The dangerous world of alternate reality

We’ve had two recent experiences globally of how hate ignites passion and causes tumult. One was in the US, world’s longest serving democracy if not the oldest; and the other in India, world’s largest democracy. Both events occurred within weeks of each other blotting forever traditionally fabled liberal democracies. What got them here? How hate got instituted? And what may other democracies, fledgling or established, learn from these to stem what may already be a slide in their own backyards.

It begins with creating alternate narratives which over time assume a garb of reality. In days gone by it used to be called propaganda. For it to be credible it needed to be founded on truth but the superstructure over it was lies that were intended to be inseminated as reality. Such propaganda had a limited purpose: undermining stability or credibility of a state or its ruling structure or to weaken the target society by instituting fear or disquiet. It had to be short-lived or constantly nurtured for the length of its required life because of the restricted tools of propagation. The Press existed but was scalable within the limits of its reach. A late delivery of news could mean that its context had expired. Radio too was limited by its range nor was it pervasive yet. It could transmit within given times and with intervals.

Modern world’s tools including electronic, digital and social media have enabled a 24/7 prevalence of an information market where misinformation and disinformation is peddled with consummate ease peppering minds with inventive facts which over time impact perceptions. This has become an exquisite art-form in shaping minds and changing opinions. Whatever is manufactured and hawked long enough soon becomes the truth. This is the post-truth world.

Consider the US first. It is easier to rubbish Donald Trump and underscore his person for the fragmented American society contrary to how it was conceived by its founding fathers. But it was in the institution of Barack Obama as the President that fear founded among the whites of losing their primacy. There was a reason. By 2050 the non-white population of the US would have become the majority segment of the population. The reversal in demographic domination and thus the loss of share in economic activity are real threats. The whites would also lose control over the direction that the US will take. This fear of the whites turned into mistrust of the others. With seeds of distrust sown hate soon became a compulsive companion. Donald Trump helped it flourish and built on it.

Trump’s or any saboteur’s tools of the trade today are inherent fears or a sentiment in a people, building on it in a carefully structured narrative of half-truths and then garnishing it with profuse reconstruction of what one may like to peddle. The combination of social media and its adept management supported by newspaper and television in the mainstream media gives it credibility and strength. The pervasiveness of the social media and its 24/7 life, and instantly global reach, only means that the lie may live longer than truth and thus become an alternate fact over time. When you have takers of the story such as the white supremacists who give it the fillip with their passion the lie assumes a life of its own. The fringe gets pulled in by pervasiveness of the alternate truth. What is left is for the two sides is to war their ‘truths’ leading to what was witnessed on Capitol Hill — America’s citadel of democracy and the democratic tradition came under assault by its very own. This story is in various stages of implementation as liberal democracies turn illiberal if not exactly end up in civil wars around the identity paradox.

Closer to home January 26 saw India — world’s largest democracy — buffeted by months-long agitation of farmers from all over India against imposed monopoly of corporate entities by the BJP government. Sikhs and agriculturists, especially those from Punjab, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan, found reason to establish and reinforce their identity by fighting legislative enslavement. India’s tricolor flag was dumped for Sikh flags over Delhi with chants for Khalistan — Sikh nation’s notional homeland. This hasn’t come out of nowhere. It has been years in the making. A society driven by an enthused sense of Hindu supremacy and its associated religious and social dogmas has just begun to reap its dividends.

First it was the Muslims, 200 million of them but impoverished and deprived of equal status and reduced to a hapless existence. They were rolled over under Hindu majority and a refueled symbolism of Hindutva following the rise of the Hindu Right. They suffered and submitted before the combined oppression of a Hindu state and a Saffron society. The Kashmiri Muslims are a living testament to how a state can suppress fundamental human rights. The Sikhs and 200 million farming households however pushed back against such fascist high handedness. This reaction was underwritten in the script of hawking a myth and an alternate reality of Hindu supremacy in the face of a liberal and secular order which India had held sacred over the years but gave it up under Hindu assault over its traditions. When you divide the society for tribal or political advantage you inalienably invite tumult and turmoil. Sometime it borders on a civil war under which nations melt into non-existence or change form. Africa and South Asia comes to mind.

Even closer, there is this day-in and day-out creation of alternate truth which blights our sociopolitical conversation. A truth exists — monies have been eaten, pilfered, looted and laundered. Of it there is no denial since record after record and numerous confessional statements accept the presence of such illegal assets and wealth accumulation. From initial acceptance of none-of-this-is-ill-gotten to if-there-is-a-proof-bring-it to its total denial is how the pendulum has swung. What is in play now is even more dastardly if not insidious when a repetitive myth about hounding political opponents with charges of corruption and financial misappropriation is being used unreservedly by those who are the perpetrators and the accused. Political parties en masse peddle falsehood in unabashed travesty. Truth is belied in its face and alternate reality through repeated assertions of the intended disinformation. Those doing it are the ones meant to lead the nation or have already led it.

This brings into disrepute state and government institutions, causes mistrust between the people and the state, weakens the tools of law and governance in the face of widespread suspicion, and infuses speculative nation-state relationship. When successfully polarised one side may be able to secure avid believers of ‘their’ truth. This sets into motion passions which lead to fury and frenzy. A confrontation ensues. Pakistan is too precariously placed to be subjected to such games but what overrides all is patently personal and familial gains under the garb of politics. The effect is irrecoverable disrepair. The leaders of this nation are culling a whole cow for their pound of flesh pushing us closer to the precipice. Meanwhile Neros and pied pipers fiddle away.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2021.

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