History shows that, in times of crisis, capitalism sheds the mask of formal democracy and reveals its true face: fascism.
What is happening these days makes this abundantly clear. The kidnapping of the President of the sovereign state of Venezuela is, beyond any justification, the triumph of force and brutality over any form of law.
In several countries, such as Italy, the independence of the judiciary is being restricted, undermining one of the pillars of real democracy: the separation of powers. In Europe, a small elite imposes rearmament and unconditional support for the war in Ukraine, against the will of the majority of citizens. And all this is happening while we witness the extermination of entire peoples.
There are many intelligent and honest people in the world who are aware that things cannot continue this way. Scholars and activists who recognize the profound injustice of the current system and sincerely struggle for human rights, environmental protection, and dignified living conditions. Yet their analyses and struggles often fail to identify the central problem: capitalism itself. All these conflicts revolve around a core that is rarely truly questioned.
This is not to say that private property as such is inherently wrong. The critical issue is the private ownership of the means of production. The problem arises when a small minority controls and decides for the entire social body: resources, information, and political power. When financial power becomes total, extending its control not only over material conditions but also over human consciousness.
We must have at least the intellectual courage to confront this issue and discuss it openly. Without this step, every analysis remains incomplete, and every struggle risks being neutralized or absorbed by the system itself.
For this reason, it is essential to interpret history correctly. Fascism was not the result of an accident or the madness of a single individual. Nazism was the consequence of contradictions inherent in German and European society at the time. In the same way, today’s international tensions, wars, widespread violence, the dismantling of the welfare state, and the systematic manipulation of information are not “deviations,” but structural elements of a system in crisis.
Trump is not an anomaly in U.S. history: previous administrations had already attempted to support coups aimed at controlling Venezuela’s vast oil resources. Trump is simply a variation of a political line that has been undermining international law for decades.
Questioning capitalism—and therefore the private ownership of the means of production—does not merely mean criticizing an economic model, but challenging a global mindset that makes this system possible and legitimate. A nihilistic worldview, based on violence and possession, on extreme individualism, competition, and efficiency as supreme values. A relentless race to produce more and more, in which GDP becomes the measure of everything, as if it were the very meaning of existence.
Within this logic, however, fundamental questions are systematically removed: What is the meaning of life? What is the value of human relationships? What place do solidarity and cooperation have among individuals and among peoples? Where is humanity heading? Capitalism does not ignore these questions by accident—it is rooted precisely in their evasion.
For this reason, the change we need cannot be merely economic or institutional. A global humanist revolution is necessary, as clearly proposed by Universalist Humanism: a transformation of mentality and values, of the way human beings conceive themselves, their relationships with others and with the universe, and at the same time a transformation of social organization, relations among peoples, and the ways of producing, living, and making collective decisions—toward a true Real Democracy.
Some may dismiss all this as utopian—but even if it were, what is the problem?
Utopias have always been the driving force of history. They are what has pushed human beings not to accept the existing order as destiny, but to imagine a different future and to fight to achieve it. Without utopias there is no movement, no progress, no emancipation—only passive adaptation to a system that today more than ever shows its inability to guarantee justice, peace, and dignity.