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Dr. Lionel D. Lyles 
GIS Analyst
Cultural Geographer
Social Scientist

In Person Only (no Zoom):
GUGG 205
Sep 22, 2023, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Abstract

Historically, many research studies done in Geography, and other academic disciplines, have readily resorted to the use of various models and statistical formulas as a first line of investigation of a particular phenomenon. A review of the literature oftentimes turns up research that commonly make use of some sophisticated mathematical formulas with associated descriptions of the phenomenon being investigated. Usually, a description of the phenomenon is an attempt to make an otherwise abstract consideration of a chosen topic, using models and formulas, somewhat understandable to one’s peers across academic, or related professions. Therefore, while recognizing, on one hand, there is some value in this type of research, my presentation recommends, on the other, a departure, or paradigm shift, from an over-reliance on the description of observed social, economic, political, judicial, and environmental phenomenon, and, instead, it offers an opportunity, or dialectical method, that has the power to push through description and penetrate into the core, or essence, of phenomenon wherein class struggle exist.

Albert Einstein wrote “look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” Maurice Cornforth added “in order to understand things [-Geographies, Physics, Societies, etc.] so as to change them we must study them, not according to the dictates of any abstract system [or assumptions] but in their real changes and interconnections.” Thus, avoiding the pitfall of the past, my presentation confronts head-on the matter of the historical evolution of American Society before capitalism, as a formal economic system, came into existence. It begins during Pre-Colonial Times and, by employing the seldom-used class struggle principal contradiction, its emergence out of mercantilism into a global monopoly-capitalist system is systematically presented using the principal contradiction, namely, Capitalist American Ruling Class Opposite (CARCO) and American Working Class Opposite (People) (AWCOP) Wage-Worker. By analyzing Total Wage-Workers engaged in Manufacturing, Total Wages Paid by Nonproducers, Total Value of Manufactured Product Less Wages, and Surplus-Value, or Expropriated Labor, it is possible to break free of the tethers of description and see deep into the inner opposites of capitalism, toward understanding how they concretely drive Changing Geographies, along with the simultaneous and interconnected Changing Human Geographies Matrix since Pre-Colonial Times To Present.   

For example, by 1860, the class struggle principal contradiction between the CARCO northern owner of wage labor and the CARCO owner of African Slave Labor’s Total Product Value was $1.9 billion and $43 million respectively. After a century or more of gradual evolutionary change, the two opposites experienced a break in continuity, namely, Civil War, and a sudden leap forward was made. The two opposites changed places and became the new opposites mentioned above.

By 1870, there were 2.1 million AWCOP wage-workers; they produced a $4.2 billion total manufactured value; they shared $776.0 million wages, or $4,320/yr respectively; and the CARCO realized a $3.5 billion surplus-value. The data will show this sum, over time, is the driver underlying the creation of Changing Geographies, both directly and indirectly.