Daily Times

All the affluent statesmen of this poverty stricken world are applauding the US for sweeping away the debris of evil for the benefit of mankind. A devil incarnate has been shown the doors of an inferno from where he will never be able to stage a comeback to tread this world again. Will there now be a dress on every naked skin that personifies a walking skeleton? Those who are completely alien to the very concept of this ‘war on terror’ are forced to become the cannon fodder of another newly born terminology, i.e. collateral damage, by the powers that are actively engaged in this neo-colonial war of plunder, but insist on wearing the deceptive cloak of human rights.

The dragon is dead but its tooth continues to germinate. Hence, the nightmare persists, refusing to perish. This is how the dynamics of capitalism work with a dagger and a smile. Business and capital are bloodthirsty since both thrive during bloodshed. Capitalism apparently bumps off an individual, but in fact bludgeons the whole oppressed social class. Of all the base passions, the most accursed one is placing the accusation of every crime on the doorsteps of an individual. Finding a scapegoat and anchoring its head in a pillory to be guillotined is the favourite occupation of this system. Capitalism in connivance with religion creates an illusionist hence fatalist belief that inclines to prove human nature as abstract, fixed and immutable that cannot be changed without coercion (of the capitalist state). According to this philosophy, people by birth can be either virtuous or vicious. The reality is to the contrary.

Human nature is the totality of historically determined social relations, hence a historical fact that not only can be ascertained within certain limits but is liable to change with changing social relations. Precisely it is the social being of man that determines his consciousness, and not vice versa. The humanity that is reflected in each individuality is composed of different elements. Man develops them with active participation.

What each individual can change through his ‘absolute will’ is little since change is determined by socio-historic processes. As Marx said, “Mankind thus inevitably sets itself only such tasks as it is able to solve, since closer examination will always show that the problem itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution are already present or at least in the course of formation.” Blaming an individual for all the evils is like clutching at a straw in a sea. Capitalism has two basic problems: overproduction and loss of profit. Both go hand in hand, which makes the realisation of capital impossible. The solution of these problems was sought through the military-industrial complex where the capitalist receives pure surplus, as he need not buy anything from the state. The capitalist economist thought that by solving the problem of realisation of capital they had proved Marx wrong.

The fall of the Soviet Union led to the elimination of an enemy, which is vital for the survival of capitalism. Now realisation of capital could only be possible in pre-capitalist areas present within the capitalist states or those beyond it. A new enemy had to be created. Iraq was one and al Qaeda was the other.

The incidents of 9/11 and 7/7 brought a pretence to attack the pre-capitalist zones. From the dustbin of history, the interred skeleton of Hitler was rebranded. Instead of Nazism, it was Islamophobia that was considered handy enough to serve the purpose of establishing hegemony over the oil of the Persian Gulf along with the Caspian Sea. The war on terror gave a free hand to capitalism. Its first casualty was its own people who were asked to sacrifice their liberties for the myth of safety. It reminds me of a saying of Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

In most pre-capitalist countries, the emerging capitalist class remains weak. Hegemony belongs to the feudals and the army, the latter being the more organised force colludes with the ruling elite and not only helps to maintain the balance amongst the conflicting classes but also keeps the local market open for the exploitation of foreign capital.

Foreign capital, realising its dependency (in order to exploit the native population), bullies it, but with extreme care. Nobody likes to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. ‘Bin Laden’ was a used cartridge who once was in the service of imperialism, but had outlived his utility for quite some time. Capitalism does not carry corpses when these cease to remain a commodity not worth a dime. Who cares if this petrifaction has been shed to rest in his grave or flushed into the sea? Until a new manufactured enemy is created as the new object of hate and we are smothered in the billowing smokes of new wars in the name of peace and prosperity, let us hope that the demon of capitalism is sent to hell by the revolt of the masses of the Middle East and its scattering sparks.

The writer is a freelancer and a research analyst. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com