We, the people, seem to have lost the voice of critical protest and to have forgotten Dr. Martin Luther King’s reminder that, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
The notion of globalization, rather than being a process towards interdependence has become a process by which human beings are becoming increasingly homogenous at the global level that are defined as Western and Modern. The final outcome from the interplay between Westernization, Modernization and Globalization has been described by Francis Fukayama as the ‘End of History.’ Indeed these are critical times as the gap between the rich and the poor increases. Meanwhile, the contradicting pursuit of power on one hand and the struggle for human dignity on the other hand remains as divisive as ever. Our inability to find an imaginative way to resolves this dilemma has only contributed to the problem.
Tensions between power and rights have invariably made dehumanization and humanization as inevitable destinations in human history. The manner in which human affairs are being conducted has quite clearly pointed the present human discourse towards the direction of dehumanization, resulting in indifference or apathy as exhibited by the majority. Dr. King again reminds us, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
However, the most crucial question during these critical times is the question of the State. The modern State that emerged out of the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, after the Thirty Years War, has had the most impact on human societies and affected the manner in which they organized patterns of human association. The problems around state legitimacy, territorial integration, monopoly of force, and negating indigenous forms of democratic governance stemming from Westphalia continue to limit human creativity in finding harmonious alternatives for sustainable coexistence that are based on principles of inclusiveness, participation and accountability.
Indeed, humankind is going through critical times. The people need to raise their voices in critical protest and to strengthen the alternative endeavor for a world based on mutual respect and interdependence and one in which the power relations are based on ‘power with’ and not ‘power over’ the people.
