resource extraction - blog.blb.works

$Abstract editorial illustration in muted parchment, charcoal, indigo, rust, and gold. Fine topographic lines suggest a fractured world map beneath thin dark threads and geometric channels that converge into a small, dense knot near the upper center. Broad, faint bands press inward from the edges, evoking concentrated power, extraction, and constraint. Subtle archival-paper texture and ample quiet space give the image a restrained, contemplative tone. No people or text.$

The Vacuum Of Power

BLB 12, October 2026

The “Vacuum Of Power” names a durable, interconnected pattern in which concentrated power over resources becomes power over people’s conditions of life. The argument developed here is that Western Europe’s overseas expansion from the late fifteenth century marked a decisive planetary inflection: conquest, coerced labor, resource extraction, political rule, Christian legitimization, and the construction of difference became mutually reinforcing instruments of dominance.