Between the future and the past

Yes, we’re somewhere between the future and the past. We are no longer madly in love with democracy and yet we do not know what else to adopt or where to go. Democracy has been here for years and trumpeted its case against other known forms of governing rather well… and this is why these other forms have slowly shrivelled and some have died. The people in the countries where these other forms of government exist seem to be either too afraid or have failed to grasp the futility of what they are following.

Communism, socialism, monarchy, anarchy, and feudalism have all had their day and the sun has either set on these forms or the darkness isn’t far away. But democracy continues as if there is no more any need for any evolution in the form of governing that humanity has known.

The political and social thinker may or may not agree but I think democracy has some rather strange sub-forms that exist subtly or not so subtly. For instance, we see goon democracy in Uttar Pradesh, gangster democracy in those states where Naxalites are active… then there are forms like walk-out democracy that exists in our parliament and assemblies, the famed dharna democracy in Delhi, or indeed even the vyapam democracy in Madhya Pradesh. There is ludicrous democracy, joker democracy, biased democracy, and even chameleon democracy… and you can find them all if you only care to look closely.

Only today a friend wrote on Facebook that “the poor, with no resources, are afraid anyway. Those earning respectable amounts, the literate & enlightened are most fear-stricken, spineless before the corrupt, the wily, and the mafia. These can only voice idealism in small circle/ online community. They are shy and afraid being ridiculed as impractical idealists/ bravehearts.” Well, there you are… the common man in the virtual world has already begun expressing his disillusionment with the sort of democracy that he experiences day in and day out. This has surely the chromosomal strength to bring about some form of universal positive mutation to the myriad forms of democracy that have mushroomed today. The common feature in all forms of democracy is the alienation of not just wealth and prosperity from the majority of its subjects, but the absolute absence of coherent and workable education and the freedom to participate in decision-making. Despite all theoretical claims, the present form of democracy is not what it claims to be… and has tended to encourage only a spurt in corrupt practices where claiming to be is considered better than really being. Even Bertrand Russell, in ‘New Hopes for a Changing World’, writes: “Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.” Therefore, a change is obvious.

This change that restlessness initiates isn’t too far away. This time, it is not the thinker who will propose and accept a concept… it is the common man (from the entire socio-economic matrix) who will indeed first set an example of NOT BEING CORRUPT. The powerful and the decision-makers are destined to play second fiddle and be followers of the common man. If this is the way social evolution is destined to be then I'm afraid, we are going to see an end of the present form of government and the way we are governed. This is quite like picking the gun up to put the gun down… or letting the present powers know that it is “the first duty of a man is to think for himself.” (José Martí)

When Aristotle said: “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime,” he did not probably realise that one day poverty in his quote will mean a degradation of ethics and acts that deliberately avoid decisions that introduce transparency in everything that is done. But as I said earlier, all this has been uncovered now and quite a lot of people know the truth of the untruth that is fed to them. Yet we are between the future and the past because nothing can happen until everyone knows.

(Image: Author)