Random thoughts 22112017

The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support.

Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563)

I have a question to ask to all those people who say they are neutral or who continue to turn a blind eye to whatever is happening around us – Is the development that you talk of  worth sacrificing the freedom of others ?  Let us say you were born in Gemany and a mature adult when Hitler took over the reins of Germany. Would you still have been on the side of Hitler? The parallel to that period is uncannily similar to what is happening in our country at present.

If we love our country, if we believe in the concept of India then we need to save India from the fate of Germany. We need to talk about it openly. We must speak out against how propaganda , the art of making news to suit the interests of the government and the vested interests is taking us on the way to doom. We need to highlight the real issues, the power structure that control the whole country in its vice like grip. How the people have no voice and the whole election process is becoming a charade.

Our constitution has defined our country as a republic with certain rights to each individual. It is not a matter of what is dictated by the majority, it is much beyond that. But what do we find – The power structure has been usurped by a few and rule of law is almost extinct.  A few people claim the authority to rule everyone else by virtue of a mandate from the majority, which is actually not so.

But why is it so that the people acquiesce to their own subjugation? Why don’t they rise up and cast off this tyranny simply by allowing the state to be in charge. It is much less difficult then we think. The state derives its powers from the consent of the people. And it can be overthrown in an instant if people withdraw their consent. We may be in awe of the façade of the devastating and seemingly overwhelming power of the state but in reality it is a myth. It is the cooperation of the people, by association or abdication of their duties that provides succour to the state.

It is nothing but a a combination of cowardice, habit and tradition that stops us, we the people, to overthrow this oppressive state machinery that works against us in the garb of working for us . The ideological illusion and intellectual confusion of the middle class only adds up to the problem.