Lynching in the 21st century!

Our world has become one which is ruled by mobs. We thought we had cancelled mob behaviours when we started engaging in intellectual discourses and discarded our weapons for civilised dialogues. We were made to believe so. The muffled undertones of passive-aggressiveness were always there in the background. It never really disappeared. In those days, the dominant ruling forces called it resistance, reformation or revolution. We learnt that numbers matter and recruiting the masses worked best to overthrow a seemingly impregnable and cruel regime. Most new religions came about through these ways - show the unthinking inebriated public the virtues and purpose of existence, riled their emotions to unite them against a particular cause, sometimes a self-serving one. The major Abrahamic religions began thus, creating a sense of fear, perpetually assuming that they would be besieged.

Fast forward to the present time. We thought that in modern times, with the ease of information at our disposal, we felt that we would be widespread in the depth of our knowledge and be empowered to choose what is best for us. We were never so wrong.

The law of the jungle and the Neanderthal code of ethics, if there ever was, is the law that prevails in cyberspace. The loudest, the most devious and the most insincere, wins the arguments hands down. Anyone who does not conform to the voice of the majority is mercilessly crucified. The 'voice of the majority' is not actually the plea of the most, but narratives of ringmasters of who are paid tools of their puppetmasters with vested interests. If in the medieval times, muscle power, blood and gore put the weak statehood in submission, modern-day cyber warriors do the same through cyberbullying, mass hypnotism and peddling of fake news. Oft-repeated nonsense gains credibility via mere repetition without giving opportunity for critical assessment. Anyone who even utters whispers of differing viewpoint is instantaneously shot down through cybertrooping activities, public shaming and cancel culture. Lynch mobs on social media are out for blood to sow communal hatred, assault on scientific knowledge and insult to our thinking faculty.

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Nothing is what it seems!

C U Soon (Malayalam; 2020)


The human imagination has no boundaries. Even at a time when all of the movie-making industry has come to a grinding halt, storytellers still managed to squeeze out a full-length feature film.

Who cares if there is a lockdown or a need for social distancing? There are smartphones and all the drama online in social media. Why look far? Necessity is the mother of all inventions and desperate times spur innovations.

This Malayalam offering was made utilising the i-phone and screens of the computer. The whole film was shot in two rooms and with minimal human contact. The storytelling involves a lot of reading off WhatsApp messages, Facebook posts and emails as well as eavesdropping on video calls.

Kudos to the director who managed to keep the attention of the audience. At the same time, they maintained the suspense of the story.

Jimmy, a bank executive in Dubai, hooks with Anu on Tinder. They get along quite well and even contemplate marriage in such a short time. Jimmy gets his cousin, Kevin, to do a background on her. Everything is okay, and so is Jimmy's mother. Just then, Anu makes a frantic call for help after being beaten up. Slowly things become bizarre as she is given asylum with the Emirates police hot on Jimmy's trail. Like an onion peel, the story slowly unveils, showing us the vulnerability of our identities in cyberspace and the complicated web of deceit that humans are masterminds. Even though a lot of the story is told in texts and acting merely involves facial expressions, not once does the audience feel bored.

A few learning points from the movie. It is no secret anymore that many educated Indian girls are duped into working as maids in the Arab countries but end up as call girls. These type of shenanigans not only in Godless nations but even in states that proclaim to upholds God's law on Earth.

Proponents of Islamic Law insist that Islamic brand of justice and jurisprudence will not affect the Non-Believer way of life. Apparently not as seen in this film of the legal system in the Emirates. Co-habitation of an unwed couple, even of non-Muslims, it seems is a serious crime. The enforcers of the law would say this is the law of our land, the others have to just oblige. On the other hand, it does not work the other way around. Immigrants and refugees to Non-Muslim lands (Dar al Harb) are hellbent on implementing sharia law in the newfound land that gave them a helping hand out of their self-created pit of hopelessness.  

Maybe it is just this particular movie, but I get the vibe that the police in Dubai creates the element of fear in the eyes of the public, particularly the foreigners/expatriates. Perhaps, the director is generalising policemen as the Indian population's perception of the police. If indeed, justice is carried out to the true calling of the religion, should the citizens be empowered, not being fearful of getting embroiled with police?

The final take-home message is that despite all the adversities that the human race may be exposed to, we will rise to the occasion to stamp our dominance. No matter what the nihilistic naysayers may say about the dystopian future that they paint, we will never perish. We will always find a way to stay relevant.

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A field day for the dark triad!

The Hater (Hejter, Polish; 2020)

It is not something that we do not already know. The cyberspace has become where everything is made possible; a false narrative can be oft-repeated the gospel truth. Truth can be bent to suit the flavour of the day. A non-issue can be made the next game-changer. Deepfakes can change the path of one's career or fate. Destiny is determined by the trolls and influencers.

There is a concerted effort by news spreaders to mould one's thought process in sync to the agenda of their paymasters. 

The modern world, it seems, is divided into the right conservatives who yearn for the good old times when the world was a place of milk and honey, where politicians were honest, policemen cared for the public (not look at them as perps) and outdoors were healthy. At the red corner is the leftist who basically plays devil's advocate aim for anarchy and pushes the boundary to the point of entropy. 

The leftists, outwardly seem to have the downtrodden at heart. They appear to fight for the plight of the oppressed and the minorities. They go all out to tarnish governments and civil societies just to create mayhem. They are the true wolves in sheep clothing but the internet has the ability to expose these but who is buying it? It looks like the democratisation of information does not make people wiser, but rather more confused.

The Hater shows us the modern world of the 21st century. Social media is the primary way to access people and get people's assessment of anything the 'majority' feels relevant. The problem is that the 'majority' is not the true majority, but a fake one propagated by paid trolls. They spread 'lies' (or bent truth, who knows?) of alleged fascism, Islamophobia, homophobia, misogyny or abuse all over the net. Are they opportunistic scumbags, victims of online culture that has destroyed decency or are there just to earn a living?

Tomasz, a law student who got expelled from his law school accused of plagiarism, moves around in a daze, hiding the fact even from his sponsors. His sponsors, a rich couple who delves with art pieces and moves in high society, had earlier taken a liking to him during one of their summer vacations. Tomasz realises that his guardians are putting a front when dealing with him. He proves it by leaving his mobile phone recorder on as he left their home, just to their vile sneering. 

He is living during heady times in Poland, where the society is struggling to keep its borders closed to immigration. Tomasz's sponsors' associate, a left-wing politician, is sympathetic towards immigrants.

As the movie progresses, we see Tomasz's almost psychopathic behaviour as he uses his position as a computer whiz in a PR firm to expose the hypocrisy of the leftists and make himself a hero through a series of truth-bending social media messages. 

It seems that the militant ultra-right-wing terrorists have another platform to communicate. If radiofrequency or cyberspace can be intercepted, now they can communicate freely incognito via the numerous game platforms that computer gaming can offer. Peoples' brains have all been so fried up that they cannot appreciate what is real and what is mirage anymore. We have way past passing the Turing test. And we do not know what is good and what is bad anymore.

The net has become a fertile ground for individuals with nefarious

intentions to churn out untruths and spew vile baseless accusations

under the cloak of anonymity. The globalist has set the agenda and
anyone found not conforming this narrative is cancelled off in this
new culture. Back during the pre-internet days, to break a 

functioning society it took slippery Machiavellian manoeuvres. 

In the cyberspace, psychopaths are having a field day. A single 
negative remark and the herd will follow, aided by the algorithm.

(Credit: AqS)

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