On Political Awakening in Sheep-Ville

A man holds a country to ransom. And the country cheers him on with ever-increasing enthusiasm. It only happens in India. Or more specifically, in Sheep-ville.

Sheep-ville—the geographical/demographical location in time and space that comes into being when the populace loses the capacity and/or inclination to think for itself and lets itself be swept away on the wave of “popular opinion”. Which, of course, unbeknownst to this populace, is being very carefully and strategically moulded by a section of vested interests.

Recipe for Fascism:

Come to Sheep-ville; take up a sensitive issue; promise a panacea for it; call the hyperactive media for live coverage; prepare rabble-rousing spiel; pull off a few dramatic antics; wait for an impotent government to inevitably panic, and then proceed to lay down your own law. And that too in the world’s largest democracy.

People love a demagogue. But they have lost the love of critical thought. Why bother? It’s only one out of the two that provides the sensationalist entertainment that is the craving of the day. Down the other road lies the effort of deep thought, genuine research into the current issue and the growing fear of the implications of what has been proposed. The chilling realization that an elderly, rather harmless looking man, is actually on his way to creating a system of totalitarian domination. And behind him are a gang of long-standing “social activists” who, perhaps being tired of having championed causes away from the limelight, are waiting for their moment to emerge triumphant and gloating. Like vultures. Finally! But all behind the front of a harmless-looking, elderly man. So who are you going to trust now?

And he comes armed with a weapon of great historical import. Satyagraha; which he has now converted ever so deftly into blackmail. He has targeted a scandal-riddled government, one that has bathed itself multiple times over in public money, but has been ineffective in curbing the inflation of necessaries; one that only on occasion comes out in great fanfare with a welfare scheme, only for it to fall flat on it’s well-intentioned nose; one whose ranks are filled with aging, babbling, impotent leaders or junior league puppets, all of whom regularly fail to inspire a people’s confidence in it’s ability command the complex fields that are national/international politics.

But here’s something that people of Sheep-ville perhaps failed to consider: The impotent and ineffective government that he’s targeting just happens to be representative of them. It just so happens that THIS is the government THEY elected to power TWICE!! The last time being only about 2 years ago!

If B represents A, but C targets B, how is it that C can be said not to be targetting A as well?

It’s a matter of principle. I believe even Gandhi would have agreed.

Another point of beauty about this whole hood-winking scheme is how the bone of contention is hidden in the form of a legal document. A law. Now, in this fair country of ours, ignorance of the law is no defence before a court of law. Yet how many of our fair citizens actually do know the law? Probably not many apart from those who make a living off it. And even that is questionable! Most people go through life on the principles of common sense hoping we don’t put a foot wrong and get hauled up before the intimidating Court because they aren’t going to listen if you tell them you didn’t know. It’s a fairly safe bet that if you brandish a law, people in this town aren’t going to bother reading it.Because the Law is SCARY!!! You can’t understand the Law unless you have a degree that says you can. So the best thing to do, under the circumstances, is to listen to those who claim they can, flash a degree that apparently says they can. Or those whom you trust, i.e. The Media. Another something to chew on: What if these very people depend on YOU for the survival of their interests and so aren’t really going to say much beyond what you want to hear? And what is it that you want to hear? Things you already know. The government is evil! The government is corrupt! The government extorts the taxpayer’s money and leaves them in the lurch anyway! But them? They truly represent YOU! “Civil Society”! Of which you’re a proud member! They have a magic solution! We shall make corruption Vanish! How? By creating an institution with the power to control the government! But wasn’t this the government elected by the people to represent them? Nonsense! WE represent you now! And ONLY WE have the power to make your lives better! And what’s the guarantee they won’t turn out to be as irresponsible as the government itself? ENRRRR! Wrong question. Therefore, no answer.

The people of Sheep-ville are the eternal victims. It’s quite tragic actually. In chunauti, it’s always a choice between the devil and the deep sea. Nobody ever really represents them. Everyone is a slave to their own vested interests. You’d have thought they’d have learnt to treat such claims with the adequate amount of scepticism by now. But hope springs eternal. Always on the lookout for the next superhero. But every superhero must have power. And power corrupts. Ergo. Logic is mathematical, however, emotion is not.

And so we return to our original scene. A man holds a democracy to ransom. A democracy which will not realize what it’s lost until it is suffering the consequences of the fine print it failed to read... Oops.

God bless Sheep-ville.