Malayali has always prided himself for his enlightened culture, tolerance, and sense of fairness.
Not always implemented of course. But on the whole, commonsense prevail. Fingers crossed.
So I am hoping tht we will wake up from this stupor too.
I am talking about our social media activities. The posting and the sharing of events and incidents that happen around the world. Informative, funny, many of those do expand our horizons, grant us exposure to a whole new world, a world which was so remote, so alien to us once upon a time. So what there are too many fake stuff among them all? In the end, we hope the good will outweigh the bad. Because I do believe in the enormous power of this awesome and awful machine to educate, to awaken and to democratize us. And it is all so easy to access too! Even those who till the other day looked down on modernity, on art, music and literature, people who were literate but were afraid of imagination and creativity and just plain humor, are all on a sudden clicking away to glory! Of course, many of those same folks in between were hit by a tremendous surge of guilt and fear too. Are we supposed to have fun with this? Are we supposed to be happy? Or free? Isnt that sinful?
And sure enough there are those cunning dividers lurking around who will now make sure that people don't get too cozy or too friendly, aren't there? They have to take back control, the power. Not too much of the democratization. So then comes the religious and political sharings and postings and so on.
Enough with the preamble. What made me write this right now is a post that I did not see. A post that was, thankfully, not shared with me. There have been other posts like this. But this one is too close to home. A person related to me, distantly, but since we all live not that far apart back home, he is someone we know really well. I remember him even though I have not seen him in a long time. It is from my mother that I learn that he had taught me a little when I was very young. And that is why she let me know of his passing away. It was a shock to her as he was younger than her, and the manner of death was sudden and obviously, tragic. He was on his way to a visit to his doctor along with his brother in law. Both lost their lives in a horrible traffic accident. Very sad, a great loss, especially to his family. But what was disturbing was that someone recorded the accident, including images of the person lying dead, with his clothes in disarray, you can imagine the rest. And he posted it on social media. When I listened to this, I was taken aback by the total lack of respect for the dead man, for his family, for the dignity of a human life. This did not happen in a big city. Actually it happened not far from his home. It is a small place where eveyone knows everyone. I know this is common now all over the world. Newspapers and tabloids have done this all along and now the internet is full of these kinds of news. Well, that is how our attention is captured by the media to events that should shock us. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression in full active mode. For good, for bad, for fun, for a whim.
But this is on a kind of personal level, a first for me.I can't imagine what goes on in the minds of those who relish posts like this. Just because something is easy to do, just a click, it doesn't mean you have to do it. These kind of posts do not add to our knowledge or understanding of the world or of our fellow human beings. It does not make us look smarter or more worldly wise, nor does it help advance the frontiers of human civilization. But still many dismiss basic human sensitivities and record such private, intimate events, and post, and others fall into the trap of "sharing". Of course many do it for the money. How easy has it become to feel that we are important , intelligent and aware of what is happening around us through a little click! Because that is what all the sharing means in the end.
But what was even more shocking and disgusting and shameful was the fact this post was shared by my own relatives. Why? Maybe they have convinced themselves that they are doing this to share the pain, to understand the awful tragedy, or is it a scare tactic on someone's part? Showing others that this is what happens to all in the end? As if no one knows that already! Or is it plain meanness or just plain ignorance?Maybe I am wrong to feel this anger and sadness and shame? Maybe this is the norm? I don't know, all I know is that there should be some line which we shouldn't cross. Some boundary that we need to keep. That there should be respect, and the knowledge that some acions are inappropriate, improper. To me, this is disaster porn. A callous disregard for the feelings of others.
Would be great if we shared our love, not inflict pain and insult on others. At least be aware that this is not an alien, isolated being who lies dead there. To remember that he is someone's son, father, husband, brother, someone's relative, friend ... Would be nice if we stopped and thought about it a bit before posting or sharing something like this. And that goes for me too. Malayalis can do better than this, we don't have to copy the bad stuff from around the world, there are plenty of good stuff that we can copy, that we can aspire to.
And I record my regret and sadness that this person's family have been subjected to this cruelty, this indignity, in their time of loss and sorrow.
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