Besides, it might not be a mistake. He did not know what went on in the minds of his superiors. They knew their business best. What was he to do their thinking for them? Once, in the long ago, he had attempted to think for them, and the sergeant had said: “Cruchot, you are a fool! The quicker you know that; the better you will get on. You are not to think; you are to obey and leave thinking to your betters.” He smarted under the recollection. (London 238)Critical Questions:
How do the few in power maintain control of the masses? How far up the chain of power is oppression present? What are the motivations of the white “overseers” in the plantation systems of pre and post slavery? How is white labor divided against non white labor to keep it in place?
Analysis:
For my paper I'm interested in examining the modes of power the capitalist exercises down the hierarchy of command. How is each cog formed and kept in its place. Whiteness is just as constructed as blackness. In this passage London attempts to portray the brief internal struggle and reflection of a white police officer. While the majority of the piece is following the thoughts of Ah Cho we have a brief insight into one of the minds of the “white devils” he has to deal with in the story. While at first glance narrations of white supremacy such as this seem to simply frame the white against non-white but it goes deeper than that. “You are not to think; you are a to obey…” is the pivotal line in portraying the near mechanical nature of enforcement of ideals down the line of command.
Since the capitalist system requires control over as many bodies as possible by as few people as possible to maximize profit, the capitalist must engineer social tools to maintain their control. What becomes necessary is arms of influenced to be formed to maintain the best interest of the capitalist agenda. By segmenting the population and reorganizing it against itself it becomes easier to manipulate. For the white capitalist individual to impose his will upon the large labor force he can segment smaller groups of people, slightly above each other to force those segments apart from each other and in some respects attach their success to their compliance in maintaining the status quo. The white officer is not dragging Ah Cho to his death out of an act of pleasure or desire to kill a “coolie” but more out of a fear of thinking outside of the realm he has been permitted to think in. While hardly considered a slave by any comparable physical standards the officer is conditioned to believe a certain way and forced to operate within his confines for the safety of his own well being. His own free will is stripped from him and he becomes a kind of slave to the system. Self preservation is undoubtedly among the highest of natural desires. Our own survival relies on at least some form of selfishness. Using this to their advantage the capitalist can manipulate all of his subjects into following along with anything so long as it becomes the personal self interest of the right people to keep going, There is no profit to be gained by Cruchot by delivering Ah Cho to his death, only the threat of his own life or career for speaking or acting in the benefit of Ah Cho to his superiors. Ah Cho is artificially reframed against Cruchot simply because of the structure of the system set up by the capitalist elite.
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