ParamjitBakhshi
One wonders what has happened to the media! There is much unhappiness, discontent and anger on every media you connect to. News channels have been bombarding us with needless debate for a while, but even on social media many peoplenow seek either signatures on petitions, or are busy railing at some communal or religious injustice, they perceive. Many columnists too have caught the bug, and write such depressing pieces,that our usually bright mornings get shrouded in despair. At social gatherings too, many friends turned social activists and endlessly enlighten us about the sorry state of the world, the country, the state, the city or even one’s locality.
Yet in the middle of Laitumkhrah, on the solitary pine in my compound, I still hear the birds chirping, happily and loudly, every dawn. My two dogs nudge me awake in the early hours of the morning, barking enthusiastic entreaties, to be taken out to the larger world. As I step out of my compound, I find abundant energy in the steps of the joggers and hear animated chatter amongst the walkers. Even the sweepers cleaning the streets seemto be in good humour and I always get a cheery “Sat Sri Akal”, from the jovial old Sikh, busy at his job. The Khasi ladies selling jadoh just outside Nazareth,seem lively enough, as do the couple of Bengali families frying puris there, and so does the pretty Bodo woman who steams rice cakes on a stove, right on the footpath. Life as I see, it is normal everywhere, and buses and taxis arrive and depart as usual. Children attend schools and adults go to office, the shops open for business and there is a rush of people everywhere.
Though it may not be obvious, but we are in fact being brainwashed by the media. News channels routinely make us feel that the world has become a more dangerous place. They have a self-serving purpose in getting us to focus on the negative. They know that our brains are wired to seek negativity and threats because this is what enabled us to stay alive down the ages. So by showing destructive events they get us hooked. Increased eyeballs so obtained bring them higher TRPs which translate into enhanced advertising revenues. The fact of the matter is that the world today, in spite of isolated instances of war, terrorism and violence, is a much safer place. Separate studies carried out by an eminent psychology Professor (Steven Pinker) and an economist (Max Roser) reveal that the world today is not just safer but a much better place than it was even a few decades ago. There are fewer deaths (about one twelfths of them were due to wars in 1950 ), lesser homicides, more democracy, less disease and poverty. According to Steven Pinker, the media is largely responsible for depicting the world to be a scary place. “News is a misleading way to understand the world”, he says, “it is always about events that happened and not about things that didn’t happen. As long as violent events don’t fall to zero there will always be headlines to click on.” Max Roser expresses a similar view, “To really understand how the world is changing you have to look at the big picture.……..The news is very much focused on singular events. All of these trends that I’m looking at are slow changes that happen over decades, or sometimes even centuries. These developments never have a ‘now’ moment that would make them interesting for news that is following current events.”
Of course media is not the only party guilty ofpresenting a bleak perspective of the world. Many other well-meaning entities also contribute to our sense of insecurity. Very early in our life, a dismal picture of the world is painted by our own parents, who articulate a never ending tale of the utopian world they grew up in. Though the fact is that human beings continue to evolve with each generation, they feel youngsters today are up to no good. They caution us against present day society, little realising that nobody can live only within the confines of their own family. If we did how incestuous would that be! In many unnatural households, family still means only the brothers and sisters, and their parents leaving little room for their own spouses and none for friends. On a macro level some religious and social leaders highlight the virtues of their particular flock and often sow distrust of other religions, communities and cultures. One truly wonders why it never occurs to the bigoted that it is their beloved God,who while fashioning just one earth, one sky and one sun for the entire humanity still chose to inhabit the world with such human diversity. Without realising the fact that they too have been brainwashed many leaders of different communities and religions,(and their followers), continue beating either the drum of racial purity or of religious superiority.
And of course politicians amplify such sentiments especially during elections. As elections kick off in our state many candidates will approach us as our saviours and we are likely to be brainwashed one way or the other. Only the very naïve amongst us will believe that any of the candidates actually want to improve our lot. The cynical voters and the seasoned politicians will work out a purely monetary arrangement while we will needlessly stain one fingerand twiddle our thumbs. Our only recourse as we wait for real change, is to turn to humour.
It will do us little harm to put a political twist to the screenplay of an old blockbuster and get a few laughs. I invite you to imagine Gabbar Singh from Sholay, leading not a bunch of dacoits but a political party? Some of you might think that there is no difference between the two but let us not debate serious matters now. Surely, our dear Gabbar must at this point in time, be wondering about the candidates he is going to field. His concern would be broader than, “Ab tera kya hoga, Kaliya, and go to “Ab tera kya hoga, Tom, Dick and Harry(our candidates in reality have more interesting names) from this constituency and that. He may dwell on, ab mera kya hoga, also. Surely he must have quizzed his candidates individually and found out: “kitne voter hain”, and counted, kitne paise hai, and pondered whether he has enough financial ammunition to get the better of his rivals. Just think what a tough call this election is going to be for the Gabbar Singhs of every political party. Anti-incumbency this time is not limited to the ruling party, since many incumbents have joined, or are set to join, the opposition ranks. Won’t some of these candidates be indulging in shadow boxing by opposing their own lustreless past?That should be quite a performance. It is like abusing oneself in the mirror and making us believe it is somebody else. Though even my dogs realise that it is a futile exercise to bark at your own image, politics is a more sophisticated art and such performances are de riguer in a democratic pantomime.
To give our leaders their due, being a candidate is a tough job, and electioneering is not just a walk through Sholay (hot embers) but more like an excursion over hot tin roofs. Wonder if you saw, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” which unlike the movie mentioned before, is a Hollywood classic. Its attraction, apart from its cast of a very alluring Elizabeth Taylor and handsome Paul Newman, is that its motifs are very similar to politics. It features greed, superficiality, moral decay and mendacity. Now most of the readers know that the first three are an integral part of any electoral joust, but must be wondering what in the devil’s name is mendacity. I assure you that though the word, not being in popular usage is unfamiliar; its meaning does not require much explanation. While in Sholay the neta was the hero in this movie we can be the Big Daddies. Any voter can justly use the dialogue of Big Daddy, artfully played by the burly BurlIves, to address his old political masters:“What do you know about this mendacity thing? Hell! I could write a book on it! Don’t you know that? —— Well, I could, I could write a goddamn book on it and still not cover the subject anywhere near enough!!–Think of all the lies I got to put up with!–Pretenses! Ain’t that mendacity? Just think how many electoral promises, we have believed in the past and none of them have ever come true. And yet we are expected to line up again up and cast our vote.And that is something wefaithfully and unfailing do.That is our mendacity.
The difference between the voter and the voted is not of kind but just of degree. We all exist to keep the dramas meaningful; including the ones we call politics or news.There is a bond which connects the voter to the neta and the viewer to the broadcaster.Being connected often leads us to becoming disconnected from deeper realities. Winter or not we exist in a state of cerebral hibernation.
The writer is a life skills trainer and can be contacted on [email protected]