In the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, US constitution was written envisioning the great democracy as have experienced. Being a first generation immigrant the ability to live freely, speak freely and act freely is what I believed is what I came into prior to email, mobile and Internet invading the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20Constitution%20of%20the%20United,powers%20of%20the%20federal%20government.
I would urge everyone to read from the link to appreciate the almost 240 years ago wisdom of the white men who were all also immigrants ( I don't see an Native Indian as a part of the group who wrote and ratified the constitution, and I didn't expect one). I try and make sense of the current scenario verses what was meant to be a freedom of choice document.
Despite my global travels and my own experience with my mother land of India prior to coming to the USA as a student, I don't know any other two places on earth where I would have had the life I have had. India the largest democracy, that survives and USA the greatest democracy that survives. I use the survives with great care, as I have had a long enough life to experience the political and technological advances of the last 40 years to experience the impact of both with people's behavior.
From the beginning of time there is a definition of good and bad. Religion is thrown into the mix and evolution of various religions have also impacted the definitions and interpretations of good and bad, and also continue to be radically different in different parts of the world. I am a Hindu by birth and will die one. I see god in everything and pray every day (probably more than once a day in the name of god). I only pray for peace and family and I ask nothing more than that. If I leave my personal beliefs alone, I also am quite appreciative of the small town I cam from in India, where you rarely saw the religious strife that is so prevalent in the world today. My town still lives peacefully, and in allowing space for everyone, every religion and every people to do their own thing. I don't see the world doing the same thing.
I am not sure what is causing the constant political, regional, religious and communal strife globally, but the effect of the CNN in 1980, email, internet and mobile communications have become a free for all and free publicity platforms for promoting and executing agendas that were difficult to reach people prior to these telecommunications becoming cheap and available to the global audience.
Simple a Musk tweet (X) of whatever opinion the rich man has becomes a talking point. If I take a 50/50 yes or no, half the audience like it. Don't really think almost all of them do anything about it, but it only requires 1 of the 50% to act on it. Same applies for Trump, who went on to create his own platform and even went on to create a public company with it. I know there are dozens of billionaires and their large group of followers, who are quite influencers with every word they post on social media. The same goes for television channels who take extreme sides with politics and religion. There is no debate to moderate, just extremes on opinion. People of the world have access to all this, and they already have chosen the medium they would like to receive the dump of information from the many choices of transmission they believe that they are aligned with.
Jus think in the USA we are either going to get Trump for republicans and Biden for Democrats. There is no other choice. Both after their 80's well past the retirement age, and both men who have outlived their peers and generations will lead the nation coming next year for another 4 years. If Biden succeeds, I am sure Trump if he is around will try again for another term after that, and Republicans will support that. I identify as a democrat and immigrant, but if we saw the Carter, Regan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama, prior to the last last 2 presidents, the decorum of candidates was so much to be desired and they didn't have much of the impact of the telecommunications we have had in the last 10 or so years, and they were all civil to the office of the presidency until Trump and Twitter became synonymous with the communications of the presidential office.
Trump and Musk are freely expressing their views that democratically suit them. As is the billions of people who regularly post, edit and follow the social media and electronic media. The technology and medium is available, and easy to follow. The extremes are opinions of individuals and now can be transmitted with very little expense, but reaches everyone who is a believer.
Now if I go back to the old principles of democracy, there was no way to establish the guidelines for telecommunications and electronic medium, although the US constitution survived (and continues to survive) the pre-telecom era, and to a large extent the CNN era.
I have no conclusions about what might happen as as a single voter, I will continue to exercise my right to my civic duty. I will encourage everyone in my sphere to make sure they vote their choice. Di I believe that democracy will survive? the answer "YES". The 200 plus years of the USA's greatest democracy has withstood civil war, slavery, world wars, and the advent of telephone and air travel, and I am sure we will find a way to survive the social media. At the end of the day human beings will make decisions that impact their own safety and self-being.
"GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD BLESS DEMOCRACY". All said and done, freedom of choice is what makes life as complex and as simple as we choose it to be.
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