"Listen – strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony." says Michael Palin's character in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Well, in today's episode we begin the series of discourse about supreme power and masses and governments.
Political ideologies.
It's rather a difficult topic to discuss, isn't it? Where to begin, what to say, what not to utter, all those epoch defining events, everlasting personalities, textbook terminologies, its immortal influence in the past, present, and dare I say, the future! And such is the fatality of this topic that our original plan to discuss it under "Dumb it down to me" series, was deemed dumb unanimously. Like a live fish, the harder you try to grasp it, the farther it escapes. At any rate, an optimistic attempt is vital, so, Welcome, to Hitchens' Razor!
Liberalism, Conservatism, Left, Right, Fascism, Socialism, Communism, Libertarianism, Nationalism, Left of centre, Right of centre, uff, and yet, here we are; One has to wonder, how has these managed to remain relevant to the modern world?
Now, our attempt to be pragmatic in this episode, say, to rather talk about the juicy events of the past, than to be tediously academic, wouldn't mean that this episode would be any less boring than your current imagination. In fact, such a statement would be euphemistic to a fool's errand around a Mobius band. Such is the fatality of this topic. If you are not bored already,
Let's begin, by travelling back to a time when the word Ideology did not exist.
Recap of history
If we are to believe in contemporary consensus, then "Life began in the ocean". Some creatures subsequently crawled up to the landmass; the reptiles. They had sex, laid eggs, and abandoned them, moved on to next honey moon. Reptile nonchalance is criminally underrated.
Then came the birds. They developed wings and feathers to counter the cold. They had intercourse and more eggs were delivered. But unlike the reptiles, they started caring about their eggs; by keeping them warm under their wings and fuselage. The first act of true selfishness.
Enter mammals, with the hitherto unknown notion of storing eggs inside its own body, inside its own body!. Such was the shock, bird brains accomplished maximum cognisance, and reptiles simply looked up. Mammals also acquired the habit of providing protection and nutrition to the offspring. This created attachment between the youngling and the parent, and it kindled the possibility of learning by imitation. The beginnings of a true social life. As H.G.Wells put it, "A teachable type of life had come into the world". And thus we evolved!
Well, the point is, we evolved as a species from Reptiles and Birds to Mammals, to Hunter Gatherers; we had the early civilizations in Egypt, India, Mesopotamia and China. We had Aryans and Dravidians, the panchayat or the village system, the great thinkers Kong Fu-Tse(Confucious), Lao-Tse and Buddha. We had the kingdom of Persia, the great Greek period, conquests of Alexander, the Mauryan dynasty, Kautilya and Arthashastra, Hellenistic Greece, Ashoka, Rome, Carthage, Caesar, Pompey, Augustus, Cleopatra, Jesus of Nazareth, Constantinople, Holy Roman Church, the Orthodox church, Goths, Huns, Vandals, Islam, Xuanzang(Hsuen Tsang), Charlesmagne, The fall of Rome, Chalukyas, Pallavas, Rashtrakutas, Pandyas, Cholas, Ghazni, Genghis Khan, Marco Polo, Timur, Dark Ages, Crusades, the Renaissance, Age of Science, Age of Enlightenment, Age of Revolution, and then the FRENCH REVOLUTION happened.
1789
The word ideology was coined, literally a new ‘science of ideas’.
Thence we had Marx, Nietzsche, Electricity, Russian Revolution- part 1, WW- part 1, Russian Revolution - part 2, the Great Depression, WW-part 2, Electronics, Computers, Cold War, Globalization, Internet, Climate change, Covid and now, now, as in, the now, now-now, at the moment now.
Now, hopefully that painted a vague timeline of our history. Now, we slip on a banana peel and fall into the coming of ideologies.
The coming of Ideologies
It is in Europe where the seeds of modern political ideologies germinated at a time when politics revolved around religion and religion only. The idea of nationality which is obvious these days was rather a niche topic then. War was the most dangerous pandemic in the continent, and religion was the most important cog in the war machine. Christians, other Christians, Muslims, other Muslims endlessly fought and killed to protect their version of the supernatural.
Feudal System and the Middle class
Violence and disorder prevailed both internally and externally. Strong people seized land and power, and they built strong castles for own protection, as they were always under threat from people like themselves. The peasants were not organized and couldn't defend themselves, so they sold their allegiance to these lords in castles. The small lords served the bigger lords, and the big lords bowed to the monarch. The Feudal System!. The Church, and its officials were also part of this. The idea of equality or of freedom was exempted in this system. Thus the middle ages passed under feudal system where peasants lived miserably. There were occasional revolts from the peasants, but they were cruelly put down by the upper classes.
