A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

parallel discourse for very different political practices. Only a self-critical
analysis can resolve this dilemma.
5. The relationship between Buen Vivir and the
Common Good of Humanity
During the 2008-2009 session of the United Nations General Assembly,
the concept of the Common Good of Humanity was presented as a way
out of the multiple crises that affect humanity and the planet. It was not
only a question of proposing regulations of the capitalist system, but
rather alternatives to its logic of the creation of wealth at the cost of serious
ecological destruction and deep social inequalities.
The Common Good of Humanity means the production and reproduction
of life and it serves as a reference and a fundamental parameter for
human social organization and for relationships with nature. In this case,
the meaning of good is to ‘be’ and not to ‘have’, that is, to ‘live’. In contrast,
the logic of capitalism leads to death – of the human species and
of nature. Therefore there has to be a broader meaning than the ‘commons’
which are however indispensable to satisfy the necessities of
collective and personal life and have been so brutally demolished by neoliberalism.
The Common Good of Humanity also has a meaning that
goes beyond the Common Good, as opposed to Individual Good and
which has been considerably weakened by the individualism of economic
liberalism. The Common Good of Humanity takes on these two
notions in its conception and in its translation into concrete practice.
If it is to be implemented, it is necessary to fulfil the basic requirements
of the collective life of humanity on earth, that is, the relationship with
nature and the recognition of the need to regenerate the earth, the material
production for living, collective social and political organization and
the expression of meaning and ethics. The Common Good of Humanity
is put forward as an aim, an ideal, a utopia (in the positive sense of the
word), that should guide action.
It is evident that the concept of the Common Good of Humanity and
those of sumak kawsay and suma qamaña are very close: the two latter
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