When I was a child, festivals were fun. They were about good food, perhaps new clothes, some token praying (from the kids' point of view). The tradition for Ganesh chaturthi for example.... My mother would get some clay(clay was easily available to make angeethis) and one day before, we kids would make a small ganesh idol. The next day that would be kept for the puja and on the day after that, immersed in a well nearby or a bucket of water which would then be used to irrigate the tulasi plant.
Now we have become "more traditional". everyone has a huge POP ganesh painted with gaudy, toxic colours and menacing young men coming around to collect "chanda". These ganesh pandals block roads causing a traffic jam.They go on for days playing loud music on speakers which cause your chest cavity to vibrate in resonance. And then the finale is that they immerse all this in already stressed water bodies.
So noise pollution, and water pollution. Oh did I leave out air pollution? never mind Deepavali is just round the corner.
Why have all our festivals become so violent?
They used to be so benign.
Someone should start a twitter campaign
 #make festivals traditional again.
 #no modern technology in religion
No loudspeakers, no toxic dyes, no POP, no fireworks,  

Phillip Ball writes about the narrative in the UK
" “Many intellectuals”, he says, “sneer at patriotism.”  he quotes Norman Lamont, a Brexiter.
"So there’s your choice (once again): get behind Brexit and be a patriot and, or oppose it and be unpatriotic. Loyalty to country (and thereby to “democracy”), or loyalty to the EU: it’s one or the other. "

At another place, he says "Here is Theresa May, in her barely literate foreword, on the national sentiment:...."

more than what she says, the fact that he feels she is "barely literate" is what I notice.

Then there is Trump.

And for those in India, does it  sound familiar- "be a patriot" ?
But at least Brexit was done through a referendum. 

This sudden contempt for the experts, the decisions made based on ideas put forth by "barely literate" people, decisions that affect a huge number of people who willy-nilly bear its consequences, where will it all lead us?

The proposal to link all the rivers of India has been revived.
Many people get many ideas. But each idea must be studied for its short and long term effects.
Is it really a good idea to link rivers?
Have we studied the effect this will have on the ecosystems of the different rivers and their flood plains, and most importantly their deltas? Is it even possible to predict what effect it will have? What about the decrease in the inflow of fresh water into the Bay of Bengal? Will it effect water circulation in the Bay and will this affect our monsoons? If yes, can we predict what will happen and are we prepared for it? I doubt if even the best models (if any) we have can accurately predict the consequences of linking all our rivers.
 As usual, are we just jumping into the water without testing its depth?

But then we currently do not like experts.... what do experts/scientists/economists/environmentalists know?
 Ok, if we don't believe in science, at least, let us be fully religious and believe that god who created these rivers must have meant for them to be different rivers. Will we do a Ganga aarti in Thanjavur or Vijayawada?
In fact, even if we just believe that nature is god-given and must not be messed with, we will all be better off. I am quite ignorant, but to me it seems that the "mantra pushpam" that is recited everyday in most temples and religious ceremonies, is a reminder to respect nature if we wish to live in prosperity. I think all this yagnas and pujas for forests, rivers varuna bhagavan etc would at least teach us to have a healthy respect for nature. But currently,we neither believe in scientific evidence, nor in our old religious traditions of worshiping nature.