A few good men and a thinking citizenry

PN Balji wrote an interesting article about a world class nation needing a few good men and a thinking and questioning citizenry. In paradise, such a thought will be simply denounced as bull. We don't need a thinking citizenry. That is about what we have been brought up to believe in. Mind your own business, make your money and live your life quietly. Only a few good men are needed to carry this nation to a higher platform. We used to have a few good men with us for the first 20 years of our history in nation building. Good, decent and selfless men. Today's conventional wisdom is that these are foolish men who sacrificed for the nation at their own personal expense. So today we claim to have a few good men but of a different kind. A few good men that needs to be paid top dollars or else. Would this kind of good men really carry the nation forward? Self before nation or nation before self? The latter is naive idealism. Balji said this nation will be doomed if these few good men suddenly disappeared for there is really a dearth of good men available. This is a false assumption surely. We have many men that have been trained by the best universities. I believe there must be some good men among them, but because of the political system and culture, they rather stand aside. Anyway, if they stand up to say that they will run the country for half the pay they will be immediately denounced as only half as good. For if they could not command the top salary which top brains are associated with then they are no good. I believe some of the good men will know that they are being paid beyond their abilities and contributions. A good man will stand forward and say, look, you are overpaying me. I don't deserve so much. Balji also talked about a thinking and questioning citizenry to fill the second part of his equation of a great nation. We are not a nation but a hotel. Everyone who is able is hoarding as much wealth as he can to prepare to run. Only the less able and losers will stay behind when the dam breaks. In a nutshell, do we have a few good men and a thinking citizenry? Maybe not. But I am contradicting myself as I have said earlier that there must be many good men sitting on the sideline. Maybe we need a revamp of the system and the values for the really good men to come forward. Under the present system and values, it will invite a different kind of good men to rule the country. Is this system sustainable, able to last in this form into the future? I have my doubts. Our system started well. But when its continued existence or perpetuation of its existence is for the wrong reasons, it will end up in the dumps of history.