A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

consumption will convert us into ‘modern’ human beings. Accumulation
and consumption alone are the requirements for obtaining our national
identity cards for this unattainable, modern capitalist “We”.
The apparent dichotomy of tradition/modernity obliges each people to
abandon their own sense of themselves, emphasizing one particular interpretation
of the relationship of human beings with nature, with other
human beings and with themselves. Nowadays, modernity signifies consumption,
which is the tip of the iceberg in understanding how the different
kinds of personal relationships are established. We therefore ask:
what modernity? Questioning concepts and perceiving them as a political
project is no idle exercise because it involves us in a sphere of struggle
against a project that dehumanizes us all. Thus this text aims to
reflect on how we have understood ‘interculturality’ in one colonized
country of South America, the uses to which its meaning has been put,
and how concepts are converted into political weapons that directly influence
peoples’ lives.
Given that the fact of unending colonialism determines the limits of the
‘We’ and ‘The Others’ of capitalism and of ‘actually existing’ modernity,
multiculturality, as a recognition of the cultural diversity in everyday life
among different cultures, cannot be an objective in itself. It is only a
point of departure for moving towards interculturality, which cannot only
be seen as an aesthetic contribution to the development of humanity.
It is necessary that the peoples with their various cultures have the opportunity
to participate actively and creatively in the construction of the
paradigms necessary for the production and reproduction of life in this
world.
At the present time, the situation in Europe, which is undergoing economic
crisis and becoming aware of the gravity of the problems created
by climate change, is to some extent different from what is happening
in Latin America. In the Andean region, especially, it is urgent to put into
practice the juridical provisions that have been developed in the new
Constitutions (Ecuador, 2008; Bolivia, 2009), with all the challenges this
involves, both for the State and for social movements. However, the
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