The Dialectics of the Treadmills of Production and Destruction

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

Our analysis will help establish a more full understanding of the state/economy relationship by developing the analysis of militaries as a second-order mediation. This analysis demonstrates how militaries mediate the relationship by directing production entirely for destructive purposes (destructive production) and how capital redirects waste towards accumulation. This theorizing demonstrates how the destructive aspects of militarism operate and are organized and oriented to the capital accumulation process, generating private riches while fundamentally disregarding human needs. Ultimately, monopoly capital’s integration and the imperialistic tendencies of U.S. militarism created more waste, both social and ecological, further exacerbating the logic of exterminism. Thus, addressing the ecological crisis requires a revolutionary transformation of society and an end to the imperial capitalist system.

Authors

• Daniel Auerbach, University of Wyoming

• Brett Clark, University of Utah