Take a Look Around....

"Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer is my current favorite track.
While sounding incredibly melodious and soothing....
it carries a message that has me hooked on to it.
It's a song for young people and is about the power we have as a generation
to influence our own lives and times.
and that we fail to embrace that power....
We know that times will change and we wait for that....
but we fail to see that we are the ones who bring that about.....
by our actions.....or our inactions.

We live in a country that's a social and political phenomenon.
A billion contradictions and we don't seem to mind.
Try to figure that out and you realize you can't.
"We are like this only !"......and we love it.

But look from the perspective of an educated individual,
who sees the potential of our nation,
and is frustrated by the way and the pace with which things are going.
Whose fault is that ?
We say....the 'Leadership'.
So what do I chose to do bout it ?
I voted,that's it.....what more do I do ?...what more can I do ?

I got you a book called "History Makers"....I need you to look into it with me and tell me what you see..... what you really see.
_______________________________

Mahatma Gandhi
The political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement.
The pioneer of Satyagraha : resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience,
Firmly followed Ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and has inspired
movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
He is officially regarded as the Father of the Nation.

Martin Luther King
Activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement.
Secured progress on civil rights in the United States.
Referenced as a human rights icon today.
Raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the
greatest orators in history.

Che Guevara
Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, military theorist,
international statesman and major figure of the Cuban Revolution.
Since his death, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous counter-cultural symbol and global
insignia within popular culture.

Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.
Successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War,
Introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his the much celebrated Emancipation Proclamation
_____________________________

All of these men had one thing in common, they forever changed the way we saw and did things.
They believed in the change that they wanted....
And changed themselves to bring that about.
So should we all have to change ourselves and take to the same things that they they did ?
Not all of us would have the same level of charisma or powers of oration that made them shine.
But there is one thing we need to realize.....
the change that our leaders brought about .........was through people like us.

I've always been a keen observer of human nature and have wondered....
What drives people as a race,as a society,as a community, as a nation ?
What makes people worship a man ?
How does a lawyer with a promising practice in Pretoria pick up a stick and free a nation ?
Why does Mumbai shut down when one man in a simple saffron robe tells it to?
How did one man with a little mouche succeed in razing Europe and incinerating 4 million scattered people ?

Looked at the same question in a different way....
Why the hell do people listen to and follow what that one woman or man has to say ?
What drives them ?
Force ?....Not really...our freedom struggle had inspired but never forced it's participants.
Love ?...would like to think so but it's just one factor.
Necessity ? ....close,but they are willing to sacrifice their needs.
Ambition ?....not if they are ready to die for their beliefs.
So what is it about people that makes them act as a sole consciousness ?
My guess is...a sense of 'Identity'.

People who are driven by a common purpose,see their ideals, their values...themselves...in their
leaders.
Their heroes bring to the fore, everything that they want to be.
All powerful men and women bring people together by defining and exalting their Identity.
They represent and manifest what people see in themselves.
To know who you are...what you are...and to be proud of it...brings you fulfillment like no other.
Give that to a man and he will worship you for it.

All said and done....Our parents and the generations before them were not so different from us...
they all had dreams of how things around them would be
and did their part in building our world for us....
It's our turn now and we have to make sure that we don't let slip it by us.

We are the real strength of the leaders we believe in...
Every appearance at a rally,every E-Mail and every letter counts.
Every issue that they take up and work for..,
are things that affect us, whether we like to admit it or not.
There's never a wrong time to express our solidarity with the bearers of our cause and make sure that
we get represented the right way.

Speaking of empowering our leaders......
We must realize that the force of power is felt most by those who don't have it.
And by letting chances pass us by..we serve ourselves on a platter to those who may pretend or at least initially take up our cause to accumulate power.
As a line from 'The Matrix' goes..."Choice is an illusion created by those with Power".
Let's not get fooled into taking pseudo options.
They're created divert our attention from the bigger picture.
...a free TV set for a vote ?....are you kidding me ?

Realize that power and position are what make,shape and break the world around us.
For most of us,society dictates directly or tries to pinch our pride...
So that we spend the rest of our days in the accumulation of things that we believe will matter
when we are too old to do it anymore.
The affections and concerns that we have have for our loved ones are all addressed in the material benefits that we leave behind.
Believe me......what you really leave behind and what will really matter after you're gone are the
values that you built and the effort you put in to sustain them.

As we grow into adults....we realize that political seats of power and their occupants
affect our lives in ways that we are almost always forced to accept.
It's ironic that with all the education and foundations laid for us..
We still give in to gimmicks and masquerades and then blame the system for things that aren't
right.

Take your time...you know good from bad..
and as overused as as this line is...
Please...."Do the right thing".
The way I see it, there probably is no single "right way" of seeing or doing things.
Anything we say or do is directed by our ideological and social values.
But that's the beauty of it...we can live with contradictions and still move forward.

It's a pretty tricky task to talk about power and politics without sounding biased.
What I'm talking about would make perfect sense to the "free" world.
But my blog would probably get blocked in any country where power is "absolute" and media is
controlled.
Ironically......we are taught to believe that only a free world can move forward
But I now know that things will move forward by the forces and laws of nature...
whether free or not.

So what's the point of everything ?.....why do we still have to do our part if we know all that ?
Simple...because we can !
Because it's been done before and we wanna do it again.
Cause we were brought up with that promise...and we made that promise to ourselves.
and when we see something that makes us happy and proud....
It's an awesome feeling to know....We made that happen !