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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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