Martha Gellhorn quote about why we must be interested in politics; Ravi: Why I got interested in following politics mid 2011 onwards
Given below is a superb quote shared by a Facebook friend. Thanks to her for sharing.
"People often say, with pride, 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.' ... If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics." - Martha Gellhorn, https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1169479.
----
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Gellhorn tells that Martha Gellhorn (1908-1988) was an American writer and journalist.
Ravi: Policy decisions regarding a huge variety of fields from education to health to business environment/regulation to taxes are taken by the government. The power that the government has over almost everything in the country one lives in, is awesome. My first close & direct experience of that was in the months of March to June 2011 when Sathya Sai was first hospitalized followed by his Mahasamadhi in end April 2011. The state govt. of Andhra Pradesh and the union government at Delhi (both Congress - Indian political party - run governments then) called the shots at the top level! Really! And I think they did a great job in keeping the situation calm and ensuring that the immediate post-Mahasamadhi period in Puttaparthi did not result in any violence, and ensured that more financial transparency was brought in, in the running of Prasanthi Nilayam institutions.
They had the power to simply take over the institutions! That's when I really understood the absolutely awesome power that top political offices like chief minister of a state (equivalent to governor in USA) and Prime Minister of the country (equivalent to President in USA), have, even over spiritual/charitable institutions.
It is for the above-mentioned reasons that, after Sathya Sai Mahasamadhi, I started spending significant amount of time understanding Indian politics and official policy stands of various parties, and also extended that later to countries like USA and now UK.
But I am typically publicly neutral in my posts about political leaders and political parties as I think that is the appropriate stand for a person who writes, among other topics, on spirituality & religion. I do make exceptions at times and take a public stand on political issues. But I do that only when I feel very strongly that I should take a public stand about something political.
"People often say, with pride, 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.' ... If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics." - Martha Gellhorn, https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1169479.
----
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Gellhorn tells that Martha Gellhorn (1908-1988) was an American writer and journalist.
Ravi: Policy decisions regarding a huge variety of fields from education to health to business environment/regulation to taxes are taken by the government. The power that the government has over almost everything in the country one lives in, is awesome. My first close & direct experience of that was in the months of March to June 2011 when Sathya Sai was first hospitalized followed by his Mahasamadhi in end April 2011. The state govt. of Andhra Pradesh and the union government at Delhi (both Congress - Indian political party - run governments then) called the shots at the top level! Really! And I think they did a great job in keeping the situation calm and ensuring that the immediate post-Mahasamadhi period in Puttaparthi did not result in any violence, and ensured that more financial transparency was brought in, in the running of Prasanthi Nilayam institutions.
They had the power to simply take over the institutions! That's when I really understood the absolutely awesome power that top political offices like chief minister of a state (equivalent to governor in USA) and Prime Minister of the country (equivalent to President in USA), have, even over spiritual/charitable institutions.
It is for the above-mentioned reasons that, after Sathya Sai Mahasamadhi, I started spending significant amount of time understanding Indian politics and official policy stands of various parties, and also extended that later to countries like USA and now UK.
But I am typically publicly neutral in my posts about political leaders and political parties as I think that is the appropriate stand for a person who writes, among other topics, on spirituality & religion. I do make exceptions at times and take a public stand on political issues. But I do that only when I feel very strongly that I should take a public stand about something political.
Comments
Post a Comment