The need for middle class democratic revolution
Is real democracy possible? It is, but it requires a new approach to human interaction. Anything short of that is already being done, and is either not enough or gets co-opted. (1.Under Open General License or whatever. Please distribute, translate, and forward freely, more importantly talk about it. The decency and the deafening silence is killing me.
2. By 'middle class', I mean anyone who can read this. )
One wonders whether the much talked-about Great Indian Middle class needs another article written about it. Revolution? Isn't that only for the poor and downtrodden? And wasn't social reform over with Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Gandhi and all those old fellows?
We live today in a situation where inequalities of wealth and power are widening, where democracy itself is at stake, where governments are becoming less tolerant of diversity and dissent, where people's rights are being trampled upon in the name of a development paradigm that is basically unsustainable. The old spectra of left vs right, private vs public sector seem less and less meaningful. It's now about size, institutions and technology. Large corporations and governments are moving closer together, ganging up against civil society, using more military and police power than ever before.
The economy is more volatile than ever, and yet we are told to treat it as some external force like rain or sunshine, without realizing that it is something created by humans in the first place. Humans who call themselves democratic at that. India and Asia are 'protected' from the economic shock-wave, we are told. But even if we are destined to take over the world, that's not a very nice thing. Isn't it the same as what we chastise Britain or the US for? When they do it, it's 'colonialism' or 'neo-colonialism'. When we do it, we're a superpower. The mergers in Europe, the oil-for-weapons deals with Nigeria and Sudan, the gas-for-arms deals with Burma. What is different?
Our mass media, being oligopolised by mega-corporations and the government, has allowed little coherent discourse pertaining to the roots of these problems. Choice, as P Sainath puts it, is limited to the direction of hip-movement.
Among the alternative media, and several activists and academics (all of whom have significant online presence), the impoverishment of the poor is documented. The myriad problems are examined, researched, in detail, ad nauseum. Alternatives are proposed, even implemented. There is plenty of information being collected and accumulated. This must, and does continue. But action based on it is lagging far, far behind. Dominant social attitudes lag far, far behind. It's almost like two worlds. Somebody said something like, "There are two kinds of audience, those who already know, and those who won't listen anyway. So why bother?"
But have we really looked closely at the crisis in the middle class itself? Is there something we're missing?
Middle-class social roles, broadly subjectively perceived as 'life' and 'work', are increasingly dictated by the 'work' part. All education is seen only as a means to a job. One's work, job, and the associated money and consumption level is the most important part of his/her identity. Attitudes to personal life are therefore more likely to change to suit this, rather than bring in more humanness to 'work'.
Our education system, supposed to make us good humans first, has taught us to be passive consumers of what teachers and adults say, rather than to challenge, question, evolve, dialogue. This prepares us for the role of passive, unquestioning consumer in life as well. One who passively consumes what the mass media tells him and sells him.
In the realm of personal life, we are trapped in fear, in extreme attachment to the structures that govern our daily lives. Perhaps we hold on tighter to parochial identities, since our personal lives and space to 'be ourselves' is shrinking. Extracurricular activities in schools and society often take on the same trappings of competition that academics do, and perpetuate the tension and pressure they were meant to resolve.
Our nearest social interactions, sadly, continue to reflect patterns of structured inequality, and thus patterns of stratification are replicated. Rapid technological and social change makes us hold on even tighter to these symbols – nation, caste, class, religion, region, or ideology. Unfortunately, in the process, we are silent and even helpless when violence is perpetrated in the name of these identities. Not unlike those Nazi party members who didn't agree with the holocaust, but didn't do anything because they failed to organize, failed to see through the lies and create alternatives.
Social bonds are more transient and superficial, especially in cities. There are too many things we don't talk about. We say "How are you?" "I'm fine." Without really meaning any of it. Some of our rampant consumerism is potentially excusable, since stuff is packaged to fill up the 'hole in our soul', and so much information is hidden.
Consumption today determines status in our minds. We often 'place' people by what they have or do rather than what they are.
Our typical reactions to all of these problems are several. There is often immense guilt when we see those less fortunate. Some turn to religion, some to social work or activism, some drown themselves in more work. Many simply cannot take it, and are broken by addictions of some sort. The 'hole in the soul' is easy pickings for sellers – buy this lotion, that soap, have that massage, go on this holiday. There are also readymade, packaged solutions for charity – donating money, voting(!) - to 'do one's bit'. There's a hatred of 'politics' and 'politicians' without understanding that everything is inherently political. And anything else is dismissed with 'it's the system, man!'. Yet we continue to live as part of the same system. Any reform or critique is repelled by those in power, not least because a lot of activism is directed at individuals rather than systems.
