Terminological illness
Ignorance is bliss but only if you can afford arrogance. Otherwise, it’s a curse in disguise. That said, you’ve got to give it credit for being so smooth. There’s a very neat seduction process in place. First, it leads you to believe that it doesn’t exist. Second, it convinces you that you’re all knowledgeable. Third, it closes the window on those beacons of enlightenment. Fourth, it nurtures its best buddy (Arrogance) in you. Fifth and the final step is to let you marinate in your arrogant self without making you realize that you are being incredibly ignorant.
The only saving grace in such a scenario is to open the window. Never too late to do the needful. Something that seldom happens when arrogance and ignorance have joined hands against you.
Of late, there has been a burst in this long-standing collaboration between A and I among the youth, especially. Artificial Intelligence 2.0, ahem. And where else can you see it manifest itself as loudly as the Internet? Not like our species hasn’t always been idiotic, just that the social media highlighted this cardinal truth way more prominently than any other medium of expression. People accidentally setting their house on fire for the sake of their videos’ virality is undoubtedly stupid but they at least have a purpose. These folks are ignorant but not arrogant. The worst kind are the ones who are both. They generally showcase their talent by refusing to slay—a Shakespearean word recently resurrected by netizens — their preconceived notions. They’d rather stick to their version of the world and not even dare to hear what the other side has to say. To avoid contact, they will resort to labeling the ‘others’ derogatorily, if not patronizingly.
The most intriguing bit about the rise of AI 2.0 is their presence on both sides of the fence. They are, in plain words, extreme. Nuances are lost on them. Thanks to their ignorant-arrogant combo, concepts like feminism, nationalism, conservatism and liberalism are getting stabbed as evil words. Remember how George W. Bush once hectored the world that it’s either with the US or against it? That’s how it is now. Online as of now. Eventually, the trend will be offline too. Takes times for the coin to drop in our country.
Going by the laws of AI 2.0, you are either an extremist liberal or you aren’t a liberal at all. Similarly, you have to be a Sanghi to be taken seriously as a person with right-wing ideologies. If you shed a tear while listening to AR Rahman’s Vande Mataran, you’d be labeled a nationalist. In case you were foolish enough to remind others of the role Indian family values played in the rise of middle class, you’d be tagged as a conservative or worse still, a prude. Supporting women’s fight against oppression and injustice might even make you an attention whore.
Strange (online) world. Stranger (online) rules.
I grew up believing extremism is something best left to the goons. Turns out it’s not that simple anymore. According to Natya Shastra, everything begins with a thought. And that is exactly what is being ransacked by the self-appointed curators of ideas. This form of extremism is on its way to choking the possibilities of today as well as tomorrow. Yes, they are merely words but the next step for a thought is not going to be action. That is going to be the last resort.
NB. For someone who seems averse to human interaction, i am strangely bothered by the continual decline of standards in discussion.
