Sunday, August 29, 2010

Stop cribbing about the system

People call themselves social activists and sympathize with a number of causes - violent and non-violent, lost and raging. I have one question - does anyone here have the guts or the spine to contest an election, win it and be righteous? U can call the system rotten, but can you change the system? Is there one leader or an individual who will stand up and say I will be honest? Why must a politician always be a social activist who is poor, wearing a khadi kurta? If common good and individual good dont converge, is it right for us to expect honesty, from politicians, from civil servants? Is it not true that I make more money than a district collector or my local MLA, atleast in terms of salary? Is it not true that he is supposed to be more intelligent and a better manager than me? We can call the Maoists right or wrong, but we have created them and impassioned cries of support will only stoke violence. Change the system. Create a social movement. Dont bargain for slices of mango, dont write poetry, dont sing songs, but show the examples. Set an example within the smallest social unit - the family and the extended family. Isolate an uncle or a cousin or a parent who is corrupt, dont marry his daughter, dont invite him for family functions. Treat a corrupt individual like a leper in the 18th century. Let him goad his money and eat it and make love to it and rot away. Is this way too much to ask or too long to read?