Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Capitalism is ephemeral

"A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down."
Marry Poppins.

The idea of autopoiesis emerged in a certain political and spiritual climate; namely the first socialist government democratically elected in the world. Varela speaks explicitly of this in the preface to the second edition of his book with Maturana, "De Maquinas y Seres Vivos." The word originated from the greek poeisis, the same root as poetry, and was suggested by a chilean friend of them who was working on an essay about El Quijote. On those days there was the courage of thinking otherwise. 

In the same way, we have to understand Malevich's paintings as part of a historical moment. This is precisely Groys thesis in "The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic Dictatorship, and Beyond." For him, Stalinism is the logical continuation of a conception of art that sees the rational creation of a new humanity as the goal of art. To paraphrase Marx, every hitherto art had represented reality; the task of the avant-garde artist is to change it.

However, all that's history. 

Capitalism imposed itself in Chile almost 40 years ago and we seem to have lost the ability of thinking outside it. This is most certainly visible in Chile, but also
true for rest of the world.

Capitalism imposed itself in Chile by means of violence: raping, killing, disappearances. The destruction of a country's dream by means of violence. Every man for himself and the State against them all.

Capitalism reproduces itself by means of violence. Violence is its natural and most faithful ally. 

But we seem not to realise. 

What brings us to the epigraph of this entry: "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down." As long as we think that what we live is somehow necessary, we accept it. For the ones in the rich part of the world, the petty material things that consumerist society offers is the sugar in the spoon. For the poor ones, the illusion that someday, if they work hard and think positively, they will be able to buy those same petty material things that the rich people has. 


Last century, politics opened the space for artistic and scientific experimentation. I quoted Varela and Malevich as two examples. Today, there is no politics proper any more. It's time for art and science to open the space for new ways of political experimentation. In particular, to show that as every historical phenomena, capitalism will disappear; that capitalism, too, is ephemeral.


1 comment: