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Updated: Jul 30, 2020
May 30, 2020 on #Blacklivesmatter #GeorgeFloyd
I feel that the failure is due to deep rooted biases and tolerance towards such behavior. Almost like how a problem child is raised. We see that happening in every society around the world. In India we have issues on caste, crime against women, domestic violence and the list is very very long. We don’t seem to want to be interested in bringing a societal change but handle it as an isolated case. The pattern I see is this - 1. Being soft towards such behavior and almost laugh it off when you see it in a non serious form 2- When something serious happens, we run to isolate it to that person and assign causes like psychological issues, personal conditions, etc etc without accepting the pattern, both within that person or with many such incidences happening in different places and times. Our easiest remedy is to put it through a criminal justice system 3. We protest in surges - riots, peace marches, candle lightings, public debates in media etc. and then we ‘move on’ with life. Let me clarify that the impacted group really doesn’t want to move on because they see the atrocities continue unabated, just the sympathetic ‘others’. So the answer in my head would be to look at all these three stages and reconstruct our approaches. If we are serious about a change that is.
June 5, 2020 #USPolitics
It begs the question, who made Trump the President? Where are those voters? Who is holding him accountable? He is running through the China shop (literally too 😜) Who’s going to take him by the horns. I only see the comments on his post on twitter and the diehard republican support. He seems super confident of winning the second term, obviously with the same republican votes that elected a morally crooked man to the highest and most respected public position. What are we missing here? No one will introspect and reflect on what went wrong? Not Republicans? Liberals and minorities have to defend themselves for the sins of the individuals in their group, not republicans? I am willing to wager that given the weakness in Biden, Trump might be again in office. The responsibility of getting him off the ticket has to be with Republicans. That cannot be doubted, I am sure.
Jun 5, 2020 #USPolitics
If Republicans want to distance themselves from this atrocity, would be good for them to standup and say that they didn’t sign up for this. The issue of carrying your candidate on your shoulder till the finish line is not unique to US, by the way. Even here, the ability to be discerning and articulating what is right and what is wrong is getting massively trampled under the feet of allegiance and loyalty. For even having an honest debate on which policies are not working, I could be labeled antinational and mindless moron. So I agree to your point about heard thinking versus critical thinking and discerning. Unfortunately our nations are terribly divided along ideologies that if you are sitting on a wall between the two camps, you will be pushed over instantaneously. Which side you fall will of course depend on the side you were leaning towards 😉 But fall you will.
June 5, 2020 #USPolitics
I am glad that your faith in the democratic system hasn’t been shaken through this. At least in the Indian parliamentary system, the members of the parliament are just for the purpose of getting votes in the house. People tend to vote for the party or worse the PM candidate, while totally ignoring the candidate for the election per se. We have miles to go in maturing here.
April 20, 2020
Please consider some undeniable truths of the matter -
1. The virus does not have a cure. The susceptible ones have to be protected from getting exposed. Statistics of people succumbing versus recovering is a staggering percentage (36% in US)
2. Disease spreads from one human to the other. Both, ones showing symptoms and those asymptomatic.
3. The only way you can get yourself out of this is by quarantining yourself for 14 days and let the virus play out its cycle in the human body
4. The mathematical projection of spreading of the pandemic is based on the contacts people have in the day to day living and throws up the number of people likely to get positive at multiple times higher than the healthcare capacity of countries, including the best ones like US (even if you take that only 20% will require hospitalization). Inherently, choices will have to be made about who will get the lease of life depending upon the doctor in charge. There are heart wrenching stories coming from Italy, which I take as not fear mongering, but evidence in flesh and blood.
5. Most times, human beings follow a normal distribution curve when it comes to their intelligence and ability to understand and respond to a calamity. So also, the more intelligent you are, more the number of people below you who are stupider than you. The implication therefore is on what solution you choose and how will impact people along the curve.
6 Usually, public policies have to chose between the bad and the worse option. The good options are anyways in the hands of the people wherever there is liberty and freedom.
The point of saying all this is that in the given situation all societies will play out scenarios based on their ability to deal with each of the above points. When it comes to managing a pandemic though, (and just like other emergency situations) governments don’t work for greater good but for minimum damage to the people and sadly also to their political aspirations. Greater good sounds euphemistic and is generally popular with the larger vulnerable though.
Where does individual liberty sit in this? While my answer doesn’t matter, I feel it will be a test of all societies on how they value it along with other things that get thrown up in the calamity. Unfortunately, the leader will take calls based on his judgement and that’s also why leadership is so critical, especially in a crisis. Laissez-fair will certainly not be my first choice in a situation where its a matter of life and death.
I know that I have not thrown light on any better solution and frankly, the only real solution is a vaccine. Everything else is to buy time by creating disruption for the virus to spread and in some cases to keep the minds preoccupied.
I always read your posts as I find them very honest and provocative to my thinking. Please do keep putting out your views as they matter and does the job of raising general consciousness around issues. I agree with you that debates have died out and things have been dumbed down so much that it generally felt that expressing opinions is a waste of time. Which it is certainly not.
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