By Avner Pariat
The recent attacks in Dhaka have made people more paranoid than ever. This paranoia is very easy to catch. Especially if you have a screen in front of you all the time. It is much harder to contract reason and calmness. We have become intimate with discussions about ‘global terror’. There is now along with Big Finance, Big Pharma, Big Media etc this concept of Big Terror. This terror is multinational, disregarding national borders; it is certainly multi-cultural, able to merge ‘local’ and ‘international’; it is a brand, a franchise which can be replicated everywhere.
Sometimes we become so acquainted with these brands and ideas flowing freely across space that we hardly notice them anymore. We fail to see how odd they are in the context of our own particular circumstances. This is the sublime power that they wield over us, they embed themselves unceremoniously into our minds. It is a power enforced primarily through the media, through the eyes and ears, influencing our minds and hearts, finally flowing out as deeds through the arms and hands. In the light of the recent attacks many people did just this and began sharing the usual islamophobic content on social media, the usual call urging pre-emptive action against “Islamic terrorism” which is an old but still powerful message.
Why should Big Media’s depictions of Big Terror be our only source of hysteria, sorry, “information”. Often we fail to remind ourselves that the online world is like a gated community wherein everyone knows your name but without any other details. We know about “Islamic terror” but we don’t actually (really, truly) know anything about it; aside from someone else’s perspectives and from primary sources which might be far removed from us both spatially and politically. The age of information has thus paradoxically become an age of disinformation. We are more ‘unsure’ today than ever before. We just communicate faster.
People wilfully share their most vile ignorance with others and parade it as surety. There is a Khasi phrase for such people “balain stad” (know-it-all), you cannot enjoy this phrase without taking into consideration the exaggeration implicit in it. The Big Media houses are “balain stad”, their terror experts and chat-show guests are as well. They discuss the events and inevitably they draw out the horrific terror acts of the recent past that have occurred in far flung corners of the globe. They have bought into the idea of a Big Terror, skilfully portraying the worst cases imaginable using the globe as their canvas. In their clambering for security, they have made the world more insecure. Big Terror needs Big Security and vice versa; both oddly enough rely on Big Guns to arm them with grenades, rocket launchers and other weapons. They buy from the same source to destroy each other. We are caught in the cross-fires.
Now if we are going to be bigots, let us at least have a jurisdiction. The terrorists might buy into the idea of Big Terror but why should we? The actual motivations of terror are too complex to simplify. Terrorists have now struck at Medina, the second holiest place in the Muslim world. Where is the Islamophobia that we like to parade as liberal science? Can we not admit that the Dhaka terrorists are, like most terrorists, fundamentalists? That terrorists simplify in much the same manner that we tend to simplify? What has happened today is that our gaze is being directed continually from one spectacle to the next by Big Media. We observe, become shocked and react. These are all distractions that should be seriously critiqued.
In worrying about what is happening “over there”, we have neglected the beauty of our own backyards. When we see our screens relay such ‘foreign’ threats, we start to assume things about those around us, even though the situation and circumstances between Istanbul and Shillong are totally different. Master Iqbal, the tailor down the road then loses his individuality and becomes simply a Muslim, a plain stereotype compounded by our fears and ignorance. I will include a short anecdote. I was once inside a shared cab in Delhi. Sitting beside me in the backseat was an Arab man donned in the traditional outfit of his culture. I was quite surprised to see an Arab dressed like this but my initial wonder was suddenly and inexplicably overtaken by fear. As he conversed over the phone in Arabic, I suddenly became paranoid in spite of my ‘open mindedness’. I felt like he would blow us all up! Then I thought to myself calmly: “Why would he want to blow this cab up now? If he wanted to do such a thing, he would have done it in the busy place we just left (Nehru Place)”. This is perhaps a very politically wrong thing to write about, but these were my exact thoughts and I can’t censor them. The reason I include this anecdote is to highlight how easy it is to be overwhelmed by paranoia and that paranoia comes to a large extent from ignorance. Though in my case it was also out of irrationality. I should have started a conversation with the man, instead of assuming malevolent roles for him. This is just one story that illustrates how much Big Media has warped us and our views of the world.
If there are terrorists among us, we have to share a large part of the blame. By pushing the poorest and most vulnerable into ghettos and leaving them out of the pursuit of prosperity and economic upliftment, we have helped create terrorists. We have to espouse progressive values. The world today is far too conservative. The brave fronts presented by certain countries, against calls by conservative Right wing groups to take actions against minorities is still too rare and extremely commendable. In spite of fierce opposition and home grown fundamentalist movements, the progressives have been able to win so far. Our own response seems clear. We need to reach out and learn more about Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Niam Tre etc from their followers. I am not proposing that we should all play ‘pretend.’ There are things we will obviously not like about someone else’s religion. We need to bring these out critically and that requires courage. This is much harder to do than simply listening to your TV host as he tells you about what things to believe in. We must enter the rooms of understanding because right now all we have is a view from the window, looking in. Ignorance is never bliss.