Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
How world has been focusing on contradictions, not on the unity of opposites
By Zulfiqar Shah-Nations, continents, and their interrelations are the world body politic subsided by the culture. We need to have a leap beyond the faith in the world-order of these steady withering away contours. We have an international establishment in the form of United Nations; we were unable to transfer it into the world establishment. We have been attempting to translate the UN into virtual world establishment. This phase of ours is a bygone past. On the sidelines of UN reforms, we need to think as international community for a global order, to really transform ourselves for the climax of our new realities, challenges, and achievement. The concept and materialization of a world establishment of international community is yet un-conceived. We missed our own train to our required destinations. Let us have a new rapid for the knock, which needs an open-up of a new door towards a global order and a real global establishment on the sidelines of globalization for our generations. This becomes unavoidable since world today is undergoing a phase in globalization in which national, ethnic and racial identity has started exhibiting itself. We have at least one lesson to be learned about, which is about the failed socialist states. Let us learn from the missing links of socialist states, which missed their leap from gradual socialism of state and society together due to structural socialism, and because of statehood necessities.
Universality is the unity between and amongst the diversity. In the pedagogy, this phenomenon is called University. This includes interrelated nature of faculties, various disciplines of studies, and research. This is an era of multi-disciplinary research in science, arts and humanity. The era of specialization is over now.
The philosophical history of Hegelian logic and dialectics as well as Marxian materialism until now has been misrepresented, inappropriately understood, and adopted by the majority. Let us think again, revisit the things briefly, and try to find nexus between apparently irrelevant factors. Truth is abyss. So is the patchy business of fallacies. Let us undone the complexities into soothe and simplistic entities.
No doubt, the post-Marx interpretations chose to focus revolution as an attempt to take hold of state, leaving aside the journey of society in cohesion and unison with the socialist republics. Yet, the historical materialism, the essence of the political dimensions of Marxism needs to be revisited from philosophical perspective, given the transformation as a step between revolutions and evolutions. This is the point, where disconnect between political left and right can be undone and a unity of opposites and diversity can be created. It will also help not only creating a patchwork between the democratic world and despotic skewed world of previously socialist states like China, Cuba, Vietnam and others in an appropriate transition into a new mode of economy that can smoothly sail amid industrialist world without invoking a conflict of interest, and thereby opening up the new ways of a polity, economy, society and international engagement for the globalized human society, with highly changed characteristics and emergence of new classes. This approach, if seen in the perspective of Marxism, is a post Deng Xiao Pieng development in terms of polity and economy and post Lenenist development in the perspective of state and polity. This no doubt, will give a full stop to unacceptable political and economic modus oprandi of controlled and extraordinarily nationalized economies and societies. This will also help creating cushions against economic recessions around the globe by created consensual economic interdependence in the world.
Socialists of our era from Moscow in Russia to Moro town in Sindh, Pakistan have forgotten the basic principle of Hegelian logic and Marxian interpretation: unity of opposites. Soviet Union thought everything is contradiction, China did not. Pakistan was closer to China, but it also believed in the contradictions, not in their unity. Communist groups in Pakistan and rest of South Asia, greater in movements and pigmies in the basics, have been failure only because they never thought that there used to be a unity between and amongst the opposites. In Pakistan, left got defeated from right. Non-extremism and non-fundamentalism survives in Sindh and Balochistan because of Indus civilization.
Comrade M. N. Roy, a veteran Indian Marxist gave theory of peasants’ revolution, which was adopted by Mao Zedong in China. Thus, revolution entered the Chinese scene.
Leninism said that after socialism, communism will take the stage of human history. Real politics juxtaposed, however. What happened of USSR / Soviet Union? Retrogression from socialism to capitalism. The important questions here arise: Was there any true socialism in the world? Or historical materialism of Karl Marx was wrong? Because according to Karl Marx history has to progress ahead in spiral way – from slavery to feudalism, feudalism to capitalism, capitalism to socialism and socialism to communism. It cannot be retrogressive. What happened? Socialist Soviet Union turned into capitalist country. Socialism got refuge in capitalism. Is Marx’s historical materialism valid? Or, was there no socialism in Soviet Union and other countries? This is a fundamental debate; let us have a new philosophical discourse. One should also go through the philosophical discourse of Leon Trotsky in this context. Trotsky can be the best refuge for socialists and Marxists of our times. In fact, a treatise is required on Hegelian and Marxian logic and materialism.
Age of a balance between materialism and idealism begins now, especially in the world politics of diversified interests, balance of power and collective good.
Shah is Sindhi refugee journalist, writer and activist currently staying in New Delhi. www.zulfiqarshah.com
