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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Can Hegelian Idea of War & Peace address the Issue of corruption?

Recently read thoughts of Hegel:

  • The movement of power from one nation state to another is the march of God on earth. 
  • Men stagnate in peace. Corruption could be the product of prolonged if not perpetual peace.
Reflecting on the above thoughts.

Power does not remain with a person, nation, group, tribe, clan forever as it moves from one to another and for the time it remains in a specific place that entity enjoys certain status and is in a position to set the rules for others and then exacts obedience for the rules it set.

The theologies of different religions which sprouted in the last 2000 years have thrown the baggage of divine power on us in which king or caliph has to rule his subjects, a theory which could not stand the scrutiny of reason. With no defined boundary for religion and state the entity of God was imposed on all personal affairs of men and he permeated in the air like oxygen. As someone new to this domain I am thrilled to see an innovative explanation of Hegel on how he explains the march of God on earth. The movement of superpower status from country to another is march of God on earth.

So it appears to be true to an extent. Once the ultimate power lied with Spain and Portugal then it moved to Brits then to US at the moment. Much before 2000 years there were powerful kingdoms but there was always one kingdom which had the supreme power.

The possession of power was purely written in a destructive sense at a time this was coined. If you are too powerful you can annex. Now the other dimension of this is march of god theory is equal to theory of power, you need to fight for God otherwise he moves elsewhere, so is your superpower thereby your superpower status.

If you are engaged in constant war to retain the power which is nothing but you are trying to retain the god, apparently there will be no peace, so during war men will be either less corrupt or completely honest because peace is a reason for corruption and men stagnate in it. That could mean he does not innovate and just stays idle? May be yes. If there was no second world war the academic discipline (technique) Operations research would not have been discovered. All the modern weaponry would not have been discovered because people were forced to innovate on sheer necessity.

So Hegel essentially says – “God marches from one to another and you need to constantly engage yourself in war to retain him without becoming a victim of an abstract idea called Peace”?

I am just realizing that in the medieval terms war certainly meant a direct armed conflict with two opponents. But in current times it could be many things in addition to direct armed conflict.

The struggle to retain God and acquire him continues. God meaning power.

Powerful state/s i.e., those entities who currently have god with them in their attempt to retain him have to make sure that no other state acquires him. So firstly they will find out the serious contender, once identified they will see who is the contender’s contender then he will be funded to fight his contender.

An example on Hegel line could be, in strict Bi-polar sense God has already marched to US and it has to retain it somehow, any attempt by other nation to acquire some superpower status must be resisted by US. So we have had this Afghanistan and Jihad which was funded by US to thwart Russia’s efforts to acquire such status, though Jihad was no friend to US.

Men are constantly at war for power. When it is ensured that there is no peace why then still corruption continues? It is because of God=Power?

So when you have power you abuse it, just like Lord Acton said. The problem is even the march of God cannot stop corruption.

Can we say that to manipulate the march of god men engage in corruption?

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