Capitalism is a devouring force which cannot stop itself. From its inception, the drive for capital took a hold of both members of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat alike, enticing them to move ever onward in the accrual of more wealth. We see this in many instances, from the early days of nascent capitalism, to the contemporary events in our current day. There is nothing sacred to capitalism, which is both its greatest strength and its most glaring weakness. We see countless examples of capitalism taking resources, whether they be material, ephemeral, or, in many cases, corporeal, and chewing them up to be digested by the growing masses the ideology controls. Even now, in the age of the so-called end of history, Capitalism is not sated. It will never cease to eat more and more till there is nothing left, unless it is stopped.

It began with the progress of history, from aristocratic rule of old to the new liberal order. An order which began as something to praise. From the aristocracy, the world had seen the dearth of rights and liberties, as well as the literal ownership of man and woman by others deemed by whatever god they worshiped as worthy. This, of course, was a mockery of the divine, as no all-knowing, all-powerful deity would see to it that his creations would fashion themselves as godlike in their reign over others, simply by the nature of their birth. Simply speaking, the aristocracy themselves created a world where they materially would rule over their subjects. There was no divine inspiration that forced them into power, only the material conditions they held over other men and women. The transition from nomadic, hunter-gatherer societies to the established agricultural paradigm would see the rise of some, the aristocracy, as the very real land owners, who could, whether through religion, force of arms, or otherwise, keep their claims to their material property relevant. It is this very shift that saw the rise of an aristocratic class, a class of hereditary owners, who would inherit not only land and gold, but also the very tight control over their fellow man.

This would continue, with the lords of the land, able to exert their control over fertile agricultural territory, or otherwise resource-rich areas, establishing themselves as the premiere rulers and lawgivers in their domains. They would reap the gains that other hands cultivated from their supposed land and control those who did the sowing with whips and chains. Slavery would be established, whether in the fashion of the non-hereditary, economic slavery seen in Rome, or the complete ownership of the chattel slave, seen in countless other locales. This mode of production would last for centuries, with the baseline substructure of slavery being the underlying mode of production. Things would change, however, when the towns and fields would begin to show extreme differences in life quality, and wealth began to gather in hands other than those of the aristocrats. Peasants would run from the agricultural, feudal lands into the wide arms of the burgher class, in the hopes that they too would feel the freedom of the city.

This is where, as many would point out, that Capitalism truly began to take form. The burghers, now forming into the newly developing bourgeoisie, would begin to accrue more gold and resources than even the kings themselves. This, obviously, would be a problem for the aristocracy, would could not fathom the shifting of dominance. The aristocracy would push back against this new economic order, and would ultimately lose due to their literal lack of support from the working classes and the material results of their labor. As slavers and taskmasters, the aristocracy stood no chance against the rise of Capitalism, which would seek to enrich all those who would interact with it, to some degree. Of course the menial worker would be paid pfennigs compared to the ducats gained by the owner, but pfennigs are more than the average peasant would make by leagues. This enticed even the lowly peasant to join the cause for a new master, the master of the coin purse.

But this new force required something to feed its ever-growing hunger, one even greater than that of the aristocrats that ruled before. Resources would be needed to fuel its growth, as there would always need to be a bigger and better form to accommodate the entire world in riches. The peasantry and the newly formed proletariat would be the ones who felt this devouring presence the most, as their few communal resources were ripped from them, and their labor was used in back-breaking ways in order to manually build the infrastructure needed to serve as the gullet for that bourgeois hunger. Ultimately, there would be no end to the riches which flowed, but the river of gold for some was a river of mercury for the rest. With the rise of Capitalism came the suffering of those who still only made pfennigs, as the ducats became ingots for their bourgeois masters.

This would culminate in the complete disregard for the proletariat and peasantry, who, as the bourgeoisie would decide, did not deserve the fruits of their own labor. The productive power of these two groups would grow at a similar rate to their respective population compared to the bourgeoisie, who seemed to only get wealthier and wealthier. The contradictions in society would grow larger and larger, as the working classes would be benefited less and less by these advancements made from Capitalism. Capitalism would need more and more markets to sustain itself, leading to the expansive colonial empires of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. These ventures were in the name of profit, and any other pretense is a lie. The gold, ebony, and ivory would fuel capitalism’s growth. These new resource collection hubs would create more and more commodities for the empire to enjoy, but at an extreme cost.

Capitalism would devour these locales, stripping them of resources, spirit, and literal population. Entire cities would be ravaged by the colonial enterprises which quickly began to dominate them. Men and women would be shipped half way across the world to fuel new resource-consuming ventures. This is where Capitalism would begin to show its fangs, not in its home, but abroad, where it would become vampiric. Quickly, these colonies would become desolate, and entire cultures would be destroyed in the name of capitalism. India would be conquered, as was most of Africa, and turned into European satellites. Something would have to break eventually, as the contradictions, again, would become too unbearable. Revolutions mirroring the bourgeois revolutions of the enlightenment and industrial era would begin to arise, first in Russia, then in Germany, which ended in failure, and finally in China and much of the world. These revolutions would one by one be counteracted, whether by external bourgeois forces, or at their own hands due to the perversion of Marxism in favor of revisionist state capitalism. Commodities would reign supreme, and we would reach Fukuyama’s End of History.

But this is where the issue lies, in the contemporary era. There are no more new markets to exploit, no more lands to conquer. The world has been divided by the great powers, much like Kautsky would predict. Empires would collaborate themselves into a corner, and now we are here, where, instead of the new market being taken advantage of, the imperial core would become the target. The bourgeois masters, detached from their homelands, would turn against their proletariat servants and turn them into a type of wage-paid chattel. Entire lands would go from production hubs, where the proletariat would be paid a measly, yet sustainable wage, to areas of abject poverty, both in the third world and, more surprisingly, in the Imperial Core. Businesses would establish their rule over society, as they always have, but this time against itself.

This new shadow over the world would become all-consuming. The captains of capitalism would begin to siphon off the wages paid to their workers, slowly, then ever rapidly. The river of gold would begin to dry up, leaving only mercury for all, but these industrialists, or, more correctly, these venture capitalists, would raid the very foundation of their society for more of a profit. Capitalism would begin to see itself as the target, and its fangs would plunge deep into its own veins.

But now a new opportunity arises from this autophagous attitude towards capitalist society. The contradictions are, once again, showing their ugly faces to the masses, and, in the modern era, where most everyone has access to information at the push of a button, Capitalism cannot hide behind a promise of protecting the worker through favoritism. The worker cans see all that is done to them, and it will enrage them. The working class will not tolerate the sucking of their blood much longer, and it will be a new day, one where the proletariat will overthrow the bourgeoisie once and for all, soon.