Avoiding the ‘Trap of Eschatology’
Eschatology is commonly known as “the doctrine of the end times”. In Greek, there is the word aeon which means the end of a phase of history. Then, there is nosi eschatos, “the last one”.
Didie SW
Why do storms blow in Kabul and butterflies flutter in Jakarta? What is being fought for by those who are intolerant and anti-democratic? What\'s wrong with those who keep fighting for the revival of the Piagam Jakarta (Jakarta Charter)?
There are discussions everywhere about the impact of the Taliban\'s victory in Afghanistan on the possible revival of radicalism in the country.
In a focused discussion (FGD) held by the Public Relations Division of the National Police, the head of the National Police Anti-terror Special Detachment 88 (Densus 88) Martinus Hukom shared the concept of eschatology as the theological basis behind the expansion of terrorism throughout history. Taliban sympathizers, including all supporters of theocracy who want a state based on a holy book, certainly hold certain conceptions of salvation that fuel spikes in militancy from time to time.
Also read:
> How ‘Batik’, ‘Peci’ and a Specific Identity Helped Save Evacuees
Like other terrorists and radicals from different backgrounds (cultural, religious, economic and so on), the Taliban believe that today\'s sociopolitical realities are under the grip of Batara Kala (or in their language, thogut, evil leader), so there needs to be a “rescue” – even though they don\'t realize that other people see their actions as a threat to the wider sociopolitical system!
Eschatology is commonly known as “the doctrine of the end times”. In Greek, there is the word aeon which means the end of a phase of history. Then, there is nosi eschatos, “the last one”. Eschatology is commonly associated with the theology of religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which introduce the concept of salvation at the judgment day.
Some interpret it as the end of worldly realities, such as the destruction of planet Earth.
In fact, the term is not confined to the theistic context. In the mythology and folklore that develops in various societies, the concept of eschatology also develops. Some interpret it as the end of worldly realities, such as the destruction of planet Earth. From its root, eschatology refers to the end of a period of time. The spectrum of this "period of time" is culturally diverse so that "end of time" is also a plural concept.
Believing in the end of time and hoping for eternal salvation is a good personal choice.
However, eschatological hopes sometimes dim people’s awareness of today\'s reality. We still remember the tragedy in Uganda in 2000. There were 700 congregants of the “church of the end times” who set themselves on
fire en masse. They adhered to post-millennialism – that the turn of the millennium (1,000 years) was a trace of the time of the Parousia or the second coming of Jesus Christ. Self-immolation was an act of embracing eternal salvation.
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021.
We also remember that at the beginning of quarantine and social distancing policies, many people from various religions refused to close houses of worship. Deep, sometimes radical, appreciation of eternal salvation makes some people ignore the present.
Future hope
Eschatology is a fluid concept. Every religion and tradition has its own point of view. In fact, within one particular religion or tradition, there are various groups of interpretations of the denotation of eschatology. People long for that eternal salvation to come. Usually, the complexity of reality in life pushes people to seek to transcend to a future reality.
On the positive side, this fosters hope and strengthens people. On the negative side, people are trapped in such profound hope for the future that they fail to hope in the present reality. This is what I refer to in this paper as the “trap of eschatology”.
The terrorist community, the radical left or the radical right, including other anti-democratic groups, see modernism, globalism, including the practice of liberal democracy, as institutional hypocrisy that must be completely deconstructed.
Wahhabis, including ISIS, expanded widely after the Arab Spring in 2010.
The communist state to this day sees the state control over its citizens as the best option to avoid the evils of modernization and globalization. Wahhabis, including ISIS, expanded widely after the Arab Spring in 2010. The idea is the same, that democracy is not the best way. However, they are not anti-religious communists. They only want to establish a state based on the scriptures as a form of operationalization of eschatological expectations translated into political praxis.
In Western Europe, at least as noted by Michael Minkenberg (2000), right-wing radicalism continues to strengthen. Neofascism has flourished in Germany, from Munich and Dresden to Molln and Magdeburg, and in France, from Vichy to Vitrolles.
