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Science and Post-Modernism By professor Dahana

(1) The world has crossed the threshold of the post-modern era. There is no room for denying this fact. Modernism, like the tribalism and classical civilization, is ready to become a saga of the past, and thus, making way for the dominance of the post-modernism. The history of evolution indicates that the process of social transition is not peaceful. Karl Marx declares the doctrine of negation-of-negation as the basic benchmark in the paradigm of historical evolution, according to which social evolution stems from the class conflict. This conflictual pattern could be better appreciated, if weighed on the scale of the doctrine of negation-of-negation. On the basis of this doctrine, modernism is losing its glitter. Therefore, the world is afflicted with the stigma of social and perceptual crisis, which has been permeated by the element of violence in the wake of prejudice. It is mondial approach of the nature. But here the nature does not command necessity for the man to obey her laws. The rope has never been made that binds the evolutionary process, though the pattern of peaceful evolutionary process could be defined. However, it has defied the man so far.

(2)	The first agrarian revolution flourished with the use of the modern agricultural implements, which established the dominance of the agricultural civilization by impaling the hunting and cattlemanship. The Neolithic era got into the offing ten thousand years B.C., in which the plough was the centrepiece. The agricultural production increased manifold when the beastly power of the draught animals, like ox, donkey, horse and camel, was utilized along with the plough. In view of the hard work and magnifying economic potential, the men engaged with the agriculture in place of the women./In view of the hard work and magnifying economic potential, the agricultural was taken over by the men from the women. The agricultural revolution was the mother of the civilization and commerce, and also nursed the slavery. First of all, the agricultural revolution, laid down the foundation of the trade towns. Agricultural kingdom was established under the king. The agricultural revolution was the precursor of the primitive civilizations and kingdoms such as Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Helmand, Mehr Garh, Harrapa, Menjodarro (Mohin Jee Dera). The second revolution in the agricultural system was due to the discovery of the metals, in which the role of iron was pivotal. The bronze and copper were in use as much as four thousand years B.C. One thousand years later, iron equipment and implements made their advent. With the technological advances, not only the production of agricultural implements, but also that of the military hardware started. In this way, another bone of contention emerged. It triggered a new series of bloody wars, out of which great classical empires took birth. The great kings of Greece, Rome, Iran, China, India and the Middle East represented this civilization. The moving force behind this classical civilization was trade and slavery. The mysticism came to the fore to pull down the spiritual battlement of distinction between the master and the mastered, whereas religion presented a code of life. The perceptual foundation of the classical civilization came to be based on the spiritual sanctity.

(3)	Modernism was the movement of the entrepreneurs, craftsmen, and the peasants that established the supremacy of the modern culture by brushing aside the classical civilization. The trade played an important role in enhancing the prospects for agriculture and industry. But the trade was also responsible for providing impetus to the landlordship and the slavery. The economy based on trade also helped flourish the arithmetic, the language, and the city state. Since creativity is the soul of industry, the inventions and devices of the craftsmen spearheaded the industrial progress. In the 16th century, the conflicting interests of the sections of the society, belonging to the trade and industry and that of the landlords, came to a head. The pro-modernism intellectuals challenged the absolutism of the ideology, the heart and soul of the classical civilization. Under absolutism, the pope in Rome had been given the decisive powers on every subject, including science. As a counterforce against the absolutism, the intellectuals believing in modernism put forward the notion of rationalism. They demanded to put the concepts on the anvil of criticism to assess their worth. The absolutists and the rationalists were pitted against one another, which in fact was the ideological conflict due to the economic unevenness between the traders and industrialist class and the landlords. In 1553, Copernicus declared the sun as the centre of the solar system and the earth as its satellite planet, revolving around this star. Soon afterwards, Galileo Galilei invented telescope, and supported the theory put forward by Copernicus on the basis of his observations. The research conducted by Johann Kepler and Brono also proved the earth as one of the planets orbiting the sun. The religious courts established by the pope, chastised these scientists. In this regard, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Brono have a prominent niche among the first martyrs of modernism. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell, executed the king of England, Charles I. It was an unprecedented move, jolting the whole of Europe to the very core. Cromwell was the representative of the industrialist class in the House of Commons. He raised a modern army in England, which played an important role in the military victory of industrialist class.

(4)	The invention of the engine in the beginning of the 18th century proved to be another jewel in the crown of the industrial revolution. A new productivity system had come into being, hugely transforming the man and the society. The path of progress for the modern philosophy, modern science, and modern literature was opened up. The forces resisting the modernism met their end. In line with the new economic realities, a new social order was established. The concept of a national state and state institutions are the product of the modernism. The structure of parliament, constitution, law, democracy, judiciary and other institutions was established under the capitalist system. The modernism provided a fresh blueprint in the sphere of knowledge, literature, research criticism and morality that became the foundation-stone for literary, scientific and socio-political concepts. In principle, the modern civilization was founded on the ideological core of the system and structure, in which the nationalism assumed central importance. Apart from the nationalism, the rest of the elements relating to the identity, were declared of secondary importance.

