I begin Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, having earlier this week finally finished with Manhunt.

Wordle of Chapter Nine

From The American Slave Coast:

The American Slave Coast

I am  having a new experience. There are two different books that cover the culture(s) of a region for the same era. They employ many of the same source materials, particularly the primary source materials. They are both chronological. They are published by the same press. Twelve years separate their publication. The later one is a narrative history. It ignores the previous one which takes a demographic approach though it too incorporates a great deal of narrative. They don't agree on important points. They are both the books of the moment for this cultural history. There is one place the second book acknowledges the existence of the earlier publication -- and it takes that earlier publication to the woodshed, figuratively speaking. However, I am not convinced that the newer book is right, despite its impeccable sourcing.

Winter's Discontents

At Daily Kos:

"The word clouds show the contrast between their two approaches. They both recognized Saturday's shooting for the tragedy that it was, but the clear emphasis of President Obama's word choice was on focusing on the victims and that which unites us as a nation, whereas ... [the other's] ... focused on her grievances and what drives our country apart."

Am so deeply depressed by the same old same old responses to the AZ terrorism event from the same old same olds. More civility, blahblahblah, doesn't know what blood libel really is, blahblahblah, the left is blaming us for what the left itself did and is responsible for, blahblahblah, he read hitler who is a leftist, blahblahblah, buy me SOME MORE GUNS, blahblahblah.

Yesterday I ventured upon the frozen streets. Out of nowhere got ambushed by an elderly fellow ambling across Cannon, who tells me, "I don't like this country anymore. I'm leaving. I was in Vietnam, I was a medic, and nothing we fought for is in this country anymore. I'm moving to New Zealand where I have kin. They've got better health care there too," he said.

I asked him if was having trouble with his medical bills. "Veterans take care of all that and I got medicare, my veterans' pension, social security and my other pension."

Politely, I asked, "This isn't a challenge or disagreement or anything like that, but I'm interested in what you think. Can you tell me, in one sentence, the most important reason you want to leave the United States?"

He looked confused. He verbally fumbled for a minute. Finally, he got out, "The illegals."

I asked him why the illegals bothered him so much.

"The Mexicans take away our jobs and get everything for free." I asked him where he'd seen this going on in Kent County.  "They have babies," he said.

I asked him who his ancestors were. "They were Americans who came here in the nineteenth century from Ireland."

I asked him if what had happened in AZ was a part of why he felt the U.S. was somewhere he couldn't live anymore

"Not at all. I don't care about that. I mean, I'm sorry that woman, lady, girl, whatever, got shot, but that has nothing to do with how bad our country is." Then he informed me the shooter was an illegal Mexican. And the shooter last year at Fort Dix was "a foreigner from somewhere who invaded the base."

After that I came back to the House and put on the Vampire Diaries, because, well, I felt like slitting my wrists.

"When Congress Was Armed And Dangerous"

In Congress, violence was often deployed strategically. Representatives and senators who were willing to back up their words with their weapons had an advantage, particularly in the debate over slavery. Generally speaking, Northerners were least likely to be armed, and thus most likely to back down. Congressional bullies pressed their advantage, using threats and violence to steer debate, silence opposition and influence votes.

Very interesting. I learned a lot from this one.

As alarming as these outbursts were, until the 1840s, reporters played them down, in part to avoid becoming embroiled in fights themselves. (A good many reporters received beatings from outraged congressmen; one nearly had his finger bitten off.) So Americans knew relatively little of congressional violence.


That changed with the arrival of the telegraph. Congressmen suddenly had to confront the threat — or temptation — of “instant” nationwide publicity. As Senator John Parker Hale of New Hampshire reminded his colleagues within minutes of the Foote-Benton clash, reports were “already traveling with lightning speed over the telegraph wires to the remotest borders of the Republic.” He added, “It is not impossible that even now it may have been rumored in the city of St. Louis that several senators are dead and weltering in their blood on the floor of the Senate.”

