Is this end of history (Fukuyama)?. The triumph of liberal democracy has happened?...Maybe no. The last men of history are here..its time to drag them back into history. ...now before you guys start screaming creeeep...its like this i got some time to read American history(?!)..well just timepass....but been a great experience to go through the history of triumph of the culture of the eye and ear ..of Faulkner (challenging the official American culture of triumph), Bellow, Langston Hughes (what happens to a dream deferred), Morrison (marginal experience), Salinger (spiritual life could be reconciled with an art of gaiety), Raymond carver (what we talk about when we talk about love), Twain as also Tennessee Williams (about lives in relentlessly commercial world).....so on
Reading the political history stumbled upon this incredible person a man who was instrumental not only in American Revolution but also the French revolution !!. A man whose influence was such that he is described as a ''turni
ng point of the history of free thinking''. Unfortunately he was sidelined as leftist atheist (he had absolutely nothing to do with commies). A man who wrote to do good is my religion...humanised religion and its ultimate philosophical and ethical results have not yet been reached (Religion of humanity is a beautiful read). His obituary read he had lived long did some good and much harm. Thomas PAINE landed in America in his late 30s, decrepit after a life of obscurity and failure in England . He wrote the famous pamphlet ''Common sense'' which created the momentum for freedom struggle as also influencing the ''Declaration of independence''.Common sense he said was nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments and common sense. It starts with the line “ These are the times that try men's soul... ..the cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind ". Common sense was an inspiring vision of independent America as an asylum of freedom This faith carried through Lincoln's determination to wipe out slavery as also Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to use conflict as a crusade for democracy. This is the faith which guided the settlers into great modern nation which unfortunately in recent times has slipped into all time low. Consider this arrogant stance of ''final umpire’’ (Sr Bush) on soviet crisis as also the most recent aggression of Iraq, in this context Paine's lines are so prophetic (common sense on king of England’s speech).
....that the man whose ignorance and obstinacy first involved and still continues the nation in the most hopeless and expensive of all wars, should now meanly flatter them with the name of free people and make a merit of his crime , under the disguise if their essential rights and permanent interests, is something which disgraces the character of perverseness ...these are the words which impress nothing but the ears and are calculated only for the sound.
This definitely cannot be the end of history, there are too many repressed forces...the killing of teenage ''aborigine'' in Australia and subsequent violence is only an indicator, Fukuyama's ''remarkable consensus'' is far from reached.
Post script: this piece was written in Feb 2004, those were the days when the world was experiencing the aggression of Iraq by Bush, vigored with his reelection. Iraq was a serious blunder; this blogger like majority of people around the world was shocked.
Lots of things have happened in the world since then. Apart form other things Bush on his way out, thankfully. But our man was quoted as saying that “he will sprint all the way to end”, don’t know what its mean but attacking Iran (that will be very serious mistake) or other violence helps Republicans. When 9/11 happened Condalisa Rice was quoted as saying “so how do we capitalize on this?”. Don’t know whether its true but yes they did maximum their opportunity (ditto how Market driven people work “seize the opportunity”. These cause maximum damage for self gain). Iraq is now a big shopping mall for merchants of death. McCain is a war hero, and hero’s are supposed to lead from front- whatever that means, but yes you cannot lead from front when there is no “front”! The reason why belligerence helps to capture power. Fear works to cower the voters to certain mindset. That disadvantage collective world. That is disadvantage humanity.
In the meantime in an unprecedented step Australia and Canada has apologized for its past treatment of aborigines.
