Over the last few years (I think since 2011?), I had given up actively watching television, more so to focus my time on things more creative and useful to me and people around me.
Its been over an year that I stopped reading newspapers, the main contributor to wasting 45 minutes of my morning time to read something that had already happened, and that too about rapes/ murders/ corruption.
But still, old habits die hard!
Maybe once in 6 months or so, I try to punish myself, I forcefully make myself sit in front of the TV and keep switching channels during the night.
On one such channel surf a few months back, I happened to stop at a “debate” on a Malayalam news channel. The topic was, of-course, the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala.
What caught my attention was that there was a group of “panelists” debating over a topic in such a manner that no one can understand what the other is saying. Even the moderator/ anchor is shouting in between and it was just too much noise! Some of the prominent words I could make out from the “noise” were “fascism”, “communism”, “secularism”, “feminism” and many more of such fancy words. The news channel didnt function the way it should’ve, it was dishing out opinion on topics that they do not fully understand. People somehow seem to enjoy seeing others argue/ fight. Its this psychology that the channels use to provide entertainment to the common man! With not enough news happening around to fill their 24hour content bandwidth, news anchors try to become entertainers!
After about 10 minutes or so, I was tired of all the polemics and just switched-off the TV and went to sleep.
More recently, with elections round the corner, the biggest democratic process in the world, I again decided to check what’s happening around and happened to visit another popular Malayalam channel where 4 people were trying to corner 1 guy and thereby proving their point and taking the discussion towards their preset agenda. Again, the words commonly used remained the same.
From the knowledge of English that I had acquired over the years, I thought I knew the meaning of these words, however, I thought I need to revisit the dictionary and bring in some more clarity, in my mind, about some of these terms that people so loosely use in their discussions. I also thought that this might help some other people like me.
Fascism:
Refers to an idea of extreme allegiance to the concept of one’s nation and authoritarian rule. Hitler and Musolini were the famous leaders who were said to be fascists. Fascists only believe in their supremacy and wish that all others have to listen to them. Our current Prime Minister and his followers are allegedly fascists.
Communism:
The theory of a society without class discrimination, where all land/ property is owned by the state. People who believe in this concept are called communists. Some of the examples of communist governments can be found in Germany, Russia, China and a small part of India (Kerala and Bengal). Communism proved to be a big failure in not being able to meet the economic expectations of citizens. Nation is of least importance to them, probably that’s the reason Deshabhimani (the newspaper owned by the Communists in Kerala) doesn’t even greet people on the occasion of Independence Day or Republic day (because an Independence Day celebration will tag them as fascists?)! Marxism and Leninism form the basis of communism which claims to work towards a classless society. Though I have great faith in this theory, I do not have faith in the people who claim themselves to be implementing these ideals! How can you have a classless society if you are not ready to give up your wealth? Our so called communist leaders themselves don’t give up their seats, their wealth, their possession, but they expect others to do so. Only a sanyasi can do that, and that too someone who’s spiritually (mind it, not religiously) at a very high level that he looks at things with such dispassion that he doesn’t need anything more in this world to be happy. Isn’t this the message that our vedas, puranas, gitas and upanishads have been trying to convey? If that be the case, our scriptures are full of communism, and spiritual thinking is a must for being a good communist. Shouldn’t our communists propagate the learning of religious scriptures to promote communism? This also means that they should be able to love human beings (humanity). The communist leaders that we see today seem to lack some of these qualities and they’ve created their own forms of communism that’s nothing short of fascism.
Socialism:
Another concept that gives importance to community based development and ownership. India was envisaged to be a sovereign socialist republic (according to our Preamble). Enterprises are owned by government for public good. This seems to be opposite of capitalism where individualism is more prominent and private consortiums have a say in the affairs of the state.
Secularism:
Dictionary defines this to be the principle of separation of the state from religious bodies. So then, why is the government so much involved in temples/ Sabarimala (for sure, money can’t be a reason!)? It seems, India became a sovereign socialist secular republic during emergency brought in by Smt. Indira Gandhi. So our leaders wanted to bring in a separation between religion and state. We are free to practice any religion that we like and its left to the people. Governments, ideally, shouldn’t interfere?!
Feudalism:
The social practice of people owning lands and peasants working on those lands in return for protection and food. Much of India still practices this system. If we go by the definitions, I’m a feudal lord because I’ve employed a guy to take care of the cows at my ancestral land!
Feminism:
The theory (by females) that advocates equality of sexes. But then, when a similar theory like communism has failed, can feminism be far behind? Why are women wanting equality when they are already much higher in stature when compared to men? If the society is talking about feminism, this is an indication that women don’t fully understand their full mettle and that men have started having inferiority complexes. Males are always an inferior creation when compared to females, but the males have always bull-dozed their way in the society purely due to their show of physical strength. It’s only a spiritually enlightened (not religious) society that can ensure women are treated with all the due respect that they deserve.
The list of “isms” can go on & on, never ending but the fact remains that TV channels (and a lot of online content) want to create a world around people and make them think that what they say is the ultimate truth. They try to weave a virtual world around us with so many lies and prejudices that we end up believing it! They also seem to follow the theory attributed to fascists that “If you keep repeating a lie often, people will tend to believe it to be true”.
Does that not classify TV journalists as fascists? And so, isn’t communism another form of fascism, where the focus is not on nationhood but on a different ideology? Well, I’m neither a historian nor a political analyst, I may be wrong or may have a misunderstanding of some of these concepts, but the fact remains that we are in the world of “Maya”. Don’t go by Microsoft’s old theory of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), rather go by WYSIWTWYB (What You See Is What They Want You To Believe). Its very hard to differentiate between this new world and the physical world.
AI has become so powerful that it can now create surreal experiences for us (for ex: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com where the photos of non-existent people are generated by an AI engine).
The real enquirer of truth now has one more hurdle to cross, the barrier of fake news.
So, the more spiritual you become, the more you learn to give up, the better for you…I meant watching TV!
I think I’m more peaceful and happy now, by staying away from newspapers and TV channels.
