Terrified of reflections and unsure of prospects, graying adults are accursed to grapple with challenges of the present. However, making sense of unfolding events has never been easy. That perhaps partly explains the confusion of most ‘leaders’ in every field of human endeavors.[break]
Medical doctors wring their hands in helplessness at the pitiable state of health services. Academics shed copious tears for paucities and poverty of public education. Engineers complain of shortfalls in the provisions of infrastructure. Economists gripe about falling exports and ballooning imports. Journalists never tire of reporting about failings on all fronts save the ills besetting their own profession. Poor political leaders, they have to shoulder the responsibilities of the failures of all other ‘leaders’ of society. Unfortunately, middle-aged politicos are as clueless as their better-educated members of the peer groups in other ‘respectable’ occupations.
Long ago—but not too long ago—an Indian brand of chocolate positioned itself for in-between people of different generations. The sales pitch used to be that it did not matter whether you were too old for something or too young for something else, you were of just the right age for their chocolates. In the oppressive 1980s, chocolates did indeed promise an escape from the dreary and dull routine of middleclass life in much of South Asia.
There are no easy outlets for middle-age frustrations anymore as physicians routinely proscribe high-calorie food and drinks and the prohibitive costs of healthcare prevents ‘aged adolescents’ from taking liberty with instructions of their minders. Little wonder, a temple is erected at every street corner in the urban sprawls of Kathmandu. Nothing less than the grace of the Almighty is sufficient to explain absurdities of these times. Even Pushpa Kamal Dahal found it necessary to tie a saffron bandana over his forehead, which bore the legend Bol Bum in the Nagari script. The motto is a rarefied version of ‘Hail the Lord of Animals.’ Pashupatinath is also worshipped as Bholenath—the presiding deity of simpletons.
Baburam Bhattarai probably finds it difficult to worship buffaloes in order to ward off the evil shadows of the Shani—the planet on the birth chart that denotes difficult times—and has been trying to vent his frustrations upon the former king and the disgraced chairman of the failed council of ministers of the 2005-6 turbulences. Dahal tried to placate heavenly stars by worshipping a water buffalo, but with little tangible results. Political fortunes of the Maoist ideologue and his Chairman appear more uncertain than ever before.
The Bhattarai-Dahal duo must be puzzled at the twists and turns politics in the country has taken since the last Constituent Assembly elections. Five years on, the challenge looks no less daunting as positions harden and polarizations intensify between those for and against the idea of promulgating the new Constitution through a sovereign elected body representing the largest possible section of national population.
Delusory empowerment
Recent studies have academically proven what most social commentators have always known: Extreme political attitudes arise out of an illusion of understanding. According to psychological scientist Philip Fernbach of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his team of researchers, “… asking people to attempt to explain makes them back off their extreme positions.” However, in a ‘culture’ steeped to honor the sanctity of social hierarchy, those at the top of the heap are almost never asked to clarify their positions.
The idea of enduring Loktantra—irreversibility of republican order, inevitability of federalism, inescapability of inclusive policies, and the unavoidability of secularism—is an assumption that has helped hardening of political positions rather than open space for unrestrained debates. Proponents are certain that they are on the forward march. Opponents are equally committed to what they believe is a necessary correction to the course of history. However, nobody is inclined to explain the bases of their convictions.
Votaries of Loktantra do not seem to realize the significance of midnight missives from the head of state and supreme commander-in-chief of the army that overturned the decision of a legitimate government. Dubiousness and constitutionality of the presidential order apart, it undermined the fundamental republican principle of civilian control over the defense forces before the tenet could be institutionalized through the promulgation of a new Constitution. Once allowed to operate as it pleases, the army can call for, and commandeer, street protests as unfolding events in Egypt since the winter of 2011 have clearly shown.
The anomaly and consequences of ousting an elected government to install a partyless apparatus seem to have escaped most politicos. Blaming India for all absurdities is a very convenient excuse for the intellectually lazy commentariat, but it is extremely difficult to believe that the defense forces of the country had no say in a decision that would have a direct impact upon their influence and functioning. The Maoists, especially of the Dash variety, appear to ignore the elephant in the room when they talk about a concept of sovereignty formulated by the ideologues of the Panchayat in terms of ‘our bastards versus their bastards’ dichotomy prevalent in the Cold War era. Sovereignty of the people is indivisible from the sovereignty of the state, and that has yet to be institutionalized despite the formal declaration of the republic.
Kamal Thapa is free to believe whatever he believes in, and Gyanendra Shah should be allowed to enjoy all fundamental freedoms available to every citizen of the country. They are equally free to hope that federalism, secularism and inclusion can be done away with the help of a staged referendum. Plebiscites, however, often open up issues long considered to be sacrosanct. Theoretically, no country remains indivisible if a section of the population decides to fight it out for independence. Referendum works only when broad consensus over the framework of options has been institutionalized through constitutional practices. Nepal doesn’t even have a proper republican constitution. The illusion of understanding, however, appears so convincing that even intelligent people are elated with a sense of delusory empowerment.
Media maelstrom
In traditional societies, reading implied recitation of sacred texts. Christians learnt about life from various editions of the Bible. Muslims let mullahs interpret the Koran. Hindus have been practicing their faiths according to the teachings of gurus of various sects. In every stream of religious beliefs, there is a tendency to dismiss dissenters as heretics. In some orthodox faiths, mere charges of heresy could result in burning at the stakes. Even a writer of Salman Rushdie’s stature had to live a life of a fugitive due to the fatwa of Iranian Ayatollahs until quite recently.
Abhorrent as it may appear to the learned, blind faith simplifies the understanding of complex realities. That could be the reason religions, faiths, and ideologies attract legions of faithful, fanatics and followers. A republic is based on the idea of reason and the practice of argumentation. Human societies that learnt to prioritize articulation over swordsmanship were the first ones to stabilize.
The culture of debate, however, takes a long time to evolve. In making its journey from the decorous courts of supremely confident emperors to the cacophonous forums of 24x7 media, the culture of open deliberation had to survive catcalls of town squares, threats of raucous streets and the oppressive weight of the enforced consensus.
Just as conspirators of earlier eras sometimes managed to undermine debates through legitimate means—deceit through diversion, manufacture of arbitrary points and call to maintain harmony—the media in modern times have become effective tools of “Manufacturing Consensus” which is shorthand for extending the dominance of the existing order.
Rather than helping clarify issues, media creates dissonance of conflicting voices. In such situations, those who can shout the loudest manage to overwhelm all debates. The mainstream media has hence become the conveyer of whatever is considered to be the conventional wisdom.
The emergence of what has been called the New Media has failed to alter ground realities in any significant manner. If at all anything, the cult of anonymity has empowered the obnoxious beyond imagination. Humbug, defined as “deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes” often passes as wisdom on social networks. The Anna Actorivism in India, Harmony Rallies in Nepal and various Arab Springs have shown that Facebook and Twitter ‘revolutions’ are easier to manipulate—they lack all organizational corrective mechanism of political protests—by planting posters, harassing dissenters and promoting repeaters. The illusion of understanding that mainstream and maelstrom media create thus binds consumers into the net of existing order. The challenge often rise in the form of demagoguery, which can come from anywhere on the right or left of the political spectrum.
Lal contributes to The Week with his biweekly column Reflection. He is one of the widely read poliitical analysts in Nepal
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