Ideas and our politics
…the ideas of … philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. … I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. Not, indeed, immediately, but after a certain interval … the ideas which civil servants and politicians and even agitators apply to current events are not likely to be the newest. But, soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.
That’s how John Maynard Keynes finishes his General Theory. Seven decades after its publication, ideas from that book are once again being applied by governments of all hue and calling across the world. But this post is not about the nasty, brutish and long slump we are heading towards. Instead of that depressing topic, I am going to write about ideas that have shaped political allignments in Bangladesh in the past few decades.
Some might scoff at the very notion that ideas have shaped our politics. There are, after all, ample examples of the basest, most opportunistic political maneuverings devoid of any ideas other than the naked pursuit of money and power. I accept this. But following Keynes, I contend that underlying all else, key differences of ideas have shaped our political allignments. I contend that Gen Zia built his majority coalition in the late 1970s on a set of ideas, and another set of ideas provided the basis to the political opposition to his rule. A lot of water has flown under the Hardinge Bridge in the past three decades, but these ideas are still relevant for our politics. I contend that regardless of what happens in December, it is these ideas that will determine our politics into the next decade.