What has the country come to?

I just read a news article about how a man got into an accident, and died on the pavement while they waited for the CM’s convoy to pass before they could take him to a hospital.

What has this country come to? What have its people come to? Since when did a supposed public servant become more important than the public? The entire system of democracy was invented so that people could vote a person from among themselves to take care of the State while they took care of other business.

It’s a job, Chief Ministership. It’s not supposed to be about power, it’s supposed to be about responsibility. The entire state has been given to him, but that’s just to take care of.

He doesn’t have the right to take tax money to fund his own household interests. Nobody said anything about traffic being pushed out of the way so that his car can pass. He can’t, ideally, be allowed to put his own children in expensive private schools, even send them abroad, while the schools that his own government run go to the dogs. Ideally, his children would be required to study in a government school, since he is a government employee.

Of course there is a certain amount of power that comes with the position, but the power is not for misusing, the power has been given to you so you can use it to fulfil the State’s requirements.

And to make sure that people don’t get lazy and misuse the post, they came up with the five-year system.

But it seems to be backfiring. The five-year system is making potential candidates paranoid about “The Seat With All the Power” rather than ensuring that they serve the public trust as they’re supposed to do. Rather than do the job which they were appointed for in the first place, Keeping the Chair has become of paramount importance; Power, at the cost of State, at the cost of its people, at any cost.

Corruption has set in, because of laziness, bribery, greed.

And because corruption has set in, the people who can’t fuel the corruption (the ones without money, basically) get sidelined. The State becomes about amassing more money, getting more power, associating with and protecting the people who can afford its protection.

The poor suffer. The rich, who understand the power-play better, because they go to the better-managed, more expensive private schools, suffer in their turn because the voting majority is still the poor. So freebies are offered, rather than roads being built, the tax the rich pay goes, basically, into buying TVs for the poor, and that’s a complete waste of anybody’s money. All that can ensure is you might get voted next time by people who realise that long-term changes are scarce, betterment of the State is a laughable goal, and maybe if they get another free TV next time too, at least they’re getting something out of it.

This game, of Keeping the Chair goes beyond a simple play with people’s minds into something more sinister, because power, or the promise of it, turns people’s heads. Fully around in some cases.

Because of the imbalance of awareness caused by a neglected education system, the poor are in no place to actually stand for election. The rich, on the other hand, are two things; unpopular because they are seen as exploiters of the poor, and uninterested, because America’s got better jobs and a better quality of life.

So who stands for election? The people with the clout. The people who can back their claim to power with a more sinister, physical sort of power.

And they have to Get the Chair at any cost – whether it means bribery, or false promises, invoking emotions, or even physical clout. “Politics” is invented – a word that becomes dirtier every time you say it.

Suddenly, the definition of equality changes. Because people are suddenly just some sort of object to be manipulated for your own needs, so you can Keep the Chair, they lose importance as people. And since you have all the power, and those people you’ve neglected could get angry at any time, you make sure that doesn’t happen by keeping them in fear at all times. The Minister becomes the most important person in the State, as opposed to a person who’s supposed to take care of the State.

The police become tools to be used, the people become vote-fingers, nothing more, and then the scene described above takes place.

In this case, the common man became so common that even his life was less important than easy passage for the Minister.

The Minister is not important. The State is. And since the State is made of common people, the people are far more important that the Minister.

When this is forgotten, when people become insignificant, when a life doesn’t matter anymore if it doesn’t belong to the influential class, that’s when the system has failed. That’s when it needs to be changed, including everyone in it.