Live Well: non-capitalist paradigm?

Ivonne Farah H. / Luciano Vasapollo (Coordinators)

Humanity is in a constant quest to build an ethic that enable them to achieve the re-linking

with the future, which involves generating a mutual coexistence with nature and other forms

of life, in the way of the ethics of the common good. The construction of this ethical model

constitutes a priority since it is possible to determine ways of action, that from a social position

and mutual support, to be realized in alternatives to face the model of individualism and

competition.

In the framework of this task of humanity is the design of the Live Well, that from the

human actions aims to establish the horizons and conditions of the possibility of a new

paradigm of occurrence of natural and social life.

This commitment to consolidate the ethics of Living Well, in both the conceptual and

practical, as is expressed in the contents of the book Live Well: non-capitalist paradigm?, in

which a group of social scientists, from different disciplinary and political positions they take

on the challenge of raising principles for the generation of a new coexistence that serves as a

viable alternative to the prevailing model of the capital.

To present to mankind a proposal of this scale, has involved the establishment of a social

brain which includes the life experiences of various sectors of the population, especially of
the indigenous peoples of Bolivia and Ecuador, articulated with the experiences of governance

and public policies, such as the contribution of a group of intellectuals committed to the cause

of a new humanity, have addressed the reflection of the Live Well, from the economic, social,

political and cultural environment.

The work reviewed is the result of the joint call between the Postgraduate Degree in

Sciences of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrs (CIDES - UMSA) and the Department of

Economics of the University of Rome La Sapienza, within the framework of a convention of

academic collaboration between the two universities.

Is a work of humanity in humanity, which aims to contribute to the academic and political

reflection on the notion of Living Well and its potential to become the ethical support to

illuminate a new paradigm of production and reproduction of social reality.

The prologue of the work is carried out by Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, which from

their experience as indigenous Aymara, governor and executor of public policy gives a

testimony of the meaning it has for the people of your country live well, and the need for

humanity to learn the basics of this proposal.

Evo emphasizes how to "live well is a way of life, of relations with nature,

complementarity between peoples, is part of the philosophy and practice of the indigenous

peoples. In addition, bare not only the structural causes of the crisis (economic, climate, food,
energy) that lives our planet, but that poses a profound criticism of the system that is

devouring human beings and nature: the world capitalist system.

Continues the President claiming that "while the Indigenous Peoples proposed for the

World Live Well, capitalism is based on the Live Better. The differences are clear: the

live better means to live at the expense of another, exploiting the other, plundering natural

resources, violating Mother Earth, privatizing basic services; on the other hand, Living well

is to live in solidarity, equality, in harmony, in complementarity, in reciprocity. In scientific

terms, from Marxism, Leninism says: socialism-capitalism; and we simply say: live well and

live better.

In this context, raised by Evo Morales, meaning the body of the work, whose compilation

and organization is carried out by Ivonne Farah H. and Luciano Vasapollo. The contents of

the book are presented in five blocks, that although they address particular issues, however

form an integral whole, which allows the reader to get a holistic vision of the good life.

A first theme refers to the philosophical and semantic sense of well-being. The reading of

this block promotes the understanding of the concept of semantic fields own generated from a

cultural way, which linked to a conception of life, allow establishing differences and distances

with other meanings constructed from semantic fields linked to the Western logical and the

capitalist mode of production. In the contents treated in this first part, feelings, experiences

magical, spiritualities and cosmogonies take strength from the own of our cultures, to give

meaning to live well.

 Once the concept of Living Well, from our cultural way, in a second part deals with the

horizons that emerge from it. In particular, it delves into the ethical horizon, understood as

the way forward for an ethic of the common good. The authors propose principles and tenets

of this new ethic, which means, among others, the responsible and sustainable use of natural

resources, the privilege of the value in use on the value of change, the expansion of

democracy, multiculturalism, the partnership, socialization and collective management of

social wealth.

The emergence of this new ethical horizon implies the need to eliminate existing patterns

of development in the capitalist model and consolidate new patterns that correspond with

the Live Well. The authors in this block are a call to imagine other worlds in which the

quality of life, the environmental issue and the recreation of the human in the human,

on the accionares that guarantee to rethink a new vision of development, that will

vigorously oppose that, from the visions of the capital, were imposed in our territory.

Design and implement these new patterns of development, involves the consolidation and

installation of the consciousness of the Living Well in the various human organizations. This

process of awareness requires a commitment from the actors and social institutions which

must modify their practices and concepts. The authors deal with their own problems in this

block of the processes of construction of new knowledge, especially in relation to the role of

universities in the training of professionals that respond to the demands of living well, from

the point of view of socio-environmental, political, economic and cultural life.

 The last block of the book brings us closer to a real experience of Well-being, which is

being carried out in Bolivia. This experience allows to deal with reflexive and critical review

of the processes of colonization and the need to promote decolonization, locate the importance

of living well from the geopolitics and promote sustainable endogenous development and

articulate public policies to Live Well.

The importance of the work reviewed is that on the basis of the sense expressed in its

contents it is possible to carry out a critical reflection on the practices, concepts and behaviors

of the model of capital and identify the elements of de-humanization present in the same. But

in the same way, the work puts its readers in touch with principles and procedures of an ethic

of humanity in humanity, from which an appeal is made to reconfigure new accionares that

sections of the model of capital, constitute alternatives to the building and consolidation of a

better world.