It’s often said by those on the left, somewhat glibly, that capitalism is a cancer on the earth, or that capitalism follows the mindset of the cancer cell– infinite growth. But is that really the case? Perhaps it’s that cancer is a form of capitalism instead?
From an article in Harper’s Magazine about facial tumors in Tasmanian Devils:
…uncontrolled reproduction begins when a single cell accumulates enough mutations to activate certain growth-promoting genes (scientists call them oncogenes) and to inactivate certain protections (tumor suppressor genes) that are built into the genetic program of every animal and plant. The cell ignores instructions to limit its self-replication, and soon it becomes many cells, all of them similarly demented, all bent on self-replication, all heedless of duty and proportion and the larger weal of the organism. That first cell is (almost always) a cell of the victim’s own body.
Asher Platts (PunkPatriot.com) explores what happens when you reverse the analogy and view our biological systems through the lenses of economics, capitalism, socialism, cooperation, and competition.