I recently visited the grave of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetary, which in a beautiful twist of fate, charges an entrance fee to see his tomb. While standing over his bones I was wondering what he would have thought of how the great amoral economic juggernaut has evolved. Say what you will of its impact on humanity and the environment, it has managed to sustain a staggering 7.5 billion humans. Considering our historical proclivity towards organized violence, as well as our susceptibility to famine and plague, that is one hell of an achievement. As much as we are ultra cool sentient modern beings, we are still basically just conceited animals, and as such, it is all really just a numbers game. How many of your own species can you spread over the surface of the Earth, that is the real measure of success. I used to despise Capitalism in my youth, dreaming fancifully of its cataclysmic downfall or overthrow. As I get older and see for myself how ubiquitous it has become, I no longer can harbor such absolutist convictions about it being 'evil' or destined to be brought down by the proletariat. Having said that, a bottom of the Ninth comeback by labor to take the means of production right before they all get made obsolete by machines... how cool would that be, right?
All the old Marxist criticisms are of course still completely true. Contradictions abound and monstrous crimes are committed daily in the pursuit of profit. It is a system that is built on the suffering of the masses and it exploits ruthlessly all those who are not lucky or cunning enough to scramble into one of the higher classes. Aside from its human costs, it also completely destroys or alters everything that stands in its way. Growth for growth's sake is the logic of a cancer cell, and that is precisely what Capitalism is all about. Within a relatively short period of time, it has managed to change weather patterns and in just the past 100 years alone obliterate well over half the worlds forests. It commodifies everything. If it is profitable and possible, then it shall be done.
On the other side, however, how amazing it all is. The global GDP is an estimated $75 trillion and the mean life expectancy is over 70! Even having studied a fair amount of economics, I am still a bit confused about the whole concept of fiat currency and how it can be an accurate measure of economic output, but that is also part of the magic, under close inspection, none of it really makes objective sense, it just works somehow. Granted, every 20 years or so the whole thing wobbles and threatens to collapse, but then modern governments pretty much fulfill the only important task left to them and prop up the market before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.
Marx wrote that- "Is that to say we are against Free Trade? No, we are for Free Trade, because by Free Trade all economical laws, with their most astounding contradictions, will act upon a larger scale, upon the territory of the whole earth; and because from the uniting of all these contradictions in a single group, where they will stand face to face, will result the struggle which will itself eventuate in the emancipation of the proletariat."
Well, it has come to pass. With very few exceptions, capital knows no real barriers in this world of ours. People may be stopped from crossing the Rio Grande or the Mediterranean, but money surely is not. The contradictions are indeed many. If you add to these essential incongruities the dizzying level of hypocrisy practiced by a still tenuously dominate West in terms of geopolitics, economics, environmentalism and a myriad of 'ideals', the whole thing becomes almost too insane to even fathom. Yet, somehow, someway, it all rumbles on with no real contender in sight, just critics.
It is rather sad that Marx miscalculated by so many years, and that the communists failed so monumentally in their attempts to jump the gun. Of course, they never really got a chance to try their theories on a properly industrialized country, merely peripheral states that were far from being anything resembling developed capitalist economies. Regardless of this, the horrors that communism, as a government, inflicted upon the world have effectively removed it as a viable option.
Marx wrote that- "Is that to say we are against Free Trade? No, we are for Free Trade, because by Free Trade all economical laws, with their most astounding contradictions, will act upon a larger scale, upon the territory of the whole earth; and because from the uniting of all these contradictions in a single group, where they will stand face to face, will result the struggle which will itself eventuate in the emancipation of the proletariat."
Well, it has come to pass. With very few exceptions, capital knows no real barriers in this world of ours. People may be stopped from crossing the Rio Grande or the Mediterranean, but money surely is not. The contradictions are indeed many. If you add to these essential incongruities the dizzying level of hypocrisy practiced by a still tenuously dominate West in terms of geopolitics, economics, environmentalism and a myriad of 'ideals', the whole thing becomes almost too insane to even fathom. Yet, somehow, someway, it all rumbles on with no real contender in sight, just critics.
It is rather sad that Marx miscalculated by so many years, and that the communists failed so monumentally in their attempts to jump the gun. Of course, they never really got a chance to try their theories on a properly industrialized country, merely peripheral states that were far from being anything resembling developed capitalist economies. Regardless of this, the horrors that communism, as a government, inflicted upon the world have effectively removed it as a viable option.
I'm sure the most difficult to grasp aspect of our time for old Karl would be that the rising star, the lynchpin, in this high noon of Capitalism is the Peoples Republic of China, which still espouses a Marxist doctrine and requires it to be studied by it's billion and a half people. Really don't know how anyone without a highly developed sense of humor can even deal with this world of ours.
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