Basic Human Rights

[Guest guest]

The ignorant masses can be exploited very easily by very insignificant things.

 

For example, Nixon lost his election against Kennedy and the only reason was

that Kennedy looked better on television than Nixon; this is the analysis of the

psychoanalysts.

 

Nixon improved. When he discovered this, before the next election, he improved;

he learned how to stand, how to walk, how to talk, how to dress. Even the color

of your dress will make a difference on television. If you go there in white

clothes you will look like a ghost.

 

Arbitrary reasons...somebody speaks well, is a good orator. But that does not

mean that he will make a good president. Somebody makes good shoes -- do you

think that will make him a good president?

 

It happened when Abraham Lincoln was chosen president. On the day of his

inaugural address to the Senate, people were feeling very angry and hurt --

because Lincoln's father was a shoemaker, and a shoemaker's son has defeated the

great aristocrats. They were offended.

 

One arrogant aristocrat could not tolerate it. Before Lincoln started speaking,

he said, "Wait a minute. Do you recognize me? You used to come with your father

to my house sometimes because your father made shoes for my family. You used to

help him." And the whole Senate laughed. This was an effort to humiliate

Lincoln.

 

But you cannot humiliate people like Abraham Lincoln. He said, "I am very

grateful to you that you reminded me of my dead father at this moment. Because

my father was the best shoemaker in the whole country, and I know that I can

never be the best president as he was the best shoemaker. He is still ahead of

me."

 

What criterion do you use? How do you manage?

 

That's why my idea is that the days of democracy are over.

 

A new kind of system is needed, based on merit. We have thousands of

universities all over the world. Why have ordinary, unknowledgeable, ignorant

masses choose people who will be holding tremendous power for five years in

their hands? And now the power is so much that they can destroy the whole world.

 

Meritocracy means that only people who are educated in a certain area should be

able to vote in that area. For example, only the educationists of the country

should choose the education minister. Then you will have the best education

minister possible. For the finance minister, you should choose somebody who

knows finance, somebody who knows the complexities of economics. But this choice

is possible only for people who are trained in economics, in financial matters

-- and there are thousands of people. For every post, the person who is chosen

should be chosen by experts.

 

The health minister should be chosen by all the doctors, the surgeons, the

medical experts, the scientists who are working in the medical field. Then we

will have the cream of our genius, and we can depend on this cream to make the

life of all humanity more peaceful, more blissful, more rich.

 

This idea I call a meritocracy. And once you have chosen all the people, then

these people can choose the president and the prime minister. They will be our

geniuses; they can choose the prime minister, the president from the country, or

they can choose from the members of the parliament. And for the parliament we

should also make gradations.

 

For example, people who have at least a post-graduate degree should be able to

vote. Just becoming twenty-one years old does not mean you are able to choose

the right person. At twenty-one years, you don't know anything about life and

its complexities. At least a post-graduate degree should be held by those who

choose the members of the parliament or the senate or whatever you call it. In

this way, we can make an educated, refined, cultured government.

 

Before the world government happens, each nation should pass through a

meritocracy. And once we have enjoyed the fruits of a meritocracy then these

people will be able to understand that if we can combine the whole world into

one government, life can certainly be a joy, worth living -- not to renounce,

but to rejoice.

 

Up to now, whatever has happened has been accidental. Our history up to now is

nothing but a history of accidents.

 

We have to stop this. Now we have to decide that the future is not going to be

accidental. It will be created by us; and to create our world can be the

greatest creation possible.

Osho: On Basic Human Rights

 

 

 

 

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