# Spider-Verse has a multiverse beyond capitalism (Part 1 of 2) Date: 2023-06-08 Next Part: https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/spider-verse-has-a-multiverse-beyond-capitalism.part2.md --- --- ### Spider-Verse has a multiverse beyond capitalism I was watching a video on the [Limits of the Multiverse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9w16mmIswc) and [capitalist realism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_Realism) that explains that in all of these multiverse movies there is no variety of economic systems. Across the Spider-Verse has a [dystopian year 2099 world](https://www.marvel.com/characters/spider-man-2099-miguel-o-hara) where evil corporations rule but as we’ll explain later — not really. ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/spider-verse-has-a-multiverse-beyond-capitalism-e99dcc822c.jpeg) In this verse Miles is chased on a freeway that goes straight up into the air. ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/spider-verse-has-a-multiverse-beyond-capitalism-81ec84c22e.png) The movie spends a fairly long time on this chase scene where commuters are driving *up into the sky*. ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/spider-verse-has-a-multiverse-beyond-capitalism-e75138fc03.jpeg) ### Where are those cars going? Yes in theory those might be workers on their daily commute up to some sky city. But at our stage of late capitalism I think we can all admit those cars are going nowhere. These are people driving up into the sky for absolutely no reason at all. Even in 2023 lots of workers have quit commuting because it made no sense when WFH technologies abound. When the spider-man of 2099 was invented having him forced to break free of an addiction to a corporation created drug might have seemed novel. Of course that was before Covid was [created by](https://www.marshall.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/MWG-FDR-Document-04-11-23-EMBARGOED.pdf?fbclid=IwAR03xOoRDx1dYzpAkqxOvnw17ehBjRIfxSH9NQROn9KsF3KWx9Ss1us_ZAY) and cured, sort of, by humans. The 2099 sky [bridge to nowhere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_to_nowhere) perfectly captures the current state of the economy. Incredibly impressive achievements with little or no purpose. But as we’ll explain later that bridge and the rest of what was shown in 2099 is actually not capitalism. ### Why capitalism is desperate for a technological win Its not like we haven’t had enormous achievements of dubious purpose before: * The Great Pyramid was built by quarrying an estimated 2.3 million large blocks weighing 6 million tonnes in total. * The Great Wall of China is over 13,000 miles long. The difference is that capitalism rode in on a wave of productivity — it’s the ideology that invented mass production and technological advance. The implicit contract of capitalism is GDP per capita: ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/spider-verse-has-a-multiverse-beyond-capitalism-e485737d92.png) GDP is a problematic measure to begin with as if you are handed a dollar and hand it right back you’ve increased GDP. Roughly speaking though old products and ways of doing things were supposed to fade into the background as they became commoditized and GDP growth would be dominated by new products and ways of doing things. So increasing GDP per capita would represent evergreen consumption of new, new, new and so justify any issues capitalism might have — including environmental collapse. Now in fairness GDP can also underestimate the benefits of capitalism. WFH may soon crash commercial real estate which will lower GDP even though not having to commute is a benefit. The same applies to reducing work hours: ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/spider-verse-has-a-multiverse-beyond-capitalism-5092e1bdf7.png) Of course from a keep capitalism going standpoint the reducing hours are a dead end, like sky bridge to nowhere commuters reaching the stratosphere and then just turning around to drive back down. Avoiding the currently inevitable 4 day, 3 day, 2 day work week where capitalism no longer dominates our lives or our politics means there has to be new kinds of consumption all the time, everywhere. ### Is a future where we all build and use sky bridges to nowhere likely? Franz Kafka explains the emotional pull of projects like the [Great Wall](https://www.kafka-online.info/the-great-wall-of-china-page3.html): > Five hundred metres could be completed in something like five years, by which time naturally the supervisors were as a rule too exhausted and had lost all faith in themselves, in the building, and in the world. > Thus, while they were still experiencing the elation of the celebrations for the joining up of a thousand metres of the wall, they were shipped far, far away. On their journey they saw here and there finished sections of the wall rising up; they passed through the quarters of the higher administrators, who gave them gifts as badges of honour, and they heard the rejoicing of new armies of workers streaming past them out of the depths of the land, saw forests being laid low, wood designated as scaffolding for the wall, witnessed mountains being broken up into rocks for the wall, and heard in the holy places the hymns of the pious praying for the construction to be finished. All this calmed their impatience. The quiet life of home, where they spent some time, reinvigorated them. The high regard which all those doing the building enjoyed, the devout humility with which people listened to their reports, the trust that simple quiet citizens had that the wall would be completed someday — all this tuned the strings of their souls. Then, like eternally hopeful children, they took leave of their home. The enthusiasm for labouring once again at the people’s work became irresistible. They set out from their houses earlier than necessary, and half the village accompanied them for a long way. On all the roads there were groups of people, pennants, banners — they had never seen how great and rich and beautiful and endearing their country was. Every countryman was a brother for whom they were building a protective wall and who would thank him with everything he had and was for all his life. Unity! Unity! Shoulder to shoulder, a coordinated movement of the people, their blood no longer confined in the limited circulation of the body but rolling sweetly and yet still returning through the infinite extent of China. The capitalism we currently practice was supposed to be protection against such a project. No big government, long term goals, regulation, etc. So starting this kind of project is the end of capitalism and not starting this kind of project is the end of capitalism. Capitalism has hit a fork in the road between further decreasing worker hours or large projects run independently of return on investment where it meets its end either way. ### You’re soaking in it Taking a closer look at the 2099 spider-verse world it’s actually way past the end of capitalism already. First there is an enormous spider complex devoted to protecting the multiverse and it is a wonder of the world itself. Who’s paying for all of that? Certainly not capitalism. The same applies to the 2099 sky bridge to nowhere which would by necessity be built the same way Chinese and Japanese massive infrastructure projects are currently built at home and abroad — government spending and loans to other governments. What was the fight against Covid if not the largest government project of all time? Plus defense spending is way up all over as the war in the Ukraine ends the notion that capitalist countries will only trade with each other. But returning to spider-verse 2099 it’s not just that it has large projects outside of market forces cause we’ve seen that with Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. Everyone understands a future run by a military or religious order because that’s not the future it’s the past. --- **[Continue reading Part 2 of 2](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/spider-verse-has-a-multiverse-beyond-capitalism.part2.md)**