Introduction to the American Heartland Series

    

    

   

Whether you love it or hate it the United States of America is the great capitalist nation empire in the modern era. America’s emerged as a world capitalist power after the civil war in 1865 where the territory was united under the capitalist mode of production. With the destruction of the slave economy the room for investment by the capitalists of the north and the budding entrepreneurs of the south was expanded. The unification of America is why Abraham Lincoln is so revered because the unification of America completed the American Revolution that began in 1775.

The American revolution of 1775 began the expansion of bourgeois principles in America however the accumulation of capital was not as significant until the country began to find its way particularly as it initially offended the mighty British Empire by daring to repudiate its rule through revolutionary war. The inadequate rate of capital accumulation was reflected in the slave economy that existed in the south. The rate of accumulation in a slave economy is completely insignificant when compared to a capitalist dominated economy. Abraham Lincoln shattered this barrier in the Civil War (1861-65) hence the great unification of the states of America (see my decline of the old south series). This civil war represented a growing accumulation of wealth on the part of the north because the civil war brought with it a great military complex which announced to the world that America was prepared to be a world power.

Following the civil war the American economy expanded significantly and by the 1900s was the world’s largest economy on the basis of the amount produced within its borders. Britain was certainly a wealthier nation on the basis of the inflows and outflows of capital which was embodied in the success of its financial markets. The dominance of America’s financial Market came to the fore after World War 1 where European investors sent their funds there for security purposes because of the war that was being waged in Europe.  Of the entire wealthy capitalist nations in this period (most of which were located in West Europe) America was the one that was most capitalist in nature i.e. capitalism was the historical basis for its mode of production.  In Western Europe (U.K, France, Germany etc) there were still old historical ties to the feudal mode of economic production that was represented by an aristocratic class and a monarchy. These countries still languish with these dated ties however the monarchy and the aristocracy are  now the embodiment of social order, national values etc.  In the feudal  mode of production the basis of wealth is the land whereas in capitalism the basis of wealth is the generation of surplus value/unpaid labour time which is generated on the basis of the capital advanced (raw materials, machinery, wages/paid labour time etc). America expanded its oil production, the automobile industry, the electronics industry (radio etc), steel production during the  early years of the twentieth century. This came to a head however with the crash of 1929 where stock market prices plummeted and the banks locked their doors and there was a rapid curtailment of credit followed by the rampant suffering by the proletariat/working class that is forced to sell its labour power to the few that control the means of capitalist production.

America survived due to extensive government stimulus under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Growth was also fueled by World War 2 where the fascist regimes of Hitler from Germany  and Mussolini  of Italy sought to control the world through their warped national ideologies which only brought destruction to the world economy. Destruction is significant for capitalist production for the post World War 2 years fueled significant economic growth in most countries, led by credit from the United States and formation of the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F) and a bourgeois dominated United Nations Assembly. With America as the World leader in the issuance of credit and the demise of the British Empire it became the world’s great empire both economically and militarily. The Soviet Union was able to match the U.S on a military basis hence why it was also a super power under the throes of a command economy.

The dominance of the U. S economy has been maintained due to its large military complex and the conquest of markets across the world which has facilitated a sort of cultural imperialism. This cultural imperialism has seen American brands become staple items of every ones diet whether you know it or not. All of these brands come with a celebrity attached. America has done a great service to capitalism by highlighting its many positives and making a lot of people believe that they too can become as rich by either going to America or emulating their entrepreneurial zeal that is surpassed by none. (Western Europe and Japan have effective brands as well but no single territory has it like America). In order for a country to expand its economy it has to trade with the U.S one way or the other. This is why America is facilitating the rise of China. Japan’s economy also benefited significantly from the U.S as well as the Eurozone. No other country commands such influence as yet but China by 2025 should be right there with the U.S in terms of the amount produced. The U. S. economy is worth around 15 trillion +.

