9-11 to Arab Spring to Brexit
to Trump
The US Elections are
over and as I had predicted in September 2016, Trump won with an overwhelming
majority. Naysayers aside, he has won and for better or for worse, he is the
President of USA for the next 4 years if not 8 years.
Is Trump’s victory
simply a continuation of the movement that has started to build across the
World and will swell into a tsunami as more and more people who have felt
disenfranchised over the years will claim what they believe is rightfully
theirs? Is there a global move taking place where majority communities in
various countries, tired of being told what to do and what not to do, have
decided to exercise their franchise?
If one looks back over
the past 15 years, the first major change was witnessed by the World on 9-11
when the Twin Towers in New York were brought down by a group of terrorists.
This led to the famous “With Us or Against Us” statement by President George
Bush leading to a clear partitioning of the World as he chose to understand it.
Was this the first move towards a non-inclusive brand of politics that
the World would have to get used to?
The war that ensued in
the Middle East, followed by the assassination of the two strong men Saddam
Hussein in 2006 and Muammar Al Gaddafi in 2011 was the next step in creating
larger fissures. The carefully held together peace in the Middle East started
to come apart at the seams with the advent of Arab Spring. The creation of
ISIS, the war in Syria and all other developments were a result of a group of
people reacting to protect themselves and their countries from what they saw as
an attack on their religion. That this reaction went to unacceptable extremes
could be the subject of a lot of debate.
The result was a huge
influx of refugees into Europe must against the wishes of the local majority
populations of each country but supported by politicians who saw in this an
opportunity to curry favour with some communities.
Brexit was next step in
this process where a majority of the citizens voted to exit from the European
Union because they saw the character of their nation changing. Was this the
beginning of the end of globalization or a borderless world as we have been
used to?
Finally, we had
President Elect Trump sweeping the polls, much to the consternation of the
political pundits, the knowledgeable journalists and the establishment not just
in USA but in most countries around the World. Dramatic results are expected in
the next couple of years as Germany, France
So what is bringing
about the change and why are the voters doing “unexpected” things?
Social Media has
empowered the common man
Over the past decade,
the communication paradigm has changed completely.
The super star
journalists who, sometimes in collusion with politicians, believed that they
were the gateways to determining what news could be told, when it should be
told and how it should be told are gasping their last breath. Readers and
viewers who used to wait for their interpretation are now free to exercise
their views through many other channels of communication.
With easy worldwide
access to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Instagram, every citizen in every
country has now become a journalist. Everyone is not just communicating the
news as they see it happening, in words and visually but also writing and
giving their own interpretation of the events in the World.
Citizens of a country
have become citizens of the World. They now communicate what they feel and what
they believe in without any inhibitions. Social media has seen major movements
with the grass root citizen literally making or breaking a campaign, be it
political or for a movie or for a product. All marketers fear a boycott on
social media and savvy politicians have used it to communicate directly to
their voters rather through the “coloured” eyes of a journalist.
The silent Majority
“Minority” syndrome
What is important is to
understand the very significant political changes and people movements taking
place in the World. For the past 70 years, since the end of the Second World
War, a new breed of politicians, historians and journalists crafted the
thinking and beliefs of the masses. With a vice like control over the
population, leaders did not encourage the masses to think.
A new breed of
“election gurus” took it upon themselves to guide the powerful politicians on
how to understand the voters with specific reference to what religious minority
communities needed rather than to understand what the nation needs. At the same
time, these election gurus also figured out ways to fragment the majority
voters at the time of elections in more ways than one.
Seeds of guilt were
sown in the minds of majority communities in most countries based on the fact
that they had much larger numbers and were generally economically better
placed. The word “secular” came into the day-to-day communication of the common
man without necessarily understanding its meaning or implications.
If you were a member of
a majority community in any country, either by colour or by religious belief,
this was to be hidden and apologized for, because this majority was seen to be
the privileged community in their own country. Over the years, this majority
community has started to feel disenfranchised in their own country and are feeling
that they have become a minority in their own country. Politicians are now
recognizing, much to their chagrin, that the voice of the majority, if its gets
united, has to be heard – there is no choice in the matter.
With the significant
increase in immigration, permitted by liberal politicians, pandering to their
vote banks, the restlessness of the Majority in each country has increased
significantly resulting in yet another group of politicians gaining the support
for a new set of reasons.
Vote Bank Politics
Politicians all over
the World believed that they understood the power to use Vote Banks to win
elections and influence people. Goaded on by analysts, these politicians and
their parties have chosen to go down a path of “segmenting” their electorate
and appealing to their more basic instincts of survival. Most times this is
based on creating a fear psychosis in the minds of the innocent voter.
In India we have the
Dalits and a religious minority who, supported by their leaders have never
failed to flex their muscle, especially before any sensitive election.
Similarly, in America, the Democratic Party spoke non-stop about the uncertainties
for the Latino voter and the Black American in tones that would only emphasise
the doomsday scenario ahead. Fear, alarmist overtones and poor education
coupled with financial incentives at election time has traditionally been a
potent yet winning combination in most democracies.
Unfortunately, the
right wing politicians are using the same recipe now but this time they are
targeting the majority community!
And they are winning
convincingly.
*******************
The author is the founder Chairman of
Guardian Pharmacies and the author of 5 best-selling books, Reboot. Reinvent.
Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office; An Eye for
an Eye; The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur and The Buck
Stops Here – My Journey from a Manager to an Entrepreneur.
Twitter: @gargashutosh
Instagram: ashutoshgarg56
Blog: ashutoshgargin.wordpress.com |
ashutoshgarg56.blogspot.com
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