LIBERALISM: Imitating'social justice' lingo from the United States

             Not too long ago, I used to be surprised to hear newly arrived desi students in America begin spewing modern social justice lingo as if they had always known it. What is the source of this unique speaking ability? When someone like me had to painstakingly wade through the fortifications of classical liberalism and then its different ideological foes merely to acquire a hold on post-structuralist theory to see if it applied to my own mission, how could they be so fluent in the language of deconstruction?

It's much worse now. It includes not just scholars in the humanities and social sciences but also authors, artists, intellectuals, and anybody else who speaks in public. Today's rapid global connections allow for the spread of liberal fear from America to opinion-makers throughout the world in a matter of seconds. Whatever worries American intellectuals confronting dying liberalism about #MeToo, white supremacy, transgender oppression, or purported Trumpian "fascism" immediately permeates elite thinkers in regions of the world with no connection to the cultural petri dish where these self-involved viruses germinated.

All of this churn and froth, quick replication, and instantaneous insertion into what looks to be avant-garde ideas neglect the fact that none of it applies to Pakistan or any other developing nation. The discourse is different from what Pakistan requires, with its fiercely unequal, feudal, patriarchal, and even deeply sexist culture, where even the fundamentals of liberal constitutionalism have not yet been figured out, much less transcended.

The largest issue is poverty, which is frequently caused by exploitative colonial dependencies and, in Pakistan's case, took on new darkness after the War on Terror. However, the new language of social justice says nothing about this. It is completely devoid of a class perspective, even in today's popular intersectional jargon that pretends to do so, and is rooted in the culture wars of the American right and left elites, having no relevance to working-class struggles in Pakistan or other developing nations. It is also based on the American right and left elites' cultural wars.

The original French and European post-structuralists had a lot to say about understanding the blind spots of the Western democracies, particularly about the cultural hegemony exercised about then marginalized groups, and they were also associated with the Frankfurt School, which had Marxist leanings. The theory was later seized by American academics, who never let go of it. It was reduced to mush by them. Without any reference to a class, identity politics has evolved into a handmaiden of neoliberal political economics. When it comes to the bureaucratic administration of who gets to talk at what table in elite circles — in academia, the arts, and politics — it is only a new game of musical chairs.

It is propagated by uninformed influencers as some sort of radical insight into the human condition in its widely accepted form, which has completely ascended thanks to the power of social media when in reality it is nothing more than repeatedly watered-down iterations of the original post-structuralize framework. It performs a spectacular celebration of individual choice that is by this point useless within the confines of neoliberal precariousness and it fits well into pre-existing American conceptions of non-judgmentalism towards personal lifestyles.

The fact that this mindless ideology has spread like wildfire throughout the entire world and is repeated endlessly, down to its wackiest verbal tics, wherever elite opinion is disseminated, as though what is being said were a special language opening up a wormhole into timeless justice, is disturbing.

 

Think about what transpired after George Floyd was brutally murdered by Minneapolis police two years ago. In the US and other democracies as well, protests erupted with fervor and breadth not seen since the late 1960s. It initially had a clear aspect of class: the recognition of the American police as a tool for perpetuating unequal property relations from their very inception. However, this activism component was solely the work of individuals who are illiterate in the modern vocabulary of social justice, and these dissidents were soon marginalized and excluded. The activist energy was then taken over by an absolutely corrupted and elite-endorsed organization like Black Lives Matter (BLM), which unsurprisingly transformed it into slushy water. Currently, the extreme campaign against police brutality is officially over.

 

One may discuss how feminism, which in the 1970s took on some really radical class dimensions, gradually evolved into bourgeois white feminism, becoming fixated on a variety of lifestyle options unavailable to women in developing nations while somehow presenting itself as universal in scope. Because it refuses to acknowledge any female drive as valid other than its own restricted ideology, it serves neoliberal class relations just as well as any economic tool used by neoliberalism.

 

So where does one turn for a social justice lexicon (and behavior) that doesn't mimic these tainted vestiges of the American culture war? This has been made challenging because neoliberal globalization has openly pursued and even promoted the goal of cultural homogenization and flattening around the world. However, independent culture cannot be completely destroyed and has not yet been done so.

If we are willing to look, our own society is full of examples of true compassion. After centuries of colonial and later domestic overlordship, one does not need to turn to obscurantist ideas, which are frequently a reflection of desperation. Instead, there is plenty of genuine humanism in our own tradition. Edhi undoubtedly engaged in it, as did a great number of others in the past and present. When they are at their best, our own history, literature, music, philosophy, architecture, social interactions, and individual morality can serve as limitless inspiration.

We don't need to use the language or the mindset of the Western technocratic lifestyle management tool known as identity politics to be practical and selfless, capable stewards of the human body, non-human creatures, and nature, conscious of the actual value of life and death, and generally nice people.