Valson Thampu

We do not know if ache din (good days) have come for quality of life in India. But we do know that ache din have come for slanted propaganda and manufactured public opinion. So, it behoves us to reflect, briefly and tentatively, on this pressing reality.
The simplest definition of public opinion is that it is any opinion other than your own opinion. It is borrowed opinion, which you are obliged to harbour and parrot as your own. As of now, public opinion is the largest and deadliest commodity of public consumption. We matter today only as consumers of public opinion. The oddity of this is glossed over in this era of compulsive consumerism. You are worthless, if you don’t consume the latest in the market; especially the market of media propaganda that passes for journalism.
This massified consumption of propaganda in ever-increasing bulks need not have bothered us, but for the fact that people are today willing to hate and spite each other impelled by the opinions they are made to hold. Partisan opinions intensify alienation. They are meant to. A covert purpose of prime time discussions, showcasing combative spokespersons of political parties, is to showcase and sustain alienation. Today, it is abnormal to be immune to the virus of ideological hostility. Already, the island of non-partisan objectivity has sunk in in the Arabian ocean high tide of public opinion. Politics of murder, such as erupts in Kerala from time to time, is an extreme form of this collective sickness.
This propagandist desecration of citizens via public opinion blitzkriegs works on a simple trick. We are made to mistake as our own opinions in the formation of which we have nothing to do. To understand this, consider an illustration.
The basic idea that needs to be propagated is that public opinion is an impersonal concretion the formation of which has absolutely nothing to do with the individuals who are made to adopt them. The success, indeed the deadly effect, of this de facto conspiracy against citizens, depends to a substantial extent on their unawareness of this basic pattern. None of us has had anything to do with manufacturing any of these opinions. What is more, none us is trained to be critical of opinions. Rather we are trained, via the formations we have received, to be partisan. Objectivity is calumnied as disloyalty. As a result, we tend to equate truth with a certain mass of the opinions we happen to consume. Nothing is more inimical to the spiritual culture of seeking truth than this propaganda-consumerism which is aimed at infecting its consumers with prejudices. And, as Descartes said long ago, none harbouring prejudices is free to seek the truth.
The shift from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era, Hannah Arendt pointed out, is marked by the substitution of objective truth with opinions. Historically, therefore, opinions stand counterpointed to truth. So, we are in a state of either-or. Either we are seekers of truth; or we are consumers of opinion, public or parochial. Just as we cannot, as Jesus said, serve two masters, we cannot also pursue two contrary orientations at the same time.
The duty to be vigilant is basic to spiritual vitality and personal wholeness. It is so in every walk of life, including politics, religion and culture. To be vigilant is to be responsible for what one accepts and endorses. Spiritual vigilance, of which intellectual rectitude is the outcome, is integral to commitment to truth; which, in turn, safeguards the integrity and inviolability of the human person. Allowing oneself to be the indiscriminate dumping ground of opinions is tantamount to self-desecration. It is more condemnable than involuntary prostitution. Just because this is the order of the day, its abhorrence goes unfelt.
Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount with an emphasis on ‘doing’ as per what has been heard. The teachings of Jesus will remain mere opinions so long as they exist at the stage of having been merely heard. They can become wisdom and truth only when the hearers make them truly their own. That can be done only by living them out. To live an opinion is to test it. The consumption of public opinion excludes this discipline entirely! An opinion is, by definition, what is not made one’s own in this fashion; but is, nonetheless, held as one’s own.
Far-fetched as it might seem, the role of public opinion vis-à-vis the life of the people is similar to the building of the Ram mandir in Ayodhya. It is assumed, for reasons no one dares to examine, that it is a shot in the arm for Hinduism. It won’t be long before Hindus in different parts of India realize that a temple at a distance, or even close at hand, has little bearing on the quality of their spiritual life. The erection of a thousand cathedrals cannot add a cubit to tthe grandiose authenticity of Christianity. Jesus said all that I have argued so far as only he could have, ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’.