2023-06-25 23:12:03
(4/4)
Part of this support can be seen in the post-modern book, The Hermit by Romanian born, French author, Eugine Ionesco. The novel follows a man who’s life resembles this End of History. A single man of no prestige or ambition, not particularly favored by any gods, receives an substantial inheritance that allows him to live out his days without having to work in a respectable hotel. His needs becomes that of the living consumer, only having to eat and stave of suicide. While he maintains an inconsequential existence, the town sees a bloody revolution he joins just to feel something. The streets are filled with bloodthirsty citizens who each feel that desire to experience some sense of change or consequence that is so bizarre in our own liberal democratic lives. There is no danger, so the citizens must create their own for a sense of accomplishment. This is the fault with The End of History, it is a hell for the majority of people. All of the anxieties and frustrations of daily life cannot be solved with consumerism and government programs. We are unfortunately unable to enjoy Utopia because we never really cared for it. Perhaps this is part of the curse of being cast out of the Garden of Eden, we are all Cain, never truly able to find peace. Fukuyama does try to reckon with the soul eroding nature of the End of History,
“The struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk one’s life for a purely abstract goal, the world wide ideological struggle that called for 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.”
Personally, whether out of my own desperation or optimism, I cannot see how the wheels can keep turning. The emptiness of the Wagner threat was a victory for the cult of Nothing we’re beginning to see arise. The idea that nothing will happen, nothing will change, nothing will matter. This is the synthesis of End of History thinking with contemporary cynicism. It’s certainly possible that Russia is a global aberration that does not reflect Western instability, or maybe Houellebecq is right and the big crash is coming. When I was young I've read a Tom Robbins book that argued the fascination we have with explosions or burning buildings comes from a deep seated yearning to see permanent power structures challenged and a brief glimpse of chaos. Whether we will see History return with a vengeance, it’s undeniable that many wish to see some action.
Russia embodied this rejection by it’s denial of NATO encroachment and eventual subsumation by western powers and became a rallying call to every dissident that would like to see their own country reject this supposed inevitability. Should Russia be victorious, this blow to The End of History will sound like a bell to the global populace that perhaps the current regime is not as grounded as it may seem. Most everyone reading this will have their own personal reasons for supporting Russia, but they cannot deny that this war had reinvigorated our sense of history and place in time. Though it might be a blow to the Ukraine and an unfortunate loss of life for innocent men, it is an appetizer for our desire for more war and destruction. The End of History promised a sort of prosperity and peace that many after the World Wars and subsequent Cold War thought they craved. Instead a generation fraught with anxiety and boredom dreams of greater, more heroic conflicts that promise its own horror and devastation. Surrogate tasks and consumption will not be enough. We reject The End of History because we are not gods, we can not handle permanence.
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