| Author | Date | Time to Read | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmobird + Ganesh | 18 Feb 2017 | 20 mins. |  |
Eventhough when people and countries have democratic society, still establishments seems to kick us in our ass very often, and the rate seems to increase and each time we are the ones who run for our lives. This post will be my understanding of Civil-Disobedience & might help anyother to understand it in general. I will be updating the content with learning, interpretations & understandings.
In a democratic society, even when the initial intentions are progressive, the reality indicate more authoritarian behavior of the governments functioning in the democracy, other private and public institutions seems to operate for their functional & profit oriented stability viewing people as just another resource. I think, the increased public interest letigations, exercising right to information ... and all other civil disobedience acts even when they are slower are indicating that more and more people are observing and becoming aware about the operations of governments & establishments.
By principle, every democracy and its constitution calls people action to protect it from any subjugative amendments, so that in future, the constitution will protect the people from subjugation.
The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it.
Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do their share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.
- Albert Einstein
People in democracy has the right to practice Civil Disobedience (CD) against unjust laws, subjugation, opression and unjust policies. CD does not violate constitution, even when one claims so. One thing is clear, even in a enshrined centralized living document like a constitution, requires peoples action to often reset the subjugative or tyrannical powers, when the situation goes out of order. People in democracy often do practice disobedience only when the situation is lot worse than they originally thought. By the way, both constitution and the practice of civil disobedience cries for critical thinking populace.
The reason for delay of action, might be either synthesized by the system or because of the nature of people. However, present day communication infrastructures filled with centralized social networks have become a good democratic tool to enlighten people with information, evidence, uprise organization, etc... When people are seperated by emphasizing the difference, communication infrastructures paves the way to bridge them to a common platform which is not possible to do in day to day life style.
One can see this strategy as criticizing and controlling centralized beast using another centralized beast. Democracy literally has no meaning without civil disobedience. And when the governance, constitutional institutions of a country do not adapt itself to the people's growth in terms of their expectations in public services, and their quality, then the pressure constantly builds up which often communicated to the government using civil disobedience & using the Court of Law as last resort. On the other hand, one can also view this cycles of pressure and uprise pattern as a pressure relief cycle in a closed tank.
In a representative democracy, we do not seem to act to change the fundamental flow that lurks within the design of the system, and instead both the people, & the government seems to play the pressure relief dance. Only the amplitude and frequency seems to vary from time to time.
One can realize that in such a democratic society, flaws, uprise actions, pressure reliefs, are all intertwined with each other constituting the process of democracy. This is ok, when the scale of people is less, easy to manage etc., but when the density of people is large, and with more ignorant and subservient people in the population, governance infrastructure struggles to implement plans and services. Functioning of daily execution of bureaucracy becomes primary importance, and considered as a measure of stability. This situation automatically places the people, representatives, constitution, governance, in a mere plutocratic or aristocratic or monarchic society taking their own places.
Slow but possible solution : Why can't people be advised to stay calm and maintain silence, to be patient, do their daily assigned job for daily wages, until the government take care of the people so that we can collectively transform ourselves to a highly advanced, efficient, superpower, so that in the future we can provide a peaceful utopian life ! By the way while doing that, to make the life entertaining we shall go kick ass others, wage wars, & have fun.. :)
Why not a quick solution : Shall we kill people to make the populace less through some efficient patriotic strategy ? or by having a cruel leader who kills poor for pleasure ? I assume those who read this, is not of that nature, and so what will be the solution which is actually implementable ?
Actual solution might be : Why shall not civilians actively participate in democracy by beginning to use technologies, tools, ideas that are peer produced, open, transparent, free to share, peer reviewed ? Why shall not we participate in governance by democratizing it more and more through active observation by exercising transparency and accountability from the infrastructures. If we can act so much using centralized communication infrastructures what will be potential of a fully auditable grassroots based communication platform, that completely seals the information and digital divide wherever possible in a more symbiotic and organic way !
For those who are new to Social Auditing (SA), do read about it, and the associated RTI, MNREGA acts & civil organizations. One shall realize how civil society organizations have played key role in uderstanding the acts, and using them to retract order in the governance. This made few things clear: people's organization and action plan using critical civil participation, exercising available laws, to curb ill effects and causes - did worked.
In a social audit, civil societies intervention will have its publicly collected data to cross verify with the information collected and provided by the respective department of a government agency. This procedure, is feasible, only such information supply system is there in the first place, or else can just claim the mishaps. Furthermore, all the interventions are in the path of centralized procedure - part of checks and balance of power between the people and the state. One shall envision this as information driven civil disobedience.
Similarly there are many other innovative ways that varies upon the scenario and the country, which we shall have to collect about, research which might yield a proper collaborative systems approach for problem solving, that are actually tried and working even when they are slower in some situations.
