Daily Times

The joke of our time is the suicide of intention (Adorno).After the hara-kiri of Soviet Union, the majority of the intellectuals especially belonging to the bourgeoisie enthusiastically gave a verdict in favour of an absolute victory of free-market. A euphoric claim suited to the whims of an actor turned president but not to the analytical minds. Beyond doubt, the elimination of an enemy having an ability of retaliation established the US hegemony in a unipolar world, but history is familiar with all these upheavals. Regardless of their proportions, it never stops on events. The mantra of an end of history was more a cry of ecstasy rather than an objective analysis of the inherently flawed system, declared as triumphant. Those who knew the dynamics of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism was not sanguine about its future prospects. Even Huntington felt that a vacuum could become a disaster for the system, which survives on confrontation, hence immediately leapt to invent an absurd theory of civilizational clash. Despite Chomsky’s rebuttal of civilised people not clashing with each other, Huntington prevailed.

More than Fukuyama, Huntington had the better knowledge of the necessities capital needs for its realisation. Wars remain its prime necessity and in the absence of a real big enemy when chances of another cold war were slim the system could end up in the doldrums. In mid-eighties, the imperialist might was fully cognizant about the impotence of socialist camp whose energy was sapped by continuous wastage of money on means of mass destructions. The fall of the Soviet Union was not apprehended, though, yet its inability to combat the imperialists club was an open secret. Those conditions demanded a new and equally a stronger enemy hence a theory such as a clash between civilisations had all the ingredients to build a new enemy.

In the preface of her book, “Mohammad,” the historian, Karen Armstrong had categorically stated that in anticipation of the debacle of USSR, Islam being closer to the same model of economic system [if it really had any] was already chosen the future enemy of the western world. In 1945, immediately after the world war, Keynes advanced his economic doctrine, which was based on the premise of an oxymoron, building of welfare cum warfare states. Much before Eisenhower, Keynes had anticipated the future hegemony of military-industrial complex as a mean to realise the capital. In the industrialised world, the mass spending was tipped as another source of its realisation through the state which was given the task of spending from the public exchequer to guard the interest of the capitalists by maintaining the cycle of consumerism, the prime instrument which plays a decisive role in the market economy.

The welfare state was a major bulwark against the possibility of socialism becoming the ultimate destiny of humanity. The reality was understood that the possibility of materialisation of a welfare society necessitated the development of a warfare state. The peace at home had to be achieved by imposing wars on the world. Much before Keynes and Eisenhower, the legendary leader of the proletariat Rosa-Luxemburg had thoroughly analysed this phenomenon. She described imperialism, “a product of particular stage of ripeness in the world development of capital, an innately international condition, an indivisible whole which could only be recognised only in all its relations,” and no nation was capable of staying aloof from its tentacles.

This undisputed premise made violence an integral part of capitalism, which required continuous wars for its realisation. Leaving the false pretences of democracy and freedom aside, the continuation of violence perpetrated from Libya to Syria and Yemen to Ukraine most unambiguously has the same reasons and necessities. From the beginning of this millennium, Pakistan finds itself in the same catastrophic situation. The violence – a term which is rarely associated with the terror of the state – either monopolised by the state or its Frankenstein – which are many – is taking a heavy toll on the ordinary citizens of the land of the Pure. A dreadful dance of death keeps lurking at every corner of this decadent society. For Adorno, the “technology has made the gestures precise and brutal and with them the men”. The advancement in the war technology has left not a trace of humanity in them.

Not only the state machinery is armed to the teeth, but those who are fighting against the people also are not lagging far behind. The idea that human life is not only worth living but has to be assured as worthy of human living in peace and prosperity has lost its validity. There is no protected area which is immune to the strikes of those who are bent upon inflicting death and destruction. The civilisation based on capitalism is treating human as it is treating the nature, a mere instrument of destructive productivity and horrible death.

During the middle of the twentieth century, the cold war was at its acme. It was then the greater areas of the world were either trampled by the US Marines or swathed by the CIA. The South Americans too were the victims of the big corporations backed by the Dulles. Most of the countries of the Southern Cone were annexed by the mercenaries akin to Pinochet. The state violence was at its peak. The communists were the immediate targets. Allende, an elected president, was bombed to death. The great violinist Victor Jara whose fingers were mercilessly amputated by the ruling junta in a public display of terror set the tone of state violence. At the same time an Argentine, Mario Villani was sent to a concentration camp. He mentioned his ordeal in these words: “I had just one goal, to stay alive, but it wasn’t just to survive but to survive like me.” The mission was to clean the South Cone from the infidels who wanted the even distribution of wealth.

Pakistan, a product of Muslim’s ambitious middle class, could not break through the shell of religion, the name they exploited to attain a state, came back to haunt them. The newly carved out state was immediately exposed to multiple challenges presented by different ethnicities. The language problem drew the first blood. The autocrat rulers including Jinnah found themselves alien to the people’s needs and demands. The leadership was lethargic and listless which could easily be compared with Trump’s phenomenon having no history of political struggle hence neither deserved the command nor were prepared for it. Instead of a constitution, the ruling class sought its redemption under the “Objectives Resolution”. The country became a hostage to the theocracy and later a front-line state against communism to the US.

(To be continued)

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