Politics
We need informed citizens to address the grave polarizations of our times. A considerable mass is required to demand that our politics be ethical and pragmatic.
Pragmatism implores people to turn to evidence and embrace it. Pragmatism in politics means not letting a particular ideology come in the way of the right solutions. It means going beyond one’s beliefs and assessing things rationally, and devising solutions that work. What does it take to achieve this other than a good state and non-partisan institutions — illuminated citizens, I think.
A well-informed electorate is the unrivaled public good. It is something that the state cannot provide you. Instead, we have to provide it to the state.
“Pragmatism has two enemies: ideologies and populism, and each seized its opportunity…
Politics
Minorities live a life of polarity in America between the long claims that everyone is equal and the daily struggle of overt segregation.
“When a racial group’s collective prejudice is backed by the power of legal authority and institutional control, it is transformed into this racism, a far-reaching system that functions independently from the intentions or self-images of individual actors,” says Robin Diangelo in his book, White fragility.
The anti-minority sentiments integral to white supremacists’ identity have a superiority complex behind them without any rational basis. Because they don’t have a rationale and are based mainly on prejudices and assumptions, they get aroused even at the slightest challenge, especially when their insecurities are on the rise, or they face a social identity crisis…
Politics
How they ended up doling out their own sense of warped justice. Answers to these questions lie partly in the crafty and cunning, though democratic, mechanisms that allow fascists to bully democracies and enable people’s undue suspicion regarding democracy to run wild.
“The incipient, creeping fascism of the past few years has been groomed by many of our ‘ democratic institutions ’. Everyone has flirted with it — Parliament (Congress), the press, the police, the administration, the public. Each time you defend the right of an institution, any institution (including Supreme Court), to exercise unfettered, unaccountable powers that must never be challenged, you move forward fascism.” says Arundhati Roy.
You all must have gathered by now that democracy can be used both as a tool to further the cause of people and as a weapon to undermine the same; it depends entirely…
Politics
You cannot rectify a receding democracy without a greater sense of political responsibility on the part of citizens and political leaders.
Bad political outcomes are a result of inappropriate individual behaviors, inordinate structural processes, and misinformed/uninformed citizens. Sometimes it is difficult to assess the attributiveness of the factors or the degree of political responsibility assigned to them with regard to the outcome. Some elements are certainly more worthy of censure than the others. Citizens and political leaders of democratic societies differentiate themselves from authoritarian societies by bearing more responsibilities and not just by exercising more rights.
We, the people, are also accountable for the behavior of our leaders other than they themselves for setting these violent and undemocratic events into motion…
Politics
Notwithstanding the Above, Can a Good End Ever Justify the Wretched Journey?
“Authoritarianism appeals, simply, to people who cannot tolerate complexity: there is nothing intrinsically left-wing or right-wing about this instinct at all. It is anti-pluralist. It is suspicious about people with different ideas. It is allergic to fierce debates. Whether those who have it ultimately derive their politics from Marxism or nationalism is irrelevant. It is a frame of mind, not a set of ideas.”[1], says Anne Applebaum in her book Twilight of Democracy, The seductive lure of authoritarianism.
The fragilities, similar to what happened at the Capitol, are inescapable in a democratic — authoritarian system where the basic functioning of…
Work
It could be a hybrid model with a mix of both, varying in percentages depending upon factors that get altered from workforce to workforce and industry to industry.
When the pandemic takes a retreat from our lives, and we are safely on the other side, what’s it going to be like going back to work. Let’s start by asking ourselves a very simple question. After the two most important factors — a. Fondness for work and b. Salary, what is it that attracts people to their workplace? Aren’t we fascinated by the variety of different people we encounter in an organization? Work from home/ Anywhere (WFH/WFA) takes that away from us. …
Politics
A change in strategy under President Biden proves that foreign policies are not always amoral and can offer a chance to restore peace in the famine-struck nation.
“Some foreign policy issues relate to our survival as a nation, but most do not. Since WW2, the United States has been involved in several wars, but none were necessary for our survival. Most foreign policy issues involve trade-offs among values, and that require choices, not applications of a rigid formula of “raison d’état.” says Joseph S. Nye, Jr. in his book, Do morals Matter?[1]
The sound of explosions and ambulances is a familiar reverberation in Yemen. The ongoing war has already taken the lives of 130000 Yemenis, and it is estimated to push another 400000 of them further to…
Politics
Cooperation and compromise are the virtues America can use both at home and abroad to get through these times.
“The best way to promote our ideas and values around the world is not by bribing or blackmailing other governments to accept them, or by imposing them at gunpoint, but by rededicating ourselves to perfecting democracy at home,” says Ian Bremmer in his book Superpower. [1]
The rationale behind a more restrained foreign policy and diverting more resources home comes from the very nature of democracy.[2] Each nation is different, and so are its preconditions to become democratic. The values, social structures, and political culture cannot be changed hurriedly by an external agency even when the intentions behind it are…
Politics
Do we need to realign our purpose and incentives and eschew extremes of both the government and business?
State vs. market is an age-old debate; however, it has become more significant than ever. Even though the world is reeling under the pandemic and its consequences, we have witnessed many authoritarian regimes' rise and fall and similar ascending and descending in businesses. The pandemic has clobbered the entire system. A reminder has followed in its wake that governments and businesses are both essential in times of crisis. It will mean that we all have to embrace the idea of democracy even closer to our hearts now. Or else we risk losing a chance to find inclusive solutions. At the…
Politics
What happens to a frail democracy when it is decoupled from morals and coupled with a coup — the story of Myanmar.
Military Coups are based on inferior perceptions about people’s ability to decide for themselves and their incompetency to take on political responsibility. They undermine the potential of a society to run its politics democratically. It is an attempt not to allow people to exercise their most basic rights. Different military regimes worldwide try out distinct and seemingly persuasive rationales/propaganda to sway people onto their side. Some sell the notion that democracy is ill-suited to their culture and norms; others say the military is required to maintain unity amongst the heterogeneous population. We need to understand that any set of ideas…
Sakshi Kharbanda, Ph.D.
Learner| Researcher| Writer. Writes on Democracy, Capitalism and Inclusion. Fascinated by Mathematics and Mathematicians.
