CIVIL/UNCIVIL

I write more to assuage my frustration and angst than to create a narrative which aims at bringing to the fore, the degeneration of the civic discourse in the country, as it obtains, be it the social media, the electronic media, the polity and the political rhetoric; conversations- be they between the known, and /or the unknown; common sense/logic/civil niceties have been stood on their head.

Expression of ideas in the electronic space, the print and /or elsewhere has taken a mind of its own. Vitriol/vituperation/denigration; et al is there in the ether. 

I am not sure how it works, but having spent a greater part of my life in uniform, it is my belief that one leads by example and more often than not, one is led by example too. Exposure to the elements is all pervasive and the availability of the written/spoken/the vivid picturisation of events as they unfold, weaves a constant spell, as it were, on the brain and the attack on the sensory organs is ceaseless. Where does one escape/ repair to a modicum of quietude and introspection from this constant attack. What effect does this constant irradiation of malevolence have on the human psyche? Addiction leads to a constant requirement of gratification and the overload leads to the garbling of the logical thought process.

I do believe that role models, of any strata/denomination are available for the taking; I refer to the ease with which one can choose between a “Hitler” on the one extreme of the spectrum and someone like Swami Vivekanand, (to cite two examples) on the other, and between these two there exist various shades.

They say that in life there is no black/white, but only shades of grey, and contingent upon your particular predilection, you are free to choose your direction. This is quite obviously true for the times we live in and nothing seems to find more traction than the ‘debates’ we are exposed to every hour of the day; where one side blames the other of wrong doing and the other side replies by delving into the murky past of the accuser, thereby ostensibly conveying that they are lesser “grey” than the other.

I am also pained to hear that the Rubicon has been crossed and that invective/vituperation has openly become part of the lexicon of the hallowed precincts of the ‘House of the People’, which had been a place of logical debate and the stronger argument never failed to win. Apparently when logic and propriety and reason and ratiocination go missing then the vacuum is filled with impropriety/incoherence. Is this where we are headed? I shudder to contemplate the future.