Social Media and Construction of Alternate Truths

Every year, just as the Indian festival of Lights, Deepawali, gets over, a viral composite image of a satellite picture by NASA ritualistically starts making the rounds on social media. If we see the lights and concentration of colour then Deepawali seems to be a major festival in parts of Afghanistan (Hindu-Kush region), Chinese Occupied Kashmir (Aksai Chin), Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan (Indus Basin), Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (Azad Kashmir), Sri Lanka, and all across India (from Kashmir to the Andaman) apart from regional deviance or predilection for different colours. Further, for the alleged Diwali light spots to be burning so bright, megatons of magnesium, sulphur, and phosphorous (to say the least) would have been burnt and pollution equivalent to the annual output from America and China would have risen from the Indian sub-continent, in a single night, wreaking a major environmental catastrophe.

As early as in 2009, a watertight case sealed the fate for the photograph christened ‘How INDIA Looked on Diwali Night from the Sky.’ The image was contextually a ‘fake.’ The photograph is a NASA satellite composite put together from many different images taken at different times.

The original caption to the alleged photograph of How INDIA Looked on Diwali Night from the Sky reads:

“India at night, satellite view. This image is a composite showing the change in illumination over India from 1992-2003. Satellite data from 2003 is coloured red, 1998 is coloured green and 1992 is blue. The three data sets are composited to form the image. Night-time lights on the map that are white are lights that were present throughout the entire period. Areas that are marked by red have only appeared in 2003. Areas coloured green and blue were only present in 1998 and 1992 respectively but are no longer visible. This image was created by the Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, USA.”

To review the composite satellite image and the caption readers may visit http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/160012/view. Alternatively, visit http://www.sciencephotogallery.co.uk/india_at_night_satellite_image/print/1705155.html.

The photograph or the visual, however, is not important but the idea behind it, which has serious ramifications. The construction and interpolation of an alternative truth and negotiation of meaning by the working class is of serious concern. It is possible to construct alternate truths and let the media (social media in this case) do the rest. Often, behaviour psychologists, agents of the ruling elites, and online advertisers make use of such tactics. This technique is not limited to visual communication; in fact, it can help percolate any information requiring a simple contagion to diffuse as truth!

This incident, as have other countless examples, demonstrates the efficacy of any form of media (especially social media) as a tool to build convincing alternative truths and how interested parties (vested interests) can use this aspect as a semi-politico media complex to re-construct the (imaginary and euphoric) notion of ‘nation,’ specially amongst the Indian diaspora. Further, such social constructs of alternative truths always help the impoverished and denied masses with a dose of opiated nationalism and a false sense of progressive identity. What gives credence to the alternative truths on social media are their supposed inherent democratic credentials. True, the democratic potential of media increases the working classes’ access to information, which may lead to a functionally better-informed work force. However, at the same time, it leads to issues of information overload and practices of disinformation (through corporate and governmental malfeasance) generally with the complicity of the favoured elite or their agents. Both, information overload and practices of disinformation (propaganda) result in re-enforcement of prevalent and socially accepted norms and behaviour, i.e. status quo.

This construction of an alternative truth suits the agenda of the ruling elite. In fact, the elite class aids and abets most constructions of alternative truths. In some instances, it directly plants and grafts such constructs, thereby, curtailing and regulating the working class and their hopes & aspirations, while sanitising the social environs of any signs of class struggle or dissent - real or perceived. Any well-informed consumer of the internet knows that in the world of social media there is hardly a website not spiced with little icons encouraging a consumer to share, like, comment, publish, and so on. Just a few pixels square, these icons are signifiers of the potent tools for influencing people’s lives. They strongly influence and in some instances govern the way the working class generates and consumes all forms of data. It is important to understand that “the instruments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the status quo.” (Gladwell, 2010) Another point that is noteworthy, is that there are 800 million active Facebook users (Facebook, 2011), 100 million active tweeters (Twitter, 2011), over 4 billion cellular phone subscribers by late 2008 (International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2008) and these people actively consume and gratify themselves with new technology media products & services. The data available to an everyday consumer is phenomenal and beyond her/his capability and ability to process and negotiate meaning. Indeed, the age of Web 2.0 is the age of ‘communication overload’. This information overload suits the favoured governing elite of the third world, when in reality these selected few are by-products of the process of ‘manufacturing consent’ (Herman & Chomsky, 1988), which replaced the Era of Colonial Empires. The super elites, the custodians of post-colonial hegemony, sit smugly enthroned in the western/developed world, manipulating, as biased gatekeepers, all data (information) to engage in subversion of universal rights and aspirations by the engineering of consent. Ironically, the ruling elite subscribe to manufacturing consent when dealing with their own working class and media. It is, therefore, of little surprise that technology, technological innovations, and media ownership should be concentrated in the hands of the few. In fact, all key industrial and production units in any society are always owned by the watchdog elite (agents of the ruling elite - second tier in the hegemony of manufacturing consent), though not necessarily by the ruling elites themselves (barring in the third world).

