Uneven Fields
-Krishan Kishore
This world is living in a disconnect from their past identities. Roughly looking at it we see three major divisions. Countries that have almost not seen slavery/colonization except brief mishaps. Then there are nations which have now been free for a long time, perhaps centuries. And then, nations which won their freedom from colonizers just in 20th century. The nature and proportion of laxity and vaguenss and to some extent, meaninglessness of systems in these societies can be seen in this measure too. The scourge of degradation of common people yoked to those colonial systems afflicts those nations more that have the shortest span of freedom. A collapse or chaos of political systems is more specific to them. The whole of Asia and Africa belong here. Russia and china, though not slaves of others, were long victims of their inner czardom and a brute imperialism. In that sense they also won their freedoms in the beginning (1917) and the middle (1949) of 20th century.
Latin America is a case apart from the norms. Although they threw the yoke off two centuries ago, but political turmoil, popular upheavals and American Intervention kept renewing their fight for freedom form the systems of oppression. In this long drawn process, periods of chaos were wide open for new genres of corruption. The drug trade among many is , only more notorious.
Again the timing is important here. The period between the two world wars and specially after the second world war brought unforeseen industrial progress to Europe which partly impacted their colonies also. Fields were open for either working hard as a nation and become a prosperous society or choosing an easy way where the privileged few rule and thrive, exactly as their rulers did. India chose the easy way. The inherited colonial mentality came into play on a gigantic scale. The seeds of corruption were waiting to sprout after the drizzle. VIPs mushroomed. Can anyone anywhere in truly free world- imagine a legislator at the state or central level protected by armed guards round the clock, sometimes a VIP has a dozen fully armed guards. And there are VIPs in all areas. They are not commonly visible to anybody except their equals. This VIP culture is the fountainhead of all corruption. Abolish somehow this VIP culture and the citadel of glory of the few and complete humilation of the rest will crumble fast. We need a populace of look alikes and not of royal blues and common reds . Other sources of corruption would be manageable by a new and different kind of protectorate that will emerge out of it. Only a sense of equality, even if people are not really equal, keeps a society free and fearless to challenge any one who is suspected of using unacceptable means. This situation exists in some parts of world, largely in the U.S. and some European countries. People have a sense of equality even if they are not equal. That gives them a sense of power, confidence and dignity. Fearlessness is a natural consequence .
Sense of equality among people is not easily comprehensible unless we are part of that society for a considerable period of time. The strength of a society is not visible to the wandering gaze of a visitor. It doesn’t reside in the lustrous appearances of its tall structures or its GDPs. Only a real experience of its day to day life as it is lived by its common folk can give us some feel of it. The working environment, systems that people create for themselves have to be inhaled , not just finger touched or eye kissed from a distance on its media resources.
Small examples are enough to demonstrate the situation. Join a que at a pay station, a grocery store, an airport, a train station or any other public place. The person standing next to you in the line can be anyone including a daily wage worker or the CEO of a company or a political VIP. No special lanes for the powerful anywhere. People are powerful at their own places, offices, businesses etc but not outside their arena, not in the street , not at a public place. A car mechanic is as good as a car dealer. This sense is very reassuring. It keeps people uninhibited by their standing in society especially the children. They stand equal in mind and body.
In free societies, people have faith in their institutions and systems they have created . They’re not afraid of entering a police station, a court or a public office. They know that these places are for their protection and not humiliation. Stray examples to prove otherwise are only exceptions, not norms.
Everything that exists around must clearly state and justify why it exists or it must go. The ideal is also the real. Freedom, power and equality are synonyms. They exist together.