I had not heard of Gene Sharp until Rajesh forwarded me a link to a NYTimes profile on him. He appears to be an interesting fellow. A BBC article says this about him, “His central message is that the power of dictatorships comes from the willing obedience of the people they govern – and that if the people can develop techniques of withholding their consent, a regime will crumble.”
Actually, not just dictatorships, but the power of all government arises from the obedience of the people they govern. Take the unfathomable corruption that Indian politicians like Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi and the rest of the unmentionable gang of crooks indulge in. Without the acquiescence of the Indian population, that would not have been possible.
I have said this before but it is worth repeating. The corruption of Indian politicians such as the appointed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is made possible by the collective — which if it had been honest would not have allowed the politicians to be corrupt.
I hope that Indians will muster up the courage to admit that they are complicit in the whole sorry mess and grow the moral backbone to fix the system. If they do, the politicians will get lynched. A bit of lynching and the rest will figure out that there’s little profit in being in the government.
Non-violence is great but it only works when the criminals are ready to leave. If they are reluctant, the way to motivate them is to make them feel the pain that the citizens mutely suffer.
{If you have not read “THE POLITICS OF OBEDIENCE: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” from May 2010 on this blog, please do so now.}
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