To think freely, to be left alone to work and live as one wishes, to disobey injustice and to accept no man as one’s boss has been the dream of man for centuries. He has never cared for power hungry leaders who insist on reshaping and reordering society to their specifications, and in that process, interfere in the peaceful enjoyment of life by individuals. For centuries, the common man has remained gun fodder while dictators strutted about the globe on their horses, tanks, planes and rockets, raining death on poets, lovers, teachers, mothers and artists. They achieved nothing but shattered families, ruined cities, offering the people nothing but death, death and death.
There seems to be no tangible way to stop them, stop those who are bent on imposing their will on an innocent populace by interfering in their personal lives and liberty. The only way to destabilize them is to be eternally alert, on the look out for potential liberty-destroyers and nip their attempts in the bud. Dictators bloom when hero worship crosses the limits of decency, when one man’s capacity to elevate society is unquestionably accepted and when his claims and promises go unquestioned. No dictator has ever done any good to any society; the harm they have inflicted on the people and the world is enormous.
Life is no longer as simple as we would like to imagine; it has grown complex and dependent. Values once cherished are no longer valid; anything in the name of progress goes, and the power of the media and tools of communication to influence the environment is enormous. Power hungry leaders sprout like mushrooms. Brains are washed, slogans are dinned into unwary ears, carrots are dangled and sticks are held out, while the pathetic individual stands helpless.
How do we protect him from the gun-wielding dictators and the brain washing leaders whose vision of an ideal world begins with the subjugation of individuals? Even the ballot box is at the mercy of these leaders. The sure way to stop them is to deglamorise them, take away the aura of authority from them, and treat them as ordinary men.
Without a gang of applauding hangers-on, the so-called leaders will lose their charisma. Hitler needed his henchmen and his SS guards to lend him an air of invincibility, and the parades and the public display of power silenced even well meaning critics. Usually humour kills dictators, and no wonder Hitler came to power in a grim Germany. The English could not hold on to their colonies because they say they have a sense of humour.
Individuals are specks in the vast political and economical deserts. An individual’s life is manipulated in a thousand subtle ways and he is unaware of them. His hard work is eaten away by inflation which is the result of wrong economic policies dictated again by vested interests. He is caught in the web of self interested and self centered politicians. While he toils on the land or elsewhere, millions are made and spent by middle men quite casually. The legislature, the executive and the judiciary seem to be sprinkled with corrupt elements who have no thought for the common men.
Elections are won and promises are breached. Big money spent on national projects are gobbled up by middlemen who think nothing of doing shoddy work in order to have an unhealthy cut of the project cost. Political corruption helps big businesses to amass wealth quite easily. When contracts are signed for big projects, the cuts offered are mind boggling. When such sums reach astronomical proportions, Swiss accounts are resorted to. In all these activities the poor individual who languishes with his trust in democracy and individual integrity continues to wallow in misery.
The long term casualty is the loss of faith in our institutions and the lack of trust in the integrity of our leaders. Cynicism enters the minds of men and women, which results in the death of humanism. Man loses his capacity to dream, and that is the first step towards national inertia. Unless there is scope for achievements and trust in our institutions, unless we believe that hard work will be rewarded, goodness will be appreciated and criminals will be punished, a nation cannot prosper.
It is a Herculean task to restore public trust in our institutions and in our leaders, and to create an urge in society to work hard, and to make people believe that corrupt people will be punished and honest hard working people will be rewarded. Let us start the campaign to cleanse public life in the schools and colleges. Let us expose and condemn corrupt leaders and bureaucrats; let us discourage hero worship and idolatry; let us shun leaders and politicians who exploit people in the name of religion, community, language, region, philosophy etc. Let us strengthen our teachers who can shape the students who would enrich themselves in order to lead the country and the people to greater heights.