Saturday, December 10, 2016

As fragile as democracy

Trump becoming the POTUS might be an unsavoury development for a lot of us but it's a necessary pill for democracy. Democracy might be the finest form of government but it’s definitely not infallible. History has taught, time and time again, that it's deeply rooted in human decency and it inextricably expects everyone to be wise enough to know what’s good for them. Now, the question is do people really know what’s good for them? Anyway, going back to Trump, the world looks up to the USA—not India, mind you—as the epitome of functional democracy. And when Americans can choose someone as divisive as Trump, it provides the world a much-required lesson in the fragilities of democracy. For example, last week, Austria (birthplace of Hilter) overwhelmingly rejected far-right party in a tense election. Can this choice, in some parts at least, be attributed to the outcome of US elections and more importantly, its aftermath? Can't say. People aren’t blind wherever they come from but going by the narrative of the mainstream voices, people are dumb creatures who require the arrogance of journalists/intellectuals/etc to dictate what they really desire from a political candidate. After all, a majority of those who voted for Trump overlooked his racist/misogynist/xenophobic/assholic comments and paid attention on the 'change' he promised. A change that mattered to them because it’s invested in their betterment; a change that apparently will bring jobs back to American shores and improve the conditions of working class America; a class that the rest of world tends to overlook because we are soaked in by the photoshopped glitter of Hollywood and the cultural coolness that US represents. There must be legion of studies on this topic but i’d like to assume that people always hold their economic need above EVERYTHING ELSE. Something that happened in 2014 too when Modi got a clear mandate. A majority of the commoners didn't vote for him because they wanted a temple in Ayodhya. They saw him as a harbinger of development; someone who will put the economy back on track and pull us ahead from the the countless scams that UPA1 and UPA2 shamelessly perpetuated. Going back to the burning question, people might be wrong in guessing what's good for them but more often than not, they are damn sure about the things they don’t want. Just that most of the time, we don't listen to them thanks to superiority complex despite knowing very well that democracy is all about the majority. Or in a simpler word, people.

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