India Beyond Stampede Of Stupidities by Santosh Jha (read along books .TXT) 📖

wind of change was globalization and opening of economies.

The definitive change however has been brought by massive surge in cutting-edge technologies, especially in communications. All these ensured that nations and governments running them, became growingly less powerful, as one singular identity and desire has begun to take center-stage – individual self-gratification. The individual has now been emboldened by markets. The markets have given a common person a new identity of a consumer, who is now the most pampered entity in contemporary societies. This common person has growingly started to demand services and facilities from governments as it has become used to getting high quality services from private companies.

The impact of consumerism on common man’s attitude and worldview has not been rightly assessed and accepted by state and societies. They still believe in old philosophies of their natural superiority. The liberal and open market economy has given the common person a disastrously deep-rooted habit of demanding and having options. The common person, especially the young, now thinks of himself or herself as consumer of political productions and services. The markets have pampered him or her with so many choices and options that it surely suffocates him or her to find that the political and administrative system is so hugely non-performing and poor service provider with almost no or so little options.

In the modern age of choices, nothing seems like permanent and durable for long term. The common person now has the scary mindset of being impatient and deeply reactive. Psychologists admit that this impatient and reactive common person, pampered with choices and options, has already started to view and accept even relationships as products. The societies all over the globe are facing troubles, as people do not want to live a life in a no option milieu. When people are not willing to drag even in a relationship, as choices and options are available in good measure, how can they be expected to carry the burden of an option-less social or political system, which they perceive as non-performing and a big drag! This attitudinal change in average person’s mindset and worldview has come up fast and societies and nations have not kept pace with it.

The governments all over the globe are struggling as they have since long prospered on the age-old premise that ‘citizens should not think of what nation gives to them but what they give to nation’. The masses are now empowered and pampered consumer, they want governments to become smart, performing and facilitative. There is nothing wrong and troubling in this aspiration of people. The trouble is; nations cannot be private companies.

Nations and governments are not some detached entity like a company, which some people run and which produces and markets a commodity. Nations are cooperative ideas, where people are part of the entity and responsible for its good working and delivery of services. Being a citizen is definitely not like being a customer, though a citizen has every right to good delivery of services by a political system.

The problem, which defines contemporary chaos and conflicts in global societies is; the common man and woman want everything from society and nation but they have little idea as what as a citizen, they need to extend to the society and nation, they live in. The cherished idea of democracy, which worked on the golden principle of people’s participation in governance, has now become identified with a scary populism. Be it governments, political parties, activists, corporate and media; everyone is on an overdrive of populism, pampering the common man and woman.

This pampered common person, emboldened by its newfound empowerment as consumer and game-changer in societies, wants good life and it is very much justified. What creates trouble is this common person often fails to accept its responsibility and culpability. It is sufficient for a customer to pay the money and demand everything else from the producing company. However, as a citizen, he or she is not only a customer but also an equal producer of the services. As a citizen, one cannot say that as he or she has paid taxes, he or she has no responsibilities and duties and he or she should in turn get every facility. Governments are not producing companies and citizens are not consumers.

There cannot be denial to the fact that democratic societies needed an aware and highly informed and disciplined citizenry for its success but the sad realism is that dysfunctional populism and irresponsible common men and women have brought all democratic societies into a veritable chaos. There is a complete imbalance of rights and duties of common men and women towards societies and nations.

The stupidity lies in the fact that major trouble rests with an irresponsible and undisciplined common men and women, still, governments, political parties, corporate, activists and even media are in an overdrive to pamper the common men and women, never ever daring to tell them what is expected of them for the good life they fight for.

The contemporary stampede of stupidities is the result of everyone; the governments, political parties, corporate, activists and even media, doing different things in different ways, professing to doing all these for good life of the common man, even when it is apparent that what they profess is only populist propaganda.

Taking the case of India, I shall endeavor to elaborate how and why it is just only populism and this overdose of populism is the core energy behind this stampede of stupidities.

**

Mechanism Of Populism

Let us understand populism and the harm it does to general wellness of a nation and society, with a day-to-day life example. The food we eat is felt until it stays up to the throat, even while the enjoyment stays only till it remains in the mouth. After that the body mechanism, which continues to work upon the food, is not felt. The mind has 100 billion neurons and billions of other supportive neurons are working incessantly. We can feel and understand only a fraction of its operative mechanism. Rest is mysticism for most.

