REVIEWS

Ideology of the Future by Dr. M. Rafiuddin (3^rd ed. Lahore : Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1961), pp. 480. Price Rs. 18.00.

The third edition (1970) of the book has appeared after the death of the writer, who placed before thinking men the world over the remarkable concept that the urge for ideals is the real, the ultimate and the sole dynamic power of all human activity. This is the central idea of the book, and the writer affirms that the urge for ideals can form the basis of a solution of all social and political problems and of a real and permanent unity of the human race.

The book deserves to be read by men of culture, intellect and understanding in all countries - men who undoubtedly have an urge for ideals, who are keen to know the meaning of the present crisis in human affairs and the future of man.

The writer has endeavoured to provide an answer to the following questions:

What is the purpose and function of the urge for ideals in the nature of man?

What is the relation of this urge to the economic conditions of a society?

How can the human urge for ideals be properly satisfied?

Are all ideals equally satisfactory? If not, what are the qualities of the ideal that is most satisfactory to the nature of man?

What is the relation of the human urge for ideals to the animal instincts of man which have a biological compulsion like sex, food, pugnacity, etc.?

What is the relation of this urge to various departments of human activity such as religion, science, philosophy, and politics?

What is its relation to the ultimate reality of the universe and to the purpose of creation and evolution?

Imperfect ideals, says the writer, mark transitory phases in the history of man and are only mistaken substitutes for the most perfect ideal of the future. Since the forces of our nature are driving us towards this ideal every moment of our life, the total result of all progress of science and philosophy will be to lend greater support to it.

By explaining the urge of the unconscious mind as an urge for Beauty and Perfection, the theory of this book gives a rational and intellectual support to all the great religions of the world.

Dr. Rafiuddin deplores that while the great philosophers and psychologists agree that man has an urge for ideals, they disagree as regards the source, the meaning and the purpose of this urge in the nature of man and, therefore, as regards its relation to his activities. He says that they arrived at faulty conclusions. The another gives the following analysis of their views on the subject:

According to Freud, the urge for ideals has its source in the sex instinct, and its object is to provide man with a substitute activity (in the form of religion, politics, morality, art and science) for the thwarted and obstructed activity of the sexual instinct.

Adler is of the opinion that the urge results from the instinct of self-assertion. When an individual is unable to satisfy a particular desire for power, he creates the desire for a suitable ideal and strives after it to compensate for his sense of inferiority.

McDougall thinks that the ideal impulse is the outcome of a combination of all the instincts (known as the sentiment of self-regard) and subserves the particular instinct of self-assertion.

Karl Marx has advanced the view that ideals are rooted in the economic urge of man and are no more than distorted reflections of his economic conditions.

Dr. Rafiuddin explains that the urge for ideals is neither derived from nor subserves any of the human impulses known as the instincts the object of which is the maintenance of life, but is man’s natural and independent urge for Beauty and Perfection. It is the real, the ultimate and the sole dynamic power of all human activity, whether economic or otherwise.

He says that instead of the class-war theory of Marx, there has proceeded in the human world a war of ideal-groups, which will go onas long as humanity has not discovered and accepted the ideal which is most satisfactory to man’s nature.

The book should be of particular interest to those who are worried oy the political power of Communism. Dr. Rafiuddin says that the strenuous efforts to check the advance of Communism have not succeeded so far because it has not yet been completely realized that the real issue is an intellectual one and can be settled only on the intellectual plane. He explains: “No amount of economic aids or political alliances, armaments or atom bombs, prisons or bullets, can stand against the force of ideas which conquer the hearts of men, and the idea of Communism will persist in the world even after it has been defeated in the battle-field. Communism is a philosophy and can be met only by a philosophy”.

The writer says that if there is a general agreement on the belief that the urge for ideals is the sole dynamic power of human activity, it will create “a world-wide intellectual atmosphere in which Communism will wither away of itself without anybody having to fire a shot, and the peoples of different beliefs and ideals will come closer together for the creation of a new, free, peaceful and prosperous world".

For this general agreement he points to the need for development of man’s knowledge of human nature, particularly of the principles of human motivation, and joins McDougall in emphasizing that the existing chaos in world affairs, fraught with the possibility of a total collapse of civilization, is traceable to the absence of our knowledge of human nature.

Ideology of the Future is in itself a study of the laws of human nature and human activity and the manner in which they determine the course of history or the process of ideological evolution.

 Qayyum Malik