Thoughts from an internetcafe

So, its finally happening. I'm doing what I've waited desperatly for for several weeks; I'm travelling with my family! Beside from the fact that it is amazing, it has also almost made me be in favor of dictatorship. We are 6 people travelling together, my parents, my two brothers, my cousin and me. Only 6 people. It shouldn't be so hard should it? Well, it is. Everything takes time. Deciding where to eat takes time, deciding what to see takes time, deciding weather or not to go back to the hotel to take a sweater takes time. Basically, efficiency levels are quite low at the moment. I hate to bring up MUWCI when I'm in such a realm of freedom sitting in an internet cafe in Varanasi( though writing these blogs) but this is exactly what is going on in MUWCI. Our efficiancy levels to get anything done is almost equal to zero just because everyone wants their saying and their personal wishes to come forth. So when I'm in the hotel arguing with my brothers weather to eat chinese or indian, I get deja vu's back to countless student meetings where noone is willing to compromise.

In the case of my family I would suggest dictatorship( with me as the despot of course) but as in MUWCI, the personal ego is too big in everyone to let someone else decide what is best for them. Which I guess can be reasonable since I myself don't trust someone else to know exactly what is best for me at all times either. In society today most people are too much aware of their rights and focused on individuality to let someone else take complete controle over their lives.

The actual problem of efficency is not created when people refuse to be dictated by some one, allmighty character but when this personal ego comes in the way even of choosing representatives to prsent their views in a collective gathering or to an authority. This system, it seems, is plausible to make function in most developed countries, where representatives are chosen by the people in some way or the other. So why cannot this function in MUWCI or in my family for example?

I think this cannot only be explained through huge egoes. According to Mill, though talking about a dictatorship, the less power the people feel they have over their own destinies, the less they care about taking part in desicion-making regarding their own life. I think this notion can clearly be shown in smaller and larger groups of people like let's say MUWCI vs the US, to create a proper contrast. While in the previous US selection only 56,8% voted( despite the huge focus on the election in both media and around the country) in MUWCI, everyone wants to say their opinion on weather to vote or not or weather we should have a student council.

My conclusion is that we in MUWCI are not just a bunch of big-headed people( slightly maybe) but that due to the massive influence we know we have over how things will be conducted on campus, everyone wants to take part because they actually have a saying about what's going to happen( like in other smaller groups like families, small communities etc) compared to again the US or other democracies where people might feel that their vote counts for so little that the effort of getting engaging is not worth it....