A poetic rendition of political theory.

To be honest, It is an immature, vague and sketchy attempt at poetry. The poem traces the evolution of the discipline of political science in a manner intended to be humorous. I would request you all to go about it without any expectation to learn something of true import. In fact, just keep the expectations to a bare minimum. My apologies are advanced at the beginning, if it turns out to be a sheer waste of time. Happy reading :)

• The pilgrimage began at Greece, with focus on real knowledge by Socrates

• It is said that Socrates was a figment of imagination, while plato stressed upon ethics, morality and justice in his recommendation

• A philosopher king was sought, the idea only a few bought

• Aristotle, who studied 158 constitutions, gave law as reason without any passions

• It was only with Machiavelli in Italy, politics without ethics became a reality

• Soon we entered England, life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, Hobbes suggested leviathan as last resort

• Man gained reason; Peace, goodwill and mutual assistance were in season

• Capitalists started gaining ground, property was the source of pound. Locke pronounced it as an inalienable right, his treatise till date shines bright.

• It was with Rousseau, reason took a dip; romanticism was the idea getting a fillip.

• He stressed on general will, an idea too quixotic even still

• Animal spirits of men turned to savagery, pushpin became as good as poetry

• Bentham stressed upon pleasure and pain, common men now had all the materials to gain

• Critiqued as pig’s philosophy, for the rescue of Bentham came Mill’s liberty

• He may be a peter who denied his master, eventually though saved liberty from the imminent disaster

• Nation states, democracy and liberalism became the flavour of the day, while bourgeoisie in Europe made hay

• The time was ripe, for Karl Marx to arrive on the stage; as proletariats across the world were subject to shackles and cage

• A grandiose theory was propounded, claiming all earlier ones as lies, this one was presented as science

• Material interpretation of history was carried out, class struggle was the resulting bout

• Workers of the world were asked to unite, a bullet only a few would bite.

• Marx was criticised for crude economic reductionism, but left a legacy of perpetual radical criticism

• Gramsci started looking for the predicted graves of the capitalist, but to his bewilderment, they never ceased to persist

• Reason for same was attributed to hegemony, subaltern class was asked to counter without muscle or money

• Gramsci wrote his works in Italy’s prisons, Gandhi applied the same in Indian conditions

• The scourge of fascism reared it’s ugly head, Jews under hitler were bleeding red

• Then came the woman philosopher, Hannah Arendt

• She stressed on civil republicanism and people acting in concert, a potent panacea to save liberty from getting hurt

• Hitler and Nazis were considered devil, but for Hannah it was just banality of evil.

• Philosophers interpreted the world in various ways, but point however was to mobilise common men’s craze

• Thus came to fore ideologies, which everyone presented without apologies

• Though philosophies were complex in nature, ideologies were their simple yet obscure creature

• Ideologies are the plethora of ‘isms’, a complex contrasting conflicting schism

• Idealism was an old concept, with Plato, Hegel and Kant it promised a bet, it was appropriated to foster the fascist idea, ideology in a way gave shape to a modern dystopia

• Liberalism was in vogue, at times it went rogue.

• Adam smith called for laissez faire, T H Green demanded welfare.

• Thatcher and Reagan rolled back the state, took away poor man’s pie of cake.

• The troubles were far too many, inequalities were way too uncanny. Amartya Sen came on the block, neo liberalism got a socialist shock.

• After Marx, even socialism was to take shape, but criticism of state as instrument of bourgeoisie would never escape

• Evolutionary socialists were labelled utopian, praxis is what they couldn’t envision.

• Gramsci and Lenin revised Marxism, one focused on superstructure the other on vanguard of proletariat to reach communism

• Though October revolution did have a marxist sway, the state unfortunately never withered away

• Mao Zedong was another Marxist child, communist party of China still hangs tight

• Frankfurt school favoured emancipation; while structural school continued with inherent trait of radical criticism

• Fascism was a tool, for demagogues to rule,

• it was the ideology in hodgepodge, which unfortunately the Italians and Germans couldn’t dodge

• Last to arrive in the political circus, were the women hitherto confined to domestic ruckus

• Sex turned into gender, patriarchal stereotypes were to engender. Personal became political, differential citizenship’s argument was critical.

• Existence is prior to essence, feminists of the that time were sensible enough to sense

• Ideologies in modern Europe were soon to lose imagination, post modernists started gaining recognition

• Derrida emphasised on deconstruction, while Foucault gave knowledge power connection

• Every understanding could be a misunderstanding it was told, theories are discourses, the idea was sold.

• and I hope this idea of poem was bold ?

I have written the succeeding parts too. Kindly revert to me in the comments section below if you are willing to read those parts.

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