Mafias and cartels ensure the loyalty of their members by forcing those who wish to join them to commit a murder. The method is effective—a sort of blood pact forged through the establishment of overt complicity, a commitment to the world of crime viewed as irreversible.
In a manner that is certainly less visible and less immediate but just as effective, capitalism operates in the same way with those who wish to or are able to profit from its bounty.
“We are well aware that a large number of everyday consumer products contain corpses, child labor, a scandalously unjust global distribution, as well as despair-inducing waste, and contribute to global warming or to tons of trash.” (Sandrine Aumercier)
It is by establishing this tacit connection—this complicity with the continuity of its system—that capitalism, in our advanced territories, maintains a form of support even among those who claim to criticize it. Even as we are aware that our consumerist practices, the conveniences and comforts we grant ourselves daily, and our behavioral patterns are all part of this race toward disaster and globalized injustice, we prefer to retreat into a sort of denial while continually seeking to shift the blame onto others and downplay the effects of our own choices. And in fact, regardless of our degree of participation, we will always find someone to blame, another target, in a childish attempt to absolve ourselves of all responsibility. Capitalism is not an abstract entity; it is indeed a truly criminal organizational form of global society that has ultimately taken precedence over everything else, over all the alternative possibilities historically available to us. A criminal organization to which, more or less consciously or willingly, we therefore contribute, often out of a tendency to take the easy way out or simply out of selfishness. Generally speaking, assigning blame—whether to ourselves or to others—is of little use and solves nothing. On the other hand, our various choices—the way each of us, at our own level, contributes to the continuation of this mad Megamachine, crushing nature and humanity across the entire surface of the Earth—are very much our responsibility. Yet neither blindness, nor passivity, nor a laissez-faire attitude toward the root causes of the ongoing disaster will save us. Nor will claiming that we have no choice…
But of course we do—we are constantly faced with various choices, and this is where our sustained unconsciousness comes into play, our participation in the disaster that, as a result, continues to spread.
Capitalism, as a form of societal organization, must necessarily be abolished—and with the utmost urgency. We can no longer wait, and this concerns us all.
It is also utterly irresponsible to hope that others will do it for us. This is yet another way of sidestepping this crucial issue and continuing to participate.
The problem is global, and we will not solve it simply by sorting our trash, eating organic food, driving electric cars, or stockpiling supplies. Rejecting this world—and refusing to participate in it—is a collective endeavor that requires us, precisely, to join the world of the commons. Not a narrow, clan-based, family-centered, or national “commons”—which would thus remain entrenched in separation—but the commons of humanity and non-human life as a whole. The challenge is immense in today’s society, where we have been conditioned to view the most sordid selfishness as an unavoidable norm. This selfishness, far from being able to save us, now condemns us—in the short term—to annihilation. To continue to participate is now nothing short of the worst kind of nihilism, a genuine death drive.
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