Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

The Las Vegas Convention Center will host an MJBizCon in the middle of next month. I've received a brochure, and I mention this just in case you, dear reader, are not on the same mailing lists I am. These things seem like they'd be a blast, but they aren't.  In my experience, these aren't conventions of stoners sharing their really good stuff in the hallways. From the page listing "featured sessions," I give you this: Cultivation Applying Big Ag Techniques to Cannabis Cultivation Cultivation Deep Dive: Economic Impact of Light Intensity on Yield and Secondary Metabolites Retail Packaging Considerations: Choosing the Right Materials and Machinery Retail Tutorial: Boosting Dispensary Revenues Through Patient and Physician Education. There's much more like that, but you probably get the idea. It ain't pass-the-bong fun.  But that is as it should be. The state-legal MJ industry in the US is a wide and deep one now: and I am ...

On a recent visit to Las Vegas I visited Hoover Dam. You can see one of the resulting photos above. I'm told that I over-intellectualize things ,and I sometimes resent that observation. But in this case ... I have to report that I couldn't help but reflect on the theories of Karl Wittfogel when I looked at that sight. Wittfogel, professor of Chinese history at the University of Washington from 1947 to 1966, developed the "hydraulic theory of state formation." This is the view that sovereigns and empires rise and fall based largely on their control of water, especially for flood control in wet regions and irrigation in dry regions. A state that organizes forced labor for these purposes will inevitably be despotic, but since the irrigation/flood-control projects will be so indispensable for the life and livelihood of much of the population it will be able to maintain its despotism over long periods of time. Wittfogel began his academic career as a Marxist, and h...