Wednesday, November 01, 2023

Stormtroopers of narration control


 When atrocities are committed on humanity there is only one response that is possible to redeem collective conscience and that is through shock, anguish, and justice. Perpetrators of crime against humanity must face full force of the rule of law without any exception. Enlightened values, ideals of democracy and its institutions are hinged on retributive justice as also prevent such transgressions in future. When state is attacked -as has happened in recent times in Ukraine and Israel -and now Palestine, it is expected that multilateral agencies like UN take action through peace keeping force and restore order and justice through international courts so on. This is what civilized people do when faced with barbarity and crime against humanity. We unfortunately don’t live in ideal world, and most people are not civilized. So, what’s the deal?

It is always exhibition of power, and wanton greed, that use common people as fodder. There are no effective multilateral agencies nor efficient mechanism for synergic response to safeguard against transgressions, most countries are ruled by authoritarian leaders with almost no democracy while others are ruled by hereditary despots using religion or controlled by army or feudal ways to control the herd, and those that are democratic are mostly controlled by greedy psychopaths trying to amass their influence. In such scenario we can only be appalled and hope for better sense to prevail. We can only pray for unfortunate people who face worst of the world, and also feel fortunate for not being in such situation.  In the meanwhile, we can also respond by making every attempt at our disposal to see that power that sustains such dehumanizing systems are weakened, people presented with egalitarian choices and enlightened ways so that they can assert and protest against transgression on their liberty and freedom. They get educated and understand the importance of being a human and not reduce to herd. They become vigilant compassionate humans and not compliant segregated herd (snarling and vandalizing only for ‘our’ herd and ready to kill ‘other’ herd). There are devious forces trying to trap human being to frozen histories, fixed identities, and classify for benefits and control.

In the aftermath of barbaric attack on Israel -that saw massacring for more than thousand people within few hours, the scale of brutality should shudder any human being. But what we saw was appalling display of people in support of this horror. Primitive societies nurture brutal people, and that is the norm, and always a threat to the world, more they grow more is the threat. But what was shocking was  that these parades were happening in democratic societies that values liberty and freedom, and as always compromised Britain leading the way. These appalling celebrations of horror were also seen in many cities that pride in liberal values, accepting environment and egalitarian spaces. That some people, despite all the opportunities provided by open societies, think that brutalities against other humans is to be celebrated is a horrible statement on values nurtured. It is a caution and a lesson. Each and every person who supported/supports hamas must be weeded out and face full force of law (indeed in Australia -of all the place -indicating how things have degraded, some people were seen shouting ‘gas the jews’). There are videos available, liberal societies cannot nurture such people among its midst they are termites, they eat from inside. This was hours after innocent people were massacred and kidnapped by barbarians. Ofcourse now scene has changed. Brutal bombardment of Palestine and massacring of civilians has become serious concern, and those in support of plight of Palestinians -and against Israel state, are on the side of humanity. What also need to be understood is that terrorists have created massive underground network in gaza against Israel and are using civilians as shield. There are complexities but what cannot be denied is that civilians, specifically children, must be given safe passage to leave the area and extended all humanitarian aid. Meanwhile Israelis must revolt against state, and demand complete stoppage of war on Palestine. They can eradicate hamas but they leave vacuum for increasingly hostile people like what they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Death of single innocent human being is a colossal tragedy on life. Netanyahu has no moral right to be the prime minister.   

There is another sinister presence that needs to be identified and dealt: The leftist intellectual. Let us make one thing very clear. Marxism is a powerful and liberating idea, and it has contributed much to the understanding of dynamics of society and power matrix within. It is an insightful presence and a check on crony/neocapitalism, wanton consumerism and feudal control through neo colonial agencies. Communism in a democratic society is a pitch towards socialism and distributive justice. It has nurtured and consolidated democracy through grassroot social movements all across the world. Grassroot consolidation leads to high level of literacy hence awareness of rights and progressive values, efficient public health and distribution system leading to better quality of life and possibilities. Kerala is an example of grassroot consolidation of democracy significantly through communist ideas and socialistic values (ofcourse entrenched feudal ways, corrupt values and lack of ethical contexts have severely limited the progressive intents). While Bengal is an example of failure of communism, a failure due to lack of grassroot democracy. Bengal remains low on social indices but high on left intellectuals and amazing level of hypocrisy that it breeds. There is a reason why communism in Bengal was uprooted without any trace. It is a study on depravities of left intellectualism. Abstraction into theories that alarmingly loses any connection with reality, essentially an ego ride, so much so that humans are abstracted for elitist indulgences -the kind that has roots in Britain. In some market driven circle it is also fashion statement, and with gandhian mix it becomes extremely virile power display for the sake of proletariats.  

