by Promod Puri

In my social, religious, and political sentiments that influence my behaviour and outlook toward society, I am neither a Leftist nor a Rightist.

Further, I’m not a Centrist either, as I feel strained sitting indiscreetly between the Left-Right ideologies. Yet I occasionally deflect towards the Left or the Right or drive neutral.

My doctrine or faith has a stable and discretionary abode of evolving rationalism, which stands on a firm foundation of humanism.

Socialism, the bedrock for Leftist ideological motivation and hoisting morally and ethically sound principles, seeks a socially and economically classless society, social justice for the working class and poor, and availability of essential services like education, healthcare, public transportation, etc.

But in its inner workings, it has handled these promises inadequately and disappointed.

In the so-called socialist tenures over the past half-century from Russia to China, Cuba to Venezuela, the Leftist leaderships turned into autocratic regimes that denied the fundamental rights of freedom of speech and expression and let down their people economically, politically, and culturally. The ownership of information and disinformation sources and their distribution belongs to the government; the rest of the channels get monitored, regulated, plugged, or suppressed.

Cuba’s revolutionary and promising leader, Fidel Castro, became a fascist and ruled the country for over 50 years while firmly booting down any voices of protest and dissent. The same goes for Joseph Stalin, a revolutionary-turned-politician who controlled the Soviet Union from 1924 till his death in 1953. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez remained an uninterrupted president from 2002 until he died in 2013. And Xi Jinping,70, through several constitutional changes, has secured his presidentship of China for life. It is the same story for several other nations in the Leftist world, for example, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, who, with the call of the divine, quit when he died in 2019.

In most socialist and communist regimes, utopia turned into dystopia.

As we turn to the Right, an overview of its ideology reveals freedom of speech and expression, limited government intervention in the economy and individual rights, and free market capitalism with fewer regulations and minimum taxes while encouraging competition that fosters innovation and prosperity—strict law and order for crime prevention and the safety of society integrated into its agenda.

Nationalism and patriotism emphasize the importance of a nation’s identity and integrity. The “Defence” expenditures, including assaults and aggressions, get prioritized with over 50 percent of the budget in many countries, including the poor or developing nations.

In the Right conservative societies, politics and religion go together as most government ceremonies, oaths, etc., are conducted with the pledge “In God we trust.”

Under this structure, Rightist ideology conducts business through money-run democracy, where elections play a significant role. Two or multiple parties enter the fray, often with unprincipled electoral alliances. Horse trading of elected representatives is part of democratic practices. India, the largest democracy in the world with a population of over a billion people, offers the prime example of an open buying and selling market of elected or even unelected MPs and MLAs.

Wealth distribution is not the regime’s primary concern. Instead, that load belongs to the big corporations and the wealthy, who get tax breaks and benefits to help feed the working class and the poor through the Tickle-down economy espoused by the late US President Reagan.

According to Jawaharlal Nehru, “The exploitation of India and other countries brought so much wealth to England that some of it trickled down to the working class, and their standard of living rose.”

A more severe and problematic aspect of Rightist or Conservative politics is the exploitation of nationalism and patriotism. The twins generate xenophobic and anti-minority sentiments among the majority population, rigidly believing the nation’s authenticity lies in its monolithic society of one religion, culture, and language.

Since religious and social traditions, including family values, dominate Conservative politics, societal change of a progressive nature gets an unfavourable response. Against this backdrop, religious and linguistic minorities and gender-diversified communities face discrimination.

Moving forward requires moving backward, as Trump wants to “Make America Great Again” or Modi’s vision to see “Sone Ki Chirya,” meaning golden sparrow, as India believed it to be centuries ago.

Fear of foreign attack or terrorism, genuine or manufactured, becomes part of the national phobia that billions of dollars get unquestionably spent annually for the ‘safety and security” of the nation.

In recent years, dictatorship has thrived under the cover of democracy when bureaucracy and independent bodies, including the judiciary and election commission, are controlled and corrupted, and the fear and intimidation factors downpour with the help of fake tax raids, police, and street goons. Examples of dictatorial democracies, aka electoral autocracies, are India, Turkey, Poland, Hungary’s ‘soft dictatorship’ under Viktor Orban, the Philippines ex-ruler Duterte, and, lately, Netanyahu’s Israel.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM

In between the noble idealism of Left Socialism, seeking an egalitarian society through equal distribution of wealth, and the Conservative commitment to the Right to free speech and a free economy lies Democratic Socialism.

From a political outlook, Democratic Socialism, leaning more towards the Left, offers mixed economy and services, wealth distribution through social welfare programs, workers’ rights, regime, and leadership evaluation, review and change by holding free and fair elections for a peaceful transition of power.

