[alphapapa]

> I beg with my folded hands to the govt. To please use my tax money (increase it if need be), to educate the agencies, the village elders, the women who go out to those "doomed" towns of mine, and most IMPORTANTLY the god damned f%$#$# bastard perpetrators that the tech is there to make this country a much better place than it is.

May I respectfully suggest that this is the wrong way to try to solve the problem.

Governments do not fix societies--they break them by the ruling class's manipulating society to remain in power. We see this even in the "first-world" nations like the U.S.

In contrast, societies fix governments when the governments are comprised of the societies they govern. Of course, this is only effective up to the level of virtue of the society in question.

Expecting government to fix society is putting the cart before the horse. Thinking that the government is (or should be) the horse that drags along the society cart is part of the problem. It's like expecting the tail to wag the dog. On the contrary, society is like the horse which drags the burden of a cart behind it.

Fixing a society requires the good members of it to get their hands dirty, not to outsource the job to their government. Easier said than done, but no less true.

[raisedadead]

Yes, totally true, and agreed.

But when the society is way too huge, it's a different game altogether. Compare 1.25 billion people to 310 million in the U.S

In a complex society as India, the challenge to actually execute a "good" change is closer towards the impossible side.

We have 18 official languages spoken in 27 different states, where the dialects change every 12 km (7.5 miles). We have at least 5 major religions, not to mention countless castes and ethnicities. There are just literally thousands and thousands of groups.

While the common vested interest of staying in power remains the same, the number of good members who can make a significant (practical) impact with honest intent is simply insignificant. And on top of that, these few members are split amongst these many many groups, creating an utter chaos.

This may not be the case for other societies for instance in U.S where most players in the society are literate and educated sufficiently to the leverage tech to get a clear picture of what actually the govt. is up to.

Sadly in India, most well-educated masses including myself lead lives that feed their families, which leaves very few brave members to clean up the mess that we have created.

And of course, the bad members use this opportunity to bend the govt. and the society to their best interests.

So while a perfect solution would be to practically difficult.

But, as an honest citizen, I think that education can do wonders. If people are empowered to challenge the govt. when it fails its job, then I think new good members will be born.

Don't you agree? Sorry about the long post, I agree that asking govt. to educate society is not the solution, but "educating society to use technology correctly" on an emergency basis is. Given the state of the affairs, govt. (at least the current one) is perhaps the best vector to deliver it.

[alphapapa]

Yes, and thanks for your comment. It is indeed a very complex problem without any simple solutions.

Education seems like a good start, but of course it raises the questions of who will teach and what they will teach. As history shows, teaching the wrong things can have very bad results. If the people making the decisions and doing the teaching are good, maybe it will turn out well. But if those people are not good, the end result could be tragic on a colossal scale.

> If people are empowered to challenge the govt. when it fails its job, then I think new good members will be born.

This is very important and insightful. I think it's also important that government be close to the people, i.e. power being distributed among many smaller bodies.