So, although Marxism is an incisive understanding on society it is flawed as model for governance and can only complement within the democratic framework. Leftist intellectuals worked on binary narration of society as class, and as they abstracted these into spheres of dealing in their zeal (and characteristic indifference) they abstracted humans too. So in the absence of individuals empathy had no value. Theory and control over narration was the game. Unique context of human condition was systematically ignored in favour of the narration. Left thinkers are therefore perpetually trapped in the binary narration of historical dialectic. For them every contemporary event has to be controlled and evaluated through this narrative prism. They already have semantics abstracted to fill narration, carefully abstracted words that is used to compress class wars from history to the present, hence presenting a neat version of contemporary that they parrot devoid of the complexities. With this characteristic positioning, that essentially lack empathy, they can easily side with barbarity since it suits the leftist narration. Like capitalism, which only values humans as profitable cog in the system, communism has created binary of collective where human is lost in abstraction. This abstraction is now their only concern, to work their narration, and since leftist intellectuals almost always emerge from feudal frames with all the benefits and regressive values intact, a high level of sense of entitlement over fellow human being, they work their abstraction through comforts of debating clubs and increasingly narrower coterie of writings and dehumanized esoteric arguments dangerously disconnected from sense, this then is applauded by the group. Enthused they pretend to be in the pole position as moral arbitrators on all critical issues. They eventually get trapped in the hypocritical justification of their own loop of narration. Abstracted ideas and narrative control becomes more important than basic ethics or even decency. A normal human being will shudder at brutality on another human being but for leftist intellectual this is a paradigm justifying moment, they do suppress their winning smile though -a glimmer of humanity. Meanwhile any deviation from prescribed narration is taken as a personal failure, an affront on theory, and lacking compassion they hedge their emotion on ego. Thus, what we get is a boorishly rude person as left intellectual, lacking empathy or concern for contemporary or compassion for human predicament but ever ready to elaborate with high sounding words and exceeding articulate performance that do charm the youngsters. Idealist youngsters are susceptible, and by the time they unravel the layered chicanery they have already compromised their soul. Ofcourse, I do agree deeper involvement with ideas are important and a necessary stepping stone to understand world better. Or else there is always the herd hauling abyss of religion and mediocrity of market capitalism. Marxism is a compelling viewpoint to evaluate the world. It though is woefully limited and dangerously insidious like religion and neoliberal values. In the end it too is virulently dehumanizing and segregating. What is sinister is that it poses as an anti-thesis to market and religion, and glimpses a better world -that is a mirage. Communist atrocities that have led to mass killing and misery are rarely condemned by left intellectuals. It is not about compassion or reevaluating their worldview or position but a personal failure to communicate. Dead people could easily be explained with abstract words into abstract humans. Hence it is about chiseling the ideology, against the binary of imperialism. What they don’t realize is that they are increasingly the worst side of the coin. Leftist intellectuals have made Faustian deal with power. Be very concerned.                           

