Delusion of an Identity

Wikileaks continued a trend of the fourth estate started over two centuries ago. The initial excitement was driven by information; a buzz catering to the curious with facts and in the crudest form. The scandals followed, the stakeholders being the first victims. The trend suggests a gradual decline into obscurity, the way of the fourth estate completing its lifecycle. The question of personal identity seems remote, if not irrelevant here. The educated world in the quest of an identity however, finds its path convoluted by this and more.

Education is the key perpetrator. Physiologically, the brain does not develop during adolescence, it is rather attuned to the society it steps into based on the information it gathers. In electronic engineering terms, the brain is like a ROM in the process of being programmed; the education burns the fuses characterizing the attributes that determine the individual’s identity. These attributes are entropic by design and at best sustain through the life. In a few lucky cases, the attributes are modified for the better.

The Internet was not just a communication infrastructure. Shrinking the world did not limit to trade and administration. It opened the gateway to demonstrate disparity in education and media. It helped introduce conflict of attained knowledge amongst geographically disconnected individuals. It fuelled the conflict to introduce others to spar over what they considered right. And through this conflict, it opened a few minds about the disparity in information available with these neo-nomads. It allowed for a few attributes to be modified for the better. Then again, like all systems running into disorder, the internet ceased to be the messiah. The conflicts increased and the understanding disappeared. The trolls had a field day while the intellectuals frowned on another wasted opportunity.

The explanation seems vague. So here is some context to elucidate. India and Pakistan are neighboring countries, a fact based on the partition after the retreat of the empire. Indians won independence for the subcontinent and Pakistanis won independence for the subcontinent, the disparity in education eight year olds receive in both these countries. Pakistan propagates infiltration and militancy in India and India funds the anti-Islam terrorism in Pakistan, propaganda of Indian and Pakistani news media and polity. The vulgar spillover on Youtube with every video, as innocent or disconnected it be, involved in incendiary dialogues, the conflict. The knowledge that these remarks are baseless and a result of corrupt education and media, priceless. Somewhere down the line, the conflicts are ignored along with the lessons, the decay.

This is not an isolated example. In every fathomable case, the convoluted understanding of their history and false pride are the culprits. The Identity, a uniqueness or individual differentiator is the casualty. It is a casualty due to its existence. It is a casualty due to its nourishment by conveniently desecrated facts. Yet, it is the goal, a final attainment in a mirage that shadows the path to Nirvana; not the supreme knowledge, but the solidarity without individual identity.