2 Minutes of Hate

Out of the dystopian fiction, 1984, written by George Orwell the phrase "2 Minutes Hate" represented the time at which the telescreens across the state, he names Oceania, runs two minute of content that is aimed at charging their public against a character named Emmanuel Goldstein and other states (Eurasia and Eastasia). During the two minutes of hate all the people are required to openly express their hatred towards Goldstein, his followers and his idea at large. Orwell states the two minutes of hate as follows:

"The next moment a hideous, grinding speech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil, burst from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a noise that set one's teeth on the edge and bristled the hair at the back of one's neck. The hate had started. As usual the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the enemy of people, had flashed on the screen... He was the primal traitor... Goldstein was delivering his usual venomous attack upon the doctrines of the party. He was abusing big brother, he was denouncing the dictatorship of the party, he was demanding the immediate conclusion of peace with Eurasia, he was advocating freedom speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought, he was crying hysterically that the revolution had been betrayed... And all the while, lest one should be in any doubt as to the reality which Goldstein's specious claptrap covered, behind his head on the telescreen marched the endless columns of Eurasian army... in its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the top of their voices...The horrible thing about Two Minute Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid jumping in, Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer seemed to flow through the whole group of people..."

These might be works of fiction but nevertheless, do share with us a picture of our society. Orwell paints a mural of a society where the ruling party is in a consent to control the present subsequently controlling the past and the future. Orwell in his world of 1984 pictured a world where telescreens were present everywhere and the public was being spied on all the time. Their conversations being heard and their acts being monitored. World we live in is little different from that. There might not be a single party trying to take control of our present and the world might not be divided into three states waging war at each other but in respect to the reality being presented to us is in much a sense manufactured. 

In Pakistan alone we have more then 30 channels who present us the two minute hate each day. We again differ here from the fiction novel that it is not all out assault but rather we are given cues of whom we are to hate or despise. Headline sessions in most part paint a picture of what has happened in the country. During this session the channels drop hints for the viewers as to who is who and what is what. Consent flow of content telling the viewers that we are at threat of foreign invasion from the east and from the west. We are fed on ideas to what paradigms are working and what wont work. Anti state elements are then and again brought forward for the public to push out their emotions against them. Once the public gets a chance to vent their anger at a painted target the public can then be subdued.

It is an act of making an active public into a passive one. Elements are presented to the masses to vent out their anger. This takes less then ten minutes as when make a post against these painted elements on facebook or instagram and not more then that. This two minute of hate is daily presented to the public. Noam Chomsky sums it up in quite the right words as "The general public doesnt know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know."

Disclaimer: The illustration for two minute hate is taken from "https://year11atstpetersrocks.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/two-minutes-hate/"

New Opium for the Masses

OPIUM OF MASSES

“Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of the soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people” wrote Karl Marx in 1884. The statement has often been interpreted as a critique of religion by only stating the last part of the complete statement. Rather the idea had been that the masses are so oppressed that the only escape they find from the pain inflicted upon them is in religion. Such is the condition of our people now. They turn towards what relieves them of the pain and suffering. Now, the masses have rather taken a liking to electronic and social media, the new “Opium of Masses” (Here, in no way do I say that religion has been replaced). The people are continuously tied in a circle of electronic consumption. This has little space for fact checking and people continuously fall in traps- conspiracy theories and blatant lies- and the lack of professional voices regarding a subject add to the troubles.

Majority of our population is illiterate and upon that uneducated, there is no longer a need for consulting multiple sources or fact checking information, rather we feel that the information coming down to us is true and in its purest form. Whatsapp forward messages, YouTube video links are all favorites of the people who don’t have time to think of anything other than how to earn. The thought of not having a stable source of income is a cruel one and the modern opium provides the escape capsule. Conspiracies regarding the working of government and unseen forces hatching plans to destabilize the country prove to be nutritious as one has an ever present target to lay blame on.

There is a lack of professional voice on digital forums. Although, professionals from various field have started to come on social media and share their side of the image with the public there is still a barrier. Their voices are still not trickling down to the masses. This is happening due to two reasons in my view. One being the use of professional language that the populace is not able to understand completely and the second being that the professional voice is outnumbered in front of the voices of conspirators. These two concerns need to be addressed urgently in order to weed out foul narratives.