(5)	As the 19th century drew to a close, the logical consequences of the economic system were realized. The corporations had the stranglehold on the industrial system in the guise of an evil. The skyrocketing prices and the unemployment assumed epidemic proportions. The industrial, economic and the moral order seemed to have caved in. Europe and America were engulfed by a colossal recession. The monopoly of the trade, industry, and financial system was but natural because the corporations were far more potent than the factory owners. Many leading brains, including Karl Marx, Lenin, and Friedrich Engels, contributed their thoughts to the discourse on the monopoly and recession. Lenin and Engels declared the monopoly as the last bastion of the capitalism. But on the other end of the spectrum, Karl Hilferding and others opposed such a standpoint.

(6)	The conflictual nature of the economic interests of the corporations plunged Europe into the World Wars. As a result, the world map was changed. The defeat of the modernism came to a conclusion. Europe lay in ruin. Socialist revolutions took place in Russia and China. America came under the hegemony of the corporations. Colonialism took a new form in a way that the colonies of the modern Europe got entangled with the corporate American system. By dropping an atom bomb on Japan, America had warned the Soviet Union that the former was more powerful in seizing the former European colonies. America played the cards of its might well during the cold war. The institutions like the World Bank. International Monetary Fund (IMF), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were established under the American Corporate system, the World Trade Organization (WTO) being the latest addition to the brood. The corporate system created consumerism by means of allowing the individual countries to seek easy developmental loans, unfettered access to the elementary education, medical care insurance, unemployment benefits, etc. After the reconstruction process of Europe through the Marshal Plan, the American corporations extended their network to the Third World countries, under which loans were provided to Pakistan for the construction of the dams.

(7)	The tremendous advances made in the post-modern science and technology were the key factors in the successful march of the American corporate capitalism. By the close of the 19th century, the science and technology entered a new phase of evolution. Rutherford revealed that the atom was not the indivisible basic unit of the matter. He went on to reveal that the atom was a unit consisting of sub-atomic particles, in whose nucleus lay hidden colossal amount of energy. With more strides in the research, the existence of particles like electrons, protons, neutrons was also discovered, though the modern science had declared atom as the indivisible basic unit of the matter. The scientists like Ernest Rutherford, James Chidwick, and Thompson laid down the foundation of the particle physics by discovering the sub-atomic particles. The scientists have discovered almost 150 particles of this nature. Particle physics is associated with the post-modern scientific era. CERN, a world-famous institution, is dedicated to the research in the field of particle physics. The leading scientists from all over the world are associated with it. The monopoly of the corporations on the post-modern science and technology was a logical consequence of the capital concentration. The mill owners and the smallish companies could not have the potential to harness the power post-modern technology. The resistance against the corporate system did take place, but it subsided. The factories were closed, but the corporations grew fatter. Some of the Pakistani intellectual elite jawed about America drowning in the swallow-hole of massive debts and enormous budget deficit. The others related it to the rapid growth of socialism. But on the other hand, the corporations had got their teeth into the financial system. In the post-modern science and technology, the corporations are holding a sway in the spheres of particle physics, quantum mechanics, electronics, electro-mechanic technology, laser technology, computer science and technology, bio-chemistry, molecular biology, genetic engineering, tissue culture and cloning, bio-technology, space science, astrophysics, socio-biology, social engineering, and political engineering. After the hot burst of the Soviet Union in the process of the cold war, the international corporations have set their heart on bringing the economies of the Third World countries and their intellectual property under the corporate system by customizing them. It would construe to be an attempt to put the corporate robot on the back of a nag of the modernism. America leads the way in the post-modern science and technology. Therefore, American role unequivocally is aggressive in the economic and political engineering of the Third World. The irony is that the countries like China, Russia, Japan, Australia and the whole of Europe have become shareholders in the corporate system. Various sections are suffering various consequences in the process of the reorganization of the Third World. The ruling clique is struggling to ensure its own vested interest. Afghanistan and Iraq are under the occupation of America and its allies. But it is not wrong to contend that in these counties the American corporations have installed such dummy rulers who are their bootlickers. Not any state, but the resistant groups are active against the aggressive policies of the post-modern corporate occupation. It becomes abundantly clear that the nations are not head to head, but the conflicting interests of the factions are locked in a tug-of-war. America is supporting its friends and declaring the foes as terrorists. However, the corporate elite class sugar-coats it as a war for the sake of liberty and democracy. But the real intents, when judged against all the correct actualities, would narrow down to the fact that the American corporations are sharpening the skills of the poverty-stricken world in the humbling and humiliating art of the post-modern slavery.

References:

1.	Modernity, Globalization & Identity (Avijit Pothak) 2.	A People’s History of the World (Chris Harman 3.	A Brief History of Science (Thamas Crump) 4.	Naked Imperialism (John Bellamy Foster)