Thursday, March 28, 2024
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The End of Reality

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By Banshaikupar Lyngdoh Mawlong

 

The world is changing and changing fast. In the blink of an eye, the world as we know it, is now history. Never before have we witnessed such a massive psychological shift in a matter of decade or so. Our world is rapidly descending into a psychological chaos, a conflict of identity. An identity crisis is sweeping humanity. A systematic new identity construction is being rolled out and with it, identity confusion. A clash between the real and the unreal, between the actual and the fake, the physical and the virtual. The line of distinction between the worlds- the actual and the virtual, the real and the fake, is slowing fading. The real vision is blurring.

We are a psychologically confused generation. A generation of ‘Jekylls’ and Hydes’. For instance, we are a generation where an arm-chair environmentalist, who has never planted a single tree, from the comfort of his air-conditioned mansion preaches his gospel to the world on how to preserve the environment. We are living in an era where nature is exploited and fake plastic plants are being treasured and worshipped. The plastic has become real and real living things are slowly becoming rarer. We decorate our living rooms with poly-made animals, while day in and day out we poison Mother Nature, the ‘real’ life giver. We mercilessly slaughter everything that moves. As someone rightly said, “we are living in a world where artificial lemon is used as a welcome drink and real lemon is used in finger bowls.’ Then there’s the social media platform where we can hide our ‘real’ identity to create a ‘fake’ virtual identity. In fact, the virtual identity has become real and the real is slowing assuming the fake. In fact, our very own existence is defined by our presence in the virtual world. Technology has given us the technique to hide our human flaws and create a utopian perfect self. We have forgotten that these imperfections are the very elements that make us human. We have slowly become less human.

We do not even spare God. In fact, we exploit his physical absence and silence. We are a faithless generation who worship millions of invisible gods and ‘corporate’ religions. Funnily enough, we ‘bravely’ vow to protect our gods, our Creator, from anyone who doesn’t share the same faith as ours. Religion has become a new adventure to make easy bucks. Our religious domain is today filled with self-anointed messengers of God who ‘own’ the copyright of divinity and the key to salvation.

We are also creating a never before seen generation; a highly opinionated generation where every Tom, Dick and Harry has an ‘expert’ opinion on everything; where a tea-seller on the roadside will advise you on nuclear technology, where an opium intoxicated quack will teach you on how to cure deadly infectious diseases, where an uneducated politician will dictate the top bureaucrats how to run the economy. The list is endless. Our Social media ‘pundits’ and opinions are replacing the real knowledge. The emotional is replacing the rational. We no longer think, but feel.One’s status is determined not by how much you actually know but by how much you are pretending to know. You are not concerned about an issue unless you post about it on social media. Your influence in society is determined not by your academic degree but by how many followers you have on social media and most decisively your bank statement. Your virtual existence has replaced your ‘real’ existence.

We are living in a world where truthfulness is a rarity. The truth is subjugated, while lies are being systematically propagated as the universal truth by those in power and control. Then there’s an academician who rightly points out the corrupt practices prevalent in the government system but he himself does not take his classes regularly and earns unaccounted bucks from private tuition fees. Then we have our self-righteous pressure group leaders who make their fortune from ‘extortions’ and black contracts. Then arrive our solemn oath-taken noble saviours, the medical practitioners, who cannot serve in rural and poor areas and government hospitals. We are all hypocrites and fakes.We are also a generation where conformity and acceptance is everything. Individual uniqueness and freedom have gone for a toss in favour of universality, a world of copy-cats and photo-copying. We want to be like so and so. We have forgotten that when we follow the masses, most of the time the ‘m’ is silent.

We are also living in an era of ‘documentation’, a self-obsessed generation who document almost every aspect of their shallow achievements. We have filled our profiles with our zero achievement records and forced ourselves to believe that we are not one of those empty shells on the beach. We are drifting away from real efforts and actual achievements. Our minds is being filled with fake news and unfounded information, systematically propagated by those in powers. Like the saying goes, “Tell a lie a 99 times, the 100th time it will become a truth”. Factual information has taken a back seat and sponsored fakes news are becoming the order of the day. Then there’s our demi-gods, the politicians who, through their mouth-piece news channels and social media platforms, are shamelessly manufacturing the idea of the truth and systematically censoring the truth, so as to methodically orient and psychologically indoctrinate the society’s perception and worldview to match their image and to suit their power-driven agenda. In fact, our politicians’ worth is today measured by their marketing and publicity skills, rather than their statesmanship. We no longer need a leader but an expert publicist, who can convince the trees that an axe is one among them.

We don’t need real development but an illusion of development; we no longer need education and books, but festivals and wines. All these to fill our shallow lives! Reality and humanity have been left in the back-burner. In fact, it is becoming extremely impossible to differentiate between what is real and what is not. I think it is safe to say, the fake world is having an edge at this moment and we are witnessing history in the making, the ending of the real world, the Middle Class Reality. And a new identity is emerging – a confused identity.

(The writer is Asst. Professor Union Christian College, Umiam Khwan Meghalaya: Email  [email protected])

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