I was learning recently about Christopher Columbus and his encounters with native peoples and it’s fascinating how differently these people thought. The natives had a hard time understanding the colonizers and their endless need for gold and things.

Eventually some of them theorized that the European’s god is actually gold lol.

but to your point of the new soviet man, how is that any different than the certain set of standards that we mold humans into today? we're raised to fit the status quo and be operatives for capital. we're compelled to look and dress a certain way, etc.

For example we know that reducing poverty, increasing access to education, and increasing access to nutritious food increase IQ, and reduce crime.

In terms of culture, there is no such thing as a society without culture so why not build a culture based on kindness and mutual aid?

Our capitalist society makes us think the only answer is greed but it isn’t.

I wonder if late American capitalism is doing the same with entrepreneur worship. Mainstream culture celebrates people who are self starters, constantly grinding, always on the lookout for unfulfilled human desires and new markets, sensitive to customers' feelings and individuality while somehow also completely indifferent to urgent systemic catastrophes like environmental destruction or the end of democracy (which require collective effort)...

This is not an ideology like Soviet dogma. But in capitalism's funny way, it's an omnipresent and coherent archetype nevertheless.