Democratic socialism seems to be a fair and nonpartisan bypass that offers economic equality, freedom to speak, and an answerable governance subjected to transition through voting power.

Many nations around the globe proclaim to be Democratic Socialists, such as Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and a few more. The political parties in these countries still belong to the Left and Right ideologies, including some with extreme commitments of far-right or far-left motives.

In the hunger for power, political parties and their leaders with the Left and Right outfits often discard their ideological badges and embrace each other to form a shaky coalition government.

The bottom-line question is, does Democratic Socialism resonate genuinely, or is it just a marriage of mutual benefits and opportunism that works well for the leaders to keep feeding their infinite appetite for power?

The Left-Right doctrines, including their political stripes like Democratic Socialism, look hollow and meaningless in their practicalities, notably for that section of humanity still toiling in poverty, hunger, and disease, discriminated against, exploited, and victimized in the class and caste-ridden backdrop.

The promises of these political isms, which have more radical, idealistic, and optimistic showcasing than their pragmatism, have yet to produce a hunger-free, conflict-free, and peaceful world without creating millions of refugees every year and saving the swiftly deteriorating environment.

Fraudulent presidents, prime ministers, autocrats, dictators, tyrants, narcissists, illiterates, and idiots have elected and re-elected themselves under democratic, socialist, dictatorial democracies and communist regimes.

Orwell was correct “Totalitarianism could be found on the political Right or Left, in Nazism and Communism.”

Because all political systems have failed or degenerated, society’s rising support for military rule seems popular to govern the affairs of nations. This has happened most often in Pakistan’s history since its creation in 1947. The phenomenon occurs more frequently now in several African countries.

Mismanagement, incompetence, corruption, economic crisis, and erosion of trust in the leaders and their affiliated outlets are the main factors propelling military coups worldwide.

Moreover, there is a play politics of antagonism within a party or inter-parties where public issues, concerns and needs simmer on the backburners while politicians busy themselves combating each other.

OUTDATED POLITICAL PRODUCTS

Left, Right, Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism are the political products of the 18th or early 19th century. One can argue about revamping or remodelling each of them or inventing a new political ism to adequately address the diverse social, demographic, and environmental needs of the fast-changing cosmopolitan nature of the world today.

Even with the refurbished new political order, we will fall into the same trench of economic and social disparities, political monopolization and corruption, and environmental degradation.

No matter how lofty principles and promises are offered by the assortment of new or antiquated political systems, the steering force behind each is the human psychology and behaviour that impact their success, failure, or disappointment.

The logic is that greed for power infects even the most empathetic, promising, and passionate leaders. And once they get infected, the Left, Right, socialists and Democrat-turned-autocrats don’t want to be relieved of the power bug.

History is the witness to the contagiousness of political power.

EVOLVING RATIONALISM AND HUMANISM

Here, we go back to the beginning of this essay, where I seek a habitat of evolving rationalism that nourishes itself on a firm foundation in humanism to run the business of governance.

Evolving rationalism and its foundation in humanism are the critical reflections of my thesis and submission.

Before I go further, I must accept that what was rational yesterday may be irrational today, and what is rational today may be irrational tomorrow.

Moreover, what is considered rational based on my knowledge and information may be irrational based on others’ knowledge and information.

Still, amid beliefs, persona reasonings, traditions and ideologies, rationalism overtakes all of them with its intellectual integrity and critical thinking. Its integrity lies in the power of reason and evidence that guide human understanding and decision-making rather than relying on the commitment to any political ideology. It is pivotal in shaping and reshaping contemporary societies in their political thinking.

Rationalism has been part of human history since antiquity. Known philosophers and thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, etc., championed intellectual inquiry in seeking information and establishing knowledge to advance humanity.

Rationalism stands out as fundamental to the intellectual pursuit of human progress that advocates the supremacy of reason in forming an opinion or establishing an ideology.

The present political systems visibly exhibit their decay and defeat because there is no mix or an insignificant mix of scientific rationales. Moreover, these formats gravely lack philosophical foresight and spiritual sanity in their foundations.

In the absence of this assembly, the contemporary world sees no pragmatic and bona fide path that can lead it beyond the Right and the Left binary, the so-called democracy, or the Left-leaning Democratic Socialism.

The challenge lies in getting out of the warped-out ideological boxes.

Nations across the globe would advance when the dilapidated Left-Right structures either be demolished or undergo an extensive renovation.

The global community must seek an alternative political concept that caters to their specific, urgent, and basic needs and identities while conforming with nature and the environment.

The neoteric concept, free from polarized ideological conventions and practices, delves into a multi-faculty and common-sense approach.

