Social degradation is an incurable disease and it is this disease that advances the so called “civilisation”. It is nothing new, the theory of how society changes; it did not originate in Marx when he talked about the “five epochs” of history or in Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations, rather we can trace its origin even in Plato’s Republic where he shows how a society may degrade from an Aristocratic (not in the modern sense) to a despotic one.

Marx’ was a social and political “prophecy” (that capitalism will be the cause of its own fall and the fall will bring communism to the forefront. Poor Marx did not know that the future generation will have a different “opium” named “media”), which unfortunately has not yet been realised even today, partly maybe because of the impracticality of his thesis. Marxism, in the crudest sense, is the most scientific political theory there is, but what Marx did not realise is that human race will inevitably fall victim in the hand of a more cunning, more subtle super-power, with the strength like that of “Axis” and the mind like that of an “evil-genius”.

Thanks to the “globalisation” and “digitalisation” campaigns that are rendering us incapable of thinking. The mass exposure and consumption of fragmentary and “fashioned” information occasion only sparks of Foucauldian self-regulation (given that there is a critical recipient “decoding” the encoded message), but still the centre is there and will always be there, where the role of the person, no matter from right or left, placed in such a position, will always be what it has always been- domination. This attitude of dominating others is not group-specific; rather it applies to all, whoever holds the position, whoever is followed by the periphery, whoever is “elected”.

Now it is a simple geometrical fact that the periphery will move in whichever direction the centre takes. To gain such a position it requires more than quality. To be someone from the centre, or to be the central figure in a structure, it requires more than just knowledge but so much more. It is not a place for the talented; it is not a place for the geniuses. It is a place for those who can compromise their ideology for the sake of pleasing the mass (in order to sustain the title) that has made/elected them to be the persons they are now.

The typical governmental system is like this, and so was the system of the time when kings and queens governed their kingdom. The system will not change even if someone “common” comes to acquire that position from a common cause fuelled by common people. Here comes Plato with his theory of despotism. When the sins of the oppressors increase in an alarming rate, the common chooses a champion who they believe will save them from the tyranny of the centre. For mass support the champion eventually becomes stronger and finally does succeed in overthrowing the tyrants. But he simply does not “overthrow”; he usurps the position and sits on the throne he previously intended to destroy.

Thus the “anti-thesis” becomes a “thesis”, giving birth to another champion in the periphery. Probably this is why Marx’s prophecy has not come true. This is why his most scientific theory has proven to be only a fantasy of a learned man. Because even if socialism establishes itself, who will guarantee that the champion from the left will have the moral integrity to defend his ideology no matter what? Moreover, which jury will elect him, and who will elect the jury? It is even more impossible today since every single person in this world is vulnerable to the politics of the amoral giants. Before, these giants used to march, on foot or horses, to attack a person, a city, a culture. That gives an advantage to the citizens of an about-to-be-invaded country because visible fear can be resisted or avoided. But today, the giants send their aerial army, trained in the finest language, to do the nasty job. We embrace the army; we welcome them to our private life and let them influence our decision. We call them- media, the most lethal invention of the twenty first century by the centre. Only the capitalists control it? No. Whoever holds the power holds the key, to throw a whole generation in a deep slumber where they lose the power to judge.

Thus, although originally antithetical in their philosophical nature and in their view about “democracy”, Marx and Plato converge with their ideas of “dialectic materialism” (which Marx got from Hegel and Feuerbach) and the theory of social degradation. Society changes for “anti-theses”, which unlike Marx had thought about it is not always “positive”. Because such an anti-force might give birth to a “despot”, and given that our moral degradation has become a shameful characteristic of our age, it is highly possible that any counter-stream will probably choose a champion who, only for his human limitations, suffers the malady of Macbethian ambition.

In this manner the centre impregnates the periphery with hatred and from that hatred another centre comes into being, which eventually engulfs the former circle and becomes a big one itself. The process goes on, and what we get is a sense of advancement and what we develop is a pride of civilisation. This is the disease that keeps us alive. This is our life. This is- the way of the world today.

The writer is Lecturer,  Department of English, Varendra University