Uncontrolled - We Are Designed to Perish
The past week, I was a bit unwell, sitting at home and had plenty of time in hand.
I watched lots of television.
I realized too that if ever you want to go further and further into depression, you simply have to watch the news channels.
Its quite disgusting really that there is hardly anything 'nice' that people have to report.
Why then must we wonder that we are headed for economic depression too? It's a no-brainer.
Watching television and reading newspapers full of disturbing, negative, painful, mindless, irrational and near sick incidents, what were we going to create, a flowering world? Let me expand a little.
I saw the Varun Gandhi speech.
What is a young (28 years of age), educated, energetic guy that belongs to the family of the first Prime Minister of India trying to do.
For the record Jawaharlal Nehru imagined an India where all Indians would be free and society would shelter and promote all.
I don't think VG meant to do all the stuff he said but why would he provoke thousands of people? Why would anyone spread communal hatred in today's times? Aren't we witnesses to enough damage and loss already? Has it ever helped anyone? The sad reality is that it has helped people.
It has helped people win elections.
Why? I think somewhere the Indian voter gets excited by these visions.
The proof exists in the heights attained by some of the people of 'rath yatra' days.
They say the Varun Gandhi speech is not an iota of those during these rallies.
Isn't it extremely sad that we now have the top leaders of the opposition, the aspiring prime minister and the president of the largest party (in terms of representation of seats and people in parliament), who will now campaign for Varun Gandhi in his constituency and literally accede to his views? Times Of India carries a daily page titled 'Dance of Democracy'.
Dance is often described as an artistic form of non verbal communication.
Its nice.
Its pleasing.
Its rhythmic.
Our current state of politicians scrounging to control the democratic institution is a ridiculous advertisement of leadership.
There are people everywhere aspiring to be prime ministers, not one has laid down a vision for the country, they visualize though...
Wonder for what!! You have drama in Bihar, in UP over seat sharing.
You have actors contesting elections because they can win (no other reason).
You have new friends.
You have new enemies.
You have people distributing money to voters.
You have people promising money to voters.
You have double talk.
You have people still hitting women in metropolitan India.
You have funds with parties that are unexplainable, actually very explainable but no one will.
You have an IPL that is going in and out of India and issuing ultimatums to the government - its election, get a life.
You also have IPL raising the fee for telecast rights by a whopping amount.
Ever heard of leaving something on the table for the other guy? You have Afghanistan legalizing rape, approving child marriages and laws to constraint women...
yes approved in parliament in the modern world in 2009.
You have a World Bank report of 2010 being economically worse than 2009.
Wonder if its analysis or a self fulfilling analogy.
You have still a mindless United States.
Has there been a war they fought that s been worth it? Even one? You have 'mess' wherever the world allowed US to fight - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.
Yes, you have Pakistan bombing themselves too.
There was a proverb I was reading in a book that quoted the bible.
It says People will perish without a vision.
You can almost see it happen in Pakistan.
There is no vision for the nation, for the people.
There are too many personal ideologies.
I think even Taliban has a clearer sense of vision and purpose than the nation itself.
But who defines such a vision? Leadership always defines followership.
Poor leaders develop bad followers.
Who then defines whether we must or should still move towards Vision 2020? Is there a Vision 2020 as President Kalam had said or is there still ANY popular view of where we want to be as a nation? The 20-20 vision doing the rounds at the time were on India being a developed nation and fulfillment of all basic Maslow-defined needs for all.
This vision of course, if not inspired by, then at very least aims to emulate success of developed nations.
Take into account the current information and knowledge of systemic financial scandals of what is possible under the modern unlimited capitalism, do we really want to use the so called 'developed nations' as a benchmark of development? Their development model and ours too basically means having two cars and a yacht, a fancy home and a holiday home in a fancy place.
In the quest for all this a depressed economy we create every twenty years!! I am not saying we shouldn't be a developed nation.
I am simply questioning if our hypothesis of what we mean by development is correct? Clearly by observing the leaders, the aspirant leaders and parliamentarians - the so called people who will be leading us through the better part of 2020 - Has greed, greed for power, greed for money greed for control, greed for greed overtaken and over consumed them so much that they are willing to let go of all traditional values that formed India? There are a few who even present themselves to be the custodians of these traditional values and are therefore free to hit, decide and conclude how we should or not, and who should or not live.
This is happening in the leadership presiding over and leading into 2009-2014.
One more government thereafter.
