End of 'The End of History'

Express Tribune

a day ago

Year 2025 has seen immense turbulence. Since Donald Trump's formal inauguration as President of the United States, 60% of international development funds have been slashed, immigration controls in the West have multiplied exponentially, trade barriers have gone up, AI has wiped out hundreds of thousands of jobs, the Palestinian genocide has entered its final phase, and conflicts involving nuclear powers have intensified. In the words of Antonio Gramsci, "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters."
Following the end of WWII, America experienced 25 years of relatively inclusive growth. Real wages - adjusted for inflation - for both white and blue collar trades rose consistently until 1970. Technological breakthroughs were frequent and significant. The digital computer, data storage devices, microchip technology, and packet-switched networks, which served as precursors to the internet, all entered the fray during the '50s and '60s. In aviation, the sound barrier was broken, the first satellites went into orbit, and rockets landed on the moon. In biomedicine, the DNA structure was mapped, the polio vaccine discovered, and oral contraceptives approved. In media, portable radios and colour TVs were made ubiquitous. Perhaps most significantly, basic amenities like food, clothing, shelter, education, and healthcare were easily affordable for single-earner middle class families.
Simultaneously, a comprehensive international development architecture was set up. At the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the World Bank and IMF were formally established to foster macroeconomic stability in 'developing' countries - particularly following decolonisation - via policy formulation, short term credit agreements, and infrastructure-related assistance. The UN was inaugurated a year later to promote trade, sociocultural exchange, and peace/harmony between nations. The WHO was set up in 1948 to address public health crises. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), created in 1961, spearheaded development in the domains of economics, governance, and humanitarian assistance across the world for subsequent decades. During this period, these global institutions played a genuinely constructive role in industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, and institutional strengthening in developing countries. While conflicts (such as the Vietnam War and Korean War) broke out in the context of the Cold War, significant people's movements such as the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-war Movement, Counterculture Movement, first two waves of feminism, and several anti-colonial independence movements also took off and expanded liberties and sovereignties worldwide.
The tides began to shift in 1971, when the dollar was unpegged from gold by President Nixon - sending shockwaves across global economies. The US Federal Reserve could now print money to its heart's desire: thus triggering massive inflationary pressures that corroded purchasing power. A couple of years later, the mainstreaming of 'finance capital' was observed. 1973's oil embargo sent prices skyrocketing by almost 300%, following which OPEC countries saw a massive influx of dollars - which they parked in US banks due to limited domestic capacity. These reserves were then recycled into US Treasury securities in exchange for military protection. This fueled a movement away from growth/innovation in tangible goods and services in favor of 'speculative trading' in bonds, stocks, derivatives, etc - a trend that led to greater inequality and declining real innovation.
Things took an even worse turn under President Reagan, who kickstarted neoliberalism and aggressive imperialism. The first functioned to empower big corporations via massive reductions in taxation, regulation, trade restriction, etc and widespread crackdowns on organised labour - effectively subverting the state apparatus to the interests of big capital. The 1989 Washington Consensus codified 'privatize, liberalize, deregulate' as global economic orthodoxy, trapping the Global South in debt and resource extraction arrangements that revived colonial dynamics. Second, a series of military and intelligence interventions were launched as part of a broad strategy to lay the pressure on the Soviet Union. While Afghanistan was the major confrontation, the backing of several regimes and militia groups - particularly in Latin America - was a central feature of the 'Reagan Doctrine'. The former included the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, and Chile; while the latter constituted the Contras in Nicaragua and 'Mujahideen' in Pakistan. This initiated a cycle of violence, with entire economies of arms/ammunition, sex/drug trafficking, and extremist indoctrination projects proliferating across vulnerable communities. Many of these groups were later involved in the 9/11 attacks, triggering decades-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that killed millions.
This pattern - economic precarity at home, violence overseas - continued throughout the 2000s and 2010s. The 2008 financial crash, Obama's drone warfare, the rise of ISIS, turmoil in Afghanistan, Israel's continued occupation, and the abysmal handling of Covid-19 were all indications of terminal decline. Even in tech, progress almost ground to a halt during the two decades: reduced to marginal annual improvements in consumer electronics (like the iPhone) with hardly any groundbreaking discoveries. Large language models in recent years have admittedly been the major breakaway from this uneventful pattern, but even these potentially revolutionary tools have been deployed to advance military, surveillance, and immigration control systems - accelerating the movement towards fascism.
Having withdrawn from the WHO, drastically reduced contributions to UN agencies, ignored directives from the International Criminal Court, and shut down USAID, it is all but evident that the 'rules based international order' led by the US following WWII is drawing to a close. The recent '12 Day War' with Iran only laid bare US vulnerabilities, as the former was able to preserve uranium stockpiles, give Tel Aviv a pounding, and launch attacks on Gulf airbases. Domestically, New York City - the capital of the 'American Dream' - recently voted for a staunchly anti-corporate and pro-Palestine candidate as Democratic nominee for mayorship, thus rejecting two central ideological tenets of Western hegemony, i.e. Capitalism and Zionism.
In 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, political theorist Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the 'End of History', asserting liberal capitalism's final triumph. Three decades on, his claim sounds laughable. What comes next is difficult to predict, but two possibilities have been proposed. One is nuclear armageddon, where nations blow each other up following tit-for-tat engagements in 'World War 3'. The other is the ushering in of a 'globalist' order, one premised upon total control and subjugation: an Orwellian nightmare.
There is a third path: a break from endless war, exploitation, and despotism. Its name is Socialism.