OH AMERICA!

The current economic crisis in the West, has exposed some of the home truths about the supposed superiority of their system, a combination of ‘free elections’ and ‘free markets’.   America is  a case in point.

The first Presidential Election in the United States was held in the year 1789, more than 220 years ago!   And since then , there have been about 56 elections.   A record!   Even though the American electorate has not had much choice, with only two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, to choose from.   And the Spoils System and crony Capitalism, being abiding features of the American landscape, the electorate’s freedom to choose, may not have much meaning.   Because they end up getting the same soup, with a different garnish!

Where America has done creditably well, perhaps, is, in tackling and overcoming, by and large, the problems of poverty, illiteracy, health, etc.   Even here, dissenting voices would tell us that there is a lot of hidden poverty in the United States, that a good percentage(some say 20%) of Americans cannot read, and that the American Health Care system is in the grip of the Pharmaceutical Companies, or the mafia, if you please.   But rightly or wrongly, America continues to attract all and sundry.   The steady stream of success stories thrown up by the system, successfully masks the unpalatable aspects of American life and times.

The unbroken chain of 56 elections in America in the past 220+ years, has cemented the image, in the minds of the people at large, of a system and a state that gives its citizens the right to choose and change their leadership every four years.    But the trained eye cannot fail to discern, that, behind the choice of the citizens, is the guiding hand of the mass media that practically hustles(?) the citizens into predetermined positions, that serve the interests of the powers that be.   It may, perhaps, be unfair, to compare the western mass media to a sheep dog that herds the flock(electorate) at the command of its Master(establishment).   But the influence of the mass media over the people’s choice in politics or fashion cannot be overestimated.

Coming back to the economic crisis, one would imagine that the true strength of a system lay in its ability to give its best in times of crisis.   At a time when it is needed most.   Does this hold good for the system of capitalism and free markets in America?   Right now the American Government is busy pumping in dozens of billions of dollars to prop up the crumbling edifices of the Big Business, that were once the pride of America, without realising, or rather, bothering about the fact, that its actions practically amount to nationalizing these Corporations.

The American establishment would have us believe that these measures are necessary under the circumstances, and that they are temporary, and that even if such actions result in majority Government ownership of these companies, it does not amount to nationalization!

The position of the American Government is unenviable, and its response to the situation, pathetic.   Is this the best the American system can come up with after nearly 225 years of Democracy, Freedom, Liberty, Education, and what not?   Where have all the whiz kids gone?   The products of the great American educational Institutions- Harvard, Stanford, Wharton?   And what about the so called Think Tanks?   At other times, read better times, these captains of free speech and intelligent thinking occupy the centerstage of political and economic discourse, dishing out their invaluable wisdom, by the ladlefuls.   (Do ‘invaluable’ and ‘ladleful’ go together?)  

It is, perhaps, time for the American establishment and the people, to clinically examine the inherent shortcomings of their system, and rejig the same, to allow for genuine dissent, and not the in-house variety, and to have the courage to introspect.

Come to think of it, one of the major reasons why America is in trouble, could be, that they have been too busy teaching others how to run their systems, and in the process, neglected their own!  May be its time for the Americans to look inward, and re-learn how to run their own system!

View expressed are author’s personal.