With an (almost) endless amount of time at my disposal, I spent most of the lockdown watching the news. This seemingly was a national trend, with the Broadcast Audience Research Council reporting the doubling of TV news viewership numbers - channels like DD National had reported 26 times their pre-lockdown viewership!
It did seem like the whole world had become more conscious of social problems - almost as if the disruption of our everyday schedule had awakened us out of the autopilot mode that we run ourselves on. This, coupled with social media acting as a global megaphone, made people - no matter where they were - aware of social issues that were happening across the world; the power of information at the swipe of a finger.
The sheer bombardment of information from Instagram stories, WhatsApp statuses, and Twitter feeds has eventually led to people becoming numb to such events.
Albeit it might seem that becoming numb to crime in the world is the issue here, one must remember the wise words of Master Qui-Gon:-
The pandemic is probably the worst thing that has happened since the start of this century; it, however, does come with a silver lining. Overnight, it gave nearly everyone all the time in the world, as everything except essential services came to a stop. And this, I feel, was the pivotal factor that finally gave people the time to pay attention to things happening around them. It is not to say that people were unaware of social issues before the lockdown; as the crimes kept happening, we kept living our ignorant lives.
It is time for us to don our tinfoil hats and ask ourselves - what if this was intentional? No, I am not talking about the pandemic being human-engineered - not now, anyway. That is a discussion best left for another time.
What if it was easier for the corporations that are the bigger fish, to “manage” us by occupying all our time with mundane repetitive tasks? For quite some time we have all been seeing and hearing the same messages - “be more productive”, “be efficient”, “get a job”, “work hard”, and so on. But, what if all of it is just covert propaganda propagated by our corporate overlords? It is simple math, isn’t it? The more “productive” people are, the more money they make to line their pockets; with the added benefit being that those who work have their minds occupied are unable to even think of this question.
It would not be the first time that the general population has been targeted by such propaganda. The best example that I can provide is an individual’s carbon footprint. Instead of taking the blame for all the oil they pump out, oil companies start sponsoring ads and studies that effectively hold us - the average person - responsible for the ongoing climate crisis. When it takes a hundred companies to be responsible for 70% of the world’s global emissions, how can one individual be held responsible?
Tinfoil hat or not, propaganda from companies, governments and other organizations are all around us, unbeknownst to the public. Such a situation makes me feel that we are living within the Matrix, with various levels of realities known only to a select few. And now you, the reader, have the choice to choose the pill you want.
By,
Abishek Shankar
Editor: Vikram Venkat