YEAR ZERO IDEOLOGY : GLOBAL PRECIS

In an age where historical narratives are increasingly weaponised and distorted to serve contemporary agendas, we are erasing the past instead of learning from it?

The Hungarian sociologist Frank Furedi refers to this tendency as the product of '' Year Zero Ideology '' [ YZI ]

Furedi describes YZI as an outlook that seeks radical break from the past. It is derived from the ''Year Zero'' evocations of revolutionary governments that [ after coming to power ] wanted to start anew by erasing all ''evil '' memories and structures of the past.

They wanted to divorce history and marry a new epoch.

Some examples in this regard include the American Revolution [1776], the French Revolution [1789], the Chinese Revolution 1949, and the Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia [ 1975].

To Furedi, the ZYI in these cases - although often brutal in its application - at least came with [ albeit Utopian ] plans for a ''better future'' .

In his book '' War Against The Past,'' Furedi differentiates this strand ZYI with its more contemporary strand.

The latter strand, he laments, comes with no plans whatsoever, except to attack the past to enforce the ''moral superiority of the present'', through which it can influence present day affairs.

The World Students Society thanks Nadeem F. Paracha.