The Illusion of Redress

    The template of corrective politics, or perhaps the very ontology of protest, appears to exhibit a recurring problem across societies. The alternative they seek is often a more intense form of what they seek to oppose. The lack of individual security, dignity, opportunities, and purpose often brings people into the open, but they seek redress from an abstract collective entity rather than a safe, conducive ecosystem in which they can exercise their own agency and do things for themselves. Though history has repeatedly shown the limitations of such an approach, they still tend to see themselves primarily as members of an ethnic identity or economic class rather than as citizens, and hence the solutions to their challenges continue to elude them. The deeper problem may lie in this very tendency to look for solutions through collective intervention rather than in the creation of conditions that enable individuals to secure their own well-being, dignity, and purpose. People still have a tendency to imagine some form of transcendent intervention, as though the correction of their condition must come from an agency larger than themselves.

Niraj Kumar Jha