As thoughts get sophisticated words get evolved to express the nuance of the complex world we live in. Ideas get evolved and consolidated through words. The problem is when it loses connection with reality -importantly with humans and environment that are essential part of it. It is a passion devoid of humanity or habitat. It therefore becomes sinister manipulation to sustain their position in the argument. You will see how least concern left intellectuals are when some humans don’t fit their narration -even when they are brutalized or killed, concern is to articulate the logic. Since marxian world is a historical struggle of binary, they will also rarely show any concern for environment -it is not something that is factored, and like its adversary capitalism, nature is an exploitable means. Abstracted human as an agent is their concern everything else is usable for bigger cause. They see human as an abstraction in historical progress -struggle. This also makes them extremely sensitive about history. The use of abstract words and thoughts are therefore not for awareness of contemporary reality -the complexity of which has miniscule connection with history (past is exaggerated by devious forces to work the status quo of misery and trap humans for power struggle). There are therefore ‘colonial’ forces. If Israel-Palestine conflict is frozen as ‘colonizing’ -that is sought to go back to early last century, then there are many colonial angsts all across the world. Hindu herds will say it was colonizing forces that divided their land, it was an injustice that they would like to rectify. And they have ample history to prove their claim for pure land, extending from whole of south Asia and beyond. So why not invade Pakistan and rectify colonial injustice (some nutcases do hold this view, as an unfinished agenda). Vice versa, muslim herd from Pakistan would claim that India is part of their pure land, since muslim king ruled for centuries. So they have compelling reason to attack India and free their pure land. What kind of ridiculous arguments are these? Left intellectuals are notorious for working history to bring their besotted godforsaken dangerous narrations. Abstracted human herein is no longer struggling against historical exploitation but is a conduit to power that nurture herds into their pre assigned ascribed roles to repeat and replicate historical dialecticism. Intellectualism essentially boils down to ego ride of psychopaths who use humans as fodder for narration. 

It is through semantics of abstracted meaning that we try to understand, and then attempt to deal with the issue. Words helps us to understand the complexities of the world we are in. We really need to therefore critically analyze these crucial words that keys the issue as also the power play within. Most thinkers, in their growing phase atleast, are influenced or have engaged with left -since left had deeper involvement as their concern is collective struggle against power, so words gets accepted and with that the context. Now this is problematic. When you control the context of the word you also control the narration and intricacies of engagement. The narration of abstracted collective lacking humanistic concern, as a mass of people evolving in the binary struggle. History therefore is the lynchpin of context from marxian viewpoint. Historicity their weapon of choice to cleverly work into leftist narration of struggle against power. The problem here is history is always incomplete, manipulated, controlled, and significantly, has increasingly limited value (indeed nuisance) to understand the complexities of contemporary -we live in an increasingly complex world with catastrophic challenges that were inconceivable even few decades back. Since historical dialecticism is the foundation of marxian history, history is the wound that has to be kept festering. This is how you work the binary of us and them. The way left intellectual look at the world one would think human beings are divided into two unrelated species. And the one with which left intellectual sides are essentially human while the other has to be destroyed -far left doesn’t rule out violence the reason why they must be contained within democracy and strict rule of law. 

Since the world is complex, and with profusion of technology and comfort as also social media and easy access to global world, individuals have found their voice and have become assertive to express their reality. Simultaneously lacking deeper engagement, or nuanced approach, to whatever is there to deal. The world is increasingly attention seeking, superficialities rivet. This is where words become even more important. People are not reading long incisive articles and insightful understanding but throwing words at each other which carry deeper meaning -many a times without realizing it. Words that invoke history is what we need to be beware of since it brings in fracture of the past that surely has no, and must not have, relevance to contemporary. Systems that invoke these words are persistent threat to the world we live in. Communism and religion are systems that seek relevance from past. They really have nothing much to offer for the contemporary. The binary -us/them, segregation, dehumanizing values lacking compassion or concern is how these systems consolidate. They persistently bring words from the past to degrade the present. With words they bring the context of dead past as festering wound, and so the world loses much of humanity. So, eventhough communism steadily lost its influence across the world due to its incapacity to abstract human for their collective dialectic they are able to control the narration through the words used that percolate into common parlance and claims of historical wrongs and counter claims -that use same semantics of deal devoid of contemporary context.

