The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. – Bertrand Russell
Sharing an article that I posted two years ago on polarization (moronization), popped up in my FB “memories” today! I generally don’t post anything on politics because sooner or later, the debate gets acrimonious and vicious. Unfortunately, we’ve created an online/offline culture where no healthy debate is possible and where any kind of debate only leads to more extreme positions instead of some reconciliation on both sides.
Media and political parties benefit from this situation, because they get dedicated followers who are more emotional rather than rational, who blindly follow them and stop thinking for themselves.
If you think rationally – there will always be some meritorious positions as well as miscalculations on both sides, and we can get the best of both worlds by keeping an open mind. Also, need to be aware that there will always be some fanatics on both sides who’re totally prejudiced as well as hypocrites, and its best to ignore them and not pay them any attention. But unfortunately, the extremists get the most attention while the moderates are ignored.
We might not be able to change what’s going on, but at least its good to be aware of these traps. Interestingly, while we remain polarised and angry, political parties are much more pragmatic and often surprise us with unexpected alliances! We must learn from them – let’s hope for the best! 🙂 🙂
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A Dummies guide to “Moronization”
Definition of Moronization: A process used to convert absolutely normal, happy go lucky and peace-loving citizens into warring and unhappy morons (via TV)! The closest synonym would be “polarization”.
You would imagine that by now, this should be common knowledge, but surprisingly, it isn’t!!
Having been a moron myself (maybe I’m still one), I’ve first-hand experience of my conversion and have managed to decipher the process. All I had to do was to become a couch potato and watch the idiot box for long enough. All news channels use these methods! 🙂
Here are the steps:
1. Pick a recent, stray, unfortunate incident that’s very emotive. Even though there have been many, many other dissimilar incidents of the same or greater magnitude on the same day all over the country, telecast only this one, and make sure that you rerun this news 24/7 for a few days with never-ending in-depth analysis. Have a lot of melodrama, excessive emotion and nail the suspects without an investigation (the last step is the most important). As simple as that! 🙂
2. When you have TV debates, make sure that you invite an odd number of debaters. This way, you can always make sure that one point of view always gets more time (because an odd number of people can never be divided into two equal groups). 🙂
3. Encourage participants to scream and outshout each other. Cacophony without clarity is absolutely essential to push your own agenda. 🙂
4. Never give enough time for any participant to speak. Make them all very frustrated and unhappy, to create an atmosphere of negativity and uncertainty. 🙂
5. Have one to one interviews with moronization agents who can disseminate the desired misinformation. 🙂
6. Follow the above 5 steps diligently and consistently, and before you know it, the job’s done! Congratulations! You would have created an army of morons big enough to create more morons automatically. It’ll be a satisfying geometric progression 🙂 🙂 🙂