I
wonder where are all the Iam Anna’s are that went out to revolutionise
democracy overnight through Facebook and twitter. Anna Hazare was the closest
thing to a revolution our generation was witness to, which started out as an apolitical
movement fighting corruption, went on to demand legislation for multiple
causes, broke up to form political parties and in the end all that remained was
the unending messages we keep receiving at odd times to assemble at locations
to fight for their vested interests.
Facebook activism is so short-lived, a new issue comes up the old one dies down
silently. You have the false feeling of having voiced your thoughts and
contributed to a cause with a few clicks and fewer words. A few weeks ago my Facebook
wall was flooded with support for Palestinian’s and criticism towards the
inhuman aggression happening in Gaza, now I wonder where it all disappeared.
Iam pretty sure the lives of Palestinians haven’t had any marked difference nor
has Israel adopted more peaceful ways, but my friend who called for
retaliation is no more interested in the cause or does not have a clue what is
happening out there anymore!
I agree that what happened to the
young lady on the bus was gruesome, and your concerns and feelings towards it are
from the deepest of your hearts. But what I don’t understand is whether
clicking likes, sharing photos and expressing distress through Facebook posts
would help the cause. Then you would ask me, "should we stay silent to
such inhuman crimes?", "what if someone you know, or someone close to
you have to go through such a thing?"," Is it by remaining silent
that I should express my grief?” I agree, we can’t be serial activists, we can’t
fight all the injustice in the world, and we can’t express solidarity against
all that is going wrong out there. There are people who have spend a
lifetime fighting for a cause, spending time on the ground, raising
awareness, consolidating opinion, pushing for legislation, fighting causes in
courts, filing RTI's to expose wrong doings, filing Public interest litigation,
etc.- This my friend is true activism, if you are really distressed with what
happened, then start an NGO that gives support to rape victims, volunteer for
an existing NGO, if you can’t spare time donate money to such organisation that
does good deeds in your area of concern. Organise a donation drive, a charity
dinner, get together your friends and make a plan to get involved. It would be
much more gratifying then clicking away and sitting and ridiculing the society
and the system.
Facebook
is a threat to civic participation and social activism, as none of us take an
initiative or support in actual action on the field any more. We all are left
with a false sense of relief when we express our voice on a social network
Facebook has become a version of spam mail we
all blocked years back, spreading conspiracies, promising to pay money for each
share, religious propaganda etc. It is much worse than spam mails; I could
block those mails easily. Yes I could block these too, but then I end up
offending a dear friend or get branded as cold hearted, anti-religious, anti-Semitic
or something even worse. I am not interested in another man’s faith, and
neither would I force anyone to understand why my god is better. These things
are meant to be personal, and should remain so in the absolute sense. It is
disturbing to see how religion is becoming a moving force in strengthening friendships
and polarising certain others. Please keep me out of random photographs of
clouds, trees etc. Arranged like names of gods, posts which demand to be
shared unless I am willing to invite wrath of god upon me, patients on hospital
beds demanding to be liked to be rewarded money from websites and companies
etc. As far as I know iam sane, iam secular, nationalistic and patriotic
to a great extent and don’t want to be certified by a social network for any of
these.
I do
not intend to preach, but if you are seriously interested in getting involved
may be try being part of any of these organisations listed below. All you
need is Google, to search for NGO's like these and iam sure there are more out
there than what I have listed.
tc
