The Freedom of Things An Ethnology of Control

Harrison contends that the freedom from 'savagery' that the 'modern world' promises is not the freedom of humans but the freedom of things--of humans as commodities. Whereas capitalism and its culture of economic dependence is characterized by hierarchy, control, and the commodification of all things, Indigenous values are based upon personal autonomy, experience, dreaming, and a respect for the environment that refuses to equate it to a monetary worth. There is, Harrison argues, no reconciliation to be had between these two systems. Furthermore, the radical left, including anarchists, remain State-builders immersed within the paternalistic and accumulatory ethos represented by Marxist-Leninism and, therefore, only serve to consolidate and extend the ascendency of the West.