Fools Elected by Fools

Stupid voters enable broken government

CNN – LZ GRANDERSON – Sep 27, 2011

The biggest reason government is broken is because of voters.

Let’s face it. A lot of us are just plain stupid.

Or at the very least lazy.

We want our candidates to use easy-to-digest buzz words such as “family values” or “clean energy” so we don’t have to actually invest too much time thinking. We can just slip our brains into auto-pilot and cruise on into November. Go to story


Democracy means fool’s paradise. People are foolish. They say, “Yes, you vote.” And they pick one. “Okay, yes.” He’s a fool, the greatest fool, and the others are following.

12 October 1993, Malaysia:

Lions and tigers and bears…

Votes – even a great quantity – do not qualify a leader
The voters are pashu [animal], and he is selecting another big pashu. This is going on. The rascals, they do not know, “If instead of a tiger, we select one lion, then what is the difference? Simply name. The tiger was president. Now the lion is the president.” And both of them—animals. Where is the man, human being? more

The human being is distinguished from animals when he aspires for divyam, divine life. When he makes no effort for divine life, he is just a beast. And when he actually makes an effort to improve eating and sleeping and sex, then he is worse than a beast. The whole world is embroiled in killing and quarreling over territorial rights. Israelis with the Palestinians, the Serbs with the Croats and with the Muslims, the Hindus with the Muslims, the Blacks with the Whites. On and on. The Russians, the Communists and Capitalists, Socialists. Black men, White men, Chinamen. Isn’t it? Just quarreling. Why? Because they think, “This is my land.” The dog does the same thing. Dogs have territory. If you come into their territory, they bark, “Arf Arf Arf Arf,” and they fight. This is dog consciousness. This training, university training… they are teaching people to be dogs, doggish, to be like dogs. Because after training for many years, getting your degree as engineer, doctor, whatever, then what do you do? You have to go to the door of some master and ask, “Give me job.” Like a dog. A dog is coming, “Woof woof, give me food.” If a dog gets no master, then he is a very unfortunate dog. Street dog.

Everyone is eager to serve, so in an association where everyone is very eager to serve, it is very happy. But economic progress, globalization means an association where everyone is looking at capitalism, how to capitalize on this relationship—“Oh, you’re a doctor? Hmm, okay.” or “You’re an engineer? Okay. You’re an engineer, yes, come to our country. We can….” “You have so much land, and now they are cutting for lumber, so send it to us. We’ll buy it for nothing, next to nothing.” This is the nature. Capitalism. The very word capitalism tells you what it means—to capitalize. It means to exploit, to make profit on your misfortune. The British did the whole world. Then people became a little bit wise. They realized, “Oh, this is exploitation” and threw them out.

And then the Americans came. How did they come? “Oh, you should have democracy. You can vote.” Vote for what? Two men are running for office, and ten million people are voting. So what is the big choice? Both of them are rogues. Fool’s paradise. The people are foolish, and they are given the right to vote. “You vote.” So amongst all the fools, they select one grand fool. And he will lead them. It’s a fool’s paradise. That’s what it is. Democracy means fool’s paradise. People are foolish. They say, “Yes, you vote.” And they pick one. “Okay, yes.” He’s a fool, the greatest fool, and the others are following. So fool’s paradise.

SUBRAMANIAM: You don’t support the democratic way of government?

HANSADUTTA: No, it’s a fool’s paradise.

SUBRAMANIAM: But when we look at the kings—

HANSADUTTA: Suppose you have five children, and you give them… you say, “Okay, you select who should be the father,” they will select one of themselves! So how will it work? You see, the people in general need an enlightened leader. Rajarshi [godly king]. One who is king and also rishi [saintly, godly], who has the humility and understanding of his relationship with God. He will do good for the people. We need one perfect man, one enlightened man. And you cannot replace the necessity of having one perfect man with a hundred imperfect men. A hundred imperfect men do not equal one perfect man.

SUBRAMANIAM: But in this Kali-yuga, Maharaja, you cannot get a king who does no wrong.

HANSADUTTA: But you should know that this is the problem. You should know that this is what we need. Diagnosis is fifty percent of the cure. If you know the problem, then there is a possibility of having such a perfect person.

That is the purpose of this Krishna consciousness: to create first-class men, men of character, men of knowledge, men of purity. Impure men, men whose hearts are contaminated with lust, anger and greed cannot do good. They will only exploit the innocent. They cannot help but do it. Just like a man who has fever will hallucinate. They are feverish. They have the fever of lust. What is lust? They are trying to possess everything as much as possible. We require to be trained and understand Krishna consciousness for our individual well being, and teach all those whom we have dealings with.

That is the way of real progress. There is no use thinking of everyone when I am defective. “Physician, heal thyself.” First we must heal our own disease. We must perfect our life. That is the duty of every individual. Be perfect. So you be perfect. You be perfect. You be perfect. Then you have done everything you can to help the human society, because those who know you, they will follow. Those who don’t want to follow, no one can help them. This is the process of making a society. If we want to improve the society, then we must improve ourselves. When we have improved ourselves, then those who live in our orbit will improve—children, wife, relatives, friends, countrymen.

