It is hard for hundred men to lift a mountain, but entrusting the task to a group of five to do it in their stead is harder to comprehend. The Five should proceed to survey the foot of the mountain. This process of surveying will take more than a year, and so everyone will forget the very necessity of lifting the mountain, even the very existence of the mountain itself. The blame game will surface, and hence an infinite regress. It all began with the act of entrusting. But, is the entrusting a spontaneous one, or is it a result of some kind of persuasion? When you persuade people to believe in you, you inculcate many things that does not belongs to you. While mastering the art of persuasion, people usually metamorphosed into something else; a full deviation from the original self. This mimesis has led people and their decision into a mimetic one. They are truly confused whether certain decision is being taken by the true self, or by the imitated self. Now decisions become disastrous, and the after-shock of it directly or indirectly affect the very harmony of the nature.
The easiest path to persuasion, is to identify the current issue that has been troubling the masses, and then put your hand in it. In this current trend of AI, if human intelligence becomes artificial, then we are speechless. Because the masses are receptive in nature and they allow the hand to take its entrance. The masses never realise that this hand does not belong to the Saviour, but its sole purpose is to molest the masses. The more astonishing part is the fact that this process continues in a circular process, eternally repeating in history. This sinister act of persuasion is somehow killing the original humanity.
That being said, the question is, why is it constantly repeating in certain societies? Are we not equipped enough so that we can reason ourselves out of it unharmed? We always believe that we are well equipped, but somehow, we are distracted by the narcissistic elements that lies deep within us. Marx interprets this narcissism as being caused by the capitalism. But another interpretation still persists. We say that it is a result of stupidity manifested in the form of competition, race, etc. a reminiscence of the colonial history. When one is blinded by the adrenaline rush of winning the race, of defeating the one by the other, man has no time and space to comprehend something that transcend the very nature of their hot and running situation. When such is the situation, man born with talents to become the next Lincoln, end up in an office chamber, in between one of the tables holding the ninety-ninth position in the hierarchy.
When that is the case, some one, who was born as a clown, take up the responsibility, and derailed the whole structure. The ‘clown’ here must not be misconstrued as the artist. What is implied here is the undeserving mindset that operate where it should not be. Again, this derailing process is another instance of an unwanted regress. What is expected out of this derailing is not something new, but the re-creation of the same clowns as heir to the present one.
Thus, molested society becomes the harbinger of gold and silver; that is being used to decorate toilets and bathrooms. Selfies are being taken, and posted on social media, while sitting on a potty, proving that defecation is as significant as winning a war. These days, medical stores sell more laxatives than vitamins, more sedatives than analgesics. Hence anything that speaks about society, culture, ethics, responsibility, will, etc. becomes so bored, and blind that it becomes easier to pass it to someone, while completely denigrating the gravity of the situation. Thus, we end up crowning the illegitimate person as the King, all because we don’t have enough time and space to think and make a man of ourselves.
The writer is Assistant Professor, Imphal College
