You Will Never Rebel — And Here's Why
Questioner: Pranam Acharya Ji. I'm Abhilash. I have a question related to discrimination.
For so many generations we have seen inequalities and discrimination for so long. There is income inequality, caste-based discrimination, gender-based discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, and we have gone through this for many, many generations. But now what I see is that there are different flavors of such discrimination. Now we are speaking about how the Global North and South are widening, and climate injustice. I see that these discriminations have become more deep and also systemized.
So, despite having so much of violence around these discriminations, how come change is not coming up? How come there is no effective and meaningful change happening?
Acharya Prashant: From where will the change come? Change requires a change agent, right?
We said discrimination, so there is a party here that supposedly dominates and exploits. That’s the essence of discrimination. And there is a party at the receiving end, dominated and exploited. Typically, we assume that the change will come from the dominated party because they are the ones facing the injustice. So we assume that they will rise and rebel, and then there would be an end to the discrimination and we’ll have a fairer order.
You know, we should appreciate it. The beauty of all kinds of discriminatory systems is that they enable the exploited party to have a stake in the discrimination. So now who is going to rally for the change? For change to happen, somebody has to be a change agent. If the change agent feels that I am not being exploited. Instead, I too am a beneficiary, I too am a stakeholder in this discriminatory process; we agree there is discrimination, yes, but "I’m benefiting.” Now?
And that’s what kind of foolproofs and immortalizes the discriminatory systems.
Are you getting it?
Take salary for example. It's a very good example.
So, I'm paid X, right? My employer, the stakeholders, and the shareholders in the company, they make 11X out of my labor — my intellectual labor. They make 11X, they pay me X, they save 10X. But this X enables me to run my household and fulfill my dreams. This X enables me to run my household, send my kids to school, buy a new car, pay my EMIs, please my parents and have some social status. Correct?
I know they are exploiting me. They made 10X for every X they gave me.
Will I rise and rebel?
I won't.
In fact, one kind of expression of my rebellion would be that I want to become a stakeholder. I don't want to end the exploitation. I want to become one of the exploiters. That's the distorted kind of rebellion that we express. Startups.
Listener: Yes.
Acharya Prashant: Why be a salaried employee? Be the exploiter, the shark himself. And icing on the cake — be called a job generator, an employment provider. Do you see this? The stereotypical housewife, everywhere, ubiquitous in Indian households. She knows what's happening to her, but she has been brought to a point. She can do nothing without her husband. In all ways, she leans on the husband. She cribs. She beats her feet. She gets angry also. She throws tantrums. In whatever little ways she can express her dissatisfaction, she does that. But does she ever walk out?
She can't. Because she has a stake in the system now.
That's the beauty of very, very finely made exploitative systems. They will not allow the exploited to rebel — not by force, but by incentivizing with some little bit of grease.
“Tere liye bhi to kuch hai.”
Take the caste system, for example. The big monster, when it comes to discrimination. Every single caste has another caste below it. So you are not just being exploited — you also have somebody to exploit. Don't crib so much, please.
If somebody above you has kicked you in your stomach, you can go to somebody else and try out the same thing. But sir, there must be a lowermost caste? “Oh, they have their wives.” When you have nobody to kick, then there is always the wife. But sir, wives? “There are the kids.”
Everybody has some stake in the system. There can be rebellion only when somebody decides: "I do not want what the system is giving me. I disown. I quit. I refuse to partake. I'm not taking what you're giving me."
Because the system does not exploit you for nothing — not for free. It bribes you into submission. You are being bribed to get exploited. "You see, you remain in the house. I will provide you food on the table, and some money for household expenses, and also for your shopping. Fine. You can have discretionary expenses as well. 2 lakhs I earn. 10% is yours – 20,000. And I won't question you. This is your discretionary amount. Do whatever you want to do. I'm happy. Fine."
And if today I go out as a woman and look for a job, it's possible that I might not begin with a 20k monthly package. It is possible. So I'm happy with the amount that I get.
The exploiter incentivizes the exploited to get exploited. “You remain exploited. I will give you something.”
Similarly, the Global North and the Global South. Have you not heard of zero-interest loans and debt waivers? And what are these Bretton Woods institutions for? What are they for? Think of climate change. We know where the emissions have historically come from. Even today we know where they are coming from, and when you look at per capita emissions, then the picture becomes even more clear — where they are coming from.
Will the Global South rise and rebel? No.
The exploiter enables the exploited to such an extent that the exploited remains content with a few crumbs thrown at him. Instead of cleaning up our own industries, we'll provide you loans so that you can set up carbon-neutral industries. Wow! Such charity. Are you getting it?
