What is it about us that make us forget things so easily? And “Us” means us- the public- not individuals, but all of us together as one unit. Why does public forgets so easily?
We shout on issues together, and then we forget and move on. In fact we move on so much at times that the same people we ridiculed become iconic stories later on.
AAP & it’s many faces
Delhi was upset with Mr. Kejriwal and AAP for resigning in 49 days of being in power. This happened in 2013-14. People had given up on AAP; no one thought they could break BJP tsunami. But they did and how! In 2015 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, AAP won 67 of 70 seats. AAP had managed to change the public sentiment and become a darling, again.
However, just after coming to power, the in-fighting and black money funding charges came up in the open. The public again is not sure whether to like them or hate them. Now, for 5 years, they don’t have a choice but to wait and watch.
Alia Bhatt: the favourite of social media
Alia Bhatt jokes are all over. I don’t know if we had to do a comparison of Rajnikant jokes and jokes on Alia Bhatt then who would win! She is projected as a stupid girl, with no-brains.
And then she comes with a Vogue video on women safety and here we are again. It got 2 million views in just one week of release! Lauding her for the newness of thought and helping us women imagine such a safe place to live in. She suddenly became intelligent. And then she did a mind blowing performance in the movie Highway, and she started getting counted as one of the brightest young actresses!
Have we forgiven AIB?
After the infamous AIB roast just two months back, we all had opinions on whether they were right or wrong. Some of us didn’t even know who AIB was and delved into their details, following them on twitter, seeing their YouTube videos. Most of the people I know didn’t like their sense of humour and hence were okay with the bashing they were getting from social inspectors.
But now, they come up with an educative video on Net Neutrality, and there we are! It got 9 lakh views in less than 48 hours of getting uploaded; the same news channels who had done prime time coverage on the boldness of their Roast event, carried articles on their video. Suddenly there are friends on my timelines sharing and liking their video, because after all they did talk sense on save the internet.
There are many such examples of us moving on and being flexible in our perceptions about issues, people, and controversies.
Aarushi’s father was the killer on Day1, public was angry. They were wrongly framed. Public was sympathetic. No one else could have entered, hence suspicion on parents. Public confused.
We live in a VUCA world now, as the corporate world calls it. Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. The pace of change is so fast that if you can’t keep pace with it, you are gone.
What is shown to us by media, by celebrities is always limited. There is always another side of the story, and that does get revealed to us in due course of time. We tend to base our emotions and feelings on the side that is shown to us first, but we do have the capacity to listen and react to the other story. Is that wrong? Maybe yes. Maybe No.
I am struggling for the answer to this, but I do know that we are vulnerable because we are so flexible. Our thoughts, feelings can easily be manipulated because we have time and again allowed ourselves to get influenced.
Public memory is short and public forgets easily. Why does this line make me imagine a fat businessman with gold all over, sitting in his lavish bungalow and laughing loudly on this thought?
I shall wait for time to tell if this is something that we should have worried about. And we means “Us”.
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