Rise of Karl Marx ?
By : James Chin
Isn't life strange? In 1989, Francis Fukuyama, wrote "The End of History?", published in the national Interest.
In this famous essay, Fukuyama argues that the march of Western liberal democracy may signal the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and thus, liberal democracy (American's kind) has won against the ideas of Karl Marx.
He wrote: "What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."
Now, nearly 20 years later, we are seeing the most serious crisis facing capitalism, or to be exact, the credit crunch caused by unregulated, free, cowboy capitalism that the Americans have been promoting around the world.Now suddenly, people are asking -- maybe we were too soon to judge the negatives of all other idelodogies and put too many eggs inside the basket called capitalism.
Many old-style communists and socialists will be overjoyed by the latest Wall St meltdown. For years they have been arguing that capitalism will face a crisis. Lenin, the great Soviet tyrant, even wrote about it back in the 1900s.
German philosopher Hans Heinz Holz (who was also an avowed communist) called it the "great crisis of capitalism".
This crisis, according to the Marxists, came about because of the contradictions in the production relations have been extended to all aspects of social life.
Thus class analysis and class tensions can still be used to explain the present crisis. In a nutshell, the capitalist class destroyed the system because of their greed. Their greed comes from the system called caplitalism which feeds on the exploitation of labour.
In case you have not heard, the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) will hold a conference to discuss the rise and fall of capitalism at the New Era College in early November.
In any other year, you may not see a crowd but I suspect due to the market crash, you may see a bigger crowd this time.
So what does all this mean to the ordinary person in the street. All these ideologies probably mean nothing to them, all they know is that Malaysia will head into recession next year and it will be harder to "cari makan".
For the policy wonks, it will mean a major shift in thinking. For years, the Malaysian government has been promoting privatisation, selling the notion that the market knows best and that companies are best run by the private sector.
We know that in all cases, the price of goods and services from these privatised assets have gone up, instead of down, and in many cases, services have actually gotten worse. Include the political angle, ie. certain companies and individuals get almost all the privatisation pie, you have something that is beginning to haunt the Malaysian economy now.
The sad thing is that the current meltdown will not lead to more regulations. People have short memories, once the market bounces back in the next two years, the same cowboy capitalists will be back in town selling the mantra of free trade and unregulated capitalism.
We know because Wall St suffered 1929, Black Monday and Black Tuesday, junk bonds and others. And yet today we are seeing the same old thing. At its core is the belief that the market, if left alone and unregulated, can perform at its peak. Yet the evidence has shown this is not possible.
The danger we face is that liberal democracy and capitalism are so dominant in today's world that anyone saying otherwise is called a looney.
Yet it is the looneys who are laughing today. Followers of Karl Marx and Socialism have every reason to smile but not for long.
Capitalism always bounces back until the next big scam to make the rich richer and the poor will always pay the price.
Isn't life strange? In 1989, Francis Fukuyama, wrote "The End of History?", published in the national Interest.
In this famous essay, Fukuyama argues that the march of Western liberal democracy may signal the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and thus, liberal democracy (American's kind) has won against the ideas of Karl Marx.
He wrote: "What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."
Now, nearly 20 years later, we are seeing the most serious crisis facing capitalism, or to be exact, the credit crunch caused by unregulated, free, cowboy capitalism that the Americans have been promoting around the world.Now suddenly, people are asking -- maybe we were too soon to judge the negatives of all other idelodogies and put too many eggs inside the basket called capitalism.
Many old-style communists and socialists will be overjoyed by the latest Wall St meltdown. For years they have been arguing that capitalism will face a crisis. Lenin, the great Soviet tyrant, even wrote about it back in the 1900s.
German philosopher Hans Heinz Holz (who was also an avowed communist) called it the "great crisis of capitalism".
This crisis, according to the Marxists, came about because of the contradictions in the production relations have been extended to all aspects of social life.
Thus class analysis and class tensions can still be used to explain the present crisis. In a nutshell, the capitalist class destroyed the system because of their greed. Their greed comes from the system called caplitalism which feeds on the exploitation of labour.
In case you have not heard, the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) will hold a conference to discuss the rise and fall of capitalism at the New Era College in early November.
In any other year, you may not see a crowd but I suspect due to the market crash, you may see a bigger crowd this time.
So what does all this mean to the ordinary person in the street. All these ideologies probably mean nothing to them, all they know is that Malaysia will head into recession next year and it will be harder to "cari makan".
For the policy wonks, it will mean a major shift in thinking. For years, the Malaysian government has been promoting privatisation, selling the notion that the market knows best and that companies are best run by the private sector.
We know that in all cases, the price of goods and services from these privatised assets have gone up, instead of down, and in many cases, services have actually gotten worse. Include the political angle, ie. certain companies and individuals get almost all the privatisation pie, you have something that is beginning to haunt the Malaysian economy now.
The sad thing is that the current meltdown will not lead to more regulations. People have short memories, once the market bounces back in the next two years, the same cowboy capitalists will be back in town selling the mantra of free trade and unregulated capitalism.
We know because Wall St suffered 1929, Black Monday and Black Tuesday, junk bonds and others. And yet today we are seeing the same old thing. At its core is the belief that the market, if left alone and unregulated, can perform at its peak. Yet the evidence has shown this is not possible.
The danger we face is that liberal democracy and capitalism are so dominant in today's world that anyone saying otherwise is called a looney.
Yet it is the looneys who are laughing today. Followers of Karl Marx and Socialism have every reason to smile but not for long.
Capitalism always bounces back until the next big scam to make the rich richer and the poor will always pay the price.