Are you beginning to see 2020 that we actually might end up creating? Have we and our leaders reached such a point of modernity and tolerance to absurdity that we have become truly 'ugly'? We allow in the present world, in our country, religion, caste and gender as tools at the hands of a few minds, to still use as basis for winning elections and presiding and ruling over us.
We allow still that we be led mindlessly without a vision, without knowing where we are headed.
We allow therefore that we all perish.
Its very clear that the world does not share any common vision.
Do we? Do our leaders? Lets understand the problem, we have allowed, been a part of and encouraged as a political culture that is based on elections decided on stupid issues fought on the power of unbelievable amounts of money.
The problem is that we don't have leaders today who are binding the nation into a vision.
Quite the opposite really.
We don't have them because the system is based on a parallel economy sitting on large sums of money.
Power translates to more money.
Everyone wants power, thus, at any cost with any issue, any divisive politics.
The heart of our system and our lives today is a quest for, is a greed for money.
Where does this enticing money come from? In this question, perhaps to some extent we are all guilty insofar as encouraging corruption, the business model of money in politics and in encouraging bribery, their revenue model.
There isn't another source for this money.
Bribery in ordinary life is when we deceive ourselves into believing that the good old traditional and universal values are no more valid or good enough.
Instead, the newer values of modernity, that of the 'greed is good worldview' is what is really good, true and right.
We find a rationale to convince ourselves or feel plain helpless.
Bribery at the personal level is therefore when we put our personal self interest before that of good values.
When people, including all those in leadership within any system subscribe and live by such political values, then corruption sets into that system, whether the system is a family or a large organization or even a nation.
When it sets in the nation, as we can see, politics becomes about controlling a large pool of 'bribe' and 'money' and obviously not about purposeful 'servant' leadership.
It becomes about 'at any cost' and not about visions and better futures that may bind the country.
I don't have a clue that where can and should we start with the quality and ability of leadership that can rise above and against bribery and corruption.
I only know we should.
At the very least I think, each of us can disassociate with the 'motives' that we are induced to be part of - bribes and corruption.
You see, people, nations, societies, cultures..
everything and anything without a vision perishes.
There has been no wealth created by anybody (person, organization, society or nation) on Earth that hasn't perished in course of time.
Its designed to.
You and I design it.
At the very least we can also realize that you, me, each of us, at first individually are the only hope for true leadership to emerge and lead us to meaning.
Do something.
Don't be a mere spectator.
Chetan Walia.
I watched lots of television.
I realized too that if ever you want to go further and further into depression, you simply have to watch the news channels.
Its quite disgusting really that there is hardly anything 'nice' that people have to report.
Why then must we wonder that we are headed for economic depression too? It's a no-brainer.
Watching television and reading newspapers full of disturbing, negative, painful, mindless, irrational and near sick incidents, what were we going to create, a flowering world? Let me expand a little.
I saw the Varun Gandhi speech.
What is a young (28 years of age), educated, energetic guy that belongs to the family of the first Prime Minister of India trying to do.
For the record Jawaharlal Nehru imagined an India where all Indians would be free and society would shelter and promote all.
I don't think VG meant to do all the stuff he said but why would he provoke thousands of people? Why would anyone spread communal hatred in today's times? Aren't we witnesses to enough damage and loss already? Has it ever helped anyone? The sad reality is that it has helped people.
It has helped people win elections.
Why? I think somewhere the Indian voter gets excited by these visions.
The proof exists in the heights attained by some of the people of 'rath yatra' days.
They say the Varun Gandhi speech is not an iota of those during these rallies.
Isn't it extremely sad that we now have the top leaders of the opposition, the aspiring prime minister and the president of the largest party (in terms of representation of seats and people in parliament), who will now campaign for Varun Gandhi in his constituency and literally accede to his views? Times Of India carries a daily page titled 'Dance of Democracy'.
Dance is often described as an artistic form of non verbal communication.
Its nice.
Its pleasing.
Its rhythmic.
Our current state of politicians scrounging to control the democratic institution is a ridiculous advertisement of leadership.
There are people everywhere aspiring to be prime ministers, not one has laid down a vision for the country, they visualize though...
Wonder for what!! You have drama in Bihar, in UP over seat sharing.
You have actors contesting elections because they can win (no other reason).
You have new friends.
You have new enemies.
You have people distributing money to voters.
You have people promising money to voters.
You have double talk.
You have people still hitting women in metropolitan India.
You have funds with parties that are unexplainable, actually very explainable but no one will.
You have an IPL that is going in and out of India and issuing ultimatums to the government - its election, get a life.
You also have IPL raising the fee for telecast rights by a whopping amount.
