Back when I was a politics student, Francis Fukuyama’s ‘The end of history and the last man’ was required reading. I remember being impressed with his argument that the idealogical evolution of human beings was over, and western liberal democracy could well be here to stay. The joy of innocence.
Back then the cold war was over, we were told there was only one superpower, green issues were considered a bit weird and ‘tree huggy’ conflicts were few, and they were big, neat and simple. Any remaining struggles would be the death throes of different systems before they gave into capitalism. Now look at us:
China and India are the superpowers of the future, Russia is regaining it’s strength, US authority is waning (lets hope this is demonstrated with US bacon), the world is more complex than ever with a web of warring interests and ideologies, consumers now have the tools to fight corporations and we may be facing to the greatest challenge we’ve ever faced – global warming.
I’m interested in Fukuyama’s current argument that most of this represents the final convulsions before western democracy wins, but I’m not so sure. My generation has been very lucky. We haven’t had to worry about any big wars, our way of life has remained unchallenged really, we have more money than ever, things are pretty stable. We’ve been taught to be complacent.
My parents had the three day week, Kruschev, the tail end of rationing, the tumults of the 60’s revolution and, in this country as least, the impact of secularism.
It’s been easy to relax and think this is how it will always be, but the future is more uncertain than any time I can remember in my short life. Even capitalism is reaching some sort of epoch as consumers find being able to afford their heart’s desire leaves them empty – maybe we’ll see a return to Victorian austerity? Now. for the first time I get the sense of BEING in history.
Suez, WW2, Kennedy, Vietnam are just some of the things I studied that seemed far removed from my reality- dramatic events like we’d never see again.
Now I get the sense of moving through time somehow, many of the decisions we’ll make over the next few years will have a profound effect on future generations – the techtonic shifts of the US, Russian and Chinese Empires will affect things 100 years from now, just as the origins of the things that affected the end of the 20th century can be traced back to Austro-Hungarian Empires, and indeed the British Empire.
Maybe we’re doomed to repeat out mistakes forever, I’m not sure. But since human nature doesn’t sit still for very long, I bet there will be plenty of ‘where were you when’ moments in this generation and those that follow. Maybe you have to live for 33 years or so before you get to realise this. Maybe reading less political theory helps too!
NORTHERN PLANNER 