- A new thesis creating a new synthesis?
Change is constant. Once it takes place, it can never be reversed. Philosophers used to wonder how change takes place and why. Unable to find the answer, they assumed a static world, which was absurd. It was not until Hegel appeared on the scene that a reason for change emerged.
Hegel said that change is inherent. At the same time, there is a thesis and antithesis. The two interact, synthesise and transcend the situation with a new thesis emerging immediately and simultaneously an antithesis. And the process goes on. It is the process that causes conflict, which is how things change. Hegel called this process the dialectic. Of course Hegel was talking in terms of not the secular but the metaphysical. We can take a liberty and call it the cosmic dialectic.
Appeared Karl Marx who was talking more in terms of the secular and the worldly. He too wondered how and why things change and society changes. He picked up Hegel’s dialectic and said that conflict was inherent. There was a thesis and an antithesis which clashed not synthesized and a new situation appeared. And so on. It led to change. The conflict that Marx was talking about was basically class conflict, which means the worker and the mill owner, the peasant and the landlord. Society would then change from the feudal to the industrial; there would be a workers revolution and everything would end up belonging to the State. After this, would arrive utopia.
Well, it did not happen like this because Marx did not see the emergence of trade unions and joint stock companies. Nor did he know that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin would hijack his ideas and lead a minority in Russia called the Bolsheviks to overthrow the majority called the Mensheviks. It was a coup which he called a revolution. There was wholesale nationalization, collectivization of land to increase agricultural output and build lumbering new factories to make armaments because the Second World War and Hitler had descended upon the country. This was all the brainchild of Stalin along with the people who were his fellow travellers. In so doing, Stalin destroyed the revolution to save the revolution.
Racism and prejudice has been instilled in American children with games like ‘Cowboys and Indians,’ a book called ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Even today, Clint Eastwood films like Dirty Harry lionize the rampant policeman. They only have themselves to blame. America created many instruments to colonise and subjugate the world (the most obvious of which are the World Bank, the IMF and their institutions), and trapped Third World Countries in chains of debt. The time has come for these chains to be broken. The agenda of the freedom of the blacks is still incomplete. God willing, it will complete soon
It could not last because according to the Marxist process, Russia did not enter into the industrial stage but went straight from feudalism to socialism. Capitalism was overthrown but sadly replaced by State capitalism. Rights of workers and ordinary citizens were trampled as increasingly the Communist Party became a hardened bureaucracy. They tried to spread their revolution to other countries already having created an empire out of Central Asian states and stupidly annexed Afghanistan, which nobody has been able to conquer and subjugate from the Iranians to the British to the Russians. All were vanquished and left diminished. It was like the last straw and the Soviet Union soon collapsed
The latest attempt at Afghan annexation was by the United States of America. After 20 years of death and destruction, America is finally leaving in defeat and disgrace with its tail between its legs and once again, Pakistan will be left to pick up the pieces.
The Soviet Union started cracking up after its Afghan defeat. The United States now looks to be cracking up after its Afghan defeat. Cracking up could take many forms─ a rearrangement of the State, a rearrangement of policy, a rearrangement of even ideology, the downfall of capitalism in its most naked form as practiced in America. Time will tell. But one thing is obvious─ the defeat in Afghanistan put paid to the USSR. The defeat in Afghanistan could contribute to America’s break up.
Many commentators are unbelievably writing articles with frightening titles. One is American Breakup: secession is much closer than we think and its sub-heading is The States with the most active secession movements are progressive and want to escape from a federal government they think too conservative. It is written by F.H Buckley of George Mason University in The Spectator and his book, ‘The Looming threat of a National Breakup’ is available. He says in the article that, “The United States is ripe for secession. Across the world, established states have divided in two or are staring down secession movements. Great Britain became a wee bit less great with Irish independence, and now the Scots seem to be rethinking the Act of Union (1707). Czechoslovakia is no more and the former Soviet Union is just that: former. Go down the list and there are secession groups in nearly every country. And are we to think that, almost alone in the world, we’re immune from this?” He says that America is, “less united today than we’ve been at any time since the Civil War, divided by politics, religion and culture.”
Slavery was perhaps the strongest aspect of American culture, weaker in the North. The slaves may finally have been freed but only in the legal sense. They struggled for their civil rights and got them on paper. Their leader, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in his prime. But these are only on paper. In reality, an African is still looked at askance with a high degree of suspicion and is killed at the slightest suspicion, even if he is totally innocent. The African is not American but sub-American. This is racist prejudice and American is not alone in harbouring it and not just against Africans. Most countries have a disgustingly high level of racism. Not to veer too far afield, we Pakistanis looked upon the Bengalis of East Pakistan in much the same way and paid heavily for it. Secession is nothing new. We have all seen it many times. Pakistan seceded from united India to make an independent country. East Pakistan seceded from Pakistan to make it Bangladesh. The break-up of the Soviet Union led to the emergence of some 15 new states. South Sudan just happened and the Muslims of Sudan were separated from the Christians. And the United Kingdom is facing break up with the Scots, the Northern Irish and the Welsh harking for secession. In fact, the United Kingdom itself seceded from the European Union which they call Brexit. And so the process goes on and America is not immune from it. The latest upheaval was triggered by the wanton killing of one black American called George Floyd at the hands of a white policeman. The country erupted in protests, some violent that are still ongoing. The most powerful man in the world, hid cowering in his bunker in fright along with his family. Shades of Hitler in his bunker. George Floyd has become a metaphor that could prove to be the last straw that could lead to the eventual break-up of America into many different independent states which are self sufficient. I gave the example of California in my last article. The process may not be very fast but this last great superpower could follow the pattern of the Soviet Union. George Floyd was killed by the white policeman’s knee pressing onto his neck and was asphyxiated. America calls itself, ‘the Policeman of the World.’ This ‘policeman’ has had its knee on the neck of the world since World War II. They have annihilated Afghanistan; they have decimated Iraq and Syria to mention just three. Does it need saying that they all happened to be Muslim countries? The earliest decimation that happened at White America’s hands was that of the Native Americans whom they called ‘Red Indians.’ Racism and prejudice has been instilled in American children with games like ‘Cowboys and Indians,’ a book called ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Even today, Clint Eastwood films like Dirty Harry lionize the rampant policeman. They only have themselves to blame. America created many instruments to colonise and subjugate the world (the most obvious of which are the World Bank, the IMF and their institutions), and trapped Third World Countries in chains of debt. The time has come for these chains to be broken. The agenda of the freedom of the blacks is still incomplete. God willing, it will complete soon.
