By Sandip Kumar Mishra
On Jan. 6, a crowd of Donald Trump supporters illegally captured the Capitol and temporarily stalled the democratic process. It apparently shocked many people that this happened to the U.S. To comprehend what happened and what has been happening, it is pertinent to note at the outset what it was not.
First, it was not a sudden and unexpected event or limited to any one country. It has been creeping up in most societies and the same can be seen in a different intensity and form in other countries as well.
Second, it was not a sign of an advance polity getting transformed into a "third world" polity. It would be superficial to look at it from the prism of advanced and backward polities.
Third, it's also not correct to say that Donald Trump or for that matter any particular leader alone is responsible for such incidents. The leaders may be using and flaring these trends up but the malaise appears to be deeper.
Fourth, it should also not be reduced to the rise of right-wing conservative forces across the world and in such a situation nothing different could be expected.
What happened in the U.S. has been happening in the context of post-truth societies across the globe. Post-truth means that there could be multiple truths or no truth or we don't care about the truth depending on one's vantage point.
It's a dangerous era of "relativism" in which no basic value, norm, or practice appear to be sacrosanct. We should not kill others, we should not tell lies, we should not be dishonest, or we should not abuse and misbehave kinds of basic agreements on which human societies function have become "relative."
Unfortunately, the rise of relativism does not appear to be emanating from prudence. It basically comes out of our ignorance.
Because sources of our information and knowledge are skewed, societies have been producing ignorant and stubborn individuals who justify their lacuna by bringing in relativism. Actually, most of them don't even bother to justify it by relativism. They are just happy and content with their positions.
In most societies, print and electronic media have been surpassed by social media as the main source of news consumption and public discourse.
In a large part of the world, even print and electronic media are also accessed via internet behemoths such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Kakaotalk, Instagram and so on. These platforms are being used for information acquisition and sharing. However, the process is making individuals across the varied societies stupid and stubborn.
In the age of an information revolution through social media we have the pretention that we may comment on almost everything. The majority of us don't even read a singly long essay, article or book on a particular issue, but through unverified information on social media we gain a false sense of being informed.
There are vested interests such as political parties, political leaders, business groups, religious groups and so on who have their media or IT cells that deliberately create false and misleading content.
We not only consume this untrue and dangerous information but also share it to show-off our knowledge and sometimes, in the same way, create more falsehoods of our own. Reading and contemplating and owning what we say or share have become things of past.
Thus, a stupid individual has been created by the existing media. Here stupidity does not mean ignorance but it means people who are ignorant about their ignorance. They have almost lost their ability to think logically against their own prejudices and moderate their positions.
The second important change in social media is that it provides content on the basis of algorithms. It means that whatever you do, watch, or read on the web, you are going to be offered similar stuff for further consumption.
It means that we are generally not able to access contrary facts, views, opinions and analyses, and we only read and watch what we already like or believe. It leads to the creation of "positional bubbles" in our societies in which people of a particular bubble are very sure about their positions.
All agreed processes, institutes, values, norms and practices so far are useless for the blind supporters of a position, political party, leader, religious group or any other entity. Not having access to contrary positions and views means that we hate "others" and don't engage with "them."
In almost every society, people hate other people who have different positions or opinions. We are so certain about ourselves that we are ready to do anything regardless of whether it is detrimental to our democracy, country or humanity.
The current media has been producing supporters of leaders and crowds ― not enlightened citizens. The democratic fundamentals such as conceding defeat in elections, accepting legal verdicts, agreeing to disagree and wait for "our" chance through the democratic process appear to be eroding very fast across the societies.
What happened in the U.S. may be found in almost every society and in most all of us. Rather than ridiculing or being just sad about it, we need to think retrospectively about us and the networks through which we become a crowd and not a responsible individual or citizen.
The author (sandipmishra10@gmail.com) is associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
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First, it was not a sudden and unexpected event or limited to any one country. It has been creeping up in most societies and the same can be seen in a different intensity and form in other countries as well.
Second, it was not a sign of an advance polity getting transformed into a "third world" polity. It would be superficial to look at it from the prism of advanced and backward polities.
Third, it's also not correct to say that Donald Trump or for that matter any particular leader alone is responsible for such incidents. The leaders may be using and flaring these trends up but the malaise appears to be deeper.
Fourth, it should also not be reduced to the rise of right-wing conservative forces across the world and in such a situation nothing different could be expected.
What happened in the U.S. has been happening in the context of post-truth societies across the globe. Post-truth means that there could be multiple truths or no truth or we don't care about the truth depending on one's vantage point.
It's a dangerous era of "relativism" in which no basic value, norm, or practice appear to be sacrosanct. We should not kill others, we should not tell lies, we should not be dishonest, or we should not abuse and misbehave kinds of basic agreements on which human societies function have become "relative."
Unfortunately, the rise of relativism does not appear to be emanating from prudence. It basically comes out of our ignorance.
Because sources of our information and knowledge are skewed, societies have been producing ignorant and stubborn individuals who justify their lacuna by bringing in relativism. Actually, most of them don't even bother to justify it by relativism. They are just happy and content with their positions.
In most societies, print and electronic media have been surpassed by social media as the main source of news consumption and public discourse.
In a large part of the world, even print and electronic media are also accessed via internet behemoths such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Kakaotalk, Instagram and so on. These platforms are being used for information acquisition and sharing. However, the process is making individuals across the varied societies stupid and stubborn.
In the age of an information revolution through social media we have the pretention that we may comment on almost everything. The majority of us don't even read a singly long essay, article or book on a particular issue, but through unverified information on social media we gain a false sense of being informed.
There are vested interests such as political parties, political leaders, business groups, religious groups and so on who have their media or IT cells that deliberately create false and misleading content.
We not only consume this untrue and dangerous information but also share it to show-off our knowledge and sometimes, in the same way, create more falsehoods of our own. Reading and contemplating and owning what we say or share have become things of past.
Thus, a stupid individual has been created by the existing media. Here stupidity does not mean ignorance but it means people who are ignorant about their ignorance. They have almost lost their ability to think logically against their own prejudices and moderate their positions.
The second important change in social media is that it provides content on the basis of algorithms. It means that whatever you do, watch, or read on the web, you are going to be offered similar stuff for further consumption.
It means that we are generally not able to access contrary facts, views, opinions and analyses, and we only read and watch what we already like or believe. It leads to the creation of "positional bubbles" in our societies in which people of a particular bubble are very sure about their positions.
All agreed processes, institutes, values, norms and practices so far are useless for the blind supporters of a position, political party, leader, religious group or any other entity. Not having access to contrary positions and views means that we hate "others" and don't engage with "them."
In almost every society, people hate other people who have different positions or opinions. We are so certain about ourselves that we are ready to do anything regardless of whether it is detrimental to our democracy, country or humanity.
The current media has been producing supporters of leaders and crowds ― not enlightened citizens. The democratic fundamentals such as conceding defeat in elections, accepting legal verdicts, agreeing to disagree and wait for "our" chance through the democratic process appear to be eroding very fast across the societies.
What happened in the U.S. may be found in almost every society and in most all of us. Rather than ridiculing or being just sad about it, we need to think retrospectively about us and the networks through which we become a crowd and not a responsible individual or citizen.
The author (sandipmishra10@gmail.com) is associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
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