Dr. Mahmoud Al-Rajabi

With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the euphoria of victory in the West, the theory of "Fukuyama" emerged in 1992, suggesting that liberalism and its values of freedom, equality, globalization, and economic capitalism represent the pinnacle of human development. This means that humans will not produce a better system than liberalism because throughout history, humans have sought to build a better civilization. Civilizations and systems have fallen in order to reach the end of history, where humans have achieved what they desire.

In this article, we will not discuss the fate of this dying theory - according to some perspectives - but we want to speak in a language that the ordinary person understands, away from philosophical assumptions.

If we look at the world today, can we find a rational person who speaks of living in the best ages of life filled with justice, equality, and fair distribution of wealth, among other things? Have conflicts in the world ended? And if there is stability in a certain region, is it due to justice and people's satisfaction with what is allocated to them, or is it a result of oppression and people's inability to express themselves?

Let's look at a statistic related to the economic dimension of Western civilization, which is based on complete economic freedom and the removal of all forms of social protection from the less fortunate or those who cannot compete in a world that operates on the principle of "survival of the fittest." This statistic indicates that poverty in the greatest country in the world, America, is close to 12%, and there are more than forty million Americans who cannot find a place to live, sleeping on the streets or in their cars. If you want to see the issue without exaggeration or bias, you can search for the documentary film "Poverty in America" on DW channel, where you can see unregulated capitalism in all its details. You will be astonished that in the year 2024, a person can live in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, and not have enough food and have to sleep in their car because they are sick and unable to work long hours, under a rapidly advancing economic system that tramples on anyone who walks too slowly or experiences the slightest illness.

And the questions become even more bewildering when we know that this country, which houses forty million homeless people, spends over $753 billion annually on its military. If we delve into the matter, the purpose of building any army and military power in the world is to ensure the safety of its people. Can there be such a large number of homeless people while we talk about security? I will not discuss here the issue of the proliferation of weapons in America, the high crime rate, people's lack of security, their need to arm themselves for protection, and the even bigger surprise, that the greatest country in the world has 2.3 million prisoners in its prisons, which means 756 prisoners per hundred thousand people. In another calculation, they constitute a quarter of the world's prisoners.

This is in America. As for the world, according to World Bank statistics, there are more than 700 million people living in extreme poverty worldwide, meaning their income does not exceed $2.15 per day. Since 2020, due to the coronavirus and its aftermath, the world has suffered a significant decline in income, and the dream of eradicating poverty by 2030 seems far-fetched.

On top of all that we mentioned earlier, there is a huge disparity in wealth. You can say that every country in the world has a few people who control the majority of the wealth in that country. While 11 people die every minute due to hunger and malnutrition in the world, according to statistics from the international organization Oxfam.

Let's move on to the political aspect and the control of several countries over the Security Council, and the presence of the occupying state that kills, destroys, and assassinates medical personnel and children, and enjoys the support of Western countries that claim to uphold liberalism and high human values, without their leaders batting an eyelid or feeling guilty. So far, more than 28,000 martyrs have fallen in Gaza, and the number is likely to increase, and no major Western country condemns this.

All of this leads us to ask: Is Western liberalism the pinnacle of civilization that humanity cannot surpass? Is it not time for humanity to reach a more just human system based on positive values and true equality?

Can a global system based on discrimination, double standards, and favoring the wealthy continue? It is known within historical cycles that humanity always progresses to a new system in an attempt to achieve justice and humanity.

Between one moment and another, humanity will give birth to a global system that is more just, based on equality for all, regardless of color, gender, religion, or race. And it seems that what is happening in Gaza has accelerated the exposure of this cruel global system that simply allows a small city to be starved, its children killed, its hospitals bombed, and its patients killed, while still awaiting investigation as if the obvious needs someone to prove its existence.

Western liberalism will die and be buried in the same grave where Fukuyama's theory of the end of history was laid.