Let's face it. We're stuck. And only we can heal ourselves.
Whatever the packaged 'solutions' may be, it isn't enough to change externally. It doesn't soften the hard shells that we have built around ourselves.
We need to confront our own fears. The fear of the vulnerability that we are running away from. Our loneliness, our alienation, our broken and fragmented lives. Unless we can accept, understand and talk about this, we cannot hope to genuinely resonate with the vulnerability of others less fortunate. Any action, however well intentioned, however correct, is only half its worth unless it comes from a space of real love.
There are many middle class people who understand all of this, the inherent pathology of the dehumanizing 'system'. They also put in plenty of time and effort, even their whole lives, to effect change at various levels. Activism, systematic critique, reconstruction and regeneration. But their lives, their work, are seldom articulated meaningfully and holistically in the mass media. It is projected as a bunch of isolated struggles and changes – Narmada, Nandigram, Polavaram, Posco, Farm suicides, some village reformer somewhere. Some vague neo-Gandhian romantics. This is probably natural as the vested interests of political and economic power lie in presenting these in compartments, giving simplistic rather than holistic explanations.
It isn't enough to hope for the mass media to change, given it's oligopolistic character. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But we need to enlarge other spaces as well, more participatory, more open, more honest.
Participatory democracy may actually be more difficult for the middle class, given our fears, our 'decency', our entrenched sense of hierarchy and our difficulty in genuine listening to opinions different from our own. It needs to begin with co-creating spaces where we can 'be' as children are, grateful and forgiving. Where we can face, talk about and heal our own problems as well as those 'out there'. Spaces that are meaningful, emotional, spiritual, energetic, yet grounded in rational and secular dialogue and interaction, understanding and transcending our own biases of caste, class, religion, ideology, regionalism, consumerism, and other 'isms'. It is from here that our understanding and critique of larger political, economic and social structures needs to grow. From such space can emerge new and more caring ways of living; creating, adopting and enlivening technologies and institutions that are sustainable and democratic. The quality of the space is at least as important as any 'action' or 'results' that may emerge from it.
New media forms will also need to emerge from such social spaces – multidirectional rather than one-way; networks rather than hierarchies. Small screenings, discussions, interactions. Even drawing-room conversations matter. (These days we talk more, but say and listen less.) The process has already begun in the virtual world, but is more difficult to translate into the 'real'. Yet people have embarked on journeys in this direction, even in urban societies, both in India and elsewhere.
Given the uncertainties inherent in the undemocratic, uncontrolled globalization of capital and the near-entrenched insanity of political and economic institutions, we are going to experience a serious middle class social crisis (what we have is quite a bit already!). Our cover-up decency, our intense attachment and fear, and fragmented social life could lead to a lot of pain and violence that can potentially be transcended. It is essential that we heal and act from a space of love, rather than react violently.
I often get the feeling that there are several middle classes, broadly in two categories – those who understand coherently the alternative paradigms to development, and those who don't. The division of labour does play a role, in that even the critique, action, and regenerative work have, to some extent, become professionalised. But I try to remind myself constantly that this separation is an illusion, for these groups are constantly interacting, learning from each other as human beings. We need to accelerate that process. There are many who understand the alternatives, but are 'stuck' in 'systems' in some way or the other. We need a stirring, a freeing up of all of our tightly-held identities. On both/all sides of this divide. We have much to learn from each other. We need to tackle the divide by being who we are in 'life', not in 'work'.
We have the potential and the moral duty to leverage our privileges, our rights, our wealth, our access to information, and our imagination for a more equitable and sustainable society. But unless we learn to interact with love, there's no way we can help or empower 'the poor' as equally vulnerable, loving human beings rather than as donors, problem-fixers, do-gooders, or in some other structured or institutionalized capacity.
There is no dearth of good intentions in the middle class. There is no dearth of imagination. The much-touted 'information revolution' having come and been around for quite a while, there is no lack of information, so we can't keep blaming the 'mass media' and 'politicians' for all problems. We need to confront and overcome our fear with love.
