The Dilemma of Public Decision Makers of Democratic Institutions in an Era of Material Comforts!

If you have to purchase a TV, refrigerator, air-conditioner or a car, what will you do ? You can take the purchase decisions as you wish. It is your money and no one is going to question your decisions, except perhaps your spouse or some one in your family who could dare to do it. 

There are hundreds of models and several manufacturers. The costs also vary widely. Now-a-days, many final products, for example, say the home PC, is an assembly of so many well known parts, both hardware and software. How can you assess the qualities of all those and their effects on the final product ? As an individual customer, you are bound to get confused. The money, model, make, looks, service, spares, are all important to be looked into. But, comparing and comparing, you are likely to get fed up. Finally you take your decisions from your assessment based on what is called your gut feeling ! 

And perhaps your decision was neither wrong nor right. No one, including you, can prove it either way, even if the product did not give you full satisfaction. On the other hand, you and your near ones could keep finding fault with the product you have purchased. If it failed in some aspects, you may or may not play the blame game. But, no one can hold you responsible and initiate a criminal prosecution procedure against you for the decision that you had taken. After all, you are the sole authority for your decisions and the sole recipient of the results.

But this is not the case when you take decisions on behalf of a group of people. You could be an elected representative or an official holding a public trust office. If the group you are representing is going to find fault with your decisions, you are likely to be discouraged from taking any decisions. By taking decisions or by not taking decisions you are likely to antagonize some of those in the group you are representing. 

Unless all in the group have a common mindset, it is extremely difficult to arrive in any decisions which are acceptable to all.

And this is the great problem of democracy and democratic institutions, at present. A democracy for unequally developed persons with unequal mind qualities could create chaos and anarchy. You are likely to get disillusioned with the non performing democratic systems that you have today. 

Imagine the situation when a public trust official has to purchase a PC for his office. How could he do it satisfying each and every one, ensuring the most appropriate purchase decision? Whatever he does, there could be some some grievance for some one. In many instances, when he is out from his position after some time, the blame game can go to such an extent that his seemingly innocent decision could be termed as a criminal offence !

The more you make procedures to make your decision making system transparent, the more it becomes complex and counter productive! The reason for such an outcome is because of the unequal competencies and characters of the people involved. 

A democratic system incorporated for a group of people with varying mind capacities is bound to become an antagonistic one towards the progress of the same people. 

And the mind capacities of people in an era of material comforts are not going to improve in one or two generations. It might take several generations before the majority of persons become advanced in mind capacity. When such a situation evolve, we can perhaps say that our civilization is one which respects wisdom and knowledge. That would be the time when the majority aspire for wisdom and knowledge.

There would not be much dilemma for public decision makers in a civilization of people respecting wisdom and knowledge. From this time onward, democracy and democratic institutions are bound to leap forward.

So, presently we cannot be satisfied with our democratic institutions and our democratic representatives who are there to take the decisions for us. 

Because we all are presently in an era of material comforts and we have not yet developed our minds collectively to that of wisdom and knowledge. We cannot expect the democratic representatives different in mind capacities augmented by wisdom and character, than what we ourselves are.

We have not yet learned the benefits of achieving wisdom, even while we might have achieved certain levels of knowledge ! Unless our knowledge is polished by experience, we cannot possibly attain wisdom.

And when we are in our lazy comfort zones of material pleasures, we are not going to acquire the much needed experiences. And generations are ahead of us for gaining the required levels of knowledge and wisdom !

No point in worrying about the failures of our democratic institutions and those representatives of ours who make those democratic organizations. 

Without the necessary levels of knowledge and wisdom for the majority of us, we are not going to resolve our present day problems in our present generation.

But surely, we need not be pessimistic. Our future generations are going to resolve these issues. That is the manner in which our world is designed by the Original Designer of our evolving world.

Time is the sure shot healer of our problems. We need to learn the benefits of patience. 

And that too is part of our learning experiences!



[Read the previous blog for knowing more about the eras of human progress !]