This title is not meant to startle you, but to make you think seriously about your role in democracy.
If democracy is also by people, then my role doesn't end with casting my vote for a candidate. I have to participate in the democratic process of legislation, execution and justiciation. For that purpose, I have to study what the representatives are doing and not doing and ask them to do and not to do what in my best opinion speaks with our constitution. I have to keep a watch and a check on the goings on in the democratic polity, for which I have a number of avenues open. I can do this as an individual, as a group and also as a member of a political party.
But we see today a large number of people discuss and debate among themselves without directly confronting the political parties and the politicians. On being asked what stopped them from approaching political parties, they would say, "but it's not going to help as they are not going to change". By indulging in private discussion, they are perhaps absolving themselves of the guilt of not doing right by democracy. So there is a dualism of I, the citizen and they, the politicians. The citizen is at the mercy of the politicians. Citizens have only one choice: this or that political party at the time of election. This is mirroring of the marketplace: there are sellers and I as the consumer have a choice of this brand or that one.
Like the consumer, I as the citizen have become passive recipient of services dished out by democracy, such as utilities, infrastructure and security.
With globalization and privatization, many of the services that were a part of the government provisioning have been going out of public sector. Education, health and transport which earlier were a part of the public services have gradually been handed over to the private sector, with disastrous consequences. The moment a service is moved from home to business, direct participation goes out and we become lazy couch potatoes waiting to be served readymade stuff. Of course, it is always made out to be "inevitable". Privatization is a political process in addition to being a commercial or economic one. It takes away people's power over the political will and places it in the hands of those with purchasing power.
Education, healthcare, banking and insurance, media and communication, transport and now IT services also create an educated middle class employee, who earns a high income and is eligible for loans. This middle class is fed with messages of a decent life surrounded by gadgets of comfort. In fact it is a cocoon tucked away from the hustle and bustle of common people's life. You sit in the comfort of your living room, move in the luxury of air-conditioned vehicles and if not ordering online, go shopping in high street malls. Unless you consume, you don't enjoy and unless you enjoy you don't live. So consume more and enjoy more. In the process, become less active and productive and believe you have choices only among the brands on offer.
This slow debilitation of mind is the real danger of consumerism and that is why we see the participation of people even in the most ordinary democratic process of voting in elections going down. No wonder, politicians adopt the Election Marketing strategies, which are all about promises of more and better services to you, the consumer of democracy.
I have discovered that I don't have to drive to the Gym, if I can walk to the market and to the bus stop to catch a bus wherever I want to go. It's better to be passive in consuming and active in living, as much as I could do.
If democracy is also by people, then my role doesn't end with casting my vote for a candidate. I have to participate in the democratic process of legislation, execution and justiciation. For that purpose, I have to study what the representatives are doing and not doing and ask them to do and not to do what in my best opinion speaks with our constitution. I have to keep a watch and a check on the goings on in the democratic polity, for which I have a number of avenues open. I can do this as an individual, as a group and also as a member of a political party.
But we see today a large number of people discuss and debate among themselves without directly confronting the political parties and the politicians. On being asked what stopped them from approaching political parties, they would say, "but it's not going to help as they are not going to change". By indulging in private discussion, they are perhaps absolving themselves of the guilt of not doing right by democracy. So there is a dualism of I, the citizen and they, the politicians. The citizen is at the mercy of the politicians. Citizens have only one choice: this or that political party at the time of election. This is mirroring of the marketplace: there are sellers and I as the consumer have a choice of this brand or that one.
Like the consumer, I as the citizen have become passive recipient of services dished out by democracy, such as utilities, infrastructure and security.
With globalization and privatization, many of the services that were a part of the government provisioning have been going out of public sector. Education, health and transport which earlier were a part of the public services have gradually been handed over to the private sector, with disastrous consequences. The moment a service is moved from home to business, direct participation goes out and we become lazy couch potatoes waiting to be served readymade stuff. Of course, it is always made out to be "inevitable". Privatization is a political process in addition to being a commercial or economic one. It takes away people's power over the political will and places it in the hands of those with purchasing power.
Education, healthcare, banking and insurance, media and communication, transport and now IT services also create an educated middle class employee, who earns a high income and is eligible for loans. This middle class is fed with messages of a decent life surrounded by gadgets of comfort. In fact it is a cocoon tucked away from the hustle and bustle of common people's life. You sit in the comfort of your living room, move in the luxury of air-conditioned vehicles and if not ordering online, go shopping in high street malls. Unless you consume, you don't enjoy and unless you enjoy you don't live. So consume more and enjoy more. In the process, become less active and productive and believe you have choices only among the brands on offer.
This slow debilitation of mind is the real danger of consumerism and that is why we see the participation of people even in the most ordinary democratic process of voting in elections going down. No wonder, politicians adopt the Election Marketing strategies, which are all about promises of more and better services to you, the consumer of democracy.
I have discovered that I don't have to drive to the Gym, if I can walk to the market and to the bus stop to catch a bus wherever I want to go. It's better to be passive in consuming and active in living, as much as I could do.
3 comments:
Impact of privatisation and globalizaion on middle class people is nicely explaind. The article is excellent .
Impact of privatisation and globalizaion on middle class people is nicely explaind. The article is excellent .
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