My life as a pessimist

I don’t feel the anger I think I’m supposed to I hear about minorities being beat up and shot dead but the media has subconsciously and perhaps rightfully, led me to believe that these events must be condemned. Post-crisis media analysis does not help solve problems. It only fuels the fire.

I don’t feel the anger I think I’m supposed to I hear about minorities being beat up and shot dead. But horrendous events don't seem unusual or upsetting. Despite my insensitivity, I know they are wrong and deserve condemnation. The media has subconsciously and rightfully, led me to believe so.

There is a notion that news analysis may contribute to the normalcy we desire in the aftermath of a tragic atrocity. It certainly doesn’t. If anything, the media, left or right, fights its own agenda.  In the process, it forgets its responsibility to report accurately. Seemingly, these recurring mishaps come as a ‘complete surprise’ to politicians. They jump on the opportunity to bash the opposition and extend empathy to the public. Subsequent protests with zealous faces and determined chants barely yield any fruit either.

While various terror groups try their claim responsibility, TV stations, having survived themselves, get busy notching the senior law ministers and police officials concerned (or not!), to cater them with their ‘prestigious opinions’ and time. Prolonged and fusty shows draw attention but, deep down, we all know they are not helping redress the problem at hand, recover losses or curb the consequent tumult. In fact, they only delude the public by tricking them in to watching the same old footage of bloodshed. Also, the terrorists, from under some cave, witness that they’ve successfully embarked on another mission. The interior ministers and CIA do the dirty work by nabbing as many men as they can so that they can tell us, the Pakistani people,  that “They are at it.”

The thought just stuck me that after three attacks struck Lahore in as many months – each report stated a different death toll. These abominable blasts caused debate everywhere – from homes to cafes to work places. But can we, in sheer honesty, look back and believe this chaos is contributing positively to what lies with the future. I don’t think so.