How we all are living in a big era of extremism. And how it will come crashing down upon us.
Capitalism or Socialism? Democracy or Absolutism? Atheism or devout Religion? These are some of the really popular ideologies among many different spheres of the modern world — Political, Economic & Religious. There is something common with all of these. You may think these ideologies are polar opposites. What in the world could be common between capitalism and socialism? The answer to this is — Extremism.
Extremism means an ideology which is at so extreme favoring one aspect of the society while ignoring the other. Example given, capitalism, focuses only on profit and money and lifts people who have money — hence increasing the gap between the rich and poor. Capitalist industries ignore the need of the workers and fail to meet with their demands. Socialism is the polar opposite of this, it focuses on providing workers with basic necessities of life while on the other hand ignoring profit and development and progress of a nation.
These two ideologies are great if implemented ideally, mind you, ideally. But as we all know it, both these ideologies are pushed to their extremes. Living in an extremist society is not good, as there always will be a special focus on the extremes of the ideologies. Extremism in the 21st century can be seen in every sphere of life. Whether it be violent religious extremism, or targeted racism and hate, we are surrounded with extremism.
Another type of extremism — political extremism. In India, parties make extreme promises to gain votes, and also highly politicized religious political parties are common. Extreme ideologies like “Akhand Bharat” are really provocative and lead to tension among various religio-political groups frequently. Also in a highly diverse cultural and ethical composition in India, these kind of conflicts and tension blow out to be national level problems.
Extremism in religion is also quite common — especially the extreme politicization of Islam, and the justification of killing innocents in the name of God by a small proportion of the Arabic population. Also the absolutist governments in the Middle East are also an example of political extremism.
By far the largest extremist ideology may be none other than the good old patriarchy. Heck, I would say all extremist ideologies may trace it’s origins directly or indirectly to extreme and oppressive patriarchy. Patriarchy may be considered the father of extremist ideologies. From extremist military governments to economic exploitation to extreme religion, some way or the other you can trace its origin back to extreme patriarchy.
A certain increase in extreme ideologies lead to, as I said, just the fulfillment of a single purpose quite merrily while other purposes and needs of a society get highly ignored. We have been living in an Era of Extremism for a pretty long time now and I’d the say the solution lies in balancing out all of them.
Balance will not only incorporate all of the good things among all the extremist ideologies, but also keep them in check, so that society could tilt towards neither. A balance in ideologies will improve the condition of a society and hence allow every purpose to be filled. I personally believe balance is the way of life and by implementing balance in out lives and in our societies we could achieve wonders.
Arsh Mathur
July 2021
