The Biological Horror of Capitalism

Karl Marx's masterpiece, Capital Vol. 1, was published in 1867. In it, he outlines the structure and nature of capitalism, as he saw it in capitalism's early period. This Perspectives article briefly thematically analyses Capital Vol. 1 and argues that in its threat to human health and well-being, Marx viewed capitalism as a system of horror, and more particularly, of what could be called cosmic biological horror. The article identifies the following themes in Capital: the biological nature of capitalism, the horror of combination, the half-life of capital, the half-life of humans, and the biological destruction of the body. The article argues that capitalism for Marx was what Cavarero refers to as a horrorific system—a system that led to the degradation and dissolution of human health and bodily integrity. The article argues that Marx's historical work has lessons for us, inhabitants of this dying world of the 21st century, about the horrors of returning to unregulated and uncontrolled capitalism of Marx's time, and the consequences that such a regressive step would have for human health and well-being.