Blaming the politicians? They're the decoy!

If you're going to blame the country's politicians for the problems
afflicting it, then you've fallen for a very elaborate trap.

The politicians aren't the ones causing the problems. They're the
decoys. As the establishment stands today, they're designed to divert
the nation's anger to themselves while the real culprits get away.

Let's conduct a simple experiment:
"These corrupt Congress and BJP, good for nothing leaders draining the
nation's wealth..."

Was this statement acceptable? Totally. You won't find it problematic to
express this anywhere. Now,
"These corrupt Tatas, Birlas, Jindals, Ambanis, Vedantas... corrupt WTO,
FIIs, good for nothing business leaders draining the nation's wealth..."
+
--not so acceptable now, is it?

See, it's the richest people and the ones with the largest turnovers
that are calling the shots in a top-down, money-dependent structure. To
maintain their rule, it's necessary to direct the people's anger to
players other than themselves that are under their control. This way
they can conduct a nation-wide anger management program and make sure it
doesn't result in any action hostile towards themselves.

Just sample this: if a case comes up of a reputed Industries occupying
vast tracts of land at throwaway prices (after getting the native
farmers thrown out by underhanded use of the Land Acquisition Act), we
tend to blame the local corrupt politicians, the state govt, the land
mafia...
But what about the guys who actually did the occupying, the people who
stand to gain the maximum from this grab? Our news media carefully words
their reports so as to avoid pointing fingers at the top execs of these
companies.

You will typically never see any calls being made for the resignation of
the execs who presided over the scandal. Any hint towards this would be
seen as unacceptable. Yet we will bend over ourselves in demonizing the
politicos involved, and call for their ouster and arrests. It's like
going after the assassin but not bothering to investigate who hired the
assassin and why.

The social environment we are in is very carefully constructed: you have
to really step outside and look at things differently to even realize
that something's odd here.

On the one hand, Ratan Tata's, Mukesh Ambani etc etc's involvements in
shady practices get exposed with the various scams. But all calls for
punishment are applied to the ministers, the bureaucrats etc involved.
Ratan and Mukesh remain untouchable.. somehow "above" these politics and
above the law as well. To counter this we'll have endless reruns of the
greatness, the enterprising spirit, the patriotism, the legacy, the
hospitals and schools set up, the generous donations of the Tatas... how
Ratan individually cared for the families of the Tata employees killed
in the Mumbai attacks... everything possible to put them up there on
that pedestal, so anyone who doubts them is branded an idiot or an
attention grabber or whatever.

What about all their generosity? You see, when you're stealing Rs.100
worth of a country's natural resources, it's a good idea to return Rs.1
in cash to the people whose resources you stole and make a big deal out
of it. Keeps the attention turned away from the remaining Rs.99 that
you've pocketed.

Sharad Pawar gets the flak for huge irrigation project scams, but you
don't see anybody calling for the arrest of the heads of the companies
that directly benefited from these scams. A Raja goes to jail, but the
people he worked for, are holy angels sent down by God to rescue us all
from poverty, we dare not lay a finger on them.

The best defence is obscurity... the names of our politicos we know, but
the heads of the companies they serve? Nada. At best we'll find out
about them when they're invited as speakers and lecturers and chief
guests in seminars, IIMs, international conventions, award ceremonies etc.

My dear friends, Politics, as it stands sullied today, is not the root
of our evils. It is not causing the problems, rather it is designed to
take the blame for them. It's the carefully planned construct of a
top-down monetary system where dominance is seen as the ultimate goal.
The real roots of your problems are the ones you are being trained to
respect the most, the ones that, you're being told, your country cannot
afford to offend, let alone punish.

You cannot hope to reverse the immense pollution damage being caused in
our countryside by arresting a politician. You can do it only by
shutting down the factories causing the damage. There is much more long
term wealth to be made from clean practices, but see, the catch is that
it's decentralized wealth.

Rs.1 lakh of decentralized business cannot get the reigning
industrialists any profit, it doesn't give them control over the
country's affairs.
Rs. 10,000 of centralized business is way more profitable for them, and
places them in control of things, ensures their hegemony. So for all
those of you who keep wondering "if green practices could really create
more wealth, why don't we see the private sector gunning for them?"...
This is why. More wealth overall doesn't necessarily lead to more
private profit for the wealthy few.

And when the taxpayer is milked to pay some costs, even more honey!
Nuclear power, despite being much more expensive, is the go-to industry
because private players can make much higher profit margins here than in
renewable sector, plus costs and damages are borne by the people. Double
incentive!

Their central goal is expanding their personal coffers, not everyone
else's. And the politicians you love to blame, are placed there like the
whistle of a pressure cooker to blow off your steam on every now and
then. This ensures the cooker never explodes, that you remain trapped
and exploited, and the invisible reign continues. They know this. It's
time you did too.