Icons with flesh and blood human body are not able to inspire as before? Two decades ago there were not so many motivational speakers. Children may have chosen their idols and icons by reading books or watching a few biopics. Now taking the gadget in hand is the fountain of motivation.
Sometimes when you ask children, what do they want to be when they grow up, some of them answer quietly for a while, they don’t want to be anything. But some of those children wanted to be scientists, some wanted to be travel vloggers. A child at this age is also seeking to change his preconceived notions. What utter indifference in our modern times. Isn’t that worrying?
Srijit Mukherjee’s movie ‘Gumnami Baba’. There is a part in the biopic on Subhash Chandra Bose, about Subhash Bose’s death. It is said that if the funerals of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath are not well documented, the lack of icons in the burnt country, it is still thought that Subhash will come back and take charge of the country.
Our life now consists of both physical and social media. A veiled life of pomp and show, a life of concealment and suppression. Our words or writings on social media are thoughtless empty exuberance. A non-stop procession of likes and reactions.
Does the excitement we show on social media represent me? How is everything? Shahrukh Khan said in an interview, this generation is emotional (not emotional). Detached and emotional, Deemotional combined with detached and emotional.
The language we use has lost its meaning and the words are now empty noises. Our words and sentences are rooted in them. Our thoughts and language are not the same. Our intellectual inclinations, our thought processes are pathless. And Elon Musk and Zuckerberg have capitalized on our perverted and weak intelligence.
The whole world is in the abyss of needless unnecessary consumption. Five times as much money is spent on treating Alzheimer’s disease as it is on improving sexual arousal in men and breast enhancement in women. Latin thinker Eduardo Galliano predicted that within five years there would be plenty of men with huge breasts and erect penises, but the trouble is, they won’t be able to remember what to do with them. Precursors to thoughts that the children of those successors may wish to grow up to be nothing.
The rise of liberalism has resulted in neoliberalism. This so-called ‘neo-liberalism’ has not only weakened the traditional institutional structures and concentrated power to certain classes, but also compromised the sovereignty of many countries, influenced independent political-economic decision-making, division of labor, changed people’s way of life, social bonds, thought patterns and family structures etc. The field has had a wide impact.
In fact, it is not limited to the financial affairs of the people, its omnipresence has changed all the affairs of the society. Sociologists point to the resurgence of poverty, epidemics of loneliness, climate change, loss of social capital, and even the rise of populism in countries as a result of the crisis of neoliberalism.
There has come a time when the head of law and order or the top bureaucrats down to the lowest levels have been corrupted by capitalism. The people who trust the economy and the elite few capitalists who are supposed to be the defenders of the perverse and illegal efforts to increase their wealth are now the best friends of the crooks. Although everyone admits the wrongdoing of the attempt, it has raised this perverse, unjust and vile enterprise to the level of economic artifice and the policy is being openly pursued with complete confidence in the national interest.
Decades ago, the South Korean government encouraged and incentivized tech corporates like Samsung, LG to industrialize in the country. Our government is also encouraging some companies. But our differences with the government policies of South Korea and war-torn Japan are stark. There it was structured, and here it was downright sinister. Government or private financial institutions open doors for them. The closed door suddenly opened with a tactful knock. On the other hand, if the loan installments of only one thousand rupees are irregular, the poor people of the village have to lose their current cows and tins of rice.
Exploitation takes many forms. Althusser talks about using ideology as an effective method to keep the exploitation machinery going. Its name is ‘Ideological State Apparatus’, which in Bengali is called ‘Ideological State Technology or Structure’. These technologies or structures teach people to accept exploitation without any visible violence. Ideological state structures include our social institutions, schools, media, and the family. Althusser believes that these structures work to make the individual subordinate to the ruling class. It is better to want nothing than to become Aziz-Benazir-Ashaduzzaman-Matiur-Mahmood Faisal without children getting icons due to these lawlessness. Since Shubhodha’s funeral has been completed.