The bourgeoisie
There was also another type of people, a floating class including the traders and merchants. They were not part of the feudal system per se, but they had no wealth or influence in that society. But the discovery of sea routes radically changed the fortunes of these daring people. Sea routes opened markets far east and west of Europe. Asia, America and other parts of the world became accessible to them. The middle-class, aka the bourgeoisie thus gathered wealth from global trade, and the new money fetched them privileges, and eventually power. They still had two classes above them, the nobles and the clergy, and of course the king at the top. This segregation based on class is officially called the Ancien Regime, which had policies and taxation controlling the freedom of the tradesmen. Naturally this was increasingly becoming a hindrance to the bourgeoisie, as they disliked the fact that the classes above them got money without work, and representation without taxation.
Three 'R's
And then there were the three great movements of the era: Renaissance, Reformation, and Revolution. The renaissance was about learning, science, experimental rationalism and asking questions about the universe. Hopefully, more of Renaissance in another series. Now, Reformation was about religion, specifically Christianity, and of Revolutions, there were three.
Reformation
We shall start with the Reformation.
Printing! The Arabs learned paper-making form the Chinese, and Europe learnt it from the Arabs. Towards the end of 15th century, paper and printing became common. This meant common people could read books themselves, didn't need a priest to tell them the content of the Bible.
Rome was the epicentre of European Christianity in this era. At some point the Roman Church thought heresy hunting would be a fabulous idea. Apparently, there was fun to be derived and lessons to be taught by burning people alive at stakes if they questioned the ways of the church. Women were branded as witches and burnt alive publicly. The infamous Spanish Inquisition formed during this time, epitomised this sport by underlining the word hunting in heresy hunting. Many more heinous crimes of unspeakable nature were committed in this time by the self appointed guardians of god and faith. Early in the 16th century, Martin Luther, a Christian priest visited Rome, and he was disgusted by its corruption and luxury. He was a leader who protested against the Holy Roman Church, and thus formed the christian faction Protestants, against the Roman Catholic, RC. This Protestant movement gathered pace when young princes and nobles sided with the protestants to put an end to all attempts made by the Pope to dominate over them.
In England, Henry VIII, favoured the protestants because he wanted to divorce his wife and marry another woman, which the Roman Catholic Church, naturally, was against. So he formed another church called the Church of England, and established himself as the Head of the Church, and married the woman. He was then the head of the state and head of the church. Well, why not? god is omnipresent isn't it?
Italy, France, Austria, and Spain were Catholic at the time. Germany was half protestant. The middle class carried the Protestantism with them; wherever they were strong, protestants thrived. But reformation was not enough to bring down the kings, they were still powerful and autocratic as ever. The monarch remained, and waited for the revolutions.
Netherlands, Switzerland and England
Before we get to the three big revolutions it is worth mentioning Netherlands, Switzerland and England. Netherlands became republic even before the French Revolution. There was a heroic but bloody battle that happened between the merchant classes bourgeoisie of Holland and King Philip II of Spain, who at that time ruled the region. Switzerland also gained independence around this time from the Holy Roman Empire after the Thirty Years war.
England, had the parliament in place with two houses, mostly represented by the lords and nobles at the upper house, and the merchants and wealthy middle class in the lower house. The parliament eventually became stronger than the monarch, at a point where its King was beheaded at the orders of the parliament, only to be later replaced with a puppet from elsewhere in Europe, Germany I think. England is a curious case, where the Gentlemen and the Bourgeoisie joined to share power with the king.
The Three Revolutions
It is interesting that three revolutions happened broadly around the same time in history. The political revolution in North America, the industrial revolution in England, and the social revolution in France.
American Revolution
War is so demanding, it exhausts the resources of a kingdom, which in turn demands from its masses, more suffering that is.
For the British Government, the umpteenth war with France meant need for more money, and they decide to squeeze the colonies to breakeven. The American colonies resisted, and when the British East India Company tried to force the colony to buy their tea, the colonists boycotted the act, and some colonists threw the tea overboard from the ships. Cut to war scenes where France helped the American Colonists. Cut to British accepting defeat. Cut to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with the famous cry, No taxation without representation. The declaration also said, "All men are born equal" <beat/pause> except the negroes.
and, in the next episode, The French Revolution.