Awareness Will Pay To Keep The Demagogues At Bay!
Dear Readers,
Though not particularly reckoned as a literary genius, I tend to gravitate towards the writings of American comedian, popularly known as Groucho Marx, especially when it comes to the definition of a few terms… like when he says, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” In jest, of course, and in keeping with the ongoing election season that has taken over the Community. As it should. I mean, as responsible members of the community, we must, at least keep track of the list of candidates’ promises, which in all probability will remain unfulfilled!
On a more serious note, let’s truly try and sieve our ‘real’ candidates from the demagogues. For the uninitiated, a demagogue is a political manipulator, or in the words of a famous satirist, “one who makes promises he knows to be untrue, to men he knows to be idiots.” We are not idiots – we are just too lazy to take an active interest in doing our research to zero in on the candidate who will best serve us and our community. Truth is, we need to do this for ourselves. The BPP Trustees are community members that we have trusted and chosen as our community leaders. So whether you feel they do us proud or disappoint us, give yourself a pat on the back… or a kick in the butt, respectively! They reflect our choices – our prudence and our naivety.
Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness, so we may do justice to ourselves and our community.
– Anahita
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Speaking of demagoguery, there was a critique of the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress before it even started in Perth, Australia, deeming it as not worthwhile for several reasons like location, speaker choices, costs, etc. Not only was it in poor taste to pour cold water on an important event before it started, but the conclusion turned out to be false. Based on my personal experience and that of other attendees, it turned out to be informative on latest archaeological finds in the middle east, religious issues like shortage of practicing priests and solutions (on which I gave a talk), youth opinions,global working group activity, entrepreneurship suggestions, women’s health issues, latest report on Zoroastrianism in Kurdistan, help from WZO India to poor Parsi farmers, etc., and a great forum to meet Zarathushtis from different parts of the world, creating a sense of unity in spite of our scattered diaspora, with enjoyment of great entertainment due to hard work of the organizers.. It was a worthwhile Congress.