In this pursuit, it develops a system that encompasses the wisdom and philosophies of the political scientists, along with the knowledge, insight and prudence offered by the scientific, social, and spiritual or theological scholarships.

There is a considerable gap between the dominant Left-Right political sphere and the wisdom generated by the natural and social sciences. If narrowed, it can pave the way to developing a right and wiser political direction for better governance.

SEEKING AN EXTENDED AND LEADING ROLE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Political science can lead in this transformation to fill the gap. The academic faculty must move beyond its traditional confines of introducing strategies, analysis, and guidelines on winning or overtaking power or offering governing structures and logistics.

Evolution in political ideologies is a hypothesis where political science can expand its studies to determine and encourage the involvement of basic and laboratory-based sciences, philosophical, critical, intellectual disciplines, and religious fundamentals in one or more political systems based on diverse factors and preferences in nations and communities.

Political science must seek various social and scientific disciplines that offer creditable connections with human behaviour and environmental concerns.

Inspired by the fact that sciences and institutional faculties offer systematic and observable physical evidence and logical argumentation, the premise can build more feasible and pertinent political pathways leading to better management of civil society.

Guided and managed by the political science faculty, the evolution of a new branched-out political ideology, which should be imperative, involves almost all the natural and social sciences, philosophies, and metaphysics along with the wisdom manifested in the world’s spiritual and numinous orders.

In this integrated advance, the political spectrum of Marxism and Leninism, conservatism and liberalism, capitalism and socialism, or any simulated entities can be more acceptable to contemporary society than their present consent.

The constructive infusion of science or scientific evidence into a comprehensive political system strengthens policy decisions. It generates quality debate for overall benefits to society.

A growing number of scientists worldwide seek professional engagement in policymaking to ensure the political system maximizes the knowledge that science generates.

Moreover, political science can actively participate in developing and implementing political ideology. It can review whether a political gospel needs some updating.

The laws of physics, the formulas and equations in chemistry and mathematics, or the biological and physiological phenomena may or may not directly generate political thought, but their mechanisms guide its plausible acceptance.

HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY’S IMPACT ON POLITICS

However, human psychology is one science that directly impacts inducing political thinking, its acceptance or rejection, and its implementation. Without detailed explanations, it studies individuals’ and community’s emotional and behavioural sentiments related to natural or human-made situations.

Psychology gives an assessed value of a political ideology.

The psychology of human nature or behaviour impacts the practicality of any political order and its idealism of achieving economic development and social and religious equality of people.

After all, “the key to good policymaking is to understand human nature,” according to Peter A. Ubel, an American physician and a proponent of Scientocracy.

It is not “about a world ruled by behavioural scientists, or any other kind of scientists.” Instead, he argues, “imagining a government of the people, but informed by scientists.”

The direct or indirect enrollment of scientists contributing their tested or laboratory-based knowledge would help develop a modern political structure that replaces the outdated orders from corrupted democracy to socialism or communism. And where rationales and purity of thought guide the formation of policies that also align with human psychology.

However, besides the scientific mix in the creation of an apt political order for the contemporary world society, the most crucial ingredient is humanism, without which the whole new structure would fall, or it would face the same consequence as being confronted by present political artifice that benefits more to the political elite than the ordinary folks.

But before we delve into humanistic concepts in politics, a fresh look at religion in the political affairs of nations is essential.

RELIGION HAS ITS ROLE IN POLITICS

Contemporary and progressive political ideologies disdain religion. Its nature gets customarily interpreted through inherent ritualistic practices rather than its doctrines of ethics and noble thoughts.

The relationship between religion and politics needs a review for the re-entry of virtuous, logical, informed, and intelligent religiosity into modern societies’ political constitutions.

Religion has become an official or legal taboo in the political and bureaucratic functioning of secular democracies and socialist regimes. Separation of church, temple, mosque, or synagogue from the state is the motto of the current political thinking.

Even though religion has significantly contributed its philosophies, universal truths, and theories to the school of political science, the two are deemed separate disciplines that influence civil society’s affairs and social character.

Modern political pundits and their students or observers have not gone beyond religious customs and beliefs to explore the intelligence and enlightenment generated over the centuries in discernable interpretations that touch every aspect of human endeavours, including politics.

Philosopher T. S. Eliot “believed that democratic societies rejected the influence of an established church at their peril, for in doing so, they cut themselves off from the kind of ethical wisdom that can come only from participation in a tradition. Thus, he argued, such a society would degenerate into tyranny and/or social and cultural fragmentation”. (Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Chapter: Religion and Politics).

The outright purging of religion without recognizing its universal messages of ethical and secular nature has been a significant part of the liberal political appeal.

“Politics and religion must be kept separate” is an acknowledged doctrine in secular and democratic-socialist systems. However, there are elements in most religions that are liberal, secular, democratic and socialist.

