By Luis Yerovi Jr.

Preface
A few years back, I read a pictorial novel (or comic book) written and drawn by Art Spiegelman. The novel was called Maus. In Maus, Spiegelman effectively and touchingly portrays the Nazi-perpetrated tragedy of the Jewish holocaust through the use of cartoon figures. In the novel, Jews are represented as mice, Nazis as cats, Americans as dogs and Polish Christians as pigs.

Recently, I've been thinking that the same type of media, specifically that of a comic book, can be used to portray the cultural and literal genocide of the indigenous American people at the hands of European conquistadors. For such a narrative, I would contemplate mirroring the evolutionary plight of the endemic species of the Galapagos Islands to help readers understand the events of 500 years ago from a naturalist's point of view.

The novel would begin on an imaginary large island called "America." The residents of "America" include blue and red footed boobies, marine and land iguanas and large turtles. The diversity of these animals serve as a representation of the myriad variations found among Native American tribes.

Relatively untouched by the "outside" world, these animals came to evolve into a state of equilibrium with their ecosystem, characterized by relative harmony with one another and synchrony with the environment. In addition, the geographical isolation of the island, discouraged predatory animals from evolving on the island.

One day, a group of hungry rats, adrift on a giant floating log, get marooned on "America". Since they have come from a land full of predators, the rats have learned that survival entails that they be cunning and ferocious. They are figuratively armed with "guns," "germs" and "steel."

The endemic species greet the rats with little more than curiosity, as they had not evolved the defense mechanism of fear. The rats, quickly appreciating the defenseless nature of the boobies et al, find that there is an abundance of food on the island. Unfortunately for the endemic species, the rats choice of food are the eggs of the boobies, turtles and iguanas.

Over a realtively short time span, the rats multiply and the endemic animals begin to die off. However, the rats, because they had not naturally evolved on the island, are unable to reach an equilibrium with this given environment. Soon enough, the rats realize that the food supply is running out. Under the eyes of a few surving turtles and boobies, the rats turn on themselves and begin devouring each other.

Deconstructing Global Capitalism
On the surface, capitalism is the economic model which most resembles the basic operating force of nature- cut throat competition and survival of the fittest. Given this parallel, many economists point to capitalism as a "natural" economic model and therefore applicable globally.

There are several fallacies with the reasoning which links capitalism, as it exists now, to natural proceedings found in homo sapien societies. First, the concept of "capitalism" is nothing more than a product of our human minds, and thus, is simply an idea or a "meme." Like other "ideas" (i.e., Christianity, fame, the internet), the authentic worth of capitalism begins to break down at its conception precisely because it is just and idea. And, like most ideas, "capitalism" fails most spectacularly when it starts taking itself too seriously or becomes "fundamental." The failed market policies of the IMF/world bank towards the developing world (see Joseph Stiglitz´s Globalization and its Disonctents), is in part the consequence of taking the idea of global capitalism too seriously. (On the other hand, these policies may have been constructed too fail)

Second, humans are social animals wired to compete as groups, and not on an individual level. Behaviors, such as kin selection and altruism, are bedrock behaviors of humans that have been shown to promote survival advantages on an individual and group level. Capitalism, as it stands currently, makes no provisions for outcomes that serve a "group" benefit. Instead, capitalism assumes and thrives on direct competition between individual non-human entities (such as corporations, countries and banks) to alledgedly produce the best results for societies. In actuality, recent work by mathematicians have used game theory to illustrate that altruistic-like behaviors, compared to strictly competitve behaviors, are more advantageous in terms of numerical outcomes (i.e., the prisoners dilemma) for survival. In other words, it might be that Adam Smith was wrong.

Bringing us to the third fallacy, which fails to acknowledge that capitalism, though its theories and practices seem applicable to human well-being, is more interested in the "welfare" of numbers related to profits and economic growth. In naturalistic speak, capitalism is essentially a model ultimately concerned with "meme" survival (ie. brands, advertising) and not human survival (i.e. the integrity of the Huaroni people).

Fourthly, since capitalism is a concept adept with dealing with numbers and not with humans, the concept is blind to human cultural and habitiat variations. Capitalism fails miserably when its western tenents are applied in developing countries, where the conditions markedly differ from those of developed countries. One of the most problematic aspects of capitalism is its inability to consider the disequilibrium of information existing between competing communities. Without such consideration, capitalism negates its true applicability of economic policy to developing worlds, in which access to information is severly limited.