Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Cuban Genetic Engineering (was Jesse Lemisch)

[Louis Proyect]

>Incidentally, on the romanticization of agriculture. Biologically modern
>humans go back 100,000 years; agriculture 12,000 or so -- it's a late
>perversion, like writing. Industry, on the other hand, goes back several
>million years. And it is around industry, play, and moving about, not
>being stuck like a slug on one plot of land, that human life ought to be
>organized. Agriculture by its nature is anti-human, and hence in a
>decent society would be radically sub-divided and spread out over the
>entire population, like KP in the military. Scrubbing toilets is far
>more human labor than tilling the soil.
>
>Carrol

You seem to be missing the whole point of what Michael Perelman called
"self-provisioning" in precapitalist agrarian societies. Yes, the work was
backbreaking but it was not done 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, 51 weeks a
year. Read Juliet Schor's "The Overworked American" for a description of
how leisurely such societies were in many ways. It is the same thing with
hunting and gathering societies. Going out and spearing fish is tough work,
but once you have your catch, you can eat, drink, fuck and tell stories
around the campfire.

Louis Proyect
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