Should capitalism be put in a museum?
If you think that’s a good idea, you should visit the Museum of Capitalism (MOC) in Oakland, California.
Some might object that this is an outlandish idea, that capitalism is hardly material for a museum in the way communism or apartheid may be. The Apartheid Museum, for your information, opens daily at 9am in Johannesburg. And if you happen to be in any number of Eastern Europe’s major cities, most likely you will find enterprising young people doing sardonic museum-without-walls tours of communist wastelands—the former industrial sites—like Nova Huta, the Russian built new town outside Krakow.
Museums, however, are more than repositories of artifacts from a previous era. Even archetypical 19th century European natural history museums have been transformed into modern interactive learning centers. And, after all, art museums show works of living artists. Finally, to settle the question, take a look at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. It smashes preconceptions of traditional museums since its subject matter sits squarely in the future— its promoters could easily rename it the Museum of Resilient Capitalism.
