"Why are our politicians so corrupt?"
"Man, I hate my government. The people running it are inept and I can't get anything done without paying a bribe."
"Our laws are so archaic. We should change them! But our politicians, my god, they are so corrupt. Lets march instead of exercising our power to vote and influence government!"
(Sadly, people who say the last one aren't usually being sarcastic)
I don't really think we are sharing ideas/thoughts/feelings about our politicians that are founded in rationality anymore. Corruption is horrible, I agree. But really, if you think about it, corruption in a democracy is really a function of a bunch of apathetic, ignorant voters making suboptimal choices in choosing who amongst them gets the selfless, prestigious role of governing them. (Or, it is a result of man being fundamentally evil and the potency of power to reveal this - however, as cynical as I tend to be, this is a conclusion I cannot bring myself to believe).
I'm not a fan of bolding/italicising things, so when I do both, I'm clearly being desperate in making a point. The discussion revolves around us, the people, and the obvious realisation that politicians aren't extra terrestrial beings sent to rule over us. They are, in fact, us. These are people that we went to school with (possibly), lived in the same city with and possibly share lots of things in common with. They are us. They too enjoy biryani and hot tea on cold days. Actually, we should be electing people that are most like us and whose views mimic ours and hence, we can be best represented (lol,jk?). And we, Indians, as a people are inherently selfish. We have to be - it's a dominant trait in a severely resource constrained world. It isn't something we can wish away.
However, we believe that once we elect our government officials that they are to rise above their own selfish interests and instead, selflessly serve us while we ourselves go about living out our days in a our own hedonistic, selfish pursuits. This belief isn't rational. It's silly.
Instead, we need to make it the selfish interest of the people who go on to be in power to selflessly serve us. I believe we do that by not being apathetic and ignorant.
We make informed choices and thus, elect those into power who genuinely want to serve the people and are best suited for the job. We keep a close eye on them and constantly stay up to date on whether or not they are following through on their promises. And we care enough to weed out the bad information and focus on the issues that count; have the discussions that matter. And when someone messes up, even a little bit, we throw them out and start over. This might sound utopian, but it isn't - it's just how a democracy is supposed to function!
Corruption is horrible, bad and is presently crippling our standard of living. But it is merely a symptom and not the illness. I hate to say it but the illness is us.
The rape wasn't the first and sadly, it won't be the last. It's horrible because for those gruesome moments, we realised that we watched and did nothing. We could have changed the laws years ago to make strong disincentives for crimes against the brutality towards women. We could have made law enforcement better to ensure we live in a safer country. We could have helped her when she was most vulnerable and not just gawked. But we didn't, we gawked and we realised how pathetic our apathy had left us.
Man isn't inherently evil, though. India will shock itself away from apathy and through education, will liberate itself from itself.
"Man, I hate my government. The people running it are inept and I can't get anything done without paying a bribe."
"Our laws are so archaic. We should change them! But our politicians, my god, they are so corrupt. Lets march instead of exercising our power to vote and influence government!"
(Sadly, people who say the last one aren't usually being sarcastic)
I don't really think we are sharing ideas/thoughts/feelings about our politicians that are founded in rationality anymore. Corruption is horrible, I agree. But really, if you think about it, corruption in a democracy is really a function of a bunch of apathetic, ignorant voters making suboptimal choices in choosing who amongst them gets the selfless, prestigious role of governing them. (Or, it is a result of man being fundamentally evil and the potency of power to reveal this - however, as cynical as I tend to be, this is a conclusion I cannot bring myself to believe).
I'm not a fan of bolding/italicising things, so when I do both, I'm clearly being desperate in making a point. The discussion revolves around us, the people, and the obvious realisation that politicians aren't extra terrestrial beings sent to rule over us. They are, in fact, us. These are people that we went to school with (possibly), lived in the same city with and possibly share lots of things in common with. They are us. They too enjoy biryani and hot tea on cold days. Actually, we should be electing people that are most like us and whose views mimic ours and hence, we can be best represented (lol,jk?). And we, Indians, as a people are inherently selfish. We have to be - it's a dominant trait in a severely resource constrained world. It isn't something we can wish away.
However, we believe that once we elect our government officials that they are to rise above their own selfish interests and instead, selflessly serve us while we ourselves go about living out our days in a our own hedonistic, selfish pursuits. This belief isn't rational. It's silly.
Instead, we need to make it the selfish interest of the people who go on to be in power to selflessly serve us. I believe we do that by not being apathetic and ignorant.
We make informed choices and thus, elect those into power who genuinely want to serve the people and are best suited for the job. We keep a close eye on them and constantly stay up to date on whether or not they are following through on their promises. And we care enough to weed out the bad information and focus on the issues that count; have the discussions that matter. And when someone messes up, even a little bit, we throw them out and start over. This might sound utopian, but it isn't - it's just how a democracy is supposed to function!
Corruption is horrible, bad and is presently crippling our standard of living. But it is merely a symptom and not the illness. I hate to say it but the illness is us.
The rape wasn't the first and sadly, it won't be the last. It's horrible because for those gruesome moments, we realised that we watched and did nothing. We could have changed the laws years ago to make strong disincentives for crimes against the brutality towards women. We could have made law enforcement better to ensure we live in a safer country. We could have helped her when she was most vulnerable and not just gawked. But we didn't, we gawked and we realised how pathetic our apathy had left us.
Man isn't inherently evil, though. India will shock itself away from apathy and through education, will liberate itself from itself.
