Absolutism

  This is a follow up to The world as i see it now.

    

                                                                By Mory Keita

        Plato argues in The Republic that maintaining the balance of peace and justice in a city-state necessitate  the rule of a philosopher-king, Karl Marx and Adam smith, two great theoretical economists, brought fourth their respective doctrines of command and market economy to achieve an “ equitable society”, and so have many philosophers, prophets , scientists. Though, I am not a scholar in these matters, my analysis of the world as it is presently and of human history has convinced me that absolutism is the main source of humanity’s misery.

      If we could rise up from absolutism to relativism, which is more considerate toward our diversity, we will certainly live in a better world, maybe not utopia, but a world where peace and justice are sustainable. All miseries of men lie in their excessive desire for control and superiority. Religious wars, monetary conflicts and other concerns dividing mankind are rooted in men desire to achieve a state of absolute control. To prove my point I will refer to several events that have dramatically changed the course of human history.

      The crusades are a prototype of the devastating consequences of absolutism. To restore their control over the “holy land”, the Holy Roman Empire lunched a series of military campaigns to drive out the “pagans” (Muslims) from Jerusalem. The campaign deprived millions of soldiers and innocents from their lives. Without exploring the intricacies of the campaign, as my point is not to prove whether it was justified or not, if both parties had recognized that the concept of paganism is relative to each of them this war might have been resolved. By that I mean, though the crusaders viewed the Muslims as pagan, the Muslims also viewed the crusaders as idols worshipers, thus their respective views of paganism is  relative to their own religion.

       

     Some other examples are the first and second world wars, which were waged on purely  military and racial superiority philosophies.  The two wars expanded throughout the whole world and engendered in lost of millions of lives.  The same thing can be extended in the current wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and other parts of the world and violence perpetrated on philosophical basis.

     To conclude, the desire to conquer and control is the cause of all current and pasts misery of mankind. Absolutism leads to cycle of thirst for power, control, greed and unfortunately sometimes to sadism. Is there for mankind a path to “salvation”? I believe so. I will further elaborate on this issue in coming posts.

Absolutism