July 20, 2008
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The End of History?
In his famous 1992 essay, Francis Fukuyama declared that mankind had reached the "end of History".
He didn't mean that nothing more would happen, but rather that there would be no more ideological evolution beyond liberal democracy which had become the final form of human government.In other words, the Marxian idea of a world where everyone was equal and government had disappeared had been superseded just as the idea of totalitarian, religious, and monarchial governments had been. He saw all the world as gradually becoming more and more democratic with the old "World Order" giving way to the newer, kinder, more useful concept of democratic groups deciding the world's fate in concert.
There is some indication that this may be happening - the growing world concern over environmental change and the loss of resources with the rising importance of the UN and world-wide economic decisions as well as the fact that most of the countries of the world at least call themselves "Democracies" are evidence - but the "Old Order" of religious-based and totalitarian rule is putting up a pretty good fight. Fukuyama has many serious critics - but maybe he is right.
What do you think?
Comments (4)
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I would argue that every civilization probably believed itself to be the "end of history" and believed its time to be the greatest mankind would ever see. This, my friends, is not the end.
Civilizations don't "end" all at once- they gradually evolve. The Roman Empire, for example breathed it's last gasp in 1456 with the fall of Constantinople. It lasted in one form or another for over 2100 years. Lots of us still study Latin in school.
By the "end of history", Marx thought that would be pure communism with civilization and government withering away and everyone living happily ever after - surely the most utopian of dreams. Fukuyama thought that the endpoint would be a world-wide acceptance of the representative democracies presently exemplified by Western European and American governments.
Were either of them right? What do you think the "end of history" will be like?
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