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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 of 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 the 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 where in 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 have 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 may be the case, if people don’t take the
time to read, research and enlighten themselves, and 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 in fact 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 labelled as terrorists, no complaints
there. But isn't America responsible for the killings of around 200,000 Iraqis
and Afghans 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 place 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 up to is 12th
grade as the Education minister you 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 government 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 world’s problems
can be removed is by teaching people how to get their facts right and how they
should not be believed 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.
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