Trump’s MAGA, Modi’s Ramrajya, Imran's Riyasat-e-Madina-why are so many leaders looking to the past?

[Gabbar Singh]

And why is this so popular amongst the electorate?

 

[Madplayer]

I think you have clubbing Riyasat e Madina there is wrong when Imran's aim of using this term is opposite of how the other two leaders have used their terminology. Whenever Imran used the term he talked about minority rights and his aim is to use the religious terminology to counter the religious right while playing their game. The other two leaders have based their slogans on clear xenophobia.

Apart from this, speaking in general terms populists do cite past glory to rally people. Its nothing new.

 

[CricketCartoons]

I think you have clubbing Riyasat e Madina there is wrong when Imran's aim of using this term is opposite of how the other two leaders have used their terminology. Whenever Imran used the term he talked about minority rights and his aim is to use the religious terminology to counter the religious right while playing their game. The other two leaders have based their slogans on clear xenophobia.

Apart from this, speaking in general terms populists do cite past glory to rally people. Its nothing new.

RamRajya was the original wish of Apostle of Peace, MK Gandhi. Ram Rajya also has place for minority rights. One sign of Ram Rajya is that tiger and deer drink water from the river together. Similar to Imran Khan's Riyasat-e-Madina.

 

[Madplayer]

RamRajya was the original wish of Apostle of Peace, MK Gandhi. Ram Rajya also has place for minority rights. One sign of Ram Rajya is that tiger and deer drink water from the river together. Similar to Imran Khan's Riyasat-e-Madina.

I dont doubt that. I was referring to how these leaders are using these terms in politics.

 

[CricketCartoons]

I dont doubt that. I was referring to how these leaders are using these terms in politics.

Modi ji is using it in the same spirit. Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas.

 

[Madplayer]

Modi ji is using it in the same spirit. Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas.

If you believe so.

 

[Gayle_Force]

I think it is because its easier for people to visualize the past as compared to visualizing the future.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

And why is this so popular amongst the electorate?

It’s an effective rallying cry. Note:
- Happy Days Are Here Again - Franklin D Roosevelt during the Great Depression
- The Third Reich (in reference to the first two) - Adolf Hitler during Germany’s period of economic shambles in the 1920’s
- Slogans of restoring Italy to the glory of Ancient Rome - Benito Mussolini, who referred to himself as Il Duce (derived from the Roman title Dux meaning leader)

Everyone wants to return to the glory days from the stories they are taught as kids. Ancient valor and pride is deeply encoded in our system and considered superior to what we have today, especially during times of turmoil.

It’s more effective to claim you have a way of going back to how things used to be, than claim you have a groundbreaking policy that will usher the country into a new age.

 

[Syed1]

Imran uses the term Riyasat-e-Madina as a goal to build a modern, welfare state as was the original Riyasat-e-Madina. He often talks about minority rights and aims that Pakistan reaches such a state where a common person belonging to minority religion won a case against the caliph at the time.


Meanwhile Trump is a white supremacist and Modi is Hindutva filth.

 

[Robert]

And why is this so popular amongst the electorate?

Because we all delete the bad stuff about the past and remember the good fondly.

In the case of MAGA, Trump subliminally programmed blue collar Americans to recall a time when they had jobs for life and decent pensions and could raise their families and were able to participate in the American Dream. Then he anchored himself into those feelings by holding rallies the day after a City was bombarded by MAGA messages on FB.

Johnson did it when he ran for London Mayor with talk of friendly old Routemaster buses.

The alt-right is way ahead of the liberals in this new linguistic technology.

 

[Lurker_Ind]

Past always looks rosy and awesome for people who have no faith in their abilities or lack confidence to look into the future.

All the people who want to bring back the past, they would not survive a day in that environment. Constant wars, Famines, Disease will kill more than half of these wimps.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

Even Congress are at it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Our goal is to establish Gandhi's Ram Rajya, says Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel<br><br>Read <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ANI</a> Story | <a href="https://t.co/Ys4vZHVKST">https://t.co/Ys4vZHVKST</a> <a href="https://t.co/QEzRjU0dnC">pic.twitter.com/QEzRjU0dnC</a></p>— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) <a href="https://twitter.com/ani_digital/status/1333243446438465536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[KB]

Those that invoke the past often do so not to return to it but to use it as an inspiration to remake the present.

Walter Benjamin, a German philosopher, once wrote of a 'past charged with the time of now':

"History is the subject of a structure whose site is not homogeneous, empty time, but time filled by the presence of the now (‘Jetztzeit’). Thus, to Robespierre ancient Rome was a past charged with the time of the now which he blasted out of the continuum of history. The French Revolution viewed itself as Rome incarnate."

In other words a recollection of an often mythologised past can itself produce a collective sense of being on the cusp of a new and better era.

 

[from_da_lost_dim3nsion]

I think it is because its easier for people to visualize the past as compared to visualizing the future.

This , Also we tend to romanticize the past

 

[daytrader]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The core of every civilization is its spiritual principles; when they die, the civilization dies. Understanding the PTI ideology.<a href="https://t.co/U06hriykou">https://t.co/U06hriykou</a></p>— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1578964891259789312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[sweep_shot]

Past was golden. Present sucks. Present is abnormal thanks to leftists.

This is why populism worldwide is increasing.

 

[Romali_rotti]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The core of every civilization is its spiritual principles; when they die, the civilization dies. Understanding the PTI ideology.<a href="https://t.co/U06hriykou">https://t.co/U06hriykou</a></p>— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1578964891259789312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Says the guy who was a womaniser, that drank, did drugs and party hard during his hey day.