Violence was news, and news could spawn violence. Something had to be done, but what? To many, the answer was obvious: watch your words. As one onlooker wrote to the speaker of the House shortly after Sumner’s caning, “gentlemen” who took part in the debate over slavery should “scrupulously avoid the utterance of unnecessarily harsh language.” There was no other way to prevent the “almost murderous feeling” that could lead to “demonstrations upon the floor, which in the present state of excitement, would almost certainly lead to a general melee and perhaps a dozen deaths in the twinkling of an eye.”

Unfortunately, such admonitions had little effect. The violence in Congress continued to build until the outbreak of the Civil War.

The author, Joanne B. Freeman, a professor of history at Yale, is at work on a book about violence in Congress.

True Grit Is the True Born Son of the Virginian

Yesterday was long, or seemed so as it contained variety, none of which were connected

The weather first. It snowed. Fortunately though it came fast and furious the snow was so wetly fat it accumulated little or not at all. That it was nearly as wet as rain I can personally testify to, as it fell on me during the heaviest fall period. However, it did not blow, though it was cold. By 5 pm the temperatures dropped into the freezing zone. Ice.

Shopping. In the wet snow. Enough said.

Saw True Grit instead of Season of the Witch because all the accounts from reviewers and friends insisted SOTW was boring and preposterous.  By the concluding scenes True Grit contained preposterousities enough. Jeff Bridges's noted style of stumblebumdum delivery and character is as irritating as ever. What was interesting about the film was that some of the primary tropes* laid out in The Virginian (published first in 1902 and never out-of-print), the Western's Bible, appear barely re-arranged. The two 'good' protagonists, 'Rooster' Cogburn and La Boeuf, one a federal marshal and the other a Texas Ranger, are, guess what? ex-confederates. My reading of the novel and viewing of the John Wayne movie version are so long ago I cannot recall specific details **, but this version goes even further into the depths of the confederacy, because Cogburn was also a member of Quantrill's Raiders, those murderous thugs who pillaged, killed and raped their way through the War. The other primary trope, that the unschooled virile gritty Southerner and the schoolmarm's union creates a breed superior to what existed before, is here re-arranged into the bodies of the aging Ruben Cogburn and the precociously schooled 14-year-old Mattie Ross. Their union does take out the killer and the gang he flees to in Indian territory***.  This regionally positive event wouldn't have taken place without Mattie's galvanization and Rooster's necessary crazy courageous act -- with an aside assistance that the Texas Ranger, who less uncouth, makes that miraculous shot with the Spenser carbine rifle. Both of them save Mattie after those primary events, when she falls into a mine pit full of rattlesnakes. The elderly spinster Mattie brings Rooster to her family burial ground after he dies, though they've never seen each other since that long ago adventure. The horse, another trope, is important all the way through the movie, and gets very big play by the end, though how that comes about, at least in the Coen movie version, is stupid. These characters, as annoying as they all are, have not been stupid previously. I'm unsure why the critics are so pleased by this movie, particularly as the NYC critics tend to despise Westerns. Is it because it's based on a novel by one of those sort of cult novelists beloved by the New York lit crits or is it that they adore Jeff Bridges and the Coen Bros no matter what?

Then it was time to meet GC and ST. History, here we are again! ST, chair of the UT American Studies Dept., was in town for a conference at the Shomburg. We spent an intense two hours discussing the latest scholarship of American history focussed on slavery and the trade, and the forthcoming titles, etc.

After that, it was Haiti and art. We hung out with artist-houngan, M, and his Haitian wife, M, who made us a late dinner. Art world, music, dance, that was went on over there. K had been given over to aunt A, so M and M could have a night off and together. Sometime between 11 PM and midnight we headed to S.O.B.'s for Richard Morris and Ram -- Ram is M's favorite Haitian racine group; all her life she's fan-worshipped Richard's wife / lead vocalist. el Vaquero got some great photos in the dressing room of M with Lunise. The first thing he did this morning was send them to M after a bit of processing.

We don't have days that contain shopping, the movie of the moment, American history, art and music all the same time down in C'town. There, world class American history is the only game in town.

Tonight, more Haiti, starting with this.  Many of the people involved are friends. Haiti's been an ongoing theme of this NYC visit.
____________

* An appendix of the Western's tropes as we see them in Wister's The Virginian was attached to that essay that went out via The List earlier this week.

