The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism

by Javed Jamil

status symbol. These symbols modify not only with time but also with the various strata of society. Thus radio, Tape-recorder and Stereo, various types of TV, colour TV and VCR. bicycle, motorbike and cars of varying costs, fans, the coolers and air-conditioners, chairs, tables and sofas, the kurtas, jeans and suits, frocks, chemises and sarees, long hair and short hair, soft drinks, bears and wines, birthday parties and marriage anni­versaries, tobacco, cigarette, cigar and pipe -- all are symbols of status for different sections of society depending upon their financial, educational and social back­grounds. A man or woman’s ability to attend parties, their smartness in mixing with the members of opposite sex, their readiness to dance on the floor, their ken at organising such functions, their boldness to crack vulgar jokes and their keenness to share bed are signs of 'modernity'; promiscuity, gambling and drinking are no more sins in the eyes of the modern but pointers to one’s high life style. What Boswell said while differentiating between the 'civilized' and the ‘savage’ is true of the modern civilization. He said, “It is in refinement and ele­gance that the civilized differs from the savage. A great part of our industry and all our ingenuity is exercised in procuring pleasure; and a hungry man has not the same pleasure in eating a luxurious dinner”. Rousseu, in “Origin of Equality” made scathing remarks about the modern society - “The case is quite different with man in the state of society, for whom first necessities have to be provided, and then superfluities; delicacies follow next, then immense wealth, then subjects, and then slaves. He enjoys not a moment’s relaxation; and what is yet strange, the less natural and pressing his wants, the more headstrong are his passions, and, still worse, the more he has it in his power to gratify them, so that after a long course of prosperity, after having swallowed up treasures and ruined multitudes, the hero ends up by cutting every throat till he finds himself, at last sole master of the world. Such is, in miniature, the moral picture, if not human like, at least of the secret pretensions of heart of cul­tured man”.

  As said earlier, the redefining of civilization in terms of modernity, fashion, smartness and prosperity augers well for economic fundamentalism because it goes a long way to establish the monopoly of the very few in the world. It is through presentation of these symbols and identifying them with the desires and ambitions of the people that more than five thousand million people of the world are being virtually ruled by less than five hundred persons. According to a recent report, 1 per cent of the people own more than the rest. According to another report, 61 persons own more than fifty percent of the total wealth of the inhabitants of the earth. On paper, they are neither heads of state nor heads of governments, nor have under their command armies. But they have the hydrogen bomb of money in their possession, which makes them the ultimate rulers and the whole world their subjects. They may not be the kings but are the kingmakers; they may not personally participate in the policy deliberations at the government level but their stooges in the ministries ensure that the policies drafted by their masters get the nod of the cabinet. It is through sheer power of the money, their ruthlessness in pursuing their goals and the culpability of those at the helms of government that the wizards of economic fundamentalism perpetuate their undeclared rule. They are the monarchs who enjoy only the privileges of monarchy without owning any responsibility. Their domains include not only the visible but even the human senses which in fact are their real dhimmis; they cater to the demands of these basic instincts and in return they throw their possessions at the feet of their masters.

  The other equally important objective behind the redefining of civilization is to keep under cover one of the major products of economic fundamentalism the barbarism that now pervades every­where. Parts of this barbarism have been intentionally engendered by the big business to enhance its economic prospects and parts are unwanted side-effects of their policies. The crimes are on the rise in almost all parts of the world, the degree of the rise depending upon the social, political and legal infrastructure of the countries. The countries that have adopted the modern, legal and social ideologies in a bigger way are obviously more prone to crimes. The United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Canada, and Germany -- all these countries have extremely high rates of crime. Similar is the case of those countries that have fast westernised themselves, at least in terms of the legal frame work. These include India, Pakistan, Turkey, Singapore, Israel, etc. The US has the distinction of having one of the highest rate of murders, rapes and robberies; one tenth of all women have been raped and attempts to rape have been made on one third. In India, over 50, 000 persons, on average, are murdered every year and more than 20, 000 women are raped. These of course are approximate figures based on the recorded cases; the unrecorded cases may be several times more. The paralysis of legal system is so complete that hardly a few hundred cases of murder result in convictions every year. Most of these receive life imprisonment. Very few cases (in one or two figures) are hanged. Most of the rape victims do not display enough resilience to approach the police. They know it pretty well that their efforts are more likely to fail; justice would elude them. The rapists or their politically influential bosses would not just allow it; they would either bribe the police or would get the unyielding officers 'suitably transferred'. If at all the trial begins, they would have to undergo through another rape in the form of a barrage of ques­tions, which will be psychologically even more agonising an experi­ence than the first, as the questions would mostly be too obscene to answer for a lady having the slightest sense of shame. The ul­timate result in the overwhelming majority of cases would be an “honourable acquittal” of the rapist and unbearable humiliation of the raped who would have to face life-long persecution by society. Nobody would be willing to marry a woman with such 'blemish'. The underworld operations continue with impunity; the dons and their loyalists loot, stab and shoot people at will. The high-ranking administrators feel pride in attending parties organised by the dons and in sharing whisky with them in their private suits. The ministers and members of parliaments and assemblies often go out of their way to keep them at a considerable distance from the arm of justice.

  If the medieval period is often degraded as 'the dark ages' by the economic fundamentalists, it is also aimed at justifying the new developments. True, that the medieval era witnessed a number of wars and carnages. It is also true the people then did not enjoy the material comforts of today. It may also be right that the masses had almost no rights in governance. But now when we are in the twenty first century, it can be said with as much conviction that the last century fared no better. It saw two of the bloodiest and fiercest wars of all times killing tens of millions of people; and the nations involved in the two World Wars were the same as claim themselves to be the most peace-loving, civilized and developed people living on the earth. Ever since the Second World War, the fights have not been an uncommon occurrence: and hardly any continent (except Austra­lia) can claim to have been war-free. America battled for several years in Vietnam and for more than three decades is involved in wars and civil wars in the Middle East. Nicaragua, EI Salvador, Rwanda, Zaire, Chad and Libya all have been in­volved in fierce battles; India and Pakistan have fought three wars; India and China have been at loggerheads with each other, the rivalry having conflagrated into a full-fledged war once; Israel, backed by the US and its allies, and Arabs have constant­ly been on the warpath; Iran and Iraq continued to pounce at each other’s civil and military targets for several years; Rus­sian troops killed about half a million civilians in Afghanistan and American forces, in collaboration with the armies of many countries, ravaged Iraq, and for the several years after the cessa­tion of hostilities kept making life difficult for the people of Iraq. Syria is the latest battlefield with. There has been civil strife in several European countries including Poland; Bosnia was struggling to keep itself alive after suffering from incessant bombardments for several years; Russia has been using its might to subdue the tiny Chechnya and Ukrain; Cambodia, Cyprus, Britain, Arge
ntina -- all these countries have been engaged in ferocious battles in the recent history. Carnages worse than those committed by the Mongols in Iraq have reddened the pages of history in the twentieth century. The worst of them was the nuclear holocaust as the result of which hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children were killed at Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the US, and the brutal slaughter of millions of Jews by the German dictator, Hitler. There have also been carnag­es in Russia, Bosnia, India, EI-Salvador, Sri Lanka and several other places. In fact, the last hundred years murdered more people than the entire Medieval Age. And still we remain the “most civ­ilized” people of history!

  The net result is that peace eludes the modern civilization; and not only peace at the social or international level is non-existing; man has grown even more peace-less at the individual level. He has all the luxuries at his disposal, still happiness has divorced his soul. He has numerous means of entertainment;