Kreativni razred, 25. marec ― ERA OF PARASITES Humans often believe we have risen far above other organisms and achieved an exceptional level of development. Yet if we consider that only about 1% of our genes differ from those of the fruit fly Drosophila, we may rightfully conclude that we behave in ways strikingly similar to all other living beings. We, too, practice reciprocal altruism, we cheat, and we parasitize. Throughout the history of political thought, the metaphor of the parasite appears again and again, as if thinkers intuitively sensed that parasitism is one of the fundamental forces shaping social life. Marx described capital as “dead labor that attaches itself to living labor and drains it,” an organism without vitality that survives only by feeding on the energy of others. Lenin spoke of “parasitic capitalism,” expanding at the expense of society like a tumor growing from the body while simultaneously weakening it. PARASITIC POCKETS OF IMPERIALISM ARE GROWING TODAYEven Lenin dealt with parasites. In Chapter X: Parasitic or Decaying Capitalism, on pages 112–118, Lenin explains that imperialism is no longer a young capitalism expanding production, but a capitalism that lives off colonial profits and financial speculation. He describes it as parasitic: capital accumulates in the metropoles, but not in the form of productive investments — rather as rents, interest, and dividends from the colonies. He emphasizes that this leads to stagnation for most of the population in developed countries, as wealth becomes concentrated in narrow layers. He uses the formulation that imperialism creates “parasitic pockets” — areas and strata that live off the exploitation of foreign lands, not their own labor. This is a sign that capitalism is entering its decaying phase, where internal contradictions deepen further. Funny how it feels as if this text could have been written today. Interest in parasites is once again rising in culture and science. In 1995, Japanese writer Hideaki S