Open Up II: The Long Memory of Cocaine

There is a connection between pre- and post-industrial working conditions that can be illustrated by the difference between coca and cocaine: Today’s Bolivia was one of the largest silver producers in the seventeenth century; the exploitation of the indigenous peoples, however, was only possible thanks to their traditional use of analgesic, ergogenic coca leaves. The Spaniards seized the coca monopoly, selling the forced labourers that which made this forced labour possible in the first place. Jorge Hurtado, psychiatrist and founder of the coca museum in La Paz, talks about the links between coca consumption in the 17th century and the current global economy. English author John Barker in turn sees cocaine as the fuel of immaterial labour and the culture industry. The coca / cocaine difference raises a question often left unasked: Modernity can be seen as the effect of what?

Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: John Barker
Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: Jorge Hurtado