It is a fact that the laws of the land, with their universal application, have been constituted from religious teachings to institute political ideologies.

Obama states, “The Majority of great reformers in American history were not only motivated by faith but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause.”

Obama, who believes in the power of faith, has sought a “serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.”

He argues, “More fundamentally, the discomfort of some progressives with any hint of religion has often prevented us from effectively addressing issues in moral terms.” In a public address, he said: “Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square.” (“Obama’s 2006 Speech on Faith and Politics”, The New York Times, June 28, 2006, edition).

“Before entering the public square,” Obama demands the infusion of true religion instead, without its symbolism, in the political environment to establish moral guidelines in its ideologies.

Deepak Chopra says: “Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love, and compassion, also intuition, creativity, insight, and focused attention.”

From Mohammad to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, and Dr. Ambedkar, all had religious commitments grounded in humanism, love, compassion, and kindness to wage their political and social campaigns against slavery, apartheid, discrimination, inequality, and untouchability based on colour, class, and caste.

Religion, paved with these divine, historical, and acknowledged values, offers an ever-guiding relationship with politics through its universal message of humanism.

Here, I proceed towards humanism, the basis of my presentation of seeking an ethically based political order that also guides its bureaucratic functioning.

A PROGRESSIVE MARCH TOWARD HUMANISM

Humanism is not a complex philosophical concept.

Instead, it offers a simple approach to understanding and tackling issues and situations with ethical guidelines to cause decisions that initiate humane, moral, and principled results.

Humanism is a discreet and ethical stance that strongly emphasizes human values, potential, and dignity.

It believes that humans opt for reason and empathy in their natural behaviour. With these sentiments, the well-being and flourishing of individuals and society go through.

A humanistic outlook expects conscious purity of thoughts and actions to create justice and human rights toward fellow human beings and our environments.

Human values, rights and concerns, compassion and cooperation, rationalism and reasons promoting critical thinking, secularism, and respecting and encouraging cultural and linguistic identities are the founding elements of the humanistic regime.

It’s the resource that offers social welfare and equality to address the needs of all citizens irrespective of their class or caste status. Accessible or affordable quality healthcare, education, social safety nets, and poverty elimination are all prioritized under humanistic reign.

Since humanism knows no boundaries, it encourages global peace through cooperation among nations to address global challenges such as conflicts, refugee crises, hunger and poverty, diseases, and natural disasters like floods and earthquakes.

Humans, animals, plants, mountains, rivers, seas, and everything visible and non-visible in this shared universe are all interrelated and interdependent. It is the connectivity that humanism promises to assert for every creature and every matter or phenomenon happening or residing on planet Earth and the environment around it.

With that humanistic behaviour, those who enter the doors of public life commit to honour and engage themselves to respect human values, the well-being and rights of individuals, empathy, reason, fairness, and obligation to environmental concerns.

The challenge lies in creating humanistic leadership and humanistic awareness among people. The education and grassroots movements play a crucial role in modifying and advancing the current political systems based on humanistic fundamentals.

Initiating humanism in a political system seems utopian because it has never had the chance to introduce it before. There have been occasions in the administrative history of regimes worldwide when the rulers exercised humanism under their powers. But mostly, till now, humanity has not experienced or lived under humanistic rule for an extended period.

With the advent of the internet and the easy availability of knowledge and information that establish more connectivity among nations and their peoples, people expect an equal and smooth spread of opportunities and freedoms without autocratic, corrupt, and cruel governing traps and bumps imposed by all sorts of political stripes.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM VS. DEMOCRATIC HUMANISM

In carrying out the humanistic agenda, we would see individuals with varied levels of commitment. Who does the job better energetically, honestly, and sincerely will be the norms of judgement in the democracy of humanism.

In introducing Democratic Humanism, its pragmatic role presents a guiding ideology that overtakes democratic socialism by engaging with ethical and spiritual perspectives and responsibility for environmental sustainability. The difference lies here between Democratic Socialism and Democratic Humanism.

In Democratic Humanism, political controversies, conflicts, clashes, and combats would be among the individual leaders rather than the rivalry among the multi parties as they exist now.

Since humanism is the fundamental and the only criterion for those entering the political domain, the political parties with ideological differentiation or identities would become irrelevant, erased or extinct.

With the downfall of party politics, a new political era of Democratic Humanism will lead the world community of nations toward peace, prosperity, and a more secure environment under the canopy of humanism.

In the changing and deteriorating world environment, where fundamental human values deplete in conflicts, hatred and apathy, the call of humanity seeks humanism out of its philosophical and theological image to bring practical implications for the peaceful advancement of all of us on Earth.