This is our design. However, the real Hero is a person, who does not divert his or her attention and focus from the food, even when it is past the ‘felt-zone’ of throat. We all need to be aware of and receptive towards the journey of this vital food down the tracts till its last processing. If not, we are bound to compromise with our wellness.

Doctors have been warning us. They say, “Own the onus of the food your mouth shoves to the body, as you are not just your tongue, but the entire body”. The idea is to convey the fact that usually, in our restrictive consciousness, we eat in loads what our mouth, especially tongue likes. It is true that the taste buds are restricted to tongue only and as the food goes down beyond it, we do not wish to remember and care about.

However, we are not only our mouth. Our body is an intricate and huge mechanism. There are long food canal, liver, pancreas, kidneys, heart et al and together there are millions of functions that go on within our body, which we do not consciously register. However, they are crucial for our survival and general well-being. The mouth is our conscious mind but rest of the millions of complex functions are handled by our unconscious mind.

A truly rational and receptive person, cannot restrict its responsibility and attention to just the miniscule conscious part. The subconscious is also our onus as it is the larger domain, which essentially handles our basic health and survival. The rational person shall always know and respect the ‘details’ of the entirety of the ‘body-mechanism’ and shall own the responsibility of the wellness and success of all parts, not only one part.

The conscious-mind in we all, which is restrictively concerned and knowledgeable about only a ‘part’ of the entire complex mechanism, is essentially the ‘Populist Self’ in us. However, a truly empowered person shall definitively be aware and responsible towards the ‘whole’. The holistic, assimilative and integrative perspective towards the ‘mechanism, it its entirety is the hallmark of a true person. It is where, many of us fail.

We cannot blame ourselves. It is our mechanism too! The conscious part, the mouth, gives us tangibles as instant utility and fruition. The mind consciousness is bound to register the immediate advantage of ‘taste-satisfaction’ and extend instant thumbs-up. We eat a huge and rich creamy cake and feel so happy. The tongue gives us a huge thumbs-up as it registers big bonus on satisfaction-scale. However, the burst of calamitous sugar, which goes inside the food tract and gets big disapproval and thumbs down from liver and pancreas, is not registered on the satisfaction-scale. These organs are rather neutral. The mouth is a vocal and populist showman. The liver however is the silent worker.

The ‘Populist Consciousness’ within all of us, has this tendency of giving in to populism. However, the real person shall always have the poise and perspective to see the picture in entirety as the rational person understands and accepts the ‘mechanism’ not in ‘parts’, but in holism and assimilation. The rational and empowered person shall never be swayed away or blown out by populism, as it has the holistic perspective to understand that ‘success’ is not in pampering the mouth with all it ‘wants’, it is rather in ensuring the larger health and wellness ‘needs’ of the whole body. The rationalist understands, “Success is not in having all that we want for instant joys, it is rather in the prudence of having what we actually need for persevered satisfaction”.

The nation and society is also like a person. Populism is only one part of the existence of this body. Politics has over the years become concerned only to the tongue and mouth. As people have become very reactive and restricted in their consciousnesses and as a consumer concerned only with instant-self-gratification, they too basically demand populism. It is only natural that politics as well as markets have become huge suppliers of tangy populism. But, this populism only suits the taste buds of mouth and unleashes calamitous side effects on the other parts of the body. A nation is whole body, not only mouth. Populism is catering only to the mouth, without caring for the wellness of the whole body. It is like enjoying tobacco and liquor. The mouth gives a huge thumbs up to all these but the liver and other organs suffer silently. Finally, the body is taken ill and dies.

No doubt; everyone has equal responsibility in a democracy. The political parties and politicians need to rise above the politics of populism as this harms the wellness of the nation. However, the larger onus always lies with people as the people are the sovereign in a democracy and political system does what they delegate it to do. The people are the masters and political system is there to serve them. The servant shall always do what the masters would say. However, if the masters themselves demand and wish populism, servants cannot be overly and exclusively blamed for populism.

Good and rational persons, societies and nations never fall for populism. Occasional populism is not bad as life is also about fun. However, the primary need is the survival and health of the body. If the body is unhealthy, the mouth loses its taste and joys. India as a nation has since long indulged in the fun and fantasy of mouth populism. It is only showing up very bitterly, as how nation’s overall health has gone down drastically.

The stampede of stupidities are all about not registering this problem and still looking for solutions in populism itself. The problem can never be a solution, though it clearly hints at where solutions can be. The contemporary India is in such reactive and restrictive consciousness that it cannot see its wrongs and that is why, there is little hope for solutions.

**

The Contemporary Indian Scene

The slogan that ‘customer is the