We are into the age of "White Collar Activism". PLUs (People like us) are leading it and PLUs are fascinated by it.
The worthy causes are "Justice for Jessica and Nitish Katara", Corruption, Black Money etc etc.Pollution of our rivers, displacement of farmers are not good enough. Nah they don't affect us.
"White Collar Activist" (WCA) is a growing breed.
WCA takes up the causes which are directly or indirectly affecting PLUs. The causes where you can find a clear villain. Villains better not be PLUs. If they are politicians even better.
WCA is driven and motivated by masscom revolution.
WCA has seen and loved 'Rang De Basanti".
WCA has made good life for self or confident of making it good on the strength of a good degree and English.
WCA is a busy bee. There is family to run, there are tutorials to submit , there are deadlines to meet etc etc. WCA in short doesn't have time.
WCA hates our third world status and want to find a quick solution. WCA likes quick solution to any and every problem. There is no time, you see.
WCA likes TV debates, SMS campaign, send/forward email to register you support kind campaign, buy T-shirt to show your support kind campaign etc etc. It can only spare so much time, but it can spend money (if it is not going into thousands).
WCA though has some time on weekends, to walk in candle light march at India Gate, Gateway of India or some place which is not dirty. It anyway has to go somewhere on weekend.
WCA likes catchy slogans and solutions not running into pages. No time, you see. "Justice for Jessica","Bring back black money", "Jan Lokpal" etc etc.
WCA wants to make voting compulsory but has no time for our slow parliamentary process.
WCA hates politicians and politics.
WCA doesn't understand political science/social studies. It was always an extra subject. There were competitions to crack and was busy with PCM (Physics-Chemistry-Maths) or English.
Hi Akshaya,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see that you went beyond popular jingoism of WCA to see the deeper issues. Your observations are spot on as most of the WCA has no clue about what society is and what has been the history to the problems that we face today. Everything needs to be quick fixed with minimum efforts. You can also claim that WCAs are from upper caste and upper class who have no clue about how 80% of India's population survives. They are the supporters of merit against reservation and don't want to engage with lower castes who have been discriminated for thousands of years.
Its a good start Akshaya, keep writing.
Best
Asim
You are right Asim. Here is another article sort of echoing the same -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/world/asia/18iht-letter18.html?_r=2&src=tp&smid=fb-share