The Art of Manipulation

I am setting my foot and writing about politics after a long time. For the past few years, I was so immersed in science that I never got a chance to explore this domain. I know that even this feeling is going to last for a short time only.

I was born and brought up in India - the largest so-called "democracy" on earth. People have the right to express their views and opinions in the form of a "vote". As discussed in hundreds of literature, the very definition of a "vote" is corrupted. The Indian society is not educated enough to understand what they really want. As a result, they are manipulated by politicians in the name of religion and caste. Sometimes the manipulation is so concealed that even the intellects fall for that.

Anyway, India is a new democracy; less than 100 years have passed and it will take time for the democracy to mature. Let's take a look at another democracy, the US. It is the richest country on earth. Everyone has access to food and education. It has been an independent country for the past 300 years. The primary reason for me to come to the US was to explore how things change in such a scenario. It turns out that everything is the same. There are 2 major political parties - Republicans and Democrats. If I had voting rights in the US, I would have been seriously confused. Some things are good about Republicans and some things are good about Democrats. How can you choose who is better? I am not asking for a party whose ideologies perfectly match my expectations. But as far as I can see, I don't think even people know about their expectations when they vote. The states are colored red and blue and have remained the same for so long that people have forgotten that they have a "choice".

Needless to say, the definition of democracy in the US has been distorted by corporates, politicians, and bureaucrats - all of whom get their share of wealth and power. Politicians get funding from corporations and they have to change their ideologies in such a way that they are in the best interest of the corporations. Corporations are free to exploit the economy and environment and feed consumerism in the brains of people. They sell themselves as the instruments of growth, progress, prosperity, hard work, career, and specialization. They have actually succeeded in manipulating America. In reality, all they care about is filling their pockets and making sure that the poor remain poor. In return, politicians get their share of the exploitation and power. I may sound like a pessimist but this is the true nature of the American democracy. This is not a new philosophical idea. The end goal of every civilization has remained the same - increasing the gap between the haves and haves not and eventually collapsing.

How I define democracy is the power that an individual can have over their own life. Freedom from "manipulation" is the only real freedom. Each one of us is manipulated from our very childhood. We are forced into our career choices. We are forced to follow the rules of the institutions. We are forced to follow a religion. We are never given a chance to decide what is "good" and what is "bad". The world has predefined notions of "black" and "white". The reality is - everything is gray; every coin has 2 sides. But as a child, we are forced to believe in what our parents believe in. Technically, we have made no progress in raising our children. "Extra-curricular" is just an excuse to broaden the number of ways in which parents can compare their child with others.

Hey. Our kid is better than Rahul in academics. Let's also make sure that he is better than him in dancing as well.

In this regard, science and technology are the illusion of human progress. The only real progress that humans can have is in terms of moral standards. The real development of society can happen only if people have the freedom of imagination without having someone else's thoughts forced on them. That is exactly what democracy was expected to achieve.

As a message for the younger generations, I would like to say that the future lies in your hand. You need to learn the art of questioning. Question everything! No matter how foolish you look, question everything! People are obliged to answer you. Question your parents, question your teachers, question your friends, question anyone who forces their thoughts and opinions on you. Of course, the questioning should be polite and respectful. I must also tell you that you should be ready to get no answer as most people in the world are unaware of the effect of their actions and are simply driven by the winds of globalization. We are not running out of doctors or engineers, lawyers, lawmakers or journalists, or corporate VPs. We are running out of imagination. The foundations on which the world is standing today are so weak that they could topple at any moment. We need a savior of our civilization.