Blaming the government? Blame yourself!
The idea of blaming another person for our woes is taught to us when a parent blames the floor when a baby trips and falls and slaps the floor saying “why did you make my baby fall?” The baby then repeats the action and hits the floor a couple of times leading to giggles there is a bigger picture that is being missed here; are we doing the right thing in blaming the floor for the baby’s wobbly legs? Aren’t we involuntarily teaching the child that it is okay to blame others for their faults?
This habit of blaming another person continues through adult life; classic examples include blaming your dog for eating your non-existent homework while at school, blaming the bus for getting in late to class when in truth you slept in late and snoozed the alarm thrice and finally at work blaming the employee who recently quit for a shoddy delivery!
The same habit snakes in to other aspects as well — pay a bribe to get things done and then blame the government for corruption; jump over the center median and blame the traffic and so on. This has now spread to blaming the government for the corona-mess that India is in. When the government initiated a lockdown, there was a huge hue and cry about how it will affect everyone’s daily life. When masks were mandated, there was all round complaining about how it will affect your personal space. When social distancing was attempted, there were complaints about having to stand in a longer line! The moment these rules were slackened, people went in hordes to shopping malls, movie halls, temple festivals and all social distancing norms were thrown to the wind. To top this, people attended election gatherings by the hundreds!
Now, keyboard warriors sitting in air-conditioned comfort of their homes have started creating memes and posts saying that the government is to blame for this fiasco — Did the government ask you to attend the first day show of the movie? Did the government ask you to go to the temple festival or did someone from the government force you to attend their election speeches !?!?
The answer is a big, fat, NO — The government cannot be blamed for people’s idiocy, entitlement and frankly, lack of common sense.
The press is called the 4th Estate — they have immense powers and to quote Voltaire, made famous by SpiderMan — With Great Power, Comes, Great Responsibility. Is the press being responsible — Hell, No! For a few minutes of TRP, they go from one cremation ground to another and show wailing people; privacy be damned. They have to show people waiting in line to get in to hospitals and conclude that “Hospitals are out of Oxygen” leading to people stockpiling what they can at home.
When popular Tamil actor Padmashree Vivekh passed due to a heart attack, the press had to report the news saying that he had got vaccinated the day before even though it was completely irrelevant and the doctors said that the vaccination had nothing to do with his heart ailment — MBBS & MD be damned — We are the press and we will say what we know sells. This led to fear among people who were on the wall about getting vaccinated already since some idiot friend of theirs forwarded a WhatsApp message that claimed that the vaccine contained a micro-chip that would help the government track their whereabouts! At the end of the day, it is all about an extra click and a #covidvaccine which will bring their page up to the top even though it is not relevant!
IF the government had decided to postpone the elections or even brought out such a thought, all these keyboard warriors and opposition parties would have jumped gun and accused the government of a power grab.
IF the government had enforced lockdown for another day, the same group off people who are asking for a lockdown would have screamed that their freedom is lost from their rooftops.
IF the government had asked to cancel any of the events, the same group would have accused the government of being anarchic.
In conclusion, if the government does something, they are wrong, if they don’t they are wrong! All these keyboard warriors who claim that the government doesn’t know what to do — come out with your ideas, if you have any or if your train of thought stops with blaming the government and creating memes, STFU and let the government run and save lives, including yours.
Finis.
