Viability
Page 5
—John of the Cross
On solar system bedsheets, there, behind the sunlight, is the long pressure of an infant’s love. Becoming mute with the infant’s love. Long influence of stars touched by the hand wrapped, asleep, in the newly laundered sheets. I check: each is alive in his sleep. You are also asleep, at the end of the yarn they are weaving around the edge of a pink paper heart fattening—if quieter, now.
Some spoke frankly about Virginia as a “breeding state,” though the reply to such allegations was generally an indignant denial. Whether systematically bred or not, the natural increase of the slave force was an important, probably the most important, product of the more exhausted soil of the Old South. The relationship between the prices of men and women in the slave market, when compared with the ratio of hiring rates for male and female field hands, gives an even stronger indication that the superior usefulness of females of breeding age was economically recognized. The price structure clearly reflects the added value of females due to their ability to generate capital gains.
The Index we need is inhuman. Need: actual radiation. Need: the different kind of mind.
—John of the Cross
Competitive Intelligence: The process of collecting and analyzing information about competitors’ strengths and weaknesses in a legal and ethical manner to enhance business decision-making. Competitive intelligence activities can be basically grouped into two main types:
Tactical, which is shorter-term and seeks to provide input into issues such as capturing market share or increasing revenues; and
Strategic, which focuses on longer-term issues such as key risks and opportunities facing the enterprise.
Put everlastingness. Put unendingness. Put relentlessness. Put algorithms and put operations. Put them everywhere you turn. You will become the field gesturing. You will become fishbones and guts, you will become strewn across the pavement. You will become the bruises along the mind. You will become the weapons-grade membrane. You will become the animals of actual mercy. You will become actual dead animals. You will become dead.
—John of the Cross
NOTES
“The comfort we need is inhuman” is a line from Bill McKibben
“The horizon is simple: a sheet of light” is a line from Todd Fredson
“This is capitalism at its worst” is from Kevin Bales
“Smear a small red spider / A cleaning fire” is a line from Hoa Nguyen
“Safe through the generous fields” is a line from Lucille Clifton
“You are coming into us who cannot withstand you / you are coming into us who never wanted to withstand you” is a slight variation of Adrienne Rich
Kama Sutra is widely sampled
John of the Cross is widely misquoted
Kate Hodal and Chris Kelly are widely sampled from their Guardian article “Trafficked into Slavery on Thai Trawlers to Catch Food for Prawns”
Economic definitions are from the website Investopedia
“Americium” definition is from Wikipedia
Alfred H. Conrad and John R. Meyer’s “The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South” is widely sampled
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