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A Governance Issue

Peggy Noonan has questioned the maturity of the people in goverance in America today in a compellingly argued article here ...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703363704574503631430926354.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

She has talked about people becomeing "disenchanted" or "disheartened" with government. People do not think that the Government can make it better, she says. Also, the leaders are showing a mindless ... something akin to optimism, she continues.

Fascinating perspectives indeed. I am wondering what relevance do these have for Indians. If anyone thinks they are irrelevant, well, I would beg to differ.

I think all of us Indians can identify with the feeling of being "disheartened" with Government.

India, of course, has never been the "hope of the world," or the "savior of mankind," or the "strongest nation of the world."

But, the lesson to learn there is that we have to aspire to such things.

Unfortunately, Indians become content too easily. At some level it might be good if people are easily content and do not all inspire to become millionaires like people in America do. But that same sense of contentment also includes a lack of vision, a lack of ability to think about the day after tomorrow, about what crises might arise ... and that's a pretty dangerous thing.

Humans after all are different from others in the animal kingdom because of our ability to plan ahead. I do not think Indians have the prescience to plan ahead adequately.

That will have repurcussions, of course.

I don't know if Indians will change only after millions of people die because of lack of foresight of various sorts ...

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