Modern savagery made palatable with willful ignorance and doublespeak
Calling a spade a spade
What would you call a national government that actively victimizes a group of people for the benefit of other more powerful set of people it ‘really represents’? Is it ‘progressive’? Is it ‘modern’? Is it ‘pragmatic’? or is it simply an oppressive state working at the behest of powerful and moneyed few?
Would you say that most modern countries then are oppressive states? Which ‘other’ (typically either an aboriginal or an immigrant) population is safe and at equal pedestal to the majority population in any country? From USA and Europe to India, most nations in the 21st century are guilty of it.
How do people who hold ‘Je Suis Charlie’ placards or ‘aam aadmi’ topis manage to remain unmoved by stories of violence and genocide of fellow humans in their own backyards? Well, that requires propaganda, and here are a few handy tips to put into action your own evil propaganda too.
Act 1. Close your mind and ears and eyes. and shout out obscenities.
Willful ignorance = ideological violence = “Listen to me, I won’t listen to you”
Exhibit 1: Appropriation of B R Ambedkar’s image
Today is Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. He was one of the few true revolutionaries of India who gave dignity and voice to an historically subjugated people. In all probability, without him, I would have grown up in a different India where my caste identity would have pushed me into a less happy, less prosperous trajectory.
He fought against the regressive forces of Hindu caste system and patriarchy. And now these same forces are subverting his teachings and using his image to further their own agendas. According to RSS, Dr Ambedkar accepted its fiction about glorious Hinduism when in fact, Dr Ambedkar revolted against it to such an extent that he got converted to Buddhism, along with thousands of his followers.
Exhibit 2: ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’
Do the ruling party leaders not know the basic tenets of Islam, that they do not do ‘idol worshiping’? In which case they cannot raise slogans of ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. Firstly, making someone else sing praise to an abstraction you believe in, is silly. But even then, if they do it in their own words when they feel like it, should it not be enough for anyone’s megalomania? The only reason for insistence is to vitiate the atmosphere, to create non-issues to hide the real issues. A smokescreen of empty passions that hide true oppression.
Act 2: Pick and choose things to believe in
We read history like we read an a la carte menu.
Exhibit 1: Confusing myths with factual history to the detriment of national policies and sanity of citizens. #facepalm
Is this naive belief in myths, or playing out of a consistent strategy to undermine intellectual traditions, a precursor to the subsequent attack on Indian universities which will eventually lead to rolling out of red carpet for foreign universities?
Exhibit 2: Manufacturing consent: American apathetic imperialism made palatable to the American citizens by the doublespeak of ‘fight for liberty’.
Act 3. Rewrite and re-frame to make the victors as heroes.
Exhibit 1: The barbarians become the pilgrims.
Columbus, who essentially was a barbaric asshole is celebrated as the discoverer of Americas. The Oatmeal puts it succinctly — “Columbus discovered the new world much like a meteorite discovered the dinosaurs.”
Exhibit 2: Successful oppression of the marginalised becomes Victory over evil.
Subaltern historians say that major Hindu festivals, such as Holi and Diwali, had their origins in brutal oppression of marginalised communities. India resists has an interesting article about it. read it.
Act 4.The myth of modern = ‘progress’
Exhibit 1:
