i did not vote. i wanted to post a picture of my uninked finger but that would be lame and would detract from what i am trying to convey. to me, this election was won a year and a half ago when a certain party managed to gather what should have been a rather large funding because the opinions online started showing tectonic shifts. it reminded me of a scifi book, either enders game or fahrenheit 451, i cant quite remember, where public opinion is influenced online by seeding opinions, conflicting opinions, inciting reactions, orchestrating the mind towards a grand finale. comments on various online forums i used to visit were afire all of a sudden with people who seemed to have a lot of time and passion towards a person and cause. this seeding of embers of opinion, fanned for months, took hold of even sane minds that now when i see my news feed, people who i would consider rational and sane, keep posting and reposting news articles, ill-researched pieces day in and day out like their life depended on it. much as i appreciate their passion and fervour, i was taken aback by how much the media can control the mind. it is one thing to be a fan, quite another to be a fanatic. we have been brought up to believe what a great democracy we live in and how democracy is like the greatest thing of all and how we should be grateful to have one. a bipartisan democracy however has proved to be the worst form of it with the parties differing merely in names and the fundamental mode of operation being in calling each other names and depending on anti-incumbency to get back to power, knowing well that the wheel of power keeps turning. your vote matters nothing. aap may be a good thing (but it has grown too fast too quickly and somewhat resembles a cancer currently. very inorganic) but for a democracy to function well, we need to kill bipartisanship and we need 4-5 new parties before democracy can start making any kind of sense. dont even get me started on how our coalitions work. in the end, a coalition can get nothing done. politics in general functions to serve the lowest common denominator in such a scenario. i am of the firm opinion that no matter who drives, we will get there eventually, wherever that is. its alright to have some faith in the system to go and vote but the rhetoric that the ones that dont vote deserve no respect, gets to me. i still pay my taxes, for good or for bad and i have my reasons for not voting. i will vote if my vote carries a weight based on the tax i pay but only if my choices are better and if the election process is better regulated. at least it will motivate people to pay tax for a better vote weightage instead of lobbying or using black money on rallies and other crassness. apparently we have spent 1.5 lakh crores in elections in the last 5 years, half of it in black. even a dumb blockbuster knows its math in PR spending and multiplex collections. i dont watch those either. i know its not a fair analogy, but i am resigned to the fact that as long as there is big money involved, my vote will matter nothing. i waited until polling was over so that i dont make cynics out of even a single believer because that is not the point of this post. hope is a good thing, as is a differing point of view. i believe us non-voters (i know i speak for a large cynical populace), deserve some respect from you believers too, otherwise you sound much like the religious fanatics that frown upon people that dont pray to their gods. peace.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 09:36:17 +0000