A
Short Background of J. J. Rousseau: (1712-1778)
J. J. Rousseau was born 1712, Geneva,
Switzerland and he died in 1778 with the age of 66 years. His mother died few
years; and he was raised by his father.
 |
| Jean Jacques Rousseau |
Generally his life was full of tragedy,
and through the tragedy life he managed to live and survive in the hard
situation, he was even being chased everywhere he visited.
In 1749 Rousseau won a first prize in a contest sponsored by the academy of Dijon for his essay on a question, “Has the
progress of the science and art contributed to the corruption or the
improvement of human conduct?” In this essay he gave answers which were an
attack on the corruption effects of civilization and instantly made him famous.
Rousseau-the philosopher, novelist and
composer he had so many works such as “Discourse on the origin and foundation
of inequality among men (1754), the novel “La Nouvelle Heloise (1761), and his
famous book “The Social Contract”. There are so many things to learn from
Rousseau for instance on political philosophy, politics, education even in
literature.
INTRODUCTION
After we have seen the historical
background of J. J. Rousseau, let us now concentrate on this theme, discuss it
in detail using different ideas of J. J. Rousseau on the MODERN POLITICIANS,
specifically in East African Countries; such as Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda
and Burundi.
Rousseau
and the Concept of Society
In his work “The Social Contract”
Rousseau explains that, men surrender all their individual rights to the body
of society-that is the state; since
all men surrender their rights to the body of society, they normally expect
great things like being united and put together to fulfill some functions, but wonderful
enough Rousseau comes to discover that, the body of society tends to corrupt
man because it generally rests on power and exploitation rather than on law and
co-operation. Take an example in our country (Tanzania) what the politicians are
doing now, is just to divide Tanzanians in different social classes, they have
even attempted to engage in mass corruption which has resulted in to the
disorganized society because of not taking on to consideration on the law.
In our East African Countries laws are
not a great deal; simply because the politicians wants only to exploit their
people, they do not care about their citizens’ life in general, Rousseau saw
and knew this.
Rousseau suggests that the state would
be governed solely by the law, and the citizen could function at sometimes as
free individual and as members of the society whose exclusive goal is the
common goal.
In the society, Rousseau says, men had
forgotten to learn from nature rather than be themselves, they strove for creation of a desirable image
of themselves in the eyes of their fellow men.
Since men sacrificed their birth rights
as citizens and self-determined beings for the sake of security, pleasure, and
comfort, things now has changed, they invited the distraction of all freedom,
although men are born free and with the gift of reason they are now living as
slaves and dupes in their own countries. Look at the Kenyan people in 2007
December, so many citizens were killed, you know why? Because what they decided
in a ballot box was actually different, once they tried to reason why they
found themselves being killed by the politicians.
Rousseau goes on saying that, men are
now using their natural gifts to impress and oppress other men, instead of
living with them in a free and brotherly community, now the question here is,
does the modern politicians know this? The answer is clear, they know nothing
about it, since we normally experience in our society those who have power
normally oppress those of powerless, by even taking their land without their
consent.
Rousseau still puts clear, the social contact creates different things such as the state, sovereignty and so forth.
In the state we all expect equality that
is moral and legitimate, by its men who may be unequal in strength or
intelligence become everyone equal by convention and legal right. The question
now comes, do our modern politicians observe this? The reality is, they don’t
observe it, you know why?
Under bad government, like ours today,
the equality is only apparent and illusory; it serves only to keep the poor in
his poverty and the rich man in the position he has usurped.
In fact, laws are always in use to those
who possess, and harmful to those who have nothing, now we come to know that
the social state is advantageous to men only when all have something and none have too much. But this is not
taken in to consideration by our politicians, that is why so many people in our
East African Countries are poor and we always observe quarrels everywhere for
instance in Mtwara last year, this was the great quarrel between the citizens
and their political leaders, on the claim that, the matter of the establishment
of natural gas in Mtwara.
