Fukuyama’s narration of the emergence of politics throughout
the existence and start of human civilization allows the new learners to
comprehend fully the natural tendencies of human beings to cooperate themselves
in a basic group called kinship. The
human tendencies to group and organize daily activities started the evolution
of politics and government. The book “The Origins of Political Order” started
its preface as to why humans needs politics.
The author further argues that politics are just the results of the
natural organization of humans from then and now. The narrative example of Fukuyama portrays
the development of the small village in Papua New Guinea were the head of the
village created rules to organize the whole village. Tribal rules and survival in Serra Leon
Africa are the example in the book of Fukuyama.
As such, warfare and jungle fighting by tribes are the only survival for
the whole tribe. Clearly, the dominant
tribe will survive the war and take over their land and the fat of it but for
the defeated tribe during the war either they will be slaves or demise in the
history of the world.
But according to Fukuyama, what is the amazing part of
humans is why human race is organized by governments today to the extent of
collaborating into International law and regulations. The second degree that the author mentioned
in his book is the concept of humans to build huge families like the
dynasties. He further mentioned the
famous and politically colorful history of the Chinese dynasties. He said that the Chinese political order and
governance is the most effective at that time but was not able to survive
through the years. From a simple group
of village became a larger group called the dynasty. But then as population increase, dynasties
faces their fellow dynasty counterparts.
The start of political negotiations begins when two or more dynasties in
china must consider the greater good of their families. Just try to imagine that one dynasty will
negotiate to other dynasty considering the many aspect of civilization. Simple business and economics and warfare are
being discussed in the negotiation table for the greater good of all the
dynasties. At this time (referring to
the Chinese dynasty years) warfare survival of a single dynasty is vital to the
survival of all the dynasty family.
When dynasties congest not only in China but also in
Europe. Dynasties must come to choose a
supreme leader to politically manage and organize all the dynasties of the
land. Such that, Emperors, Kings, Tsar, Sultan
are create to lead not just a certain dynasty but rather the whole kingdom or
the land. But two interesting aspect
when the era of Emperor started in human civilization is the formulation of law
and order based from religion and later the political ideology. Come to think of it that during the tribal
war in Papua New Guinea, (As what Fukuyama illustrated in Chapter 1) the
village leader is basing its governance from their myth beliefs during that
time. Worshiping the trees and the moons
per se is the basis of their moral based governance during that time. But when religion started during the Romans
and the Islamic dominance, governments around the world specifically Central
Asia, Africa, and Europe started to revise their law and order patterned to the
morals of the dominant religion of the world.
In that case the reign of Caesar in Rome for example manage its
governance patterned from the dominant religious beliefs of the land. Likewise, in Russia the Tsars also patterned
their political values affecting law and order from the dominant orthodox
Christianity. Religion and religious
groups seem to control the global governance at that time that lead to the
Crusade and the war between Christianity and Islam knowing that they are the
dominant religion of the world at that time that influenced the different
dominant governments of the world. As a
result, politics and governance of the different world governments start to
shift to the new religion of politics which is the political ideology.
The study of democracy and communism started
to capture the nations around the world knowing that the effect of the
religious war in Europe did not brought good governance and world peace. Relatively, political ideology gathered some
important aspects in religion specifically the moral pattern of law. Political Philosophers like John Adams, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill lead to the evolution of the modern philosophy and
law of the world. Most importantly,
while ideology tend to pattern its framework beliefs not solely to the
religious teaching of the world but also to the world of academe and the new
hypothetical and comprehensive findings of science. As what we commonly observed today political
governance are not only referring their political amendments based from their
religious and cultural beliefs but also with the accurate data produced by the
academic community.
Lastly, the book “The Origins of Political Order” captured
my reading mania to further read and study the “Tsar” world of Russia. The famous dynasty of the Romanovs was an
example of the written text of Fukuyama where I come to a conclusion to read
further the book of the Romanovs by Simon Sebag also the author of the
Jerusalem. The Character of Tolstoy,
Anastasia, & Ivan the Terrible will
again allure my reading imagination back when the colorful dynasties and
kingdoms are much richer in history compared to the boring democratic form of
government of today. If I were to choose
and fly back in time I would live and experience the life during the reign of
the Romanovs Dynasty. One academic
comment from the mail on Sunday publication that the book the Romanovs is like
reading the “War and Peace” and “Game of Thrones” book.
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