Abdullah Gorsi
Our society is becoming more polarized day after day. The idea of respecting others’ beliefs and opinions is not practical today. Either you’re part of one particular group or you’re a traitor. The point of agreeing to disagree is also not valid. Every group is trying to indoctrinate their supporters this much that they start feeling a sense of hostility for the people of other groups/parties. No one is interested in knowing the truth whether they want only news that fulfils their cognitive thinking and tells them that yes, they are the only one right. This polarity and division is becoming more dangerous, not more people are talking about it. some people are in favour of this polarity and refer it as awareness in common man but on the other hand this biased awareness is causing problems. Its obvious that there is a polar hate in society but why it is increasing day by day. Are they the leader of groups who instigate this hate for personal gain or it is more of a psychological issue of the masses?
As we go through the pages of history, we find that this hostility for your ideological opponent was very radical, whether its Catholics vs protestants in 16th century or the United States vs USSR in 20th century. The problem is there for ages but the solution is yet not defined and is vague. But if this issue was there since ages and humans are living with it so what’s problem now? The answer is because these days this issue has crossed the doorsteps of houses of the public and now is affecting each and every one very severely. For example, a person supporting one group and his parents are in Favor of the other, the child will start thinking that his parents are mental slaves. This in house break will cause disputes in family. As a result, people will refrain from talking about the issues with their close ones. Obviously when they know that the other person is extremist about his thoughts and if you tell him that you’re from opposite group he might kick you out.
Talking psychologically, this radicality about one’s ideas is also the due of social media algorithms. For instance, person A supports party B, so all his social media will be full of pro party B content to keep him engaged and mentally relaxed. This is done by algorithms. When all the time a person is watching posts which are is in his parties Favor, he would start believing that this party is only right. Now a days news channels are also following the same path and are biased in nature of reporting an incident. A person will never watch a channel which is reputed to be against his party because his mind will not accept the information, because he wants to satisfy his cognitive thinking.
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Now analysing this matter politically, we get to know that leaders also play an important role in shaping the think of their supporters. Such as, leaders like Adolf Hitler and Narendra Modi made all their party support against a particular religious group through their speeches. This resulted in a massive ethnic cleansing of that group by the supporters of BJP and Nazi party. The supporters or workers acted as an instrument for the achieving the goals of one individual who had manipulated their minds.
What can be done to make society more ideological tolerant? This can be done by spreading the truth and correct information. But this is not the only solution, requires a multifaceted approach that addresses various aspects. The political leader must adopt a responsible attitude and should prior a healthy political environment. The indoctrination of subjects of the state by state should also stop because keeping youth in delusions is never the solution, but can make the problem worse. People must be educated about the ways to disagree. Their minds should always be open for new thoughts and ideas, and should be told about the beauty of respecting others’ beliefs even they disregard ours. This is how nations are made.
Author is a student at National Defence University, Islamabad
