Truth vs hype: Attempts by Indian media at conditioning popular belief

By Dr. Kallol Guha

Dynamics of a given nation or society is determined by the collective action of its people. One of the major tenets determining the fate of a nation in the world is how its people are schooled and culturally conditioned. Instances like, eight crore Germans play far more significant role than 170 crore people of all South Asian Countries combined; eleven million Cubans have far more significance in the world than entire 32 million population of the Caribbean region, are largely the results of the conditioning of respective population. Whether a given country will prosper or fail to achieve its aspirations is to a great extent determined by what role their educational institutions play in conditioning the population to take part in the process of national development.

It is interesting to note how the tiny Scandinavian Countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland etc., despite having no natural resources and a harsh climatic condition, have maintained formidable socio-economic prosperity and remain relatively unscathed by international economic turmoil. Recently, one of the Indian channels covered education system of Finland and economic system of Denmark and branded them as "Ram Rajya". Their education system is one of the main tools to condition their population precisely for an inclusive national growth and development. Hence, conditioning of the population through the education system and other means is one of the crucial factors that may determine the fate of a given nation.

As early as 1949, chairman of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong made it clear that "population is an asset, not a liability". He intended to use foreign ideas the way human body uses food, retaining the healthy part and discard the rest. During Nixon's visit to China in February 1972, U.S. Press Crew gained access to China for the first time since the formation of communist China. They reported that school children were taught to sing themes constantly, reminding them that they were the leaders of tomorrow. Their education system is especially designed to condition them culturally to work for the community. What impact a nation of billion people, culturally conditioned to work for the progress of their own nation, might have in the world was anticipated as far back as 1949. Hence, U.S. President Truman expressed his dissatisfaction and accused Chiang Kai Shek (war time President of China) stating it was for him the West had "Lost China". It is amusing to conjecture what President Truman meant by China was lost to the West?

Did he intend to say that with communists coming to power in China, the west will be unable to infiltrate mainstream media and influence Chinese public opinion to think that anything Western is superior and worthy of imitation? Indigenous Chinese language, culture, tradition, literature, history is backward, a symbol of under-development and to be avoided? Did he mean West will not be able to mobilize public opinion in favor of using English as the official language and make it impossible for Chinese to access higher technical education or earn a decent living via their local language? Did he mean the West will find it impossible to influence mass Chinese psychology to look down upon their own phenotype and become obsessed with features of the white European and nibble on 'the white supremacy' psychology so that the locales are found prostrating at the feet of the western tourists?

Did he mean – with communists in power – it will be impossible to transfer trillion dollars of people's money to the Western Bank under the pretext of "Growth Rate" and "Development"? Did he mean – with communists in power – it will be impossible to put a semi-illiterate white skin westerner, adopting a fictitious name as a political head? Did he mean it would be impossible to convert millions of Chinese into Christianity and honor the converter with highest state decoration? These possibilities have never been discussed openly in any so-called "Free Media". But in real terms, all Anglophonic and Francophonic colonial countries are subdued and made into a contemptible appendage of the west through the power of marketing of the Western media.

It is alarming to note how marketing tricks have molded people to buy drinking water instead of ensuring its supply to every household. It is skilled marketing that has trained people to ignore barbarity of those responsible for the destruction of Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Syria; mass killings of millions of innocent people and yet those responsible are accepted as the champion of "Democracy" and "Freedom and Human Rights".

Marketing of Indian press, which is essentially West owned, has actually conditioned people to accept that it is world's largest democracy where 90% are ruled by 10% Anglophonic population by using laws and administration of colonial masters whose language, values, culture, literature, history, and even their physical features are slavishly imitated in total contempt of all sense of self-respect and dignity.

One of the folklores of Bengal narrates a story of a gang of swindlers in a village and how they used to rob villagers without violence: Swindlers watched a villager walking through the nearby forest carrying a goat on his shoulder on which the gang wanted to feast. Without using force, one of them appeared in front of the pedestrian and said, "Why are you carrying a dog on your shoulder?" The pedestrian laughed at the fool. A few minutes later the second swindler appeared and asked the same question. The man ridiculed the swindler for not recognizing a goat. After some time, the third member of the swindler gang emerged and asked the same question to the pedestrian who did not react but started questioning his own wisdom. Then the fourth member appeared with the same question. This time the pedestrian put the animal down on the ground and took a close look of it to verify any mistake on his part. Next the fifth and sixth member bumped on him with the same question. Finally, he felt convinced of his mistake of carrying a dog rather than a goat. He abandoned the goat in the middle of the forest thinking it was a dog. The swindlers promptly picked up the prize and had a great feast.

This is what present day journalism under the pretext of "Freedom of Press" is all about. Its task is to de-link Indians from its land by using basically the same tricks of repeating lies until people accept them as the truth. This is what is called "Cultural Conditioning" of masses whereby slaughterer of millions of innocent people and invaders of sovereign countries may be branded as "Democracy" whereas peace loving small countries may be publicized as "Terrorist" Countries.

Let there be some journalism that has the courage to expose the real face of present day "Journalism" and the mask of "Freedom of Press" and how it culturally conditions broad masses to perform sinister programs of profiteering and power game.

The writer is the President & CEO of Saint James School of Medicine headquartered in Illinois, USA.