#capitalism

The private space races of billionaires like Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are staged as humanity‘s ticket to progress, transformation, and even immortality in outer space. The colonial rhetoric that continues to accompany this new industry, however, is a reminder that their plans are neither altruistic visions nor merely harmless pet projects of the super-rich.

The proletarian dream, emerging out of late nineteenth and early twentieth century German culture, offers an important historical perspective on the powerful but little understood role of emotions in politics and social movements today.