Recently, I had the opportunity to watch the cult movie – The Truman show. It got me thinking about many events of my own life and how each one of us has at some point or the other succumbed to the Truman show complex – assuming his/ her life is part of a reality show which is being shot at the instruction of a master director. Now, one could go spiritual and say in way each one of our lives is a reality show at some level, but I want to address the megalomaniacs who try and arrange for their life to be a reality show that people could enjoy. According to me, these people suffer from an amazing Truman show complex
Politics and politicians have an embedded people factor associated with them. Every work they take up or every word they say is addressed to a section / sections of people whom they will target for votes. This has been the nature of politics and shall be even in time to come. One must seem like working for your interests even if via a cynical gesture. Then the 24x7 news channels arrived, and politicians and media got into cahoots to con the electorate. This is a cozy win-win relationship that each one complains of but never ends. We know there possibly cannot be enough news worthy items to feed a 24 x7 news monster so obviously the media has to create / manufacture news and politicians are willing to act as a prop to stay in news and be relevant. It could also be a telling comment on the Goldfish like short memory span of the electorate that these people wish to exploit. We as an electorate have a shocking short memory span and unless something is being barked at us all the time by “friendly media” we simply carry wrong information to the voting booths.
With this background, let me steer towards the topic at hand, Truman Show complex. Apparently, having the media run their sound bites in endless loops just does not give our politicians enough TV exposure. Politicians are, at an alarming rate, trying to arrange for media to cover their private moments and portions of their private life to remain in the news. They are vying with celebrities to make a “reality show” of their private life. One can understand why celebrities leak private videos or pictures in unflattering poses – “any publicity is good publicity” right? Remember, when you first watched Big brother or other such reality shows you wondered while rolling your eyes –“Who in their right minds would sign up for such invasion of privacy?”. Over a period of time, we got hooked onto it and reality shows became entertainment. People, nowadays fake laugh, cry, love, hate for the TV and ratings and guess what, we as viewers love it anyways, despite knowing it is violating the basic trust between an audience and the actor. The media has successfully steered us as audience towards being more inquisitive, snoopy and seeking cheap thrills with voyeurism.
Indian politicians, not to be left far behind have embraced this love for voyeurism to keep the electorate enjoying the circus and forget that they don’t have a job at hand or food to fill their stomach. The present Government is a master at this task with the PM having a great track record of avoiding every possible question and instead allowing the media to spin around like an empty bottle and when the bottle stops it points to a rehearsed / pre planned media extravaganza which takes up the news cycle for a few days and we forgot the important questions that need to be asked. Whenever there is a sticky situation developing that might get the PM bad press, the PM steers the media to a circus of personal photos or choreographed media events and the media laps it up lock stock and barrel and forgets to report on the issues pertaining to the people. Consequently, we are all lulled into a slumber with a fake satisfaction of “all is well”. The PM has had this media policy even when he was the CM of a state and the media is well aware of it. They are willful participants in this shenanigan to make a fool of the electorate. The media gets its ad spots and the PM gets his free press coverage without having to ever answer a tough question.
Freedom of speech is tricky, it derived from the ability of media to ask tough questions to the Government on behalf of the governed and be the conscience keeper. With media selling out so cheap, we must be worried of the day when we need to be informed of an impending problem and the media is busy covering PM’s birthday celebrations or one of the many such choreographed media events. As Indians, we are all part of this reality show which is being choreographed by the people at the top and so far everybody is acting to the cue. This all works on a thin edged balance as we saw in the movie “The Truman show”, one actor missing the cue can topple the apple-cart. For the sake of India, I hope this happens sooner than later.
So long…
Politics and politicians have an embedded people factor associated with them. Every work they take up or every word they say is addressed to a section / sections of people whom they will target for votes. This has been the nature of politics and shall be even in time to come. One must seem like working for your interests even if via a cynical gesture. Then the 24x7 news channels arrived, and politicians and media got into cahoots to con the electorate. This is a cozy win-win relationship that each one complains of but never ends. We know there possibly cannot be enough news worthy items to feed a 24 x7 news monster so obviously the media has to create / manufacture news and politicians are willing to act as a prop to stay in news and be relevant. It could also be a telling comment on the Goldfish like short memory span of the electorate that these people wish to exploit. We as an electorate have a shocking short memory span and unless something is being barked at us all the time by “friendly media” we simply carry wrong information to the voting booths.
With this background, let me steer towards the topic at hand, Truman Show complex. Apparently, having the media run their sound bites in endless loops just does not give our politicians enough TV exposure. Politicians are, at an alarming rate, trying to arrange for media to cover their private moments and portions of their private life to remain in the news. They are vying with celebrities to make a “reality show” of their private life. One can understand why celebrities leak private videos or pictures in unflattering poses – “any publicity is good publicity” right? Remember, when you first watched Big brother or other such reality shows you wondered while rolling your eyes –“Who in their right minds would sign up for such invasion of privacy?”. Over a period of time, we got hooked onto it and reality shows became entertainment. People, nowadays fake laugh, cry, love, hate for the TV and ratings and guess what, we as viewers love it anyways, despite knowing it is violating the basic trust between an audience and the actor. The media has successfully steered us as audience towards being more inquisitive, snoopy and seeking cheap thrills with voyeurism.
Indian politicians, not to be left far behind have embraced this love for voyeurism to keep the electorate enjoying the circus and forget that they don’t have a job at hand or food to fill their stomach. The present Government is a master at this task with the PM having a great track record of avoiding every possible question and instead allowing the media to spin around like an empty bottle and when the bottle stops it points to a rehearsed / pre planned media extravaganza which takes up the news cycle for a few days and we forgot the important questions that need to be asked. Whenever there is a sticky situation developing that might get the PM bad press, the PM steers the media to a circus of personal photos or choreographed media events and the media laps it up lock stock and barrel and forgets to report on the issues pertaining to the people. Consequently, we are all lulled into a slumber with a fake satisfaction of “all is well”. The PM has had this media policy even when he was the CM of a state and the media is well aware of it. They are willful participants in this shenanigan to make a fool of the electorate. The media gets its ad spots and the PM gets his free press coverage without having to ever answer a tough question.
Freedom of speech is tricky, it derived from the ability of media to ask tough questions to the Government on behalf of the governed and be the conscience keeper. With media selling out so cheap, we must be worried of the day when we need to be informed of an impending problem and the media is busy covering PM’s birthday celebrations or one of the many such choreographed media events. As Indians, we are all part of this reality show which is being choreographed by the people at the top and so far everybody is acting to the cue. This all works on a thin edged balance as we saw in the movie “The Truman show”, one actor missing the cue can topple the apple-cart. For the sake of India, I hope this happens sooner than later.
So long…
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