[This appeared as an anonymous "call to action" on one of the
anti-genengineering lists I monitor: ]
A message to the elves of the night
The destruction of GE crops is on the rise in North America. In the past
six months there have been numerous assaults on GE crops in Maine,
Vermont, Minnesota, California and British Columbia. This is a perfect
example of a case where the enemy is weaker than one might think. Test
crops are easy to destroy, anyone can cut down a crop, yet the destruction
of test crops costs seed companies considerable time. The work of these
high tech companies can be disrupted by the most simple means. This is one
of the reasons why the sabotage of crops has spread so widely. Because of
the outrage over genetically modified foods many have taken direct action
against capital. But there are many other simple ways to attack capital,
so why stop there now that so many people have practice as elves of the
night?
The sabotage of genetically modified crops is aimed at a new technological
development, in this case a biotechnological development. Its aim is to
cripple the advance of technology, which was also the aim of the Luddites
The most recent advances are often the only forms of technology to be
critiqued or attacked because they are the most shocking. But these recent
advances are not separate from other forms of technology, they function
systematically with other technologies for the utility of capital: the
exploitation of nature and human beings. It is far more common to be
critical of the most advanced forms of technology while the machines that
the Luddites had sabotaged now seem benign. This is because we have grown
up with them and often fail to see their negative effects. It is much
easier to be critical of the technologies that we are unfamiliar with
because we can still perceive their destructive and alien qualities. For
example, it is easier to see that the internet is alienating and replaces
contact with real human beings or that it increases control, than the
telephone. We are blind to the effects of the telephone because for us
these effects have always been there. This naturalization of technologies
also blinds us from seeing technology as a system. We see instead
proliferation of "tools". But, for what end are these tools made? Are they
merely made for a variety of individual human uses to fulfill a variety of
individual needs or are they produced by systems for the use of those
systems? Technology is produced by capitalist companies and governments
for their use. These technologies are a product of the logic of capital.
Our critique and our attacks must reach beyond the most recent advances of
the technological system to other technological means of exploitation and
alienation. Elves of the night, there is so much to do!
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