We are country of misled people where anything can be spread like fire in a forest. Everything from the history to economics, every correct information is manipulated to the personal gains. The blind faith of the normal citizens has been used for gain, may it religious, political or personal. It’s always been the case throughout the human history, where they were misinformed and thus manipulate them.
It’s not that I am a conspiracy persona and don’t believe in everything but I like to cross check the information which I receive before storing that into my stubborn head for future use like, writing a blog..(ha ha). But jokes apart, I always blame it to our culture, which is admired by the world, but surely has its demerits. We are not been taught to cross check and always go to our culture. In our culture we are taught to listen to our elders or so called "Wise men". They can be anyone from political leaders to someone who is friend.
It’s not that I am a conspiracy persona and don’t believe in everything but I like to cross check the information which I receive before storing that into my stubborn head for future use like, writing a blog..(ha ha). But jokes apart, I always blame it to our culture, which is admired by the world, but surely has its demerits. We are not been taught to cross check and always go to our culture. In our culture we are taught to listen to our elders or so called "Wise men". They can be anyone from political leaders to someone who is friend.
I have seen many a times where people are discussing on the topics which they remotely have any idea about. It’s not that if you don't know about any topic, you should not talk about it. But the fact is we tend to spread the misinformation unknowingly. What I want to point out is, we are a country of uneducated people plus we believe in others quite easily, this is a deadly cocktail for unrest or chaos.
I would not like to touch the history as it is full of Conspiracies and misinformation but still wants to believe in those stories. I would not rather touch it this time, may be something in the future. There are conspiracy stories which I do want to remind you.
The one which first comes to mind is of 'BLACK HOLE, END OF THE WORLD' stories, where news channels played that earth sucking video again and again. I repeatedly got the calls from home town where people were really frightened. They wanted to know about the truth about it, but even then, we have this notion of end of the world in our mythologies and we tend to believe it.
I would not like to touch the history as it is full of Conspiracies and misinformation but still wants to believe in those stories. I would not rather touch it this time, may be something in the future. There are conspiracy stories which I do want to remind you.
The one which first comes to mind is of 'BLACK HOLE, END OF THE WORLD' stories, where news channels played that earth sucking video again and again. I repeatedly got the calls from home town where people were really frightened. They wanted to know about the truth about it, but even then, we have this notion of end of the world in our mythologies and we tend to believe it.
Another one I remember is about the Swine flu. At that time I was in Pune, the place where all the action began. Everyone was afraid of a simple sneeze and think of every other person has it. That time also media did not help, in fact helped to fill people with fear, many left Pune because of that. These news channels only tried to sensationalize the news of number of dead people like it’s a counter and nothing can be done. I thought instead of increasing there TRP’s, they could have focused on the issue at hand i.e. Swine Flu.
And the last but not the least is ‘Ganpanti Idol drinking Milk'. It was way back 15 years, when the news spread that Ganesha idol has started to drink milk, even I also ran too see what exactly happened. The Ganesha Idol was really drinking the milk or it looked like. It was our blind faith in the god and to prove that it exists, we were drinking the misinformation.
Latest one is about the rumours about the attacks against the North East (NE) people. I mean, what’s wrong with us, why can't we stop to spread this. Now the blame is on ‘Pakistan’ but my question to government is why it took so many days to find out. Actually our government has been in this mode, don't know for how many years? Every time they don't find any answer, they blame Pakistan. Can't we do anything to stop it? Does it really take 10-15 days and thousands of North-East people to flee the cities?
My question to them would be, what are they doing about it? They need to stop spreading the misinformation and need to resolve this problem as soon as possible. This has to stop somewhere; we need to start using the logic about these things. I also know that in this age of technology, it is going to be more difficult to stop this. Probably because of that we need to stop for a minute to gauge the every data coming towards us.
For me the misinformation is just the escape route to all the problems. The day we start questioning to the things, why they happen? How they happen? Our mind will see everything quite clear and things won’t happen the way they are happening currently.
It was one chapter from my Marathi book about 'Mahatma Jotirao Phule' which changed my perspective about seeing things in practical way. Try yourself, judge by your logic while considering the today's issues and problems. In my view Mahatma Phule was way ahead of his time, because his thinking is still applicable and will always be applicable for future as well. If we follow his way of thinking of gauging the information we won’t spread it in the first place. At least we won’t be laughing stock in the world where people still feeding milk to idols.. Guys come on.
And the last but not the least is ‘Ganpanti Idol drinking Milk'. It was way back 15 years, when the news spread that Ganesha idol has started to drink milk, even I also ran too see what exactly happened. The Ganesha Idol was really drinking the milk or it looked like. It was our blind faith in the god and to prove that it exists, we were drinking the misinformation.
Latest one is about the rumours about the attacks against the North East (NE) people. I mean, what’s wrong with us, why can't we stop to spread this. Now the blame is on ‘Pakistan’ but my question to government is why it took so many days to find out. Actually our government has been in this mode, don't know for how many years? Every time they don't find any answer, they blame Pakistan. Can't we do anything to stop it? Does it really take 10-15 days and thousands of North-East people to flee the cities?
My question to them would be, what are they doing about it? They need to stop spreading the misinformation and need to resolve this problem as soon as possible. This has to stop somewhere; we need to start using the logic about these things. I also know that in this age of technology, it is going to be more difficult to stop this. Probably because of that we need to stop for a minute to gauge the every data coming towards us.For me the misinformation is just the escape route to all the problems. The day we start questioning to the things, why they happen? How they happen? Our mind will see everything quite clear and things won’t happen the way they are happening currently.
It was one chapter from my Marathi book about 'Mahatma Jotirao Phule' which changed my perspective about seeing things in practical way. Try yourself, judge by your logic while considering the today's issues and problems. In my view Mahatma Phule was way ahead of his time, because his thinking is still applicable and will always be applicable for future as well. If we follow his way of thinking of gauging the information we won’t spread it in the first place. At least we won’t be laughing stock in the world where people still feeding milk to idols.. Guys come on.
Rumors are spread by the people who want to believe in it. 'Soak No More'..
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