So, coming back to the photograph, if everyone knows that the image is a ‘fake’ (in the Diwali context), then, why should this image virally surface every year? What is in the image that makes it so endearing to Indians and people of Indian origin? Does the caption, ‘How INDIA Looked on Diwali Night from the Sky,’ fulfill any of J. L. Austin’s ‘felicity conditions’ required of some ‘performative utterances’? Alternatively, is this image, as Émile Durkheim would have suggested, a visual symbol acting as a catalyst to achieve ‘collective effervescence,’ which in the eyes of some interested party/s serves to help unify Indian (read Hindu) society? Is there an ulterior motive, as was in the case of Babri Masjid/Ram Janam Bhoomi movement… is some individual or a politico-religious entity attempting to gauge public opinion or seek public (read majority’s) approval? Any person or organization depends, according to E. L. Bernays, “ultimately on public approval, and is therefore faced with the problem of engineering the public’s consent to a program or goal…When the public is convinced of the soundness of an idea, it will proceed to action.” (Bernays, 1947, 114) However, it may still early and the data insufficient and inadequate for any scientific/rational inference…or, is it?

Bibliography

Austin, J L. How to Do Things with Words. Ed. J O Urmson and Marina Sbisà. 2nd. Harvard University Press, 1975..

Bernays, Edward L. "The Engineering of Consent." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 250.1 (1947): 113-120.

Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 2008.

"Facebook: Press: Statistics." 27 October 2011. Facebook. 27 October 2011. .

Gladwell, Malcolm. Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted. 27 September 2010. web page. 6 May 2020. .

Herman, Edward S and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1988.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2008, September 25). Press Release: Worldwide mobile cellular subscribers to reach 4 billion mark late 2008. (http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2008/29.html, Editor) Retrieved October 27, 2011, from International Telecommunication Union: http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2008/29.html

Twitter. (2011, October 27). Basics: What is Twitter. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from Twitter: http://business.twitter.com/basics/what-is-twitter/

Growing Older is Mandatory. Growing Up is Optional

There is always a chance that some of the post one may get courtesy social media contain wonderful story worth contemplation. This is the text as received:

"The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?" I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze. "Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" I asked. She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids..."

"No seriously," I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age. "I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."

As we laughed, she cleared her throat and began, "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty -seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually doesn’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets."

She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose." She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

When you finish reading this, please share this peaceful word of advice, people will really enjoy it!

These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.

Remember, growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional. We make a Living by what we get, we make a Life by what we give.

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

"Good friends are like stars ... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there."

Ibn Rushd (Averroës), 1126-1198

A chance ‘encounter’ with a write-up on Ibn Rushid, a philosopher remains my only exposure to his thoughts and writings. Please be warned that the article makes no claims of academic or theological authority on Ibn Rushd, Islam, and the Holy Book – The Quran.

Ibn Rushd (Averroës) (1126-1198) was one of the most important Islamic philosophers. His writing tend to focus on medicine and jurisprudence, but he is best known for his work on the philosophy of Aristotle. The excerpt, which follows, is from one of his best-known works. Written around 1190, he attempts to demonstrate that the study of philosophy is compatible with Islam.

The present text is from Ibn Rushd: On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy, in Arabic Kitab fasl al-maqal, with its appendix (Damina). Appended is an extract from Kitab al-kashf`an manahij al-adilla, published and translated as: Averröes, The Philosophy and Theology of Averroes, trans. Mohammed Jamil-al-Rahman (Baroda: A. G. Widgery, 1921), pp. 14-19.

…All that is wanted in an enquiry into philosophical reasoning has already been perfectly examined by the Ancients. All that is required of us is that we should go back to their books and see what they have said in this connection. If all that they say be true, we should accept it and if there be something wrong, we should be warned by it. Thus, when we have finished this kind of research we shall have acquired instruments by which we can observe the universe, and consider its general character. For so long as one does not know its general character one cannot know the created, and so long as he does not know the created, he cannot know its nature.

