A friend once told me that “in capitalism, man exploits man, and in communism it’s the other way around.”
It’s true.
How did this come about though? How did capitalism end up in such poor company?
Regardless, despite the exploitation, which seems to be a given (life exploits life – life feeds on life to sustain life, energy is never destroyed, only recycled; endless circle of life and death, etc) one thing is certain: in the wake of communism’s exploitations there were only atrophy and madness, whereas capitalism seems to be leaving behind a few little wonders, such as working technology, flourishing arts, and critical thinking.
Many of us deem these wonders pointless, for the world will be soon consumed by the voracious capitalist system and its instruments. Maybe so, but we have the opportunity, the way we’re going, through the progress we make, to invent and develop tools and vehicles with which to transcend our limitations, in this case the atmosphere, and venture out into space, into the great unknown, as Columbus once did, and discover new worlds on which to settle.
Or are we to stay here, grounded, subgrounded, burrowing deep in the ground, afraid to take the leap that will sustain generations to come because there’s a chance we’ll break a few limbs in the process? Is that what we’re afraid of, what we’ve become: moles on (in) Earth, referencing greatness and transcendence but never striving for it?
The new world awaits.