I am a member of cohorts who can recall past to overrule this "Between Superficial and Artificial" to "Between Truth and Lies". Unfortunately a lot has changed during two decades. Truth has changed to Superficial and Lies are totally Artificial (meaning lying refer to total innovation, not touching reality from far). Before I go further, I should define a "Lie" more. Lie can be a total new creation, but it can have some element of reality. A gossip for example, can have roots from reality but with passage of information from person to person, it can be corrupted. The time has come where Truth is analyzed and located only Superficially and Lies have no roots from genuineness and it is created from total falsehood - the time which was predicted by Abrahamic religions has come: "All the truth will be seen as lies and all the lies will be seen as truth" which refers to spread out of total falsehood in humanity. All kinds of vulgarity is now seen as "Freedom of Expression" and all kind of practices attached to one's belief is seen as "Extremism" and calling the names of each other's ancestors has become a common practice.
One good example of such falsehood or misinterpretation of information is the attack on Iraq on the basis of a totally fabricated news regarding WMD resulting the loss of thousands of lives, needless to mention the loss of other related things. Who has lost or who has gained is yet another argument and I don't want to indulge into that but point is that there is a new form of dissemination of Artificial and or Superficial Information termed as "Media". You can disagree on the point that media was ever unbiased- no it was never unbiased. I have seen highly government oriented news bulletin but now it has taken another direction. In the following discussion, I will try to clarify my point regarding the dissemination of false information by media and resulting into the common man's misjudgment about others. A good is interpreted as bad and bad as good--Thanks to the media. In one of my earliest blogs, I wrote a 180 degree turn regarding the image of present President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari cleaning him from all the corruption charges and yet after he took Presidency holding back the previous position of considering him "The Most Corrupt Person of Entire Pakistani Nation". The image alteration came for a very short time during the election time period and as "some hidden powers" would have decided to elect him as next supreme power of Pakistan and when that happened, they worked on next agenda to tighten the rope around his neck so that he never commit any disloyalty from their set agenda. Thanks to Media. This is just an example from Pakistan, but I know countless other examples from other nations.
In my previous writings, I was discussing about the scarcity of role models amongst nations; and media portray a very negative image of some popular tigers. Now it involved some such personalities in their dirty jokes, false information and baseless claims that according to some learnt persons have had all charismatic traits to qualify them as leaders of a nation. I can quote examples of mockery of such people who have been highly praised among their nations. A person who has been glorified for last 1400 years, now I can see images, text and false information, ruthless madness and all efforts to deprecate him. Same holds for his counterpart yet 600 years elder than him who also has been humiliated in every possible way. This all causes anarchy and frustration. (These two most respected persons are Muhammad and Jesus respectively). The people who have been admired for centuries, the true leaders as we believe them to be the savior of humanity are being confused as foe and enemy. All goes to media - Freedom reaching the abyss of ignorance.
Any successful society is based upon justice, equality and keeping balance. Any society deviating from the above things are likely to collapse in very near future. Abusing my father and expecting me to consider it as freedom of expression is a total non-sense. Secondly, blaming someone without having an adequate explanation and good faith is also biggest of all crimes. This is what happening in today's world. I guarantee if Mother Teresa was alive today, she must have biggest corruption charges against her. Take for example the campaign led by Anna Hazaray in India and how his fellows are facing biggest charges of corruption. This wave of defamation against them surely would not have erupted had they not put their hands into this fire.
Although, today's media is abusing any popular figure whether good or bad but there are some elites who are somehow respected and their character defamation is considered as a crime. We must reckon upon the traits of people who have been admired and respected in today's forged world. We may find them disobeying laws of nature, spreading bloodshed, hatred. Are they worth calling a leader or respectable? Do you think a leader sleeps in palaces while leaving the rest under open sky? Do you consider one as your chief who has a high protocol saving his own life but opens up all kinds of threats for you? Is it a trait of a captain to stand last in the queue of a dying force. NO!!
I emphasize the importance of point that nations have not stopped producing leaders, they are there but unfortunately they have been confused as your enemies and your enemies are hidden in a veil of friendship and leadership. People are desperately waiting for a savior, a leader but they are dispersed and confused who to trust who not to trust. Good is seen as worst and Worst is seen as Better. All credit goes to Media.
I do not say Media is all a crap. They sometimes highlight those darkened areas in our society that would otherwise remain unnoticed. But this comes at a cost. Showing facts does not mean intruding into one's personal space. Most of the times, our Media goes too far and start to unveil the parts of one's life which he/she otherwise would not like to disclose. A personal space is a fundamental right of everybody and depriving one of this right is another big transgression. Sometimes we like our superhero but then Media presents such hidden fact of his life that we are forced to dislike him.
The consequence is that the world is standing on the verge of destruction as a result of misunderstand and making abrupt judgment about people. People ought to judge you on the basis of your background and color which is the most abhorrent thing one can do. I can recall that once after a rigorous running to catch the train, I missed that so I immediately went to Information with a query. For a second, I jumped into a wrong place thinking it as a queue but realized my mistake in just two seconds. When asked a person about the correct queue, his reply was astonishing. He blamed my religion and country for this accidental and impulsive mistake. I went into a total shock. Another incidence occurred when I took a wrong way for entering into a tram. This was my first time taking a tram and therefore I should have been forgiven for that but instead the TT abused my country. At both instances, because I didn't see a connection for accusing my background for such faults because even if did that deliberately, I did not learn such law breaking things in any of the constitution or a religious book :) These were just two small examples while there are a couple of such things with greater intensity. How could people pass judgement on me while they never met me? Its the magic of media that can surely tell you who you are while you yourself don't know those facts. I don't say those who share the same beliefs as me are totally free from this kind of emotions. I would regretfully acknowledge the fact that we are as or even more corrupted in our thoughts than any other person belonging to a different group. Yes it is true.
As long as we keep on passing judgement on people without digging for truth, we are very likely to astray and then we will continue led by individuals similar to those ruling us now! As long as we are moving between the two ends of superficiality and artificiality like a pendulum, we cannot reach the reality and then no movements, calls, revolution will bring the results. And the deprived masses of society cannot develop the real spirit necessary to make reforms- we continue to go inside this abysmal. I do not make any conclusion as you might be expecting, my point was to bring to light one of the forces responsible for hindrance of our Advancement- Humans are growing but humanity is getting scarier and scarier - exponentially!
Assalamu Alaikum,
ReplyDeleteIt's a very cut-throat culture, both commercially and in terms of coverage of people, within media organisations. There isn't much place, it seems, for quiet policy analysis and subtleties wrt people. Everything's black and white. You're wither a hero or zero. And as you say, even being a hero doesn't last too long.
It's just that even if you are praised, and one little fault is found with you, you'll humiliated, and the people start hating you, when we all know that nobody is perfect. We accept people like this in our normal social circles, we don't expect everyone to be a saint. But when it comes to public figures, from whom we're more detached, such subtleties are just thrown out of the window.
It's also a very un-Islamic way of doing things. To accuse someone publically so easily, without full proof, is one of the worst things we can do. What we're supposed to do is to give a good person the benefit of the doubt, find reasons to explain why an act that looks bad might not be.
Walikum Salam Zain,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting.
Yes, as Quran says: "O you who believe! If a fasiq brings you a news, verify it, lest you harm some people in ignorance and afterward repent of what you did. (49:6)
But we are after gossips and somehow our brains are trained so well to accepting faults and not digesting the goods in people which is just cultivating a hatred culture. Whether Islam or any other religion, Ikhlaq-e-Hasanah comes first, rest is all secondary.