Hear me, all voices cry.
This is ME. I like cola,
and designer labels
I think Vuitton makes the coolest bags!
I LOVE Sunday mornings..mmm.
Hear me, they shout. Echoes in a crowd and screams in silence all want only to be heard.
I stand for human rights.
I run for AIDS.
Shaved my head for cancer research.
I can't STAND liars!
Peace, bread and the land.
In endorsing a product, a viewpoint or a preference, voices gain personality. This is ME. This is where I stand out from the rest of you even as I fall in with others who share these ideas. Given a space, every voice wants only to fill it up with itself. (Like this blog.)
I prefer private affirmation to public endorsement. With the spaces we now have, too often it seems like we clamor for causes and choices to fill them up with.
Petty rants we would otherwise forget, if we didn't write them down right away.
Half-formed thoughts that seem erudite in the silence in our heads.
Advice to people who will never read it. Like "Get the ball _!!! Ugh, Does _ need a runner, why is he moving so SLOWLY?"
Join my cause! Support _ and end corruption!
What confuses me about the latest wave of endorsement is this: Everyone I see is geared up for a fast and a protest and a show of hands, screaming their lungs out on Facebook and Twitter to end corruption and make the difference. Either I am missing something or they are. The last time I checked, even a revolution that began with a tweet ended with real, live people. People who bled and burnt and died, flesh mingled with the land they were trying to change. Where are the people, apart from the show of hands? I hear demands that various celebrities support the cause, but feel confident that no price will be exacted if they don't- the media and the crowds will love them anyway.
And on a far more pessimistic note, I have little faith in the cause itself. It's simple enough- a bill for a cleaner government. Accountability to a public board, made up of people like you and I. But so very much of the government is made up of people who were once you and I. I have little faith in the integrity of the individual when integrity is so hard to hold up, and cheating such an easy way to prosper. In a country of billions and billions, the bill only feels like a way to make room for more power play and more corruption.
In principle, I support the idea. Let's end corruption. Let's make India Shining happen. But practically, how do we do it when the evolutionary cards are stacked so deep and high against us?
4 comments:
I am glad you wrote about it. Just goes to show you are thinking about it. I see why you are pessimistic. Nevertheless, at times it is hope, belief and blind faith is what will help us push ourselves the last few miles. I urge you don't give these up. I am on the optimistic side of the spectrum. In the end we all want India shining don't we?
The current Jan Lokpal Bill seems more like the first few miles than the last few to me. It is just the beginning of an attempt at change- and the ironic part is that it isn't even a 'change'. A democracy by definition IS "Jan Lokpal", and all this bill seems to do is add to the number of corruptible people that would need to be bribed to get a job done.. I'd love to hear a more positive view on what this bill accomplishes though :)
I agree with you in elements because cynicism and pessimism come by easily and are easier to live with in a real world. But I still like to remind myself that sometimes, you need some small voices to get together and form a movement... to form a chorus and to sing it out aloud. This may end as just another blip in recent Indian political history or it may achieve a greater end.
The Narmada bachao or the chipko movement were all movements that started with people and ended with voices like mine and yours. But that was a different age.
Now the voices are easier to come by, the support is more-than or rather less-than physical presence but it is support nonetheless. If such word of mouth can generate a certain critical mass to set the ball rolling, there may be reason to hope.
And while a "Jan lokpal" is by definition a democracy, the problem with democracy is that it is reliant on masses and it is difficult to get a definite opinion from a country of people struggling to make ends meet and live. You sometimes need such radical "movements", e or real, to wake them from their slumber and get their attention and then there is hope. Otherwise, you are dwelling in a world where inaction rules and there is no way one can even have a semblance of hope...
I am all for grassroots movements and positive change beginning with smaller numbers. I just don't understand what this particular movement hopes to achieve. Is there a reason to believe that the "aam aadmi" put in charge of making politicians accountable will remain incorruptible and pure, a true voice of the people?
Post a Comment