Amusing ourselves to death

Seeing the state of the media today, one is reminded of the author, the late Neil Postman, and the book that he is most remembered for, Amusing ourselves to death. A professor of more than 40 years standing at New York University, Postman’s arguments about a media-obsessed/controlled future were then considered bleak by some but can only be termed prescient now. Where Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message,” Postman went on to argue that “the medium is the metaphor.”

For someone who stopped watching Indian television news channels once NDTV decided to go nationalistic, the international news channels offered temporary relief. Russia’s attack on Ukraine came, and the BBC, CNN, and other Western media channels went overboard to show the cruelty of Russia. The recent death of Navalny in a Russian prison was also the cause of much speculation and coverage by the very same channels.

But when it came to the attack on Gaza and the criticism of Israel for human rights’ violations in attacking Palestinian civilians, suddenly the BBC and CNN were in competition with India’s Godi Media in cushioning the actions of Western powers in their support of Israel. The only channel that one could then look to for some fair reporting was Al Jazeera, but even here, Israel intervened by attacking and killing their journalists and wreaking vengeance on their families. If the good professor were alive today, I wonder if he would be writing another book saying, Amusing ourselves with Death, considering how death has been normalised with the daily coverage of disasters. Very likely so. As I was standing in a queue to watch a gripping film on the Arab-Israeli conflict, I had someone suggest that I skip this commercial film that shows the “same old” border conflicts. 

But sometimes, it can indeed be amusing to watch India’s nationalistic channels that are outdoing themselves in revealing their patriotism by supporting all the actions of a certain party that once spoke of ethics in governance. “Na khaoonga, na khane doonga” might now have to be reworked to “desh ke sab dalon ko khaloonga aur ek majboot opposition mukth desh banaoonga.” Woe be to all who support the idea of a democracy without opposition, where one will have to follow the diktats of one party with no one to speak on your behalf in Parliament. Opposition voices are already being choked even today, but wait till we reach the state of Russia or China, where people are enjoying the privileges of one-party rule, with all their actions and voices censored and all dissident voices thrown into prison, or even worse.

Understandably, Godi Media is outdoing itself with the propaganda to ensure more propaganda material comes its way in the form of advertisements. With the 2024 Lok Sabha poll dates announced, the advertisements can certainly provide some amusement. Tuning in late, I was surprised to learn that the advertisement that just looked like heaven on earth was for UP, where corpses were found floating in rivers and buried in the sand and people were gasping for oxygen cylinders and beds during Covid 19. I guess it doesn’t matter to people, as long as the houses of undesirables can be bulldozed while forgetting the old Hindi adage “sabka number aayega” (everyone’s turn will come).

Another unusual advertisement was from the mouths of babies. The creative director certainly needs a pat on the back for the originality of using children to convey a message. In turn, each one of them appears on the scene to speak about how great their mothers are and how much they are able to do for their families. Just when I begin to think that this is such a wonderful message, with another Women’s Day just celebrated, comes the punchline with all the children saying that their mothers are able to do what they do because they have the PM’s backing with all the guarantees.

I feel something surreal is happening here. During India’s Golden Age, before all the invasions ruined us and our sense of pride in our heritage, the Manusmriti spoke about the woman having to be under the care of her father, then her husband, and then her son for her wellbeing. Are we going to see a Manusmriti reloaded with the responsibility shifted to someone more powerful than a father, husband, or son? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, we can continue amusing ourselves to death. 

(The author is an independent writer)