Who knew?
There is no such word as “antecapitalism“.
Well, there is now.
antecapitalism: the survival ethos and economic practices of humans that existed before capitalism and that were oriented around communal foraging for and sharing of food.
The Left are “Ante-capitalists”. They are people as they existed BEFORE the invention of capitalism which was founded on herding and agriculture.
Before capitalism, humans lived in tribes, made a living by foraging as hunter-gatherers, and were ruled by a shaman, medicine man, or witch doctor who talked to the “spirit world”, explained all unexplainable things, and made all important decisions for the tribe. The foragers shared the results of their foraging, and the shaman ensured “fairness”. In return, the tribe members offered unquestioning loyalty and obedience to the shaman.
It’s pretty much the way the Left works today.
They are “takers” and not “makers”. They make their living by taking from the environment, and never replacing what they take.
To the modern Left, the government is their tribal land, and the welfare system is where they forage. Capitalists are simply quarry, and political parties are hunting parties. Taxes are their clubs and spears for “taking” their game. Politicians and ethnic leaders are their shamans and tribe members follow them loyally and blindly as long as the hunt is successful.
In contrast, capitalism, as manifested by the practices of herding and agriculture, requires a future orientation, deferred consumption, “private property” (pastures and fields), and commitment to protect and defend herds and crops from predatory foragers. Capitalism creates “wealth” in the form of excess production, and replenishes what it consumes.
Word story
It is easy to forget that capitalism was coined not so long ago, in the mid-19th century, when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and individual entrepreneurs were creating new industries and amassing wealth. Terms for the other two major competing economic systems of the past two centuries— socialism and communism —were also coined around the same time.
capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.
Presumably, the first herders and farmers didn’t know that they were practicing capitalism. And similarly, the primitive antecapitalists didn’t realize that they were “antecapitalists” because capitalism hadn’t been invented yet.
So, this is definitely a retrospective view of economic history. But, we’re smarter now. And now we know.
San Jose Outside The Bubble 