12 June 2008
11:15 AM
The psyche of the mob is a terrifying thing.
When I saw the candle vigils on the news, I wondered what horrific feat the government committed to induce such herd-like discontent among people who actually have better things to do.
The last time it was protests on military rule, something relatively noble and powerful.
This time, its about beef. Look how far we've come. Unhappy with the govt's decision to resume beef imports from USA? Let's hold candles in the wind.
It says a lot about the basic rationality of people. A PM with high poll ratings a mere 4 months ago now faces calls for his resignation. I mean, sociologists can start pointing fingers at a deeper malaise in the country; it doesn't hide the fact that it took so little to change so much for the Everyman.
I don't question the reason our leaders rely on 'consultations' with the people. If we really start thinking about it, we don't know much about anything at all, or anything that really matters. The economy, tariffs, oil subsidies and nationalisation. We know the micro picture of it, the little workings and the Best Case Scenarios we can project for the future. But on the grand stage of internationalism, we are no where near knowing anything about anything.
And because we can't be trusted at the stern, consultations should suffice. Never mind the nanny label; who really needs labels, but the man in the street, without other means for defining himself.
It's such a peculiar thing - our idea of mankind in general.
We all have a sort of vague, glowing picture when we say that,
something solemn, big and important. But actually all we know of "mankind" is the people we meet in our lifetime.
Look at them.
Do you know any you'd feel big and solemn about? There's nothing but housewives haggling at pushcarts, drooling brats who write dirty words on the sidewalks, and drunken debutantes.
That's your mankind in general. I don't want to touch it.
Ayn Rand 'The Fountainhead'
