Skip to main content

Post-truth and 2016


2016 is bidding adieu having gifted us ‘post-truth’ as the word of the year, thanks to the Oxford Dictionaries.  Is the concept new, however?  Haven’t emotions and personal beliefs been more influential in shaping our ‘truths’ than objective facts throughout history?  Otherwise, why did religions and their gods continue to wield such power over us perennially?  Nationalism, Jihadism, Trumpism, Modiism, and a whole range of isms would not have succeeded as they did if objective facts held sway over shaping of public opinions.

‘Post-truth’ is just a euphemism for falsehood, deception, chicanery and all the lies that have dominated politics and human affairs from time immemorial.  There’s nothing new about it except that it’s a new word.  Only the word is new, not the concept, not the implications.

Throughout history political leaders used various tricks to deceive their people.  We have words like Machiavellian and Goebbelsian which came from real people who used inhuman strategies for suppressing if not eliminating whole sections of people.  India has its own historical Chanakya.  They were all masters of post-truths. 


The electoral victory of Donald Trump and the triumphal march of Narendra Modi, along with Brexit and the imminent collapse of European Union as well as the ever-resounding missile attacks by god’s own warriors, indicate that 2017 is going to be hard for most people. 

In India, we will soon have two idols dedicated to the religion of post-truth, both of which will cost the nation more than Rs 3000 crore each (441,260,829 USD). Both Shivaji and B R Ambedkar, whose statues are being installed in very prominent places, were historical figures, no doubt.  But why these two and not any other?  One is a symbol of the Hindutva ideology which Mr Modi is trying to impose on the nation and the other is a palliative balm for the Dalits and the oppressed sections that will continue to suffer many atrocities as they always did.  The motive is the post-truth. 

In a country where thousands of people go to bed hungry each day, thousands of children suffer from malnutrition, thousands keep migrating to cities in search of jobs, thousands don’t have drinking water, thousands of farmers commit suicide  – in a country where people are still struggling to retain basic human dignity, statues costing thousands of crores of rupees are the post-truths.


Indian Bloggers

Comments

  1. Your viewpoint is rational but in the corridors of power who pays two hoots for logic and rationale ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know. Maybe I can make at least some people think about alternative options.

      Delete
  2. Post-truth will always remain powerful as long as human beings have feelings. Sadly, the emotions, which are necessary for being a good human being, are also the weaknesses that fall victim to all these propaganda :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The vast majority don't use their brains for thinking. That's the simple comic truth. Hence venal politicians can get away with their silly tricks.

      Delete
  3. Yes, you correctly point out that post-truth has always been there - only the word is new. Emotions have been a major instrument for hushing facts and political leaders know well how to make best use of emotions- the year begins on an uncertain note. Only time will tell what happens next.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The new year gift is a rise in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas. The currency crisis is set to burgeon. It's not at all a promising beginning.

      Delete
  4. Whole house water filters - Shop best quality filters in the US. We are providng whole house water filter, softener and water conditioners at Best Prices.
    Providing the Best range with best Quality of whole house water filter, KDF MediaGuard, Reverse Osmosis Water Filter, Color Changing Resin Deionization in latest Design with Latest Technolgy at your door on reasonable prices in the US.

    For more information you can check it out here : http://titanwaterpro.3dcartstores.com/Whole-House-Water-Filter-Water-Softener-Conditioner_c_20.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Big Blue Water Filter - Shop Best Quality Big Blue Water Filter System, Micro Sediments, Big Blue Housing Filter at Reasonalbe Prices in Los Angeles, US.

    Providing Purify, Fresh, Hygenic water through our best quality with latest technology used Big Blue Water Filter, Dual Big Blue Housing Filter System, Mico Filter, Sediments,Filter Cartridge in Los Angeles, US.

    For more info you can check it out here : http://titanwaterpro.3dcartstores.com/Big-Blue-Water-Filter-_c_13.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nurse Practitioner Liability - Np Error includes Failure to provide oversight, Breach of Contract, Patient is harmed, Harm is Foreseeable in New Jersey, US.

    According to Recent Case Law Physician had a duty of care to the patient of an NP, even through the Physician never saw or evaluated the patient and the Facts are Dr. had a Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) with NP, who owned her medical practice.

    For more info about Nurse Practitioner Liability you can check it out here : http://www.medzel.com/service/nurse-practitioner-liability-new-jersey-us/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Final Farewell

Book Review “ Death ends life, not a relationship ,” as Mitch Albom put it. That is why, we have so many rituals associated with death. Minakshi Dewan’s book, The Final Farewell [HarperCollins, 2023], is a well-researched book about those rituals. The book starts with an elaborate description of the Sikh rituals associated with death and cremation, before moving on to Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and finally Hinduism. After that, it’s all about the various traditions and related details of Hindu final rites. A few chapters are dedicated to the problems of widows in India, gender discrimination in the last rites, and the problem of unclaimed dead bodies. There is a chapter titled ‘Grieving Widows in Hindi Cinema’ too. Death and its rituals form an unusual theme for a book. Frankly, I don’t find the topic stimulating in any way. Obviously, I didn’t buy this book. It came to me as quite many other books do – for reasons of their own. I read the book finally, having shelv

The Second Crucifixion

  ‘The Second Crucifixion’ is the title of the last chapter of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s magnum opus Freedom at Midnight . The sub-heading is: ‘New Delhi, 30 January 1948’. Seventy-three years ago, on that day, a great soul was shot dead by a man who was driven by the darkness of hatred. Gandhi has just completed his usual prayer session. He had recited a prayer from the Gita:                         For certain is death for the born                         and certain is birth for the dead;                         Therefore over the inevitable                         Thou shalt not grieve . At that time Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare were moving to Retiring Room Number 6 at the Old Delhi railway station. They walked like thieves not wishing to be noticed by anyone. The early morning’s winter fog of Delhi gave them the required wrap. They found Nathuram Godse already awake in the retiring room. The three of them sat together and finalised the plot against Gand

Vultures and Religion

When vultures become extinct, why should a religion face a threat? “When the vultures died off, they stopped eating the bodies of Zoroastrians…” I was amused as I went on reading the book The Final Farewell by Minakshi Dewan. The book is about how the dead are dealt with by people of different religious persuasions. Dead people are quite useless, unless you love euphemism. Or, as they say, dead people tell no tales. In the end, we are all just stories made by people like the religious woman who wrote the epitaph for her atheist husband: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.” Zoroastrianism is a religion which converts death into a sordid tale by throwing the corpses of its believers to vultures. Death makes one impure, according to that religion. Well, I always thought, and still do, that life makes one impure. I have the support of Lord Buddha on that. Life is dukkha , said the Enlightened. That is, suffering, dissatisfaction and unease. Death is liberation

Cats and Love

No less a psychologist than Freud said that the “time spent with cats is never wasted.” I find time to spend with cats precisely for that reason. They are not easy to love, particularly if they are the country variety which are not quite tameable, and mine are those. What makes my love affair with my cats special is precisely their unwillingness to befriend me. They’d rather be in their own company. “In ancient time, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this,” Terry Pratchett says. My cats haven’t, I’m sure. Pratchett knew what he was speaking about because he loved cats which appear frequently in his works. Pratchett’s cats love independence, very unlike dogs. Dogs come when you call them; cats take a message and get back to you as and when they please. I don’t have dogs. But my brother’s dogs visit us – Maggie and me – every evening. We give them something to eat and they love that. They spend time with us after eating. My cats just go away without even a look af