'The end of history' disavowed

Francis Fukuyama spoke with Newsweek's Matthew Philips and he almost disavowed his academic laboratory theory or controversial treatise The End of History, which he wrote after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. "History is a Manichean struggle between the forces of light and darkness. The dark forces, epitomised by fascism and communism, have lost, whereas liberal democracy has won," he declared. With failure of neo-conservative ideals in Iraq and Afghanistan; with Russia reasserting its position as a result of unprecedented oil income and China's prodigious economic growth under Communist leadership, the author of the treatise has second thoughts. Asked about his early conservative leanings Fukuyama replied: "I disavowed those years ago. I have always had a Marxist understanding of history."

Earlier, the author had lost sight of one thing i.e. unbridled capitalism and ruthless exploitation by multinational corporations under the slogan of globalisation would widen the gap between the rich and the poor. Historical evidence suggests that whenever there was ruthless exploitation and repression, the people put up resistance and waged struggle whereby the society moved from one stage of development to another. It was perhaps because of the author's declaration about the end-point of mankind's ideological development that Time magazine had described the essay as 'the beginning of nonsense'. Many a civilisation has emerged and waned. Like any other organism, birth, growth, breakdown and disintegration is the cycle of all civilisations, said Toynbee. The world has undergone many changes, often evolutionary, but when the forces of the status quo resisted the vociferous demands of the people, the change was violent.