You will never be. People say, "To change the system, you have to participate in the system." Sir, to participate in the system means to accept the deal. And if you have already accepted the deal, how will you rebel? You can never be in the system and change the system. Believe me. Else I too would have been in some corporate and happily doing the regular stuff. You cannot be an insider and change things from within. Not possible.
How will a bureaucrat challenge a minister? Please tell me. It is neither theoretically nor practically possible. Yet some kind of challenge can be posed, and that can make the bureaucrat feel very morally upright. "You know, some little MLA wanted to do such a thing in my district, and I, as the DM, didn't allow him to do this. See, that's the power of bureaucracy."
Sir, that's a very little thing that you can do. And you are a very junior officer, the DM. You cannot bring about real change from within bureaucracy because bureaucracy is meant to toe the line. That is the very definition. You cannot violate your definition.
You are supposed to be the secretary to the minister. When you become a seasoned, senior bureaucrat, what do you become? A secretary. And look at the damn daring and gumption. You're saying, "I challenge the system.” As a secretary? And a secretary is somebody very senior. You don't do what the minister wants you to do — transferred in a minute. What will you change? Parked away in some obscure department.
Do you see why discrimination continues?
Because we all are discriminated against, but we also have stakes in the system. Little stakes. Our petty selfishness prevents any meaningful change. Great changes can happen because numerically the exploiters are always less than 1% of the population. Always.
Carbon emissions — just figure out how much the top 1% exploiters contribute. The biggest culprits are just 1% in number. Rebellions should have been very easy. But they never happen because these 1% know the trick. Keep the 99% engaged, happy with little doles, little giveaways.
What do the governments do? What do you think these 80 crore or 100 crore people in India are being subsidized for? All kinds of free things. What kind of nation have we become, that almost 100 crore people, two-thirds of our population, has to be given free food? But now, that’s the reason why those people won’t rebel. Because they are being given free food. This free food will not allow any change to happen.
Instead, let me say at the risk of being misunderstood: had we been starving, there would have been a rebellion.
If you really are interested in seeing things change, if you don’t like the face of the world as it is, don’t participate in pre-existing systems. Or participate as little as possible. Or participate with a fixed intention. "I’m participating to this extent, for this reason, for this duration." And if you have the intention to join the exploiters, join the ranks of exploiters. Become one of them. Why one of them? Become the top exploiters. Then fine. Then you must enter the system. And that’s what we enter the system for, right?
Somebody asks you, "Where do you see yourself 15 or 20 years in the future?"
"I’ll be the CEO of such and such place." Or, "I’ll be running my own thing." And squeezing blood out of millions. Who is responsible for the mess this planet is currently in? Not the entire humanity, sir. Businesses are inanimate things. We are talking about people here. When you say “businesses,” what you mean is persons.
Just the top 1%, not even the top 1%, 0.1% of humanity is what has brought this planet to the brink of extinction. Just 0.1%. The great thing is, the remaining 99.9% have these 0.1% as role models.
“I venerate Elon Musk and his 14 kids.”
Is any change going to happen when your exploiter becomes your role model? Will you ever rebel? It makes us feel very stupid internally, right? Our role model is our exploiter. Show me one role model in pop culture who is not an exploiter. That’s the depth of our collective stupidity. Show me one celebrity selling things to you on the TV screen who is not exploiting you.
Am I selling things to you on the TV screen?
The only thing that I bring to you is the Gita Samagam. And even for that, I face so much flak — “He’s collecting donations!”
Think of it.
Show me one celebrity who’s not an exploiter. Look at a school kid. Show me one person he venerates who is not toxic. Think of the person, the face, who can command a rally of a lakh people, or 5 lakh people, or 10 lakh people — and tell me whether that face is benevolent.
Masses are self-destructive. They idolize those who traumatize them.
If you want to know who is an enemy of the planet and humanity today, just conduct a survey and ask people, “Whom do you idolize?” The biggest idol will be the biggest culprit.
Now tell me, from where is a rebellion going to spring up? And when somebody tries to liberate you from your role models, your idols, it is not your idol that you attack. It is the liberator that you attack. I'm getting support from the animal kingdom!
If I come and tell you, “You have been fooled all these years, all these centuries,” you get very angry — not at the people who fooled you, but at the one who is telling you that you have been fooled. From where is a rebellion going to come? And I'm not yet saying “revolution.” I’m saying rebellion. I’m talking of the individual. A social revolution is none of my business. I’m talking of something within the individual. And from that, if something social follows, so be it.