By sovereignty, Rousseau says, it is the
society organized to define and enforce its laws. In this concept Rousseau
talks on the government. For Rousseau
the term government means, an intermediate body, set up between the (people as)
subjects, and the (people as) sovereignty, to secure their mutual
correspondence to execute the laws and to maintain liberty. The members of this
body are called governors.
Government is hence simply and solely a
commission in which the governors, mere officials of the sovereign people,
exercise in their own name the power which is invested in them by the people.
For the state to be properly balanced
there must be an equality between the power of the government and the power of
citizens, for the latter are on the one hand, sovereign on the other hand,
subject. The function of the government is to administer laws.
Rousseau says: the functions of law
maker needs to be considered. He says “He who holds command over men (the
government) ought not to holds command over laws (the legislator) ought not to
holds command over men, their right has been being undermined by them”.
As we know that, the life principle of
the body politics lies in the sovereign authority, it follows then that, the legislative power is the heart of the
state; the executive power is its
brain; the brain may become paralyzed and the body still live; but as soon as
the heart ceases to performs its functions, the organism is dead, this means
that, where the laws grow weak as they become old, there is no longer a
legislative power and the state is dead.
It is clear that in our East African
Countries the state are now dead as Rousseau affirms, this is because the
politicians of our countries are now trying to amend or to make new
constitutions so that they can prolong to be in power, they are making the best
constitution for them but Rousseau says even the best will have an end. We can
experience this from Tanzanian constitution review on which the citizens
proposed how it should, but the politicians are only inducing their own
interests so that they can proceed exploiting our natural resources “The state
is dead”.
Rousseau believed that all the citizens
should be equally involved in the making of the laws, that the laws should not
be made even by the representatives, but we can see in our country is different
the real example is; the Warioba Committee collected the views and opinions
from the citizens but wonderful enough the politicians have ignored them
pretending that they hold our views, No! They are only deceivers.
Rousseau says “Human relationships are
now full of deceptions” whereas earlier people could easily see through one
another.
Rousseau
on Morals and Virtues
Rousseau says “The politicians of the
ancient world were always talking about morals and virtues; ours speak of
nothing but commerce and money”.
From this point of view, Rousseau was
clearly correct as if he is still alive, our politicians have forgotten to talk
about morals and virtue, that is why in Tanzania the Arusha Declaration has
been buried by our politicians and now they are pretending that they respect
Nyerere’s view, they are only liers, they are involving in luxury things.
Rousseau says “Luxury could produce a
brilliant but not lasting society”, he goes on saying, for although money buys
everything else, it cannot by morals and citizens.
When the society has lost morals and
virtues, what are the consequences, the question now is; no longer whether a
person is trustful but rather he is clever and cunning.
CONCLUSION
Strictly speaking, Rousseau was a
prophet, since what he discussed at that time it is still relevant even today.
Our politicians are no longer politicians as the ancient used to be, a simple
example is our National Founder, Mwalimu Nyerere, he used much morals and
virtue, that is why we got an independence, look at the politicians of today in
a real sense are no longer leaders but only exploiters as Rousseau said.
I would rather suggest that, our
politicians learn and read different works of this man so that they can change
their perspectives on politics, this will help them to think of morality and
virtues within their countries and think of improving the lives of their
citizens; let them stop thinking of commerce and money. This will even help
people/citizens to remain in their career, not like now where careers are
running from their fields and wants to become politicians, you know why?
Because of commerce and money.
REFERENCES
Stumpf, S. E. (1994). Philosophy and Problems: 5th
Edition. USA: McGraw-Hill Inc.
Moore, B. N. and Bruder, K. (2005). Philosophy the Power of Ideas: 6th
Edition. USA: McGrow-Hill
Inc.
Castell, A. and Borchert, D. M. (1983). An Introduction to Modern Philosophy:
Examining the Human
Condition. USA: Macmillan Publishing Co-Inc.
Herold, J. C. (1972). The Horizon Book of Makers of Modern Thought.
New York: American Heritage
Publishing Company.
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