Consumerism

When the eastern bloc was on its decline, the western propaganda machines pointed out the main deficiency of USSR as their inability to ‘consume’. They may have had enough and more to sustain, but the awful system offered them no real ‘choices’.

The first sign of change was setting up of multinational brand names all across the Eastern bloc. Even now the progress of a city is judged on the number of shopping mall and their hugeness. Your living standards no longer depend on the quality but on the brands you choose.

And now, after decades, the consumerist culture has taken a heavy beating and that too at its heart- London.

The analysts sat in their studio facing the camera, desperate to arrive at some conclusion on the motive behind the riots. How can our future history text books go blank? People with no faces and sex looted the city in 2011. Imagine the absurdity of the line.

If the colour was black, we could have pointed out to racial discontent. If it was white, then neo-nazism would have been the word. Sadly this time all the pre emptive formulaes simply didn’t stand.

Our system thrives on accumulating materials far beyond ‘need’. Although the popular perception is that achievement is based on merit, the reality is far from that. More and more players come onto the field everytime. The goal post keeps shifting and get smaller as the resources go scarce. And imagine the situation when referee disappears from the field. Well that’s what happened in Britain. Can we guarantee it won’t happen again, thus wiping out a few civilizations?

Indian government has been having somewhat secretly public affair with western model of capitalism. Over all these years they have been loosening the screws when it’s suddenly realized that the rules aren’t going to hold. So they come up with a strange decision to ration cooking gas. Do our policy makers realize the potential volatility?

Already the youth have been trying out the dangerous mix of free sex, homosexuality, liberalization, spirituality, communalism. Now try telling them they have to go on empty stomach because there was a leak in the stove!