Ever heard of leaving something on the table for the other guy? You have Afghanistan legalizing rape, approving child marriages and laws to constraint women...
yes approved in parliament in the modern world in 2009.
You have a World Bank report of 2010 being economically worse than 2009.
Wonder if its analysis or a self fulfilling analogy.
You have still a mindless United States.
Has there been a war they fought that s been worth it? Even one? You have 'mess' wherever the world allowed US to fight - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.
Yes, you have Pakistan bombing themselves too.
There was a proverb I was reading in a book that quoted the bible.
It says People will perish without a vision.
You can almost see it happen in Pakistan.
There is no vision for the nation, for the people.
There are too many personal ideologies.
I think even Taliban has a clearer sense of vision and purpose than the nation itself.
But who defines such a vision? Leadership always defines followership.
Poor leaders develop bad followers.
Who then defines whether we must or should still move towards Vision 2020? Is there a Vision 2020 as President Kalam had said or is there still ANY popular view of where we want to be as a nation? The 20-20 vision doing the rounds at the time were on India being a developed nation and fulfillment of all basic Maslow-defined needs for all.
This vision of course, if not inspired by, then at very least aims to emulate success of developed nations.
Take into account the current information and knowledge of systemic financial scandals of what is possible under the modern unlimited capitalism, do we really want to use the so called 'developed nations' as a benchmark of development? Their development model and ours too basically means having two cars and a yacht, a fancy home and a holiday home in a fancy place.
In the quest for all this a depressed economy we create every twenty years!! I am not saying we shouldn't be a developed nation.
I am simply questioning if our hypothesis of what we mean by development is correct? Clearly by observing the leaders, the aspirant leaders and parliamentarians - the so called people who will be leading us through the better part of 2020 - Has greed, greed for power, greed for money greed for control, greed for greed overtaken and over consumed them so much that they are willing to let go of all traditional values that formed India? There are a few who even present themselves to be the custodians of these traditional values and are therefore free to hit, decide and conclude how we should or not, and who should or not live.
This is happening in the leadership presiding over and leading into 2009-2014.
One more government thereafter.
Are you beginning to see 2020 that we actually might end up creating? Have we and our leaders reached such a point of modernity and tolerance to absurdity that we have become truly 'ugly'? We allow in the present world, in our country, religion, caste and gender as tools at the hands of a few minds, to still use as basis for winning elections and presiding and ruling over us.
We allow still that we be led mindlessly without a vision, without knowing where we are headed.
We allow therefore that we all perish.
Its very clear that the world does not share any common vision.
Do we? Do our leaders? Lets understand the problem, we have allowed, been a part of and encouraged as a political culture that is based on elections decided on stupid issues fought on the power of unbelievable amounts of money.
The problem is that we don't have leaders today who are binding the nation into a vision.
Quite the opposite really.
We don't have them because the system is based on a parallel economy sitting on large sums of money.
Power translates to more money.
Everyone wants power, thus, at any cost with any issue, any divisive politics.
The heart of our system and our lives today is a quest for, is a greed for money.
Where does this enticing money come from? In this question, perhaps to some extent we are all guilty insofar as encouraging corruption, the business model of money in politics and in encouraging bribery, their revenue model.
There isn't another source for this money.
Bribery in ordinary life is when we deceive ourselves into believing that the good old traditional and universal values are no more valid or good enough.
Instead, the newer values of modernity, that of the 'greed is good worldview' is what is really good, true and right.
We find a rationale to convince ourselves or feel plain helpless.
Bribery at the personal level is therefore when we put our personal self interest before that of good values.
When people, including all those in leadership within any system subscribe and live by such political values, then corruption sets into that system, whether the system is a family or a large organization or even a nation.
When it sets in the nation, as we can see, politics becomes about controlling a large pool of 'bribe' and 'money' and obviously not about purposeful 'servant' leadership.
It becomes about 'at any cost' and not about visions and better futures that may bind the country.
I don't have a clue that where can and should we start with the quality and ability of leadership that can rise above and against bribery and corruption.
I only know we should.
At the very least I think, each of us can disassociate with the 'motives' that we are induced to be part of - bribes and corruption.
You see, people, nations, societies, cultures..
everything and anything without a vision perishes.
There has been no wealth created by anybody (person, organization, society or nation) on Earth that hasn't perished in course of time.
Its designed to.
You and I design it.
At the very least we can also realize that you, me, each of us, at first individually are the only hope for true leadership to emerge and lead us to meaning.
Do something.
Don't be a mere spectator.
Chetan Walia.
Source...