Thoughts on "The Diamond Age"

As I first started reading "The Diamond Age", I had a hard time getting through the techno-babble.  Stephenson goes to great lengths early in the story to provide technical detail to various technologies that are talked about throughout the book.  However, after trudging through, I realized that it was a necessary ingredient to the story and made further reading easier to understand.

The underlying theme of the story, world globalization, was a good place to end our reading of colonialism and gave me a lot to think about.  In fact, what's still rumbling around in my pea-brain is the idea of philes / tribes replacing governments in the future.  This led to me start thinking (yes critically) about how we're already well on our way towards that reality.

If you buy into the idea that companies have HUGE influence on the world's economy, and that companies have a HUGE influence on politics and government, is it really that much of stretch to think that they don't already control the world?  While there might not be a country called "IBM" or "Oracle", how far are we from seeing such a reality?

This led to me imagining a time in the near future, when some huge conglomerate (let's say Futuretech, Inc.) buys out a large chunk of it's competitors and now becomes the leading manufacturer of nano technology.  Futuretech, Inc. then decides that it would be in its best interests to buy up a large section of land in Africa (the size of a small country) by buying off leaders and making them ceremonial high ranking company officials, and place its headquarters and all manufacturing there.  They relocate all of their research and manufacturing to this new Futuretech, Inc capital and begin terraforming the landscape to meet their agricultural and biotechnology needs.  In doing so, towns are built for employees and other companies are allowed to setup shop to meet the service industry needs (Wal-Mart and KFC anyone?).

After this happens, it doesn't take Futuretech, Inc. long to realize that there needs to be laws in put into place (codes of conduct) with some kind of justice system.  Police and judges are hired to enforce these codes of conduct and anyone wishing to live or work in Futuretech, Inc. will have to agree and abide by the codes of conduct.  Protecting their interests and ensuring that warlords from other areas of Africa don't try and get any ideas, Futuretech, Inc. hires the French Foreign Legion as its military force.  Futuretech, Inc. decides that it likes the idea so much, that it BUYS the French Foreign Legion and spawns a new division of the company called FutureTech Defense, Inc. with the goals of protecting themselves and contracting out these services to other similar companies or governments.

Currency would be an issue and so to make things easier, Futuretech, Inc. decides that it should conduct business using an already established monetary system called the EU.  This would provide compatibility with the rest of world's markets and allow Futuretech, Inc. the ability to regulate its own economic environment.

I could go on and on, but I think that this may have been what Stephenson had envisioned as the prehistory of "The Diamond Age".  Companies becoming so powerful that they in and of themselves take on their own global identity and adopt their own unique corporate culture.  The citizens themselves, would be working for the common goal of protecting the interests of the company instead of a country.

Far fetched?  Maybe not.

Abstract: Root Cause of Colonialism

There is little doubt that colonialism has changed the face of the planet and continues to affect postcolonial societies in a number of different ways.  Fusing of cultures, religion, economics, and language are but of few of the results of postcolonialism.  Some societies have adapted markedly well while others have fallen into abject poverty, civil war, social unrest, and in extreme cases extinction.  Regardless of the outcomes, this essay examines the texts we have read throughout the semester in an effort to determine the underlying reason ,or the "why", for colonialism in the first place.  The answer is undoubtedly capitalism.

In examining colonial Europe, the common thread found in examining the question of why colonialism happened can be seen clearly in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness",  Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", and V.S. Naipaul's "The Mimic Men".   These novels show how the Europeans used various pretexts for rationalizing the colonization of other countries, in order to pave the way for private enterprise to make money.

Looking into more recent history, Ha Jin's story, "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town" shows how America, a postcolonial society itself, uses capitalism as a means of spreading culture and values to other countries. Future evidence of capitalism's role in colonialism can be examined in the Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age".  In "The Diamond Age", we see a future "globalized" world that is controlled by tribes instead of countries.   In examining the relationship between the tribes and globalization, we see evidence that the most successful tribes are really technology corporations who's citizens are members of the corporate culture.

Pundits may argue that there were other reasons for colonialism, such as religion, and that capitalism played a secondary role.  Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies", Diamond provides evidence through historical facts that the driving force behind colonialism was completely based on capitalism.  Further evidence can be found in Juan Gonzalez's "Harvest Empire" where he explores the history behind Spanish colonialism and provides compelling evidence that colonialism is rooted in capitalism.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Norton, 2009.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Norton, 2009.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire. New York: Penguin, 2000.

Naipal, V.S. The Mimic Men. New York: Vintage, 1967.

Stephenson, Neal. The Diamond Age. New York: Bantam, 2008.
Jin, Ha. "After Cowboy Chickin Came To Town." Jin, Ha. The Bridegroom. New York: Vintage, 2000. 184-225.

Abstract: Colonialism - The Root Cause

Throughout the semester, we've been reading story after story about the affects of colonialism throughout various parts of the world.  While we have discussed the implications and effects of colonialism on both the colonizers and the colonized, we did not spend a great deal of time discussing the "why".  My essay will focus on the "why" by looking at the root cause (reasons) of colonialism: Capitalism.  Using the texts from our reading, along with additional material about U.S. colonialism I will be able to demonstrate that the single driving force behind all colonialism lies not with religion (although it is often used as justification) but greed, pure and simple.

The following is a list of works I currently plan to use:

Juan Gonzalez. "Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America". New York: Penguin 2000.
Joseph Conrad. "Heart of Darkness". New York: Norton, 2005.
Jared Diamond. "Guns, Germs, and Steel". New York: Norton, 1997.
Bernard MacLaverty. "Cal". New York: Norton, 1995.
Achebe, Chinua. "Things Fall Apart". New York: Anchor, 1994.
Naipaul, V. S.  "The Mimic Men". Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.
Jin, Ha. "After Cowboy Chickin Came To Town." Jin, Ha. The Bridegroom. New York: Vintage, 2000. 184-225.