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

Kreativni razred, 6. februar ― Ljudje smo pogosto prepričani, da smo se močno oddaljili od drugih organizmov in dosegli izjemno stopnjo razvoja. A če pomislimo, da se le približno 1% naših genov razlikuje od genov vinske mušice drozofile (Drosophilidae), lahko upravičeno sklepamo, da se ljudje obnašamo na zelo podobne načine kot vsa ostala živa bitja. Tudi mi gojimo recipročni altruizem, goljufamo, pa tudi zajedamo oziroma parazitiramo. V zgodovini političnega mišljenja se metafora parazita pojavlja znova in znova, kot bi se misleci intuitivno zavedali, da je parazitizem ena temeljnih sil družbenega življenja. Marx je kapital opisoval kot »mrtvo delo, ki se prisesa na živo delo in ga izčrpava«, kot organizem brez lastne vitalnosti, ki lahko preživi le tako, da se hrani z energijo drugih. Lenin je govoril o »parazitskem kapitalizmu«, ki se razrašča na račun družbe kot tumor, ki raste iz telesa, a mu hkrati jemlje moč. Zanimanje za parazite v kulturi in znanosti danes spet narašča. Japonska pisateljica Hideaki Sena je leta 1995 napisala znanstvenofantastično novelo Parasite Eve, po kateri nastajajo film, videoigre in manga. Bong Joon-hojev film Parazit je postal globalna metafora družbenega zajedanja. Ameriški ekonomist Michael Hudson pa opozarja na ekonomski parazitizem, kjer finančne elite izčrpavajo realno gospodarstvo, ne da bi mu karkoli vračale. Da parazitizem ni več le ekonomska ali politična metafora, temveč postaja tehnološka realnost, je pokazal Jaron Lanier. Digitalne platforme, pravi, ne samo opazujejo ljudi, temveč jih preoblikujejo. 10 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD LEAVE SOCIAL MEDIA Algoritmi se prisesajo na človeško pozornost, jo preusmerjajo, preoblikujejo in hranijo sami sebe. Tako kot biološki paraziti spreminjajo vedenje svojih gostiteljev, tudi digitalni sistemi spreminjajo vedenje uporabnikov — tiho, neopazno, a vztrajno. In morda je prav v tem najbolj srhljiva resnica: da so paraziti, o katerih so govorili revolucionarni misleci, danes dobili svojo