You walk into an aircraft. The flight takes off smoothly. Everything is going as nonchalantly as it can. It's a long flight so you doze off, relaxed and satisfied. Suddenly you are woken up with a jerk, and even as you are frantically searching for the seat belt hooks, you hear the dreaded announcement. "The plane is going down as both pilots are unconscious, anyone with the necessary skills to fly the aircraft please come to the cockpit immediately." Fortunately, one trained pilot raises his hand among the crowd of passengers. Another one makes a passionate speech of why he should be flying the craft instead of the trained pilot although, he confesses, no experience of flying a craft. People decide to vote for it. They vote for the passionate one instead of the trained pilot. The jetliner, not surprisingly, dives to its death, killing everyone on board.
An amusing story with a tragic end. Sadly, the story is an allegorical account of the current state of democracy around the world today. When the ancient Athenians came up with the idea of Democracy around the 6th century BC, they would have never thought that it will spread like a wildfire around the globe. Even far-flung areas not inhabited at the time of the Athenians would accept democracy as a way of life would have been too farfetched for them to comprehend. So what happened to the sacred idea of democracy? Is democracy still thriving around the world or the romance over?
to be continued....
-Sunny Gusain