All things have been made and created. This is quite clear in itself, in the case of animals and plants, as God has said, "Verily the idols which you invoke, beside God, can never create a single fly, though they may all assemble for that purpose" [Qur'an 22.72]. We see an inorganic substance and then there is life in it. Therefore, we know (for certain) that there is an inventor and bestower of life, and He is God. Of the heavens, we know by their movements, which never become slackened, that they work for our benefit by divine solicitude, and are subordinate to our welfare. Such an appointed and subordinate object is always created for some purpose. The second principle is that for every created thing there is a creator. So it is right to say from the two foregoing principles that for every existent thing there is an inventor. There are many arguments, according to the number of the created things, which can be advanced to prove this premise. Thus, it is necessary for one who wants to know God, as He ought to be known to acquaint himself with the essence of things, so that he may get information about the creation of all things. For who cannot understand the real substance and purpose of a thing, cannot understand the minor meaning of its creation. It is to this that God refers in the following verse "Or do they not contemplate the heaven and the earth, and the things which God has created?" [Qur'an 7.184]. And so, a man who would follow the purpose of philosophy in investigating the existence of things, that is, would try to know the cause which led to its creation, and the purpose of it would know the argument of kindness most perfectly. These two arguments are those adopted by Law.

The verses of the Qur'an leading to a knowledge of the existence of God are dependent only on the two foregoing arguments. It will be quite clear to anyone who will examine closely the verses, which occur in the Divine Book in this connection. These, when investigated, will be found to be of three kinds: either they are verses showing the "arguments of kindness," or those mentioning the "arguments of creation,” or those which include both the kinds of arguments. The following verses may be taken as illustrating the argument of kindness. "Have we not made the earth for a bed, and the mountains for stakes to find the same? And have we not created you of two sexes; and appointed your sleep for rest; and made the night a garment to cover you; and destined the day to the gaining of your livelihood and built over you seven solid heavens; and placed therein a burning lamp? And do we not send down from the clouds pressing forth rain, water pouring down in abundance, that we may thereby produce corn, and herbs, and gardens planted thick with trees?" [Qur'an 77.6-16] and, "Blessed be He Who has placed the twelve signs in the heavens; has placed therein a lamp by day, and the moon which shines by night" [Qur'an 25.62] and again, "Let man consider his food" [Qur'an 80.24].

The following verses refer to the argument of invention, "Let man consider, therefore of what he is created. He is created of the seed poured forth, issuing from the loins, and the breast bones" [Qur'an 86.6]; and, "Do they not consider the camels, how they are created; the heaven, how it is raised; the mountains, how they are fixed; the earth how it is extended" [Qur'an 88.17]; and again "O man, a parable is propounded unto you; wherefore hearken unto it. Verily the idols which they invoke, besides God, can never create a single fly, though they may all assemble for the purpose" [Qur'an 22.72]. Then we may point to the story of Abraham, referred to in the following verse, "I direct my face unto Him Who has created heaven and earth; I am orthodox, and not of the idolaters" [Qur'an 6.79]. There may be quoted many verses referring to this argument. The verses comprising both the arguments are also many, for instance, "O men, of Mecca, serve your Lord, Who has created you, and those who have been before you: peradventure you will fear Him; Who has spread the earth as a bed for you, and the heaven as a covering, and has caused water to descend from heaven, and thereby produced fruits for your sustenance. Set not up, therefore, any equals unto God, against your own knowledge [Qur'an 2.19]. His words, "Who has created you, and those who have been before you," lead us to the argument of creation; while the words, "who has spread the earth" refer to the argument of divine solicitude for man. Of this kind also are the following verses of the Qur'an, "One sign of the resurrection unto them is the dead earth; We quicken the same by rain, and produce there from various sorts of grain, of which they eat" [Qur'an 36.32]; and, "Now in the creation of heaven and earth, and the vicissitudes of night and day are signs unto those who are endowed with understanding, who remember God standing, and sitting, and lying on their sides; and meditate on the creation of heaven and earth, saying O Lord, far be it from You, therefore deliver us from the torment of hellfire" [Qur'an 3.188]. Many verses of this kind comprise both the kinds of arguments.

This method is the right path by which God has invited men to a knowledge of His existence, and informed them of it through the intelligence which He has implanted in their nature. The following verse refers to this fixed and innate nature of man, "And when the Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam, and took them witness against themselves, Am I not your Lord? They answered, Yes, we do bear witness" [Qur'an 7.171]. So it is incumbent for one who intends to obey God, and follow the injunction of His Prophet, that he should adopt this method, thus making himself one of those learned men who bear witness to the divinity of God, with His own witness, and that of His angels, as He says, "God has borne witness, that there is no God but He, and the angels, and those who are endowed with wisdom profess the same; who execute righteousness; there is no God but He; the Mighty, the Wise" [Qur'an 3.16]. Among the arguments for both of themselves is the praise which God refers to in the following verse, "Neither is there anything which does not celebrate his praise; but you understand not their celebration thereof" [Qur'an 17.46].