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FracturedPelvis@lemmy.ml

Brazil unveils $4 million supercow, twice as meaty as others of her breed (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 1 week ago by RobotToaster@mander.xyz to c/nottheonion@lemmy.ml

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[–] ComradeRat@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

“In these prisons animals are born and remain there until they are killed off. The question is whether or not this system connected to the breeding system that grows animals in an abnormal way by aborting bones in order to transform them to mere meat and a bulk of fat—whereas earlier (before 1848) animals remained active by staying in free air as much as possible—will ultimately result in serious deterioration of life force?...Characterized by precocity, in entirety sickliness, want of bones, a lot of development of fat and flesh etc. All these are artificial products. Disgusting!”

Karl Marx, Ecological Notebooks

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

will ultimately result in serious deterioration of life force

What the fuck is "life force"?

[–] ComradeRat@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

Vigour/vitality might be a better english TL. In the German, he writes Lebenskraft

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think of it as the Marx materialist form of Hegel's externalized "geist" (spirit). He wrote

Man is directly a natural being. As a natural being and as a living natural being he is on the one hand endowed with natural powers, vital powers — he is an active natural being. These forces exist in him as tendencies and abilities — as instincts. On the other hand, as a natural, corporeal, sensuous objective being he is a suffering, conditioned and limited creature, like animals and plants. ... A being which does not have its nature outside itself is not a natural being, and plays no part in the system of nature. A being which has no object outside itself is not an objective being.

In short, it's part of human nature, or, as he called it "species-being" (Gattungswesen), as opposed to "species-life" (Gattungsleben), which is what all animals have. Non-human animals' lifeforce and life are one in the same, while humans direct their life force consciously. It's your will and drive, what you put into things, and eventually one of the things that are alienated from the worker by the capitalist system.