The American writer of Japanese origin Francis Fukuyama does not cease to arouse controversy from time to time with his positions that have received the attention of the neoconservative trend, especially since he became famous after the collapse of the Soviet Union with his book, which later retracted some of his ideas "The End of History and the Last Man."
Democratic and liberal enthusiasm had reached its peak in the world, and Fukuyama meanwhile wrote an article published in the National Interest magazine in the summer of 1989 in which it stated that "History is over, and the flow of events over the past decade or so has made it difficult." Avoid feeling that something very fundamental has happened in world history. "
But the wheel of history did not respond to the American theorist, who said that he was inspired by the German philosopher Hegel's theory, he reviewed his theory and returned to say that liberal democracy provided a framework for discussion on the politics of the 21st century, but it is currently just one option, and there is a different idea currently that is considered less liberal and depends on monitoring capitalism Or a neoliberal assault on democracy, and it may define the future.
He later warned in an article published by the American Foreign Affairs magazine that the emerging corona virus pandemic may result in a relative decline for the United States in the coming years, indicating that major crises usually have unforeseen dire consequences, as the Great Depression - in his opinion - led to a resurgence. Isolationism, nationalism, fascism and the outbreak of World War II, and he recently returned to assert that "there are many pitfalls of democracy that he did not expect, as was shown recently in the rise and fall of Donald Trump."
Mad Trump
In his recent interview with Michael Hirsch, deputy news editor at Foreign Policy, Fukuyama told the American magazine that because of what he called "Trump's madness" political divisions and polarizations in America had become "very identity and personal", and he was surprised after reading people's comments. Those affiliated with the national right and who recently rioted, considering that their affiliations were based on the criteria of "pure tribal loyalty" and not the result of discussions or intellectual deliberation.
And if previous affiliations were related to Christian identity, then the new loyalties, according to Fukuyama, are based only on "crazy conspiracy theories", indicating his belief that this is happening in other countries as well, such as "the Middle East, where people always think that there is someone manipulating the strings behind Backstage, "as he put it.
Fukuyama told the American newspaper that in the fifties and sixties of the last century in the United States there were "a lot of crazy people" and the "John Birch" (extreme right) association and others, but the American institutions were able to control their speech to a much greater extent than now, comparing between time The current and the era of Senator McCarthy in which he promoted conspiracy theories about the infiltration of Communists into the Army and the State Department.
Fukuyama added that Republicans were afraid to stand against McCarthy "until Senator Margaret Chase Smith, the military and a few other institutions resisted. Then McCarthyism collapsed very quickly. The question is whether something like this could happen again, but that doesn't seem to happen."
Will democracy last?
When asked about his recent book in which he said that democracy will not last, Fukuyama denied that polarization is an unsolvable problem, adding, "If we go to a stage in which Trump's wing turns into a terrorist organization, and there are assassinations, kidnappings, attacks on the government Capitol and the like, they will not win." In this struggle, and in the end, I think that will sow the seeds of their final demise. "
When asked what the Trump era means in terms of the fragility of democracy and the emergence of new authoritarian forms, Fukuyama pointed to the importance of the role of the media, and that the former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi reached a way to reach political power by combining the political and economic forces, and he built a media empire that allowed him to run for the position, and later used his position. To protect his media empire, Fukuyama added, "This is the new path to power in established democracies."
Returning to what Donald Trump did, Fukuyama said that Trump got his "private TV station, Fox News, and then developed communication via Twitter," suggesting that this is the true secret of his success in "controlling the narrative."
Fukuyama added that the vast majority of Trump voters do not want an authoritarian government. Rather, they “actually believe that they are defending democracy. They believe that Trump has legitimately won, and that all they do is defend these ancient American ideals.”
Fukuyama commented on the steps taken by Facebook and Twitter against Trump, saying that this is not a good solution because they should not have had this power in the first place, and added, "I think there is a growing consensus that their power is very great and society must regain control over such technology. Powerful media awareness.
The end of history or eternal return?
Regarding his famous thesis, Fukuyama said that the end of history may not be a single form of government, but it may be the eternal return.
Meaning, we have already thought and tried all the different variables, from democratic government to authoritarian government.
And it's not as if there is another form we have been waiting for and people weren't smart enough to discover it yet.
"The end of history is a permanent recycling through these different variables. For example, in economic terms, I don't think the new left has presented anything that the social democratic left did not offer 50 years ago. Maybe the focus is different on things like the Green New Deal. But the idea of using state power to redistribute wealth and so on is the same has not changed. Hence the right is simply nostalgia. They just want to go back to a point that they think they have reached earlier. But it is not a new type of society they are trying to reach. .
He added, "But there are some things that we will not return to - such as the monarchy - and to some extent it seems that we are evolving towards a kind of mixture of oligarchy (minority rule) and democracy or perhaps democracy with an authoritarian flavor in many countries," he told the American magazine .