It's All About The Money...

2008: Global economic meltdown occurs in spite of the best interests of the intellectual global economists pushing their weight behind globalization and the buzzwords since the 90s and earlier. And, capitalism creating a global political and financial elite class that only wedged the wealth gap further.

It's not surprising then that strong man leaders in the East choose to project themselves as journeymen who traversed their way to the top from humble beginnings. Everyone loves a rags-to-riches story anyways.

Populism, strong man politics, anti-intellectualism, and identity politics has to emerge from some place and they probably did in 2008.

And then there are the strong men in the west who promise the safeguarding of neo-colonist interests of their homeland, while the strong men in the east proclaim a soft rejection of globalization and promise a push back against western interests in the name of evangelizing indigenous soft power in its various forms. Both; being forms of capitalism that eventually belong to the same family but vie for alpha-male status. Both pitting "Globalized" intellectual against the one founded in so-called tradition and home-grown wisdom. The globalized being considered "Anti-Intellectual". Both using differences to drive that wedge. Immigrants Vs. Natural citizens, Blacks Vs. Whites, Hispanics Vs. Whites, Hindu Vs. Muslim.

The narrative is all the same. In India, we just have the re-invention of the Ku Klux Klan that makes itself legitimate in the guise of a philosophizing wise man meditating in a cave. Not surprising for a mob that sought inspiration in the Nazis and the European fascists back in the pre-independence days.

Hitler himself being influenced to a degree by the unpublished innocent writings of later-years-madman Friedrich Nietzsche and his concept of super humans that probably led to him using optics of a great man from the sky who descends from the heavens to address the masses. We see the same narrative with Modi albeit not being claimed from the skies.

Our men Modi and Amit Shah do not bring the acid rain, but they poison the clouds that eventually bring the acid rain, and hence the psychology of deliberate action kicks in.

And they WILL seek legitimacy in the legal and constitutional loopholes. This isn't an ethical and moral fight anymore! Legitimacy is sought in law, not in ethics and conscience. (Underline that darn paragraph!)

Caught in between are the common folk who still exist at the lowest tiers of Maslow's hierarchy who are conned in to believing their existence is in self-actualization.

For the opposition in a clearly presidential type election, they chose to fall in to the trap of educating the electorate of the banes of Modi instead of disenchanting them and grounding them in their needs. They chimed about THEIR wants instead of the brainwashed MASS'S needs. (Probably one of the only people who attempted to disenchant was Kanhaiya Kumar.)

And in the process, the banality of evil probably is upon us, and it will take the next 5 years to validate our greatest fears. Brace India, because Sully sure isn't the pilot here.

The rant may seem apocalyptic but expecting the worst help in preparing for it.

This was coming and expected with a country wanting to fast forward their wants to be prosperous. Everyone dreams self actualization but seldom know how.

In the End....It's All About The "Money"