August 31st PART TWO

Once I finished reading Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History?" I felt a brief moment of sadness. In the final paragraph he wrote, "The struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk one's life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide ideological struggle that called forth daring, courage, imagination, and idealism, will be replaced by economic calculation, the endless solving of technical problems, environmental concerns, and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands." It just sounded so horrible that he believes nothing new or world changing can possibly be thought of that will be worth fighting for.

Since democracy and liberal government emerged, the end of history, in reference to his definition of history as the development of human ideology, is approaching or already has occurred. Now that most countries are run relatively the same way and nothing else on the horizon or in our past appear to be a stronger way to control civilization, humankind has plateaued in this department. His article covers the most recent challenges to democracy, fascism and communism. He tries to make it clear that he does not believe history in a sense of events and conflicts is over, but the struggle to find the most efficient political and economic structure has finally reached its high point.

After reading this article, I racked my brain for another form of government that could possibly replace democracy. I know I'm not a great thinker or I might not even be capable of coming up with a stronger alternative, but it's hard to believe this is truly the top of the mountain. I considered looking at other countries. Everyone's government is different, but it does seem most developed countries are ruled in a common way. Even China, though it calls itself Communist, has a thriving economy not restricted by the state. Just like many countries adopted "Idol," the music reality TV show, many countries have adopted political and economic liberalism and made it their own.

It seems like being a superpower does give you a lot of say in how the rest of the world works. If something new came along, I'm not sure how the United States would react. But just because everyone is conforming shouldn't mean this is the end of ideological change. When Kings and Queens ruled the world, I'm sure people didn't think there was something better out there. Back then people were not as educated. Government controlling how things ran was probably better. Not that the common person of today is more qualified to make major decisions just because he or she can read and write. I'm just saying absolute monarchy might have been the best form of government of the time. Too many people making decisions sometimes complicates things, after all. But now people are educated; not only do they believe they should have a say but they believe they are smart enough to be part of these major decisions.

The world is always changing. History is certainly not over. Maybe some major catastrophic event will happen and a mass of the world population will be wiped out. Someday we may run out of natural resources. We may not be limited to this one planet forever. Technology seems to have no bounds. There's no predicting how that will shape the world's future. Democracy may be an ideal structure now, but there's no telling what the future will bring.

Fukuyama wrote, "aggression and insecurity are universal characteristics of human societies rather than the product of specific historical circumstances." At least I can't feel too sad; the human race will always keep things interesting.

Though I still can't completely accept his theories, they make sense; and they very well may be true. After all, this was written in 1989 and the world seems to be following a similar path he predicted. This is not the end of conflict or international relations. I refuse to believe the human kind has maxed out. After everything that has happened since the beginning of time, it's impossible to accept Fukuyama's beliefs entirely. If there ever comes a day when I finally accept this as a potential fact, I will have to have considered many possibilities and studied many forms of human societies first. I just might not have enough time alive with this brain to reach this level of acceptance.