"Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."
I was reminded of these lines when on Nov. 5th, I was chatting with Abhinav, who has just started his PhD in Cambridge. He told me that in UK, at some places they even have fireworks to remember this day... the day when a group being frustrated with England's king's treatment of Catholics tried to assassinate him by blowing up the British parliament in 1605. They even succeeded in bringing lots of gunpowder in the basement of parliament, but were caught at right time.
This historical fact was the inspiration for the movie: "V for Vendetta", in which the hero, V, fights the government which has become totalitarian using the power of media and policing. V's mission is to make people think that it were they who readily gave away their freedom to their government due to constant fears. Now they have become slaves to their own government. The seeds of their liberation lies in their own minds.
The idea is not very far fetched. It has already started happening in various parts of the world. The economic crisis has hastened the process. We have seen that governments have got bigger and bigger in many countries of developed world. People also do not want to take pain which actually should have been the retribution to their excesses and living on too much credit. This has caused governments to get bigger and bigger, stifling the true capitalistic forces.
Even in the realm of personal information, it has become much easier to monitor the citizens because of the percolation of information technology in the society. Nothing is hidden from governments. In some cases, it might be important to monitor it due to so much terroristic activities.
Now the question is that how much is enough? How to balance the need for supervision with the idea of personal liberty and freedom? How much should the government control?
There are still huge risks of governments becoming completely totalitarian. Its not long ago that fascism took over Europe. People like Hitler were demagogues, who got into power by playing on the existing emotions of citizens. Now also, the citizens are in period of great turmoil. World is a very fragile place where there are extreme opinions on nearly all topics. In these kinds of times, demagogue rise to power. Several countries of Europe are already seeing the shift towards extreme right governments. The intellectual capacity and leadership abilities are being ignored; what is counting most is how much a politician can shout and place the blame on others.
There are no quick fixes to this. It is now becoming increasing difficult to predict future course of the world. These are dangerous time .... making sense of non-sense is always difficult.
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."
I was reminded of these lines when on Nov. 5th, I was chatting with Abhinav, who has just started his PhD in Cambridge. He told me that in UK, at some places they even have fireworks to remember this day... the day when a group being frustrated with England's king's treatment of Catholics tried to assassinate him by blowing up the British parliament in 1605. They even succeeded in bringing lots of gunpowder in the basement of parliament, but were caught at right time.
This historical fact was the inspiration for the movie: "V for Vendetta", in which the hero, V, fights the government which has become totalitarian using the power of media and policing. V's mission is to make people think that it were they who readily gave away their freedom to their government due to constant fears. Now they have become slaves to their own government. The seeds of their liberation lies in their own minds.
The idea is not very far fetched. It has already started happening in various parts of the world. The economic crisis has hastened the process. We have seen that governments have got bigger and bigger in many countries of developed world. People also do not want to take pain which actually should have been the retribution to their excesses and living on too much credit. This has caused governments to get bigger and bigger, stifling the true capitalistic forces.
Even in the realm of personal information, it has become much easier to monitor the citizens because of the percolation of information technology in the society. Nothing is hidden from governments. In some cases, it might be important to monitor it due to so much terroristic activities.
Now the question is that how much is enough? How to balance the need for supervision with the idea of personal liberty and freedom? How much should the government control?
There are still huge risks of governments becoming completely totalitarian. Its not long ago that fascism took over Europe. People like Hitler were demagogues, who got into power by playing on the existing emotions of citizens. Now also, the citizens are in period of great turmoil. World is a very fragile place where there are extreme opinions on nearly all topics. In these kinds of times, demagogue rise to power. Several countries of Europe are already seeing the shift towards extreme right governments. The intellectual capacity and leadership abilities are being ignored; what is counting most is how much a politician can shout and place the blame on others.
There are no quick fixes to this. It is now becoming increasing difficult to predict future course of the world. These are dangerous time .... making sense of non-sense is always difficult.
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