KARACHI: While individualism creates the idea of formal equality as espoused in democracies, it has its paradoxical qualities that introduce new forms of power.

This was said in conclusion of his lecture by Arsalan Khan, an assistant professor of anthropology at Union College, NY, USA, on the topic of ‘Liberalism and the Individual’ at T2F on Thursday evening. He was supposed to be joined by another speaker, Omar Shaukat, but he could not make it to the event.

Mr Khan delivered his talk mainly by discussing French political scientist and thinker Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859). He said de Tocqueville was an aristocrat who in order to escape the effects of the French Revolution went to the US. He said in Pakistan the term ‘liberal’ was a ‘fraught’ one. It’s attacked by some for being ‘western’ and favoured by others for representing things like tolerance. He said liberalism was organised around the idea of the individual.

Mr Khan said when de Tocqueville was in the US, he found a significant difference between aristocracy and democracy and American and French societies. He observed the influence of democracy on Americans and noticed that their culture was very individualistic. He said culture was the principal cause giving them a specific identity. He said the French thinker was writing his impressions at a time when the old aristocratic order was still there in which certain learned people determined truth and nobody knew that the modern individualistic order was going to triumph. With individualism, the opposite happened where individuals became equal. But, he said, there was a paradox in it. When nobody’s reason was better than the other’s how could one arrive at truth. So, he said, the individual would feel very small in the sum total of society. He said in democratic societies public opinion emerged and the individualistic people had to go with the greater number.

Mr Khan said de Tocqueville noticed that in the US associations flourished as there was a proliferation of civic groups. He said newspapers was one example which “deposit the same thoughts in a thousand minds”. He said the state was another example which could be a powerful entity in the lives of the people. He said every state had a curriculum of some kind that told people that they ought to think in a certain way.

Taking de Tocqueville thoughts further, Mr Khan said liberalism could produce totalitarian entities and economic restlessness. He said in America people had money but they were always looking for more wealth, therefore the reality of equality grew exponentially in the shape of capitalism. Giving out the basic differences between democracy and aristocracy he said it was a case of the individual versus the whole, autonomy versus interdependence, and materialism versus economic inertia.

After that Mr Khan briefly shifted his focus to English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) with the claim that he found him boring. He said Locke was the kind of liberal that de Tocqueville was talking about. He said as per Locke, God had bequeathed the world to everyone but it was mine (read: individual’s) on the basis of property.

To sum up his talk he said the idea of formal equality had its paradoxes because it introduced new forms of power. After the lecture the floor was opened for the question-answer session.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2016