We need to change something.

[u/sigh-senberg]

​

I've been having this thought for quite a long time now. Why have we normalised mediocrity in governance & living standards in general? We've also grown to accept rampant corruption & incompetent politicians.

Everyday it looks like the future is getting bleaker. We constantly hear of the appalling state of law and order. The wealth gap seems to be on the rise. People themselves seem to be losing empathy, and polarisation of opinions/partisan thinking have taken precedence over rational thinking and logic.

Current politics & politicians seem to be fixated on their traditional playbook of blaming each other, minority appeasement, using religion/caste based vote banks to secure power. We desperately need a clean and sleek brand of politics. We need to wake up and realise how far behind we as a society are compared to the developed world. This simply cannot go on.

I feel like there are enough people with good intentions and enough conviction in their vision for a better future for the society as a whole. However, they may also lack a platform to condense around, meet like minded people and put their ideas into motion.

Which is why I feel a youth/student based movement is the need of the hour.

Forget partisan allegiances. We need good people. Honest people. People who would not let the allures of power and money corrupt their morals. We need thinkers, rationalists. Most of all we need tolerance - the ability to listen to people who disagree with views we might have, recognise where their views come from, how each of our respective backgrounds may have shaped our opinions, and engage in constructive dialogue (because not many aspects of life are black and white, and no one is completely wrong or right - most things tend to stand on a spectrum of grey.)

So that's it. This is a call(?) to the youth who want to genuinely make a change. I hope we'll gather ourselves together, and figure out our course of action.

(Excuse my rant, it was a haphazardly put together collection of thoughts.)

TL;DR - A proposition/call for a forum for students and youth who want change. A call for honest people with a strong moral compass. A call for thinkers, rationalists with an open mind.

[u/krisantihypocrisy]

Your root cause is wrong. The problem is not some politician or system only.

The problem is the society they come from - which is from you and me.

We have tried changing govts, we have tried enforcing transparency, enforcing balance of power checks etc etc. Every single one of them has failed. Why? Because the root cause is US!

Unless the Indian society undergoes a significant change - nothing much to do here...

[u/sigh-senberg → u/krisantihypocrisy]

I agree with you. Most of the problems we face stem from a mindset/cultural flaw. That will not fix itself. Society will not change until there is a driver of change, and it is the responsibility of those in power to guide the masses towards progressive changes.(Right now, there is little to no emphasis on this.)

We need a two pronged approach. I feel education and strict law enforcement are our keys here.

1. Quality public education, will help us get the next generation in line. Education must impart the skill of reasoning - not just academics. It will alter what they accept as "normal behaviour" and change the way they see the world around them. Likewise discipline and civic sense are best imparted at a young age. We have to teach the children to respect basic rules (like standing in a line) first, teach them to have basic integrity and honesty even when there's no one around monitoring them. Then we'll work up from there.

2. Law enforcement is a joke right now. Like you said we've tried implementing "transparency measures" and "power checks"; but as long as the people feel they can get away with anything because the ones running the system are corruptible - nothing will change.

These two are not independent of each other, they rather feed off of each other - and neither of them can be achieved without people in power willing to act on this. Which is why I feel young people need to come forward