America, you’ve Trumped India

Ramblings of a disappointed soul:

America, you’ve Trumped India. And you’re worse than us. Because you were expected to be better given all your so-called advancement and clout. Also because you impact the world way more than we do.
Makes me once again question whether economic growth should be the only and biggest goal for all nations if THE country most of the world aspires to move to for a better life, can’t even guarantee basic common sense and a semblance of humanism.
Even despite the fact that liberals were telling the world that we won’t be shocked with anything anymore, we still secretly hoped, somewhere within, that he’ll lose. What do we do, we refuse to give up hope, maybe because reality is too depressing to accept!
This election was largely For Trump v/s Against Trump. The discourse was dominated by Trump saying what he says and Hilary and his opponents criticising him. There was no limelight on Hillary minus Trump. ‘Jo dikhta hai, woh bikta hai’ (‘What shows, sells’). Doesn’t matter what you do or say, just dominate public attention and that’s it. The means don’t matter any more, only and only does the end.
Hillary, in the end, came across as having not much merit of her own. Her set of issues just appeared not as harmful as her opponent. Reminds me of the liberal voter’s dilemma back home.
Just like the media can do so much wrong, the media itself can often be wrong. The image projected of the US was of such intellectual advancement and such vocal opposition from so many quarters for Trump. Well the reality of the average American on the ground has proven to be so different and they failed to capture that.
This is undoubtedly the worst time in history to be Muslim. Most of your ‘own’ are indifferent/scared and some are the worst but the ‘others’ consider all of you the worst. In the US, in India, the world over, you’re doomed!
This is first an ideological defeat, then Trump’s win. The message is clear: Whether it’s India or America, scream, shout, be a 1. One, 2. Man, 3. Army. Talk about hating Muslims, be offensive to women, flaunt rigidity, frequently refer to military aggression, talk about brawny, filmy shortcuts and you will win. No one will worry about your history, your actions, your words, you will still win. And once you’ve won, everything will officially be forgiven. Since you now have the power, everyone will also find ways of embracing you. This is the era of fear, hatred, anger and shortcuts — the kind that were frowned upon as per conventional wisdom, as part of now almost-extinct things called ‘morals’, ‘ethics’, ‘values’. There is no place for discussing equity, compassion, human rights or liberalism anymore.
It is amusing how many Modi supporters seem to be against Trump! Do they actually not see the irony or do they actually think Trump and Modi are on the opposite ends of their spectrum of beliefs! My practical assumption is that they support Modi because the media did and they oppose Trump also because the media did. Real puppets!
If democracy is giving us such leaders, maybe it’s time to revisit the concept itself. Democracy was supposed to be based on what the majority wants. But if the majority has been dumbed down and manipulated to an extent where they’ve become incapable of taking good decisions, then a system based on numerical majority will lead to disaster. What’s the solution, I don’t know because true education and empowerment starting from the ground up are too time-consuming, costly and unlikely given the lack of political will. But acknowledging that there is a problem is the first step to moving towards a solution.

“Democracy when controlled and guided by an overarching framework of ideals produces results of one kind. In a ‘hot’ democracy, however, the naked and unadorned will of the people has a better chance of being converted into state action…” — Santosh Desai — ‘The coming of the hot democracy’ (https://goo.gl/tq3uUe)

What happens now? How does this affect a common person? Most likely not much. The struggles of life on the ground largely stayed unaffected regardless. Elections are won and lost on opinions and propaganda, but illiteracy, unemployability, unemployment, hunger, happiness, human development generally stay the same. But yes, mindsets shall be destroyed forever, destructive, divisive regression will get fuelled and that will harm us in so many ways for so long. Also bear in mind that thousands of innocents died and hundreds of terrorists were created when Bush was in power!
So if you’re disappointed like me, come let’s go back to our cocoons with our coteries and keep escaping reality by hoping that some day a benevolent dictator (although an oxymoron) rescues us or people get fed up of Trump and replace him before he does too much harm!

#election2016