Daily Times

Along with the process of primitive accumulation, when peasants were being deprived of their means of subsistence, 16th century Europe saw the most agonising phase of religious persecution as well. With the arrival of capitalism on the stage of history, Christianity had to suffer the pangs of schism. In France, Calvinism took root while in Germany Luther laid the foundations of Protestantism. Protestantism, a product of capitalism, had its own dialectic. According to Eric Fromm, its “positives were the ideals of equality and the sacredness of life, its negatives the fixation of blood and soil found along with negative elements of patriarchy. In nationalism, a greatest threat to civilisation.”

After the process of dispossession of the peasant was over, religion was shown the door. In the new mode of production, which demanded massive exploitation and progress, the role of religion had outlived its utility. The time to break taboos had arrived. To avoid any loss of profit to the capitalist, male and female workers were permitted to mingle but in the most inhuman conditions where they were forced to work from 18 to 20 hours a day. Sexual anarchy and various diseases were the natural consequences of these dismal living conditions in which workers were forced to live as beasts. All varieties of religious sects quietly condescended to this predatory aspect of capital. Blasphemy too was sent into oblivion, into the lowest part of the inferno.

Without stirring relations, capitalism can overpower various modes of production. In Pakistan, many modes — from tribal to feudal, including capitalistic — can be seen operating simultaneously. However, relations are predominantly feudal. About relations of production, Eric Fromm has much to say. According to him, “The character structure as it has been formed in the past by tradition, culture, teaching, family, etc., changes more slowly than the socioeconomic factors. Indeed, the slowness of the historical processes is to a large extent explained by the fact of this lag, that is to say, by the fact that man psychologically lives several generations behind the new economic and technical possibilities. If that were not so, the birth of a new society would not be as painful and difficult as it is.” Hence a change here needs a conscious effort.

In Pakistan, all such attempts have been denied either with manufactured consent or through brutal coercion. The law of blasphemy is one such tool in the hands of the ruling classes to maintain the status quo even if they have to sacrifice an important figure. The assassination of Governor Salmaan Taseer and the sitting minority minister are two revealing examples. Their murderers who, by slaying innocent human beings have become the actual blasphemers, are apparently incarcerated but are living virtually scot-free. Spinoza explicitly defined the blasphemers. He says, “It is those who ascribe divine attributes to the prophets who were human beings, who say that men make miracles, they are the ones guilty of blasphemy…enormity of their crime will reverberate in time.”

In Pakistan, a couple of decades ago even when religious laws were coercively imposed through state machinery, blasphemy by the majority was never considered a serious offence. Once officially declared as non-Muslims through the legislative assembly, a rubber stamp in the hands of an elected Cesar, which not only exposed the nature of his fascism but made this act one of the most grotesque of its kind, the Ahmedi community in Pakistan continued to live more or less peacefully. The sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites has the subterranean history of economic and cultural hegemony, which dates back centuries. It began with the defeat of Yazdegerd III and continues to this day. The Iranians, despite being pulverised by imperialism, neither intend to relinquish their cultural superiority nor are prepared to concede their economic interests to the Bedouin Arabs.

With the demise of the Soviet Union, the moment of ‘great refusal’ temporarily vanished. Capital might ruthlessly impose its laws of ‘value’ on the globe. Instead of uplifting the whole society, the hold of a few individuals became the only design. With control over the media and through cunning of reason, Bill Gates and a handful of successful individuals of his ilk were not only created but were promoted with fanfare. Those who suffered and remained under-privileged were to blame themselves for their lethargy and “lack of 10 cents worth of common sense” (Sartre). The victory of capitalism and the end of history was announced. The unreal became the real and non-freedom was declared freedom. The individual was endowed with magical powers. Society was declared too weak to be taken care of. A few leading philanthropists were given the task to provide crumbs and leadership to the masses. The socialist animal was ditched, the social beasts were unleashed. The promotion of an outstanding individual was successfully achieved. Even the archenemy of capitalism, Marxist Che Guevara, was turned into an icon. He was commoditised and sold.

Religious icons were elevated to the most sublime pedestals. A sacred halo was created around them. Reverence was the most powerful hypnotic used by capital. As Hemingway states, “They give you a feeling that the world would be destroyed, would actually be destroyed before your eyes, if you said certain things” about certain pious people. These pillows of illusion weave one dream after the other in such a way that reality itself becomes a dream, though a very distant one. The correct understanding of this process is made so complicated that even the best of brains, “which have withstood the mutilation hesitate to derive this state of affairs from its social origin…Under monopoly, all mass culture becomes identical” (Max Horkheimer). Hence, everything becomes natural, eternal and immutable. Those who continue to resist this non-culture based on stylised barbarity are subjected to coercion. “The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows. The attitude of the public, which ostensibly and actually favours the system, is a part of the system and not an excuse for it” (Horkheimer). Human beings, which were the appendage to the machine, now are turned into an appendage as such. The laws of blasphemy have to be understood in this perspective of social uncertainty, capitalistic anarchy and icon formation. Spinoza gives us a fascinating insight into the uncertainty prevailing in capitalism. He says, “Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune’s greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity.”

Breaking the fetters of the capitalist system through the joint struggle of the people of Pakistan could redeem humanity from this curse. Till then we will continue to live in the basement of this inhumane society. “The world of the concentration camps,” says Herbert Marcuse, “was not an exceptionally monstrous society. What we saw there was the image, and in a sense the quintessence, of the infernal society into which we are plunged every day” and will continue to do so till this system persists.

(Concluded)

The writer is based in Australia and has authored books on socialism and history. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com