Everyone wants the rewards without the responsibilities, whether they are an influencer, a judge, a politician or a CEO. Those who are powerful seem to get away with it and the rest of us are left feeling so powerless that we end up giving away what little power we do have. We don't put in the work to legitimately demand accountability & recriminations, instead we encourage unhappy & unstable people on the extremes to fight our battles for us. And when they fight dirty, we feel uncomfortable and settle back into the status quo.
This is why genocide continues to persist in Gaza. This is why the victims in the Epstein files may never get justice. This is why the endless political divide in every country may never get resolved.
Israel uses Hamas to justify its brutality. Authorities are more interested in prosecuting financial crimes than child abuse & sex trafficking. All political parties resort to fake news and social media bots to push their agenda. No matter the platform or justification, the agenda for all sides of all debates and fights is a blind pursuit of power.
Instead of using distraction, addiction and outrage to cover our feelings of powerlessness, maybe we should try to reclaim the little power we still have. That power is the ability to develop our own perspective, to analyse & critically review everything we are presented with and ultimately, forming and standing behind our own opinions.
When we pledge allegiance to someone else's opinions, ideas and platforms, we give away our power and get locked into defending ideas and actions we don't actually believe in.
Take one support base of Donald Trump for example: white people living in poverty, who have witnessed affirmative action benefit other disadvantaged groups they see as less deserving than themselves. Why is this? Is it blind racism or a desperate competition for scarce resources & opportunities where they see race as a justification for pushing their agenda? Donald Trump has used them to become President but is he actually changing the situation to their advantage? His tax breaks for the billionaire class, high trade tariffs and an illegal war are taking more money away from the people who supported him. Where are their jobs, income guarantees, health care and opportunities? He released the Epstein files, where many of the victims fit the profile of this support base, but he knows and some of them may also realise now, that neither he nor any of the elites close to him will ever be fully held to account.
What are they to do now? They have locked themselves into a blind racist agenda that sees them as kindling for the power grab of men like Donald Trump, alienating the people most like them who could have been their allies and partners in actually changing the situation. Their only opportunity now is to enlist and be sent to the frontline of the war. Donald Trump and men like him have no interest in actual change because the existing system keeps them and their interests on top priority.
Racism is a tool being used by conservative elites to keep the poor in America divided and available as fodder - for their votes, as cheap labour and expendable soldiers.
The same may be said of religion in India. If poor Hindus banded with the poor of other religions and across the other divides they have been taught to uphold, it would be a massive vote bank, bigger than any before. That would be a real powerhouse, taking away power from the current political elites and their business allies. They would then be forced to enact real change instead of only giving it lip service in the run up to an election.
While the above examples cover the far right, I don't mean to let the liberal, centrist and leftist political agendas off the hook. Their platforms are also about the blind pursuit of power, only their tools are different. Wokeness, political correctness, activism around the rights of increasingly minute segments of diversity are also divisive and distractions from any real change. The elites on this side have more in common with the elites from the other side and their continued opposition to each other perpetuates the status quo that always has and continues to benefit them all.
Like in the Mahabharata, all sides claim moral justification and fairness while bending the rules to their advantage in their pursuit of power for themselves. The powerless are divided, distracted and enraged into following them rather than allowed to evaluate for themselves where their own interests lie. Is it really in fighting and dying in a war, where you and yours are forever the victims and losers, no matter which side claims victory?
I reiterate, our only power is in being attentive, analytical, forming our own opinions and knowing where our interests lie. When we give someone support, through vote, labour or otherwise, we must retain the power to hold them accountable and the ability to punish any infractions in whatever way we can.
We must resist the easy binary thinking on offer and recognise that today's media landscape is all about performance. Labels like "authentic", "unfiltered", "real" are carefully curated and are also chasing popularity, power and profit.
No one is perfect. Everyone has a self interest and everyone can and will make mistakes. We need to own our mistakes and learn from them instead of becoming defensive or hiding them away by digging in our heels. If we do this on an individual level, we might have a stronger case for demanding it from our political, administrative and business leaders too.
In earlier eras, there was a more subtle manipulation and we could get away with being naive and stupid. Not anymore. In the age of over information, blatant agenda pushing, fake news, AI and an unabashed drop in ethical and professional standards, we must remain on guard. Blind trust, unwavering loyalty and following self-styled gurus & guides must end.