** I hate the spanking scene, particularly because that is what so many viewers love so much.  It's such a farkin' John Wayne character thing, to put the 'girl' in her place.  I don't recall if it was in the novel, or whether it was the Bros shoutin' out the Duke from the land of the Dude.

*** As in The Virginian, the Indians are window dressing. The three we see, two children and one adult, are equally savage and stupid and despised by the whites.

It Snows Here, It Snow There

It's also damned cold.

Last night was Love of Life Orchestra at le Poisson Rouge.  The gig was an occaison perfect for seeing many of the people I wanted to see and otherwise wouldn't have had the time or opportunity to see all of them.  Some of them were visiting from out-of-town, as are we this time around.  The musicians were a line-up of very old friends and colleagues, some of whom go back together as far as the end of the 70's at least.  The audience however, like the newest members of the line-up last night, weren't born then.

PG's music has been recently put out by DFA, James Murphy's record label.  James Murphy, DJ and his band, which is really just him mostly, LED Sound System, is the hottest thing of the moment.  The all-important music demographic, the twenties - mid-thirties white male, just love him and his music, and the music he puts out on the label.

The kids in the line-up last night are younger than that:  PG and KF's son, who is walking on air because his first school of choice, Yale, accepted him.  He plays trumpet.  He's been professionally gigging for the last four years.  He also has been professionally DJings for the last year and a half.  RA's daughter has inherted her mother's incredible vocal range, perfect pitch and tuning (back in the days of telephone black boxes she could sing the pitches so perfectly that she could access the overseas lines by just singing).  D VT's daughter is younger and no quite as solid as the other two kids, but strong.  I can only imagine what the feelings are for the parents to be performing with a stage filled with their own lives' dear ones, with all that history of various experiences, not to mention drama -- and now to have your own children up there with you, performing at professional level.

Also, newer members that have come out V's Afro-latin music worlds:  Elio Villafrancas and Robbie Ameen, providing a rock solid bottom plus African and Latin jazz soul -- yes indeed, this was music that you wanted to dance to and did dance to, because you couldn't help it.

This was one of the reasons I'll be glad to move back to NYC.

By the way, guess what people have learned recently?  People who are poor aren't as happy as people with money.

el Vaquero's Web Photo Gallery Up On Zoom Street

From el Vaquero:

I have a photo show up on the web, at the photo zine Zoom Street. They have a monthly gallery, and for January it's twelve of my pictures. They did a great job with it.

I purposely didn't put notes or captions -- a let-the-images-speak-for-themselves kinda thing, all indulging my taste for motion in a still photo, but I'll tell *you* that all the pictures were shot on film, and none of the images are composites, they all happened in the lens, on the fly. I scanned, tweaked the color balances, cropped, and spotted, but that's about it.

In my opinion these photographs are spectacular.  All you need to decide for yourself is to click here.

Da List -- The Books We're Reading, 2010

A few minutes ago we sent out the annual list of what the subscribers (commentary or not was optional) recommend from their reading of the past year. This List feature gets more ever more popular. So many titles came in this year el V decided to send it as a pdf instead of the usual e-mail.

The subscribers are one heck of a reading, analyzing, writing, intelligent, witty, perspicacious bunch of people. I'm in awe of them. But most of all it's thrilling to see in such detail how much they value books for all the many reasons people value reading, writing and learning. Sometimes in this era of glorification of idiots and fools we can lose sight that our population still includes many people who are neither.

Thank you, Listers, for renewing some faith in this country.

el V, tyrant of da List, urged me to contribute something a little different for the Round-up. So I did a short essay on The Virginian and the Western. I've been working out the content for this study over the last few years here on Fox Home. This little piece is the closest I've come, so far, to saying what I want to say about Westerns, since I figured out that the Western is really the 'Neo-Confederate.'

My New Year Came In With Five Single-Spaced Pages

And revisions and editing down of the nine pages from yesterday.

el V's uptown at a Gumbo party of Louisianes and New Orleanians.  I am hurting so much from my spinal condition I opted to stay home and write.  We are both winners.

Now I'm hungry and wondering what I should do about it.

The New Year: she's here.