HEGEMONY the Offspring of Politicisation

1 March 2013 06:30 pm - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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By Afreeha Jawad

To modern political leadership Aristotle’s ideal government may sound straight off the pulpit type. Yet, the credibility and wholesomeness of contemporary government and its positive contribution into world peace is highly questionable considering the peace, less global social whole. According to Aristotle, a good life consists of noble action and the ideal constitution - one in which the citizens are fully virtuous. The political community in such a state worked towards what is good and its citizenry’s happiness - an all inclusive one.

Against this backdrop the modern systemic layout made dysfunctional with its accompanying gigantic strides into politicisation is noteworthy. This preferred state of modern political leadership arises out of a persistent thirst for power - a far cry if not a distant wail from the very elegant Aristotle, a model that perhaps would appeal only to refined, cultured and virtuous minds in the political enclave - needless to speak of its finding, akin to a needle in a haystack. The closest we could get to in such endeavour is Uruguay’s President 77 year old Jose Musica - virtually non-existent to much of the media fraternity, in a world of intense politicisation, dishonest political leadership, bombs and large scale social issues, Musíca ‘stands tall’ in his farm shack with a firm grip on moral government. Ninety per cent of his salary helps the poor and small entrepreneurs. His monthly presidential earnings though 12,500 US dollars, he withholds only 250 for expenses.
The Musica couple till their land, grow their food - their only companion Manuela - the dog. Saying one big ‘no’ to his presidential palace and limousine Musica rides his modest VW Beetle much to the amazement of his people.

Addressing the Rio + 20 conference on sustainable development he asked, ‘’ if all I’m doing is working to buy things to get more, if society’s consumption is the energy of everything, where does this go? We need to start another culture,’’ he emphasised.

The depth in his analysis of poverty is reflective in his profound pronouncement. ‘’A poor person is not someone who doesn’t have very much but the person who continues to need more and more and desires more and more,’’ - making Musica align with the illustrious thinker Thoreau who said , ‘’ he is richest who needs the least.’’

" POVERTY IS ON THE RISE AND THE GAP WIDENING, CONSUMERISM AND EXPLOITATION OF PEOPLE ONLY SERVES THE INTERESTS OF A LIMITED NUMBER OF COUNTRIES "

Retrospective thinking on a politicised world order proves the great lengths to which man has gone in heightened acquisitive tendencies. The voyages of discovery, the industrial revolution, and the effacement of the dark ages, the renaissance that gave rise to the dawn of learning the enrichment of art, music and literature bore testimony to the unceasing potential in man. Yet, the clear stream of reason gradually found its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit much against Rabindranath Tagore’s prayer to the Lord wishing it not to be so.

The crusades, slavery and colonialism were the negative results of politicising his reason based findings that led him into emotional crudity. As a result, modernity transformed into modernism. The discovery of time was translated emotionally into the time bomb, the atom took a destructive turn. The receding of man’s spiritual reserve was evident as he embarked on a journey of power and avarice - the battle for global supremacy had begun which should not have been so. An unbalanced global management order set in. Egalitarianism was not to be. Sociał stratification, inequality, deprivation and marginalisation brought in chaos. His intellectual blossoming - starting 1453, the year that saw the fall of Constantinople into the Ottoman Turks’ hands terminated the middle ages. Muslims recall with pride the Ottoman empire and the spread of Islam. Christians became boastful about their rising numbers in imperial colonies. Both were into politicising their religions vehemently, consistent in territorial enhancement and monetary gain which ironically had nothing to do with God or Allah, for the quest of God is the search for truth. Organised formal religion and its expansion is part of the great celebration of might and strength - far removed from the great sublime teachings of Lord Jesus and the Prophet (OWBP).

" IN A WORLD OF INTENSE POLITICISATION, DISHONEST POLITICAL LEADERSHIP, BOMBS AND LARGE SCALE SOCIAL ISSUES, MUSÍCA ‘STANDS TALL’ IN HIS FARM SHACK WITH A FIRM GRIP ON MORAL GOVERNMENT "

As Iranian President Ahmadinajad at last year’s UN conference said, ‘’if the world’s arms were turned into pens and the Security Council not dominated by a few states, imagine how beautiful and pleasant our lives and how lovely the history of man would have been. Poverty is on the rise and the gap widening, consumerism and exploitation of people only serves the interests of a limited number of countries. Concepts such as purity, honesty, integrity, compassion and self- sacrifice are rejected as defunct and outdated notions. Pure and indigenous cultures under constant attack are susceptible to extinction. The human soul is frustrated and the essence of human kind humiliated and suppressed. Wars, double standards and occupation now the order of the day. Can the current order bring happiness to society?’’
President Ahmadinejad, seemingly traumatised by global hegemony, in a rather surprise move chooses to look the other way in terms of local hegemony or the control of one social group by another in individual countries. It's time he drew the attention of individual governments, however well disposed towards him, to point out the absence of refinement and the crudity that envelopes highly centralised constitutions that favour majoritarian tendencies, for it violates the very norms and ideals he consistently espouses. His call for a shift in the world’s power balance should be emphasised to the leadership of these countries, as well where a power balance is long overdue and is an impossibility under a heavily centralised constitution.

It may be at the risk of losing a friend yet which other way would the sincerity in his eloquence and rhetoric be put to test? Politicising the socio/ econ/ political/ religious lay out smothers social development inclusive of equality, human dignity and justice. Hegemony is the offspring of politicisation. The bestial urge of dominance and control is excusable only within the jungle’s confines - certainly not out of it. Dominance is a highly volatile, emotional state not reflective of the ideal human. Far worse is the licensing of the jungle’s status quo into human society ironically upheld by even some in the ‘educated’ enclave.

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HEGEMONY the Offspring of Politicisation

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