Every year Independence Day brings me to my table to take a pause and pen down scrimmage of thoughts and reality, dreams and veracity. All this started during my college years & continues till today, the written pieces have not yet lost its relevance, calling for conscious decision to stand up is yet to be fulfilled.
Our freedom fighters made a conscious decision to stand up to colonialists that threatened their freedom. Unlike our freedom fighters, we have a say in who will be running our government. So theoretically, we have the freedom and a lot to rejoice.
In these complex times, a simple question about the quintessential holiday, flag hoisting, malls and shopping, tri-color dresses and accessories isn’t so simple.
For some sense of patriotism means flashing the best tricolor dresses, tattoos on social media, celebration, a long weekend or just another holiday. For most, it seems yet another day.
Why for good number of social issues roiling the country doesn’t weigh heavy this Independence Day? Why our freedom doesn’t have conscious decisions to stand up & fight for the very basic life necessities? Good health facilities, unadulterated food, equitable education, public transport systems and above all asking question to those who are accountable for the assigned duties.
Besides, diminishing line between real and virtual world, the fast-changing digital world and ignorance about cyber media, social media trolling and bullying has added ordeal of different nature.
Why there is no conscious decision to stand up to for the cyber etiquettes?
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The digital media is supposed to have many benefits but now it seems to have downsides running wild like an untamed animal. The filter bubbles, algorithms are used for propaganda news, views, and opinions to make belief something that is distorting reality. This is leading to gradual doom of dissenting or heterogeneous point of views. As the World Economic Forum reported “ By selecting what information reaches which users, digital media can alter human decisions and pose risks to civil society”
Do you think WhatsApp messages, which are reaching villages, towns, cities to millions and billion people of this country, are set-up to educate us correctly? They are all set up to condition us to live based on fabrications and adverting us for vested interests whether it is an ideology, marketing, distortion of reality, influencing public opinion, harmful intentions to spread propaganda and to mobilise followers.
“Ability to respectfully debate the toughest issues of the day – to disagree without being disagreeable- seems hopelessly lost.”
Why no conscious decision to stand up to embrace openness to heterogeneous views and respectfully disagree?
I cannot conclude without talking about the education system of our country. Our education system has been divided into camps “for haves and for have not”, yes it inequitable. For long, we have been discussing about equal education opportunity, some try to confuse it with two different views – equality of input school resources and equality of schools outcome. The issue cannot be laid to rest by fixing one and leaving others. Is it enough on the part of the government to fix it by bringing Right to Education Act?
The ever-dwindling state of government schools is well known to all, the burden of basic education in the country is at the highest level since independence. Equality of educational opportunities can never be achieved when public schools are unable to provide neither equality of input school resources nor equality of schools outcome and government-run higher education institutions shrinking fast in numbers besides becoming sick with politico interests of quota and reservations. The strength of every nation lies in its education system.
“So why no conscious decisions to stand up for equal education opportunity?”
In a closing thought, we are now being conditioned to “do not raise questions,” if by chance you ??are conscious then pretending ignorance like the mute audience is the best practice. Think consciously what are you leaving for your future generations and what kind of nation you are building for yourself for the next decade.?
References: World Economic Forum Report- Human Implications Of Digital Media- 2016
