A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

quoted by Jean Luc Cachon, 1999, 800). Marx also wrote, in the Grund -
risse that it was capitalism that brought about the separation of man and
nature: “with the appearance of capitalism, nature ceased to be recognized
as a power in itself: it is transformed into a pure object for man,
just a useful thing” (ibid.). On the contrary, as far as Marx is concerned,
communism is the reconciliation between man and nature, the return
to unity. It is “the real solution to the antagonism between man and nature,
between man and man” (ibid., 799). 115
Harmony between human beings and the earth was present in Marx’s
thinking and in his socialist project. This is one of the ‘forgotten things’
of historical socialism that we must recover.
Thus sumak kawsay is not the only transmitter of criticism of capitalism
and of modernity as an illusory project. All over the world we see ‘development’
being questioned, concerns with the environment, and
women asserting themselves. Many of these currents of thinking have
affinity with the specific thinking of buen vivir, born in the cultures of the
indigenous peoples of Latin America (E. Gudynas, 2011, 8). This is what
makes it possible to build up convergences, both theoretically and in
practice.
ii) Theoretical reconstruction and practical contributions
Evidently, making criticism is not enough: it is necessary to propose new
orientations of thought and new practices. The concepts of sumak
kawsay and suma qamaña claim to fulfil this role. Nevertheless, there
need to be some conditions to which we shall now turn.
The basic condition is that the departure point has to be a holistic vision
of the reality in order to reformulate development and for this it is necessary
to ‘decolonize knowledge’ (Eduardo Gudynas, 2011, 15). Indigenous
culture was holistic, that is, it integrated the various elements of
115 In Marx’s words, this consists of “the socialized human being governing the human
metabolism in a rational way: controlling collectively instead of being dominated by
it as if it was a blind power: managing less energy and in better and more appropriate
conditions, according to human nature itself” (Marx, Capital, Vol.3, 959)
217