Alternatives to Disintegration? The autonomous workings of the capitalist economy, as carried out globally, tend to realize Marx's prophesy: to destroy both of its sources of wealth, nature and human beings. For its project to be universal, capitalism would need three more Earths similar to ours. Since that is impossible, it continues to accumulate only for itself, creating ever increasing inequalities, and devastating nature. What alternatives are there? We will note some of the visions that are circulating in world circles. The first is intra-systemic: social-liberalism or neo-keynesianism. It accepts the logic of the market as the motor of the economy, but tries to regulate it to diminish its perverse effects. It is a contradictory solution because the essence of the market does not tolerate limits. It would be like asking the wolf not to devour the sheep. The second is eco-socialism . It has broad possibilities, on condition that one incorporates into its analysis not only a consideration of social classes and conflicts, but also of the biological base of the problems. It is important to be open to the new paradigm, derived from the new cosmology, that shows the universal process of evolution whence life springs, and the human being as the caretaker and guardian of the Common House. Purified of his historic mistakes, the human being is born as a new global promise, which was his original vocation. The third alternative is post-capitalism . This alternative tries to redefine the economy, no longer as the activity destined to unlimited accumulation, but as the production of the goods necessary to life. Its function would be to create the material bases for the physical, cultural and spiritual well being of all human beings. In reality, it is an attempt to rescue the classical and etymological meaning of the economy. The question is how to get there, because it implies denying the dynamics of the current economy, one which would never accept such self-denial. It is necessarily utopian, but in the present sociopolitical scene, it is, as a practical matter, unrealizable, because it is illusory. The fourth alternative is The Letter of The Earth. This alternative comes out of a radical option for life and for the Earth. Ours is an exponential Industrial Growth Society that makes the Earth simultaneously a supply box and a waste container, endangering the future of the human species. If we want to survive, we must inaugurate the Sustenance of All Life Society. This Society moves within the capacity of support of regional and planetary life, in the resources for consumption and in the residues it produces as well. Its proposal is "towards a form of sustainable life" at all levels. This alternative represents the necessary real utopia, this is, the vision that is best synthesis of the collective aspirations. Its concretion is just incipient, but is full of promises. Everywhere in the world, there are groups, forms of production and initiatives that consciously put life and the Earth at the center of their concerns. If the disaster we foresee occurs, these will be the ones who will have the needed science and accumulated experience to continue the project of human civilization on other more hopeful bases for life and humanity. This is why their numbers must grow. uring the process of evolution, human life has gone through terrible crises that almost exterminated the species, principally in the great glaciations, but it has always survived. Let's hope this time is not different.
Free translation from the Spanish sent by |