And how to do that? Just chant Hare Krishna. It doesn’t cost anything. No one is asking for money. It’s not illegal. Chant Hare Krishna.

Everything… the responsibility lies on the individual. Groups of people don’t do things. Individuals do. Individuals inspire groups. But groups without leaders don’t… groups never do. It is always a leader, and around the leader a group takes shape. So be a leader. Be a leader. Be a leader. Be Krishna conscious. Strive for out-standing, and you will make best. If you try for best, you will get by. If you try to just get by, you will fail. Try for the highest ideal. Try for the topmost thing. Don’t say, “Oh, it’s impossible.” No. This is the ideal. This is the highest thing. I want the highest thing. It is possible. Krishna says it is possible. How is it possible? He says, “Just surrender to Me. Just surrender to Me. I will protect you. Don’t worry.”

But we don’t believe Krishna. We believe the politicians, we believe the boss in the factory. We are listening to everyone except Krishna. No one listens to Krishna. They don’t believe Krishna.

That much intelligence we have to have, to hear the words of Krishna. Five thousand years ago He spoke. So many rishis and sages, so many. The great men of the world are the rishis and yogis, the avatars, representatives and prophets. Jesus… he is great. Mohammed is great. Chaitanya is great. Buddha is great. Not Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Stalin, Lenin. These are not great men. They just come and make a disturbance, and then they go away. But Jesus… he didn’t build any skyscraper or industry. Nothing. Just simply speaking something. Buddha… he didn’t build anything. Industry? Nothing. Automobile? VCR? Nothing. Just he was speaking. Krishna, Lord Chaitanya, Prabhupada. Prabhupada didn’t build anything. He didn’t bring any money. Nothing. Just an old man came, chanting Hare Krishna, and he spread his influence all over the world. He published some books.

Preaching is the essence. Even these rogues, Hitler, Mao, Lenin, they are preachers. That’s what they are, but they are preaching the wrong message. But that’s what they did. All they did was disseminate, they broadcast some ideas. So if the wrong idea can have such a gargantuan, powerful effect, you can imagine the right idea, Absolute Truth! It is in our hand. It is not that I will do it, or it will just happen. No. It will happen in your life if you embrace it and practice it and teach. That’s all. And it’s not a difficult thing to do. It’s an easy thing to do. And you will not be the loser. You will only gain. And this is what people need. Your children will need this, wife needs this, relatives need, your friends, neighbors, your countrymen… they will be benefited. And you will make progress and make your life perfect.

Everything else—eating, sleeping—it is already arranged. Don’t worry about it. Like animals… their food is arranged by God. Why not the human being? God has forgotten us? No, He hasn’t. We have forgotten Him. He has not forgotten, but we have forgotten. We are thinking, “Oh, how will we eat?” But God has already arranged! Therefore everyone is running hither and thither, because they have no awareness. Everything has been arranged. Man is running for food here and there, but the animal has food. He has no problem. Why man has such a big problem to get some food? And after twenty or whatever it is, fifty years of communism, they still don’t have the food problem solved, although they boasted so much. But still they have the food problem. So now you should be convinced. You should understand that all this so-called advancement of science, technology, education is all humbug. It is all bogus. It is just exploiting innocent people. No one has benefited. Who has benefited? All those people in Russia for so many years, and still… now they are worse off than ever before. Worse off. I was in Russia. I used to go there. I preached in Russia. I know. I was born in Germany. India? Mahatma Gandhi made big propaganda, “Independence from British.” So they got independence. Are they any better off? No. They’re not better off. They’re worse off. Instead of preaching, “Go home, back to Godhead,” he was preaching, “We are going to be independent and self-ruled.” To rule what? The rulers are corrupt. The rulers are corrupt, and everything is just chaos. Have you been to India? The people are suffering, because the leaders are godless.

We need a God conscious leader. God conscious. Actually God conscious. He can do good to all the people. And a hundred thousand political leaders with no character and no humility before the Supreme Lord cannot do good. United Nations has done no good. Peacekeeping… what is this peacekeeping? They go there, and they kill. Every time they go, they kill. So how is it united, and how is it peacekeeping? And people have accepted it. They never protest. They never say, “Wait a minute! For thirty years or forty years you have this United Nations, and nothing has been united! Nothing! Just you take money, you make propaganda, befool the people, and now it is being used as an army to do other mayhem, mischief and murder.”

Krishna consciousness movement is a serious movement. It is not just that we believe in Krishna. No. On any subject we can give advice. Not that we are just estranged from the whole world, and we are alone, mumbling on our beads. No. Devotees means the most intelligent, highly intelligent, thinking men in this world. I can say that. They are thinking on every subject—abortion, drugs, politics, economics, health. You name it. Anything. A trained devotee, a serious devotee, he knows about it and what should and should not be done.

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