THE REPUBLIC OF PRETENCES AND ITS DEMOCRATIC RHETORIC

SOME amount of pretences and wishful claims are inherent in democratic rhetoric. Without special effort or training, citizens master the art of discounting such optics and sound bites to grasp the truth behind the cleverly orchestrated encore. But that faculty works only up to a point. Once the barrage of words and visuals goes beyond the tipping point, public rationality fails to cope with this assault of untruths and pretences.

- K JAYAKUMAR

Two consequences follow when the general public unquestioningly takes in the unceasing avalanche of pseudo-narratives. One is the loss of the critical evaluation faculty in society. Second is the unchallenged (or feebly challenged) acceptance and entrenchment of falsehoods as truth. Both these consequences are equally harmful and debilitating. By subverting the critical faculty of people, it weakens the sinews of a democratic polity. With the questioning faculty lost, what survives will be a pallid version of democracy.

Our country has been witnessing this spectacle of pretences on an unnatural scale for the past few years. With a hyperactive social media and an admittedly obsequious fourth estate, public space witnesses a continuous free masquerade of untruths and illusory claims of grandeur. Not only the government at the Centre but almost all state governments, regardless of political differences, are increasingly resorting to this post-truth pageantry of pretences. The most important marker of this malady is the eagerness to convert every activityif it is normal into a spectacle with claims of uniqueness.