Also read:
> Taliban, Afghanistan, and Indonesia
> There is No “Black and White” in Afghanistan
In 2012 in Germany, thousands of neo-Nazis thronged Dresden, and from 2013 to 2014, the group\'s protests took place in Hamburg, following the Angela Merkel government\'s policy of opening the door to the Middle Eastern refugees. Simultaneously, some right-wing radicals in 2013 emerged by way of the Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) political party which was successful in all state parliaments in the 2014 elections and won 12.6 percent of the vote in the 2017 federal election. AfD is now the strongest opposition to Angela Merkel\'s fat coalition government.
A man on his bicycle rides past a convoy of Taliban fighters patrolling along a street in Kabul on September 2, 2021.
In a media interview, a former terrorist who was arrested by Densus 88, Ustaz Khairul Ghazali, shared the story about the many young ikhwans (men) he saw in North Sumatra who wanted to register as terrorists because they were interested in the promise of meeting 72 angels in heaven later.
The fluid idea of eschatology, from the time dimension, makes some people hold subjective interpretations, which, of course, affect social behavior in the midst of plural and broad social complexities.
Paradox of democracy
In modern times, democracy is accepted as a political system that reconciles eschatological expectations with contemporary realities. Democracy makes it possible for the concepts of justice, equality, freedom and individual rights to have concrete manifestations – although this thesis has become an eternal debate because paradoxes are unavoidable in practice! When democracy gives birth to a paradox, some began to doubt democracy but still accept it as the minus malum system.
In political history, this concept is known as the concept of "king sovereignty" in a monarchy or "state sovereignty" in an authoritarian system.
Meanwhile, others try to build alternative systems, such as the concept of a caliphate. They reject the proposition of the “sovereignty of the people” and want to establish a state based on “the sovereignty of God”. In political history, this concept is known as the concept of "king sovereignty" in a monarchy or "state sovereignty" in an authoritarian system.
There is no reality without conflict. It has become the essence of social life. Even political antagonism, to quote Maurice Duverger (1972), often turns into conflict.
Democracy as a historical thesis certainly contains an antithesis that gives rise to conflict. However, this does not in itself eliminate all good content within the democratic school of thought. So, the choice is not how to destroy, but how to fix democracy.
Pancasila as the lens of time
The founders of the nation, the founding fathers, agreed on democracy as the best political system. They did not choose a theocracy, a religious state, although that was very possible because Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. In fact, when the discussion on the Jakarta Charter turned into a fierce debate, the founders had big hearts to accept Pancasila as the basis of the state.
The salvation that religion offers can only be realized in worldly life through the enforcement of just and civilized humanitarian principles in a national coexistence that upholds unity. Bung Karno – Indonesia’s founding
president Sukarno – said in a speech before the BPUPKI session on 1 June, 1945, that establishing a nation-state called "Indonesia" was "establishing one Nationale staat, above the unity of the Indonesian territory from the tip of Sumatra all the way to Irian [Papua]”.
The democracy that we are building is not an imported democracy, but a system that adapts to the local context, namely "deliberations in consensus" for the sake of realizing social justice for all Indonesian people.
Residents pass near the Garuda Pancasila bird mural as a national symbol on Jalan Rambutan, Larangan, Tangerang City, Banten, Monday (6/1/2020). Commemoration of the birth of Pancasila every June 1 refers to the history of the emergence of Pancasila by Soekarno, the First President of the Republic of Indonesia.
It is clear that Pancasila, as Weltanschauung, implies that Pancasila is (a) a time lens for us to look at the present and the future as an independent nation-state with which we can have the same glasses as a national entity and (b) a world view or philosophy that underlies the whole system of thinking in organizing the nation-state. In other words, Pancasila is the eschatology foundation for us to hope for salvation in the future by appreciating and interpreting life today and togetherness as one Indonesia.
Boni Hargens, Director of the Indonesian Electoral College (LPI); political science instructor at several universities
(This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko).
