Daily Times

“Everything is indeed permitted”, Sartre states, “if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. He discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse”. Following his footsteps one can safely say that had the world been spared the burden of heroes and icons, the forlorn human beings finding no excuse and relying on the sheer power of their potential and faculties might have realized their dreams. However, consciousness of servitude and ‘a second alienation from the alienated society’ would have remained the preconditions to their success.

For such an aware people the idea of an icon might have carried some other meanings. Instead of rallying behind a charismatic man of destiny their accolades would have been reserved for those sacrificing their lives to the cause of human emancipation and freedom, who suffered annihilation consciously only to make the majority realize that it was suffering the same fate through the social process albeit unconsciously. People do not need messiahs because there are none. ‘They are their own leaders, and they dialectically create their own development’, only if they are conscious enough to figure it out.

Are the masses really conscious of their power? Probably not and that is why they keep falling to the demagogy of media-managed figures such as Trump, Bolsonaro, Modi or Khan though it is said that Khan’s electoral victory has more to do with active maneuvering by judico-military nexus. However, mandated democracy with clear-cut directives imposed by the electorate upon the representatives has never been the theme of controlled democracy which is inherently totalitarian.

For mandated democracy consciousness of the masses as the real masters of their destiny, and not mere voters contributing to opinions that barely matter, remains the precondition. The right of electing the representatives and in case of underperformance recalling them is a Marxist theme which offered a rational alternative. Even in the former socialist states its implementation suffered hiccups but its reasons had lot to do with the flaws in implementation but not in the premise itself.

The mandated democracy does not commensurate with the designs of the ruling class hence what is offered to the people is the juggernaut of competitive democracy where parties compete for an identical program but to be applied by a different set of faces. The process of consent and that of manipulation are so intimately connected that separating one from the other becomes impossible hence the question of seeking consent becomes ambiguous and debatable. With a one-dimensional repressive ideology what is there to be consented for? In a limited choice the more radical right wing parties with charismatic leaders at the helm that focus on making the nation great again attract mass attention. If death remains the only alternative why not commit harakiri that makes it quick.

“When nation is in confusion and disorder”, Laing says, “the patriots are recognized” but what he does not say is that the patriots have invariably compounded the disorder that culminated in utter devastation for the people. For its success from national fascism to religious fanaticism, every anti-people movement focused its campaign around a solitary figure of messiah, a gifted economic leader standing on evils yet taller than them. “If obedience is owed because a leader is endowed with superhuman, God-like qualities”, Franz Neumann adds, “then reason is excluded”.

What else do we have in US, India, Brazil or Pakistan if not fascism of one hue or another, and akin to its predecessor of 1930s it too has not fallen from the sky but has been voted in by the oppressed. “The bomb”, Marcuse says, “has fallen and we are the mutations”.

Reason has never been obedient, it doubts unless tamed to follow unreason, subjugated to the irrationality of a given society. The working conditions of modern capitalism inherently create conformism. Before producing commodities the conditions create minds to which commodities would be sold, the minds which identify their needs with the needs of their oppressors. When the inherent anarchy of the system strikes, the same minds buy a King Kong developed and presented by the expropriators through advertisement as a redeemer. It is a much cherished brand of capitalist freedom which inhibits the thoughtful reflection of collective mind and offers a convenient alternative of a fictional messiah, fulfilling its supreme law that people “shall at no price be given what they desire, and in that very deprivation they must take their laughing satisfaction”.

The modern icons are paper tigers that have no separate existence than the one given to them by the people. Like religion they symbolize the real expression of human miseries and desires but without any strength or will to realize them. Akin to the masses, these products of mass culture lack autonomy which is abundantly clear from their empty slogans, and superficial and commonplace attention-seeking tantrums, the consequences of which are unmeasured hence once they ricochet they lose their credibility if they had any.

Adorno has succinctly pointed out that Hitler, the executioner of liberal capitalist society, was too liberal to recognize that behind the façade of liberalism an irresistible dominion of industrial potential had formed on whose drumbeat he too was forced to march. The same holds true for modern day Caesars. They are driven by a mélange of socio-political and military forces that they can neither create nor have the power to influence. On the contrary, they are propped and pampered by these forces which work according to their own dynamics and never leave anything to chance. Somewhere inside people know they are befooled yet they buy the poison as panacea.

The capitalist intellectuals mull over the stupidity of various strange actions which according to them were taken by Trump unilaterally. In reality from his victory in elections to his gimmickry of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and from intensifying the war in Afghanistan to his sudden ejection of armed forces from Syria and Afghanistan and de-escalation of  trade war against China, nothing is chancy, fluke and unilateral. Every move is calculated and backed by those corporations that every US President represents. From massive trade deficit of nearly “$375 billion with China to US federal debt to GDP ratio of 105.4 percent”, needless continuation of war and then sudden cessation of hostilities in Syria and Afghanistan signify how scrupulously the interests of big capital are protected. The power relations are used for the benefit of those from where they emanate.

In this equation, the public do not matter. When the project is as gargantuan as making ‘America great again’ or ‘India shining’ in silver or ‘Pakistan turning into a state of Medina’, people are secondary. For the greater interest of the nation, people have to suffer. For Hitler ‘suffering and adversities have to be borne in silence’. What was the composition of his Reich; ‘the various administrative machines were coordinated in a bureaucratic apparatus which integrated the interests of industry, army and the party. The supreme power was vested in the big industrial combines, in the military machinery, in the political position. The National Socialist state was the government of hypostatized economic, social and political forces” (Marcuse)

What else do we have in US, India, Brazil or Pakistan if not fascism of one hue or another, and akin to its predecessor of 1930s it too has not fallen from the sky but has been voted in by the oppressed. “The bomb”, Marcuse says, “has fallen and we are the mutations”.

The writer has authored books on socialism and history. He blogs at saulatnagi.wordpress.com and can be reached atsaulatnagi@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, December 28^th 2018.