Skip to main content

Of Demagogue and frondeurs..

Crisis and Conflicts are moments of truth for any society. Not only because it deconstructs the secondary paraphrasings like the economy, but because also puts to test the social machinery. Modern emergencies have explored a new non-natural side to calamities, like nuclear meltdown and bio-hazards amongst others. For a common man, the question often strips down to survival, and decisions become too personal. However, for the larger social institutions, namely the government, the question is more pressing and answers quite unclear.

A crisis is the points where wealth proves to be blubber of protection. The rich are inevitably the fortunate. They have access to services and getaways, a poor can never fathom of. Adding to the misery is that as the focus shits to the exigency, the common welfare services too take a hit. However, for the rich, most of the affairs are generally from their pocket. Because the untrained human response to panic is mostly the same, the rich tend to even go out of the way to hoard in the essentials causing a larger pinch in the scanty resources. The trained brains, at times, can be more dangerous too. If you can handle panic and have made your fortune out of it; You know how basically squeeze the most out of vulnerable hands.

Government is mostly run by people's men. Essentially sweet -talkers, with street smart skills. In most cases, they are efficient managers and manipulators of public opinion. But in a contingency, it is not only the opinions that they have to take control of. This is where the professionals come into play. But they don't have the impeccable social skills of swaying away. They speak the bitter facts; talk of hard-hitting plans. The world of engineering has little room for negotiation. This becomes a nightmare for the policymakers. The setting up of a discussion table between the ones who hold the power and those who have the knowledge is the first step to successful mitigation of the crisis.

The problem here is two-fold, first that professionals are not actively associated with politics, therefore they are mostly left out of the primary actions of relief, which have the most significant of the outcome. Professionals are brought in at a time when the fire is raging and there is not even enough water left. This implies they have to work with more constraints. The second problem is with authority. Although it sounds fair to have the action team of only doctors to treat coronavirus; in reality most of the teams are bureaucrats. The reason being, politicians work only with the incentive that they are credited for the work they do. Collective political altruism is only a made-up word.

Popular posts from this blog

Politics of Perpetuity

There are obvious downsides to democracy. When we look at the distribution of opinion on a particular issue, it generally follows a normal distribution. This implies that to achieve the majority, it's theoretically advised to stick to the centre. And this love for mediocrity makes democracy allergic to politically solid decisions.  Along with it, democracies tend to be the rooster for sweet talkers. And that is an outcome rather than a voluntary trait. Primarily because most voters need to be equipped to deal with the complexities of the field. For example, it could be more practical for an electrical engineer to comprehend medical patterns and the pandemic's effect on production. Thus, democratic institutions need people managers who have two keywords to watch out for - sweet talking and status quo. However, democracies have been hugely popular. And people have reported being happier. Whether this is induced, indoctrinated or influenced is another question. But history has cho...

What if "Maggus" don't have a choice ?

There are two possible reasons for stopping by this post; you happened to be among those hard-working study-serious college-goer who lament not being perceived as fun by his/her peers. Or you have a soft spot for these people, striving to pay off the debt from when he single-handedly completed your group project. There could be a hundred other reasons, so let's jump into the matter. Let's construct a scenario with simplified assumptions. Suppose there are 5 students in your project team. Each of you has decided whether you want to work or not. If you decide to work, you must put in an effort of value "e". The project will be possible if at least 3 of the students participate. A successful project rewards everyone in the team "r", which is greater in value than "e". So what do you think will happen. Let's assume that each of you is rational (which secretly implies you will maximise your personal gain whenever possible). Will all five contribute ...

Changing face of Entertainment

The entertainment industry in India is waiting for yet another disruptive innovation, with millions of young users equipped with gigabytes of data every day, there is a new untapped customer base. Not particularly untapped since it makes do with pirated movies and free web series. But, there is an apparent lack of entertainment streamed towards them. Also, the shift from television sets to mobile devices, sets the stage clear for a change in content. the spikes in porn consumption and adult web series do speak of this unattended guest. The popularity of two platforms, mostly youtube and TikTok, have also helped in developing a new class of actors. To name a few Sumeet Vyas, Jitendra, Bhuvan Bam and much more. It has become apparent that the arduous task of going from one to another production house seeking a side role in a daily soap or movie, is on a decline. Not that, people won't get their debut at soaps and movies, but it seems easier to get a web series and keep working tha...