The Great Deception

A few days ago  a friend asked me ‘Why is it that every second thing you share on facebook is about people  dying in Palestine or how bad the governments are around the world?’. A light hearted quirk indeed it was, as evidenced by my timeline which has more stuff by 9gag on it than anything else.

But then again, I’m jobless here, and trying to do something with my life during vacation. So I decided to take it a bit seriously. Brace yourselves and be warned for this is going to be a long one.

The most dangerous disease people could ever get afflicted with is Ignorance. When people make decisions without knowing and understanding the facts and blindly take in what the news and media dishes out for them. This is the reason why I think the world is where it is. A vast majority of the human population is either too dumb to analyze on their own if what the news channels or politicians say is right or maybe they simply choose to ignore whatever according to them can get less than 10 likes on Facebook.

There is also this peculiar herd mentality of the like-oriented audience on Facebook, the urge to stay away from whatever that isn’t trendy or looks odd. Everybody loves to like and share stuff put out by pages like 9gag or any other page dedicated to the cause of filling the internet with nonsense . We  live in an age wherin  almost all  of the information that mankind has been able to assimilate and understand over the course hundreds of centuries is available(except that which the NSA doesn’t want you to know)  only a few well placed clicks or touches away and all people do is watch pictures of puppies or stalk random people they meet online.

In this age of hyper-connectivity, where information travels at the speed of light people are being misled in huge numbers. They need to understand that not all of the media and news outlets are the harbingers of truth they assume them to be. The media has the power to manipulate people’s opinions and make them think whatever the guy without a  name carrying a big suitcase who was in the editor’s office yesterday wants you to think. I don’t mean to refer to all of journalism in this light and everyone knows that there are a lot of journalists out there risking their lives trying to bring out the truth. But sadly, there is a section with such lust for money that they can stoop to the lowest of depths of human character and feel nothing as they horrendously mutilate the truth in order to deceive the many while satisfying the wishes of the few . Some, on the other hand choose to pick only that side of the story which gives them a higher TRP . Others, like indian  news channels have mastered the ability to make even the most trivial piece of news look apocalyptic in nature!. Whatever maybe the case, if people don’t take the time to read, research and enlighten themselves then they are as good as a flock of sheep which can be made to go anywhere the shepherd wants it to.

 There is a lot of hypocrisy within the media especially the entire western media which was on fire with the news of how three Israeli teens were abducted and killed by the ‘Muslim terror group’ Hamas(a charge which wasn’t even proved). And when the president of Israel quite blatantly declares it to the world that they infact want to ‘maximize civilian casualties and kill as many Palestinians as they can ’ where does the criticism disappear to?  On one hand you have a group which took responsibility for killing around 3000 Americans on September 11 and they were quite aptly labeled as terrorists , no complaints there. But isn’t America responsible for the killings of around 200,000 Iraqis and Afghanis and for the illegal invasion of around 6 countries in the last one decade?  And they still call themselves  ‘Peace-makers’ ? No one calling them names?

A famous quote by Malcolm X comes to mind which goes :

 “If you’re not careful enough then the newspapers will have you confused between the oppressed and the ones doing the oppressing”.

Many a places I have found this to be true. And if some are to be believed, this is the work of the ‘Illuminati’ or the ‘new-world order guys’ who are perpetrating this ‘Great Deception’ in order to take over the world(Sounds like the plot of a Dan Brown novel doesn't it?). Whether these secret societies exist or not someone who will always be guilty for deceiving you is you yourself. Or simply put, we put ourselves in deception almost daily.Every single time we turn a blind eye to the wrong-doings of those in power and do not raise our voices to question them we are equally guilty. For any democracy to be successful the people who run it as well as  their policies, agendas and plans must be subjected to as much scrutiny as a candidate attempting the JEE. And this can never happen when the youth of this country uses the internet to stalk random girls they meet or play criminal case all day. 

When the government here can come up with gimmicks such as appointing someone whose resume says that the highest they have studied upto is 12th grade as the Education ministeryou know few things are bound to go horribly wrong..  In many other parts of the country people with little or no education at all who are greedy scumbags first, politicians next and leaders in the very least have been elected to ‘lead’ millions of people out of the dark age we are living in and into the age of ‘progress and development’.  How they got there though is perhaps a discussion for another time. 

The point I’m trying to make is that with leaders like these we shouldn’t be surprised if our titanic hits a giant stone pillar in the middle of the Bay of Bengal in broad daylight and sinks into oblivion. If we really want to see any change in this country then we must keep our eyes open and keep the govenrment in constant check. This however can happen only when the majority among us take upon itself the arduous task of 'Getting to know things'. Which can, quite honestly, be a pain in all the wrong parts of the body.

  But as Albus Dumbledore puts it

 “ Many a times Harry, We are forced  to choose between what is right and what is easy”.  

The only way in which 90% of the worlds problems can be removed is by teaching people how to get their facts right and how they should not be believing blindly what they hear on the news.

“Ignorance is the root cause of all evil”

And this is exactly why I share whatever I share on Facebook. In the vain hope that some teenager in some part of the country will get to know something about the world around him while taking a break from stalking the new girl he noticed in the college canteen the other day.

#indian
#jaihind