The limits of liberalism
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![Photo: Barta24](https://imaginary.barta24.com/resize?width=1280&quality=75&type=webp&path=uploads/news/2024/Jul/26/1721956299515.jpg)
Photo: Barta24
At the end of World War I and before the outbreak of World War II, Rabindranath, seeing the plight of humanity around the world, asked in his poem 'Prasna', "Those who have poisoned the wind, but the light / Have you forgiven them, are you better?" His eyes were full of tears that day, he said. That happened in 1931. Almost a hundred years have passed since then but the misery of mankind has not abated at all. 1939 brought another world war, caused by the capitalist-imperialist competition for possession; then there was not exactly a Third world war, but the exploitation of capitalism-imperialism took the form of numerous local and regional wars. Today they are not only endangering the air and light, but also spoiling the water, scorching the earth in miserable form. The summer in 2023 was reported to be the hottest in two thousand years; And the fear is that this year's warmth will break that record as well.
Rabindranath's ‘Prasna’ was to God. In this era, globalization has increased, people no longer approach God with questions, they ask people. In this case, man has now taken the place of God. People have a lot of power; especially since they can vote, vote their preferred government into power. But do people have the ability to choose? America is the 'ideal' land for democracy; there is an election coming up; the people will once again have the power to elect the president of their choice. But who will they sit? Either Biden or Trump. What is the difference between the two? He is nineteen twenty.
If you look at their position on the Palestinian question, it can be understood that it is not nineteen twenty, but nineteen thirty and twenty. Trump says America won't exist unless he's elected; that is, the racist America that Columbus's European allies once established in the lands they had conquered would not exist. Trump's voice is, vote for me if you want to preserve white supremacy. Biden doesn't exactly say it that way, but there's no doubt that he wants to keep white supremacy intact. And India, which is said to be the largest democracy in the world, the current prime minister has been re-elected there too, on the shoulders of two different parties, but not by playing the drum of development, which he used to play the previous time. He didn't do it this time because he couldn't bring about the development, the easier and more effective way he thinks is that if he doesn't come, the Muslims will become powerful, will take over all the country's wealth, the ghost propagates this fear.
Bourgeois electoral systems have pretty much become useless all over the world. In the national election in Bangladesh, I saw that the ruling party, Awami League, competed against the people of its own party. Local elections are also contested among party members. We know that they will take many times what the winners spend in elections; An Awami League leader from Thakurgaon rightly said about what happened in many cases in the local elections: "People do not trust the vote, the trust has gone." Two-three votes are counted throughout the day, in the afternoon it is made from 300 to 3000 thousand” [Ajker Patrika, May 17]. Between 300 and 3000 thousand there is only one zero gap; The matter also stands like an empty Aquarius. Zero Aquarius sounds louder, because there is less stuff inside.
The real truth, however, is revealed in the headline of a daily: "Where there is one Awami League and BNP". The points of commonality mentioned in the news are that in the upazila elections (a) the field level leaders of the two parties are not following the party decision, (b) no one from the government party has been punished for disobeying the instructions; and (c) BNP is on the path of expulsion but the expelled leaders are giving counter-responsibility”. The main unity, however, is not in this news; that is initiation into capitalist development. In this case, both parties are fellow travelers; they support the development that increases inequality, increases isolation, pushes down patriotism. There is no difference between Awami League and BNP in that policy of development, as happened in Srinagar area of Munshiganj, where the leaders of the two parties occupied public land and built a shop together.
Liberals talk about reforms, but it is very clear that reforms will not work. Playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote a play called Wild Duck in 1884, i.e. 140 years ago today. In the play he showed how capitalism works at that time. The drama shows that the Ekdal family is a victim of the capitalist fraud system. The old man used to do business with his friend Worl. Worl is pure capitalist. He went into the illegal business of wood-cutting; the work was caught. There is a case. Worl had a lot of money; He was acquitted by the force of money, but Ekdal was sentenced to ten years in prison. Ekdals became completely destitute. Not only that, but the rich Worl man was very much a consumerist; He sexually assaulted his housekeeper Jeena. When Jeena became pregnant, he quickly married her off to Ekdal's son Helmer. Jeena gives birth to a daughter. He would have found out that Jeena's husband, Helmer Ekdal, was not the biological father of the daughter. But Helmer did not find out. He was living in a dream world.
He was spending his days with Jeena and the daughter. Occupation was photographer. The dream was to invent a photography machine, which would bring a lot of money to their family, honor and happiness for the family. But Helmer's childhood friend Worl's only child is Gregors father's feat. He caught it. This son hates his father very much; he loves his friend Helmer deeply. He is idealistic and reformist. He wanted to rescue Helmer from the web of falsehood, tell the truth and establish the married life of his friend on complete understanding. So one day he called his friend Helmer and told him the 'truth' about Jeena's child. As a result, Helmer's painstakingly-arranged family broke up, Helmer's condition was half insane; He drove away his much-loved daughter in disgust, declaring his wife unfaithful and decided to leave home.
The 14-year-old daughter did not understand what had happened, why it was happening, but felt that her father no longer loved her, could not bear it. The girl's suspicion is that maybe she is not her parents' child, her mother picked her up. In a sudden realization, the helpless girl committed suicide. All the reformation efforts of the father's genuine friend fell on helpless daughter, which she did not have the capacity to bear. The idealistic son breaks the heart of the family, which the prodigal father has put on the path with the help of money, the idealistic son.
There are various interpretations of this famous play; But its statement is very clear that what Gregors, the idealistic son of a spoiled father, brings about in reforming his friend's family is nothing short of a terrible disaster. If the capitalist system is to be reformed, the result is not better than this. Gregors could have done his friend Helmer a favor without resorting to reform, provided he could afford to help financially. Scientist Darwin, after discovering the scientific truth about changes in the natural world, warned mankind to let nature be as it is, not to interfere; Capitalists did not heed that advice, they abused nature in many ways, resulting in the present predicament.