Communism spread in 20th century and held hope for better world but very soon major flaws were apparent. In the last few decades, it has failed or had to morph from core ideology to garner support. Failure to abstract human for collective dialectics is a fall out of the changed world. Technology leading to individual assertion and increasing awareness of nuance of world we live in -individual context and human condition. Communism though has much left to offer against work place exploitation through unionizing collective voice against neoliberal neocolonial power structures spreading through market capitalism and their nefarious attempts to control through insidious technologies. Socialism remains a significant understanding for public policy. Technology, and easy access to world, has also led to lack depth in dealing and understanding. In this superficial, and increasingly fake and manipulated, world human seeks collective -being social animal as also dreading loneliness, isolation or incapacity to face frightening human condition and absurdities of life. Superficial values of unthinking minds find juvenile premise of religion comforting, its assured association with other compelling. There is also primal subconscious angst for known that get satisfied, as also fear of unknown assuaged through fantastical claims and grand stories. The reason why religion despite its anachronistic degrading values gets primacy. Laughable claims that don’t stand basic scrutiny is found acceptable, and in complete horrifying dehumanization are ready to kill another human to justify the absurd. Such absolute lack of connection to reality of existence and faith in fantasy is what religion presents. More the number of herds increases more it stands as a challenge to humanity.

The paradox of lacking followers but firm control over narration is where left intellectual workout their devious plan to establish their entitled self on the world. Instead of high stand of abstracting humans for collective struggle they now find readymade collective -albeit herd with entirely different concern but equally dehumanized and segregated. So, the left intellectual doesn’t have to dehumanize people into abstract human collective, herd is already dehumanized and incapable to think. The binary of imperial forces, colonial atrocities and fascist agenda are words that are freely used. Herd has to be a victim. While herd controlling state is the aggressor, indeed, imperial fascist force. There are no complexities. Period. Left intellectual has his or her work cut out. And in the luxuries of feudal trappings, they pronounce the verdict in spellbinding semantic flourish that encompass vistas of history to how we landed into the present. This is the danger we face.             

The essential and abiding identity of human being is to be a human, a vibrant life with all unique possibilities. There is providence of race and gender which shouldn’t matter if societies have evolved. Any other identity is a choice. It cannot be imposed on people, to classify and segregate. Ofcourse societies can be primitive, individuals insecure and crass, but that is not the reason to dilute progressive thoughts and evolved ideas. Being a social animal human being must have the all the option to associate into collective of their choice and identify as they wish. What matters is humanism and understanding, and a connection with reality of life. If you persistently classify people -and piece of land, under religion then you take away the choice of being a human -it is an assault, and ofcourse also the absurdity of branding land as a claim for religion. These absurdities are deviously worked into history, and then into contemporary to create recurring loops of misery and wasted future. It places humans as replication of past generations and as such lack faculties to think or express, or the capacity to identify with vibrant present. It is an attempt at negating human, and bracketing into preconceived identities. The reason why progressive societies must actively remove religion or its influence from education space that impress young minds. Education is meant to equip to be a human and assert one’s unique individuality.                  

To relegate crisis to past -the history, as definitive reference is to trap people in a sinister loop wherein devious narration control act as arbitrators and moral authority. The claim of history can easily be challenged since it is based barbarism of past -which shouldn’t be a reference for present. To claim victimhood from past is spurious attempt at obfuscating complexities of present. Victims were in context to time and space in which they lived. Their choice were denied. The claim of victimhood from history is based on the fallacy that you represent the victim and that you don’t have choice, or that past is about you. What is needed is to deny the past, and attempts to invoke it. What is needed is to see that systems that denied choice in past is relegated. Feudal structures and regressive values that denied humanity is dismantled. Democratic ideals and institutions are nurtured, freedom and liberty asserted.    

Recently there are calls made to apologize for colonial atrocities of past from british monarchy. This is precisely the ridiculous level to which narration are controlled, without any care for contemporary. Where do you draw the line of where history ends or begins? Or to whom do you apologize? Where the societies democratic with each individual enjoying freedom before western colonization? As we stretch history back in time the list of apologies will grow. Similarly, many religions and faiths controlled land over centuries, and much before that early human settlers from hunter gatherers. If anybody has claim on land then it should be early humans, much before any contemporary religions existed. Where do you freeze the line of history, and why? And who decides? This invoking of history is dangerous and futile. There is no doubt that monarchy is a regressive presence and sustains feudal values and carries the fractures of past and must be dismantled. Its continuation is an insult on each and every human being on earth. Colonialism is a source of festering wound across the world. It is however failure of society to blame the past, it shows incapacity to deal with the present. Many societies, specifically in east Asia, were poor swampy regions only a few decades back but through investment in education as also progressive values are able to reclaim. Britain need not apologize for its past, it is absurd. It must surely apologize for the present.