It is of little consequence that we remember the streams, the flora and the fauna of an area that is now a subdivision, but it is of great consequence that we remember the titles on that land held by families and the acquisition of these titles by developers and corporate interests, and it is of further interest to note subsequent corporate or wealthy individual owners. It is vital to know how much money these title-holders have made from the land and how much more there is to be made. Similarly, if you read the history of JeffBoat (or almost any other large company) or if you visit the museum across the street from JeffBoat, you encounter a concentration of memories telling the story of JeffBoat’s owners, the story of how the things made at JeffBoat were utilized by other companies or by the US government, the achievements of JeffBoat’s administration and its parent company. The people who worked there, whose creations are the very reason for JeffBoat’s existence, are noted and there are photos of some of them along with their tools, but these images are displayed more as curiosities or, at best, as secondary incidents, the relatively insignificant details of the implementation of the desires of power (company, government, corporate entity). The workers – or “workforce” – are unnamed and of course their lives, their injuries, and their deaths are unmentioned.
man this chimes deep