ii

This is all good for America however there is the heartland of America which represents its dark side and this is what I will be focusing on in my American Heartland series. America’s development came at a cost and the films I will assess will show how America’s belief in conquering new frontiers resulted in the destruction of people’s lives for the sake of the greater national good. The Heartland in this series is the area that is subdued as a point for expansion of capitalist materialist virtues. All of America is the heartland but in this case it represents the centre of materialist values that have been embodied in America. In the already established areas such as the cities, the values are already in the limelight and have been accepted as matter of fact. It is only in the heartland that you can see these values at their core devoid of any superficiality   The films that will be reviewed in this series are: The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Searchers (1956), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Dances with Wolves (1990), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and No Country for Old Men (2007). (I would have loved to do Django Unchained (2012) but it will have to be added later. There Will be Blood will also be added later.). An analysis of these films reveals that in the American Heartland the dark side of Americans are at the forefront and ruthless calculation is usually the difference between failure and success. This is all reinforced by violence as well as the belief in the good of America that will emerge. These films were selected on the basis of the conquest of new frontiers which Americans have used as justification and the means for their many economic successes. The concept of the frontier however corresponds to the need of capitalism to constantly revolutionize the means of production (technology) in order to make workers more productive. The frontier is an evocative image and we see this brought forward in Dances with Wolves and The Searchers where it can be at once beautiful as well as a harsh terrain to traverse. In order to conquer the frontier white Americans had to conquer the indigenous Indians that existed before they arrived as Englishmen in the 17^th century. The conquest of these Indians was bitter sweet for John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) who comes to appreciate the culture of the Sioux Indians in Dances with Wolves as well as for Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) who is forced to come to terms with one of his relatives being culturally converted to the Indian culture. The Indians had to be subdued as one of the means of uniting the country under the American capitalist umbrella. This process began with the British but was completed by the Americans.

The economic means of conquering the American frontier was via the investment by capital. It is clear that with the naked money economy that emerges in the throes of a capitalist and mercantile economy- where everything is assigned a value based on the increased expansion of monetary values that is closely tied to the exponential increase in commodity production- that many people will follow the money. It becomes a mad rush and this becomes evident in  films such as No Country for Old Men where there is a mad rush for money  that has not been collected from a drug deal gone sour (drugs are commodities). We see that Mexicans and bounty hunters are on the trail as well as a mysterious figure known as Anton Chigurh. The first to stumble across the money was Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) a member of the trailer clan the last vestiges of those pioneers of the west. The $2 million is a bonus for him and is one step further to that elusive goal of the American dream however there are a lot of cutthroats on his tail and he will never settle with the money unless he gets it invested or consumed or acts like a typical peasant and buries it in the earth. It is the money trail that has led Americans across the heartland in order to settle for that promise of future returns. We see the same situation in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly where the three main characters are in search of  a treasure chest.  This is also the case in Bonnie and Clyde who emerged from the depression as famous outlaws that robbed banks across states in order to secure their livelihood however this zeal to acquire money comes at a cost particularly as you become the target or the one with the money whether acquired legally or illegally. The money trail ends with you hence why Bonnie and Clyde target the Banks who continue to be the main representatives of wealth as they facilitate credit to industry. During the depression they shut their doors as they awaited favourable conditions for production.  The Grapes of Wrath also highlights the brutality of capitalists as they seek to squeeze every ounce of surplus value from the fruit pickers which are the featured members of the proletariat in this case.

 The Grapes of Wrath however introduces one aspect of capital in its expansion into the American heartland as it conquers the peasantry in order to expand production. The destruction of the peasantry (those who toil the land to procure their own means of subsistence. This can also refer to those people who work for themselves but within the context of a capitalist dominated economy there is also the potential for expansion. In the feudal days a peasant would not dream of such expansion.) turns its members into a landless proletariat that are forced to sell their labour power for wages so that they can survive. In an advanced capitalist economy the working class has to beseech the capitalist in order work so that he can eat. This film highlights how ruthless Americans have been towards each other in order to expand production.

There are many other films one could mention but these films that I have selected should be sufficient to bring my point across that the soul of America has been irredeemably compromised by its materialist values. These same values will bring about its destruction particularly as the state, through public debt, becomes the last vestige of hope for the capitalist dominated economies as a result of it being the dominant accumulator.

American debt for instance is $16 trillion +.