Documenting 21st Century - India and the World

I laid out the full picture of Trump phenomenon in the previous three articles. The brief summary is as follows. There's no single factor that explains materialization of Trump phenomenon. There are variety of overlapping factors and dimensions that i discussed in previous articles. Trump is crisis of breakdown of our political and economic system, institutional failures and structural flaws of our systems. The rise of plutocracy that has taken over political system. The breakdown crisis of Neoliberal capitalism that has stalled real economic progress of society while the wealth is getting accumulated at the top of social pyramid in hands of plutocrats and corporations. This has caused economic stagnation, regression and falling standards of living, and most of all, the massive inequality and populist discontent. The political system is driven by populist sentiments of masses rather than objective reality and rational thought. The politicians exploit these sentiments for their poli...

When Truth is suppressed, rumors take over. Rumors are much more destructive to government's credibility and legitimacy. This is continuation of analysis of previous articles on Trump phenomenon. In first article, i focused on structural problems of our economic and political system; the plutocratic takeover of institutions, the crisis of Democracy, uncertainty of election lottery and populist madness & irrationality of masses. In second article, i examined Fascism of past to Trump phenomenon of today and discussed the parallels of economic breakdown crisis of two periods; the great depression of past century and slow brewing crisis of Neoliberalism and its eventual breakdown in 2008. I explained the changing socio-political-economic discourse of past decades and intellectual decline of American electorate.   While all the above mentioned factors contributed to Trump phenomenon and enabled the rise of Trump, there is still another crucial factor. This factor is the deep di...

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."    -  FDR (during great depression) This is continuation of the previous article on the 'Trump phenomenon'. In previous article, i explained the structural flaws in our political and economic system, the plutocratic takeover of national institutions, the crisis in Democracy and uncertainty of election lottery - all of which enables a highly incompetent and unfit person like Trump to rise to power.  I mentioned how Plutocrats are the financiers of politicians and how their media enterprises do hard labor to 'normalize' someone like Trump. I also mentioned how masses vote on basis of populist sentiments rather than rational objectivity. But despite all these things; the irrationality of masses, the plutocratic backing of politician and media doing everything to 'normalize' him - it still ...

In last several years, i have read many explanations and analysis of Trump phenomenon. Why Trump happens? There are various aspects of this question; Why people elect him? Why there's no institutional checks and balances to block such a dangerous person to reach the highest office? How such an unstable, unfit, unqualified and a high criminal reaches to top position of power? Numerous books & analysis have been written by various experts in trying to give a narrative to the 'Trump phenomenon' or 'MAGA phenomenon'. Authors have contributed to broader understanding of Trump and MAGA in several ways but all authors have left out important things. This is because of two reasons, first is that authors themselves being not fully informed of all the diverse factors behind Trump phenomenon. The second reason is that some these authors know more about Trump phenomenon than they can present or than they want to present. That is, these authors have presented their analysis ...

Nations go through political cycles like a  cycle in Europe is depicted above. Their political paradigm fluctuate between hardline neoliberals and centrists. Hardline Neoliberals in Europe are conservative, right wing and Xenophobic parties/politicians that enforce harsh fiscal austerity, give tax cuts to super-wealthy and cut social safety net of poor class. They also scapegoat immigrants for national problems and weaponize xenophobic populism. The centrists are leftist political parties which also are disciples of Neoliberalism but they practice austerity more slowly to minimize backlash from electorate and make austerity more palatable. The centrists are prudent in public messaging (like openness to immigrants) but most of policies of centrists are identical to hardline Neoliberals. So unsurprisingly, the centrists lose popular support in due course and right wingers regain their footing. Does India also have a pattern of political cycles?  India's political cycle is dri...