Now he is trying to look like a messiah..


Oh please...

 

[RajBan]

Because the political mainstream now thrives on populism and none of these leaders , who basically thrive on populist gimmicks, want to tell their illiterate (regardless of degrees) citizens that it needs lot of hard work and patience to make gradual progress over several decades.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Says the guy who was a womaniser, that drank, did drugs and party hard during his hey day.

Now he is trying to look like a messiah..


Oh please...

That was life in Britian back in those days, if you landed there as a young man with the world's most beautiful women throwing themselves at you, would be pretty hard to resist. He's not living there any more, but seems like you are.

 

[rhony]

Right-wing typically taps into the collective conscience of a perceived "glorious" past. This agenda typically sticks when the world stinks with extreme leftwing agenda. When People see others that wonder which gender they will be tomorrow, they want to think about their glorious past when times were simple and precious. It's a standard fare. At the end, both extreme left wing and extreme right wing are stupid.

 

[sweep_shot]

Says the guy who was a womaniser, that drank, did drugs and party hard during his hey day.

Now he is trying to look like a messiah..


Oh please...

People can change. Imran seems like a changed man now.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

All cultures prefer to refer to their so called golden eras or a muthic past to serve as inspiration. I think its intrinsic to humans to take pride in their past while ignoring the massive flaws in characterizing the distant past as some utopia

 

[Champ_Pal]

If a politician is quoting religion, it means he is hiding his own failures. Religion is a nice curtain to fool masses by pulling a quick one on them.

 

[Champ_Pal]

All cultures prefer to refer to their so called golden eras or a muthic past to serve as inspiration. I think its intrinsic to humans to take pride in their past while ignoring the massive flaws in characterizing the distant past as some utopia

There were massive famines, mass rapes, extreme violence in the past. People used to die very young and only 1 in 4 infants used to survive past age 2. Medicine was at its most primitive stage.

I don’t know which deluded individual wants to live in the past. It was absolutely horrible.

 

[sweep_shot]

There were massive famines, mass rapes, extreme violence in the past. People used to die very young and only 1 in 4 infants used to survive past age 2. Medicine was at its most primitive stage.

I don’t know which deluded individual wants to live in the past. It was absolutely horrible.

Past can mean many different eras.

I am a 90's kid. I think 90's was bloody awesome. 90's was a normal period. Modern period is highly abnormal.

 

[SalimBhai]

There is no difference between Medina ki riyasaat and the midi ideal. You don’t see much friction in Pakistan as Pakistani hardly has any minorities left. On another more there was a great article written by a woman in an English publication about Medina ki riyasat. Goes it great detail about it. Much better system that it replaced. However in todays world it would be a fascist state. I tend to agree with the sentiment.

 

[KB]

It’s an effective rallying cry. Note:
- Happy Days Are Here Again - Franklin D Roosevelt during the Great Depression
- The Third Reich (in reference to the first two) - Adolf Hitler during Germany’s period of economic shambles in the 1920’s
- Slogans of restoring Italy to the glory of Ancient Rome - Benito Mussolini, who referred to himself as Il Duce (derived from the Roman title Dux meaning leader)

Everyone wants to return to the glory days from the stories they are taught as kids. Ancient valor and pride is deeply encoded in our system and considered superior to what we have today, especially during times of turmoil.

It’s more effective to claim you have a way of going back to how things used to be, than claim you have a groundbreaking policy that will usher the country into a new age.

These are good examples and I agree that the spirit of a ‘golden age’ is often invoked to mobilise and unite people in a common purpose, especially in times of uncertainty or crisis. But I disagree that these are examples of anti-modern movements seeking to “go back” to an earlier time. Instead the imagined past is used as an inspiration remake the present and chart a different future. This is best expressed in the phrase that comes from the slogan once deployed by the Italian far right party, Movimento Sociale Italiano: ‘Nostalgia for the Future’.

Karl Marx once asked: “Why did the revolutionaries themselves anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service and borrow from them names, battle cries, and costumes in order to present the new scene of world history in this time honoured disguise and borrowed language?” His own answer was that “awakening of the dead in bourgeois revolutions served the purpose of glorifying the new struggles, not parodying the old; of magnifying the given task in imagination, not fleeing from its solution in reality; of finding once more the spirit of revolution, not making a ghost walk around again.”

If you wanted an alternative example of someone who I think really did want to go back to an imagined (and mythical) past, you could look at Gandhi. In his words, “It is my deliberate opinion that India is being ground down not under the English heel but under that of modern civilisation.” He abhorred modern civilisation that emerged from the industrial revolution. Instead he sought an India ‘returning’ to its supposed roots in agriculture and rural crafts, an India made up of self-governing and self-sufficient villages. This was a highly idealised vision of rural life and one that was not the basis of a pragmatic political programme. But it was genuinely anti-modern and backwards looking.

But in the examples stated above, and in the case of Modi, Trump and Imran, I don’t see these as leaders of an anti-modern movement looking to make the ‘ghosts’ walk again. Rather they remember the past and invoke its spirit in order to mobilise popular support, to renew the present and remould the future.

 

[SalimBhai]

I think the three leaders mentioned do want to go back to the times they admire so much. In the USA the hate curtailed womens rights. Some want to outlaw interracial marriage, take out evolution out of school books ( Pakistan already did that under imran) and uncle modi the less said the better. Of the three I see modi and his movement as the most toxic and the one gaining more momentum. In the USA there is a strong push back against trumps ideas