Daily Post 1495
THE DISCUSSION INDUSTRY
When a country survives mostly on discussion, its time that it should be declared as an industry. It is a job, that too a fascinating one with the only caveat that the salary is missing. This hobby, habit or industry started in a very humble way to take care of your free time, now has reached to a level that time is made free for this purpose. There are other professions where talking is termed as discussion euphemistically and most of time is dedicated for this purpose. Even better, we have some free freelancers who do only this at the cost of living. Who will tell them that human life was not created for this negative purpose. On the contrary, those engaged in this industry feel as if they are delivering and discussing ideas unheard of.
This discussion becomes a full time preoccupation in couple of seasons, modes and professions. They transform discussion into a professional cause and make us believe that a great cause is being attended to, while on the contrary, it can at best be called a pure time pass. Election is one favourite festival when the discussion industry takes the shape of a dinosaur. It takes over the whole universe, Bihar is undergoing those pangs right now. You can only get dopamined. It is a skill, self learnt. It is a thrill nobody wants to miss. You ought to develop in a big way, something which is in heavy demand in the election season. Couple of months are lost in elections in different states and the country being engrossed in this act.
The only thing missing is a worthwhile thought. Discussing the wherewithal of making anything happen is conspicuous by its absence. When the discussion has to expand to fill time, the filler more often than not is gossip. Gossip at that level has dire consequences. The ammunition it generates given its porous and inflammable nature can put relationships, communities, enterprises and governments on fire. It is said that quite a large part of the decisions are impacted by the gossip industry. At one level discussions and the gossip industry become one and the same thing. While each one would keep stating gossip to be the gospel of truth.
As this sells, our media agencies over a period of time switched completely to the discussion industry and in its further degradation got tainted by gossip in at big way. In the media, ethically, sources can do wonders but if you lose ethics, you can use that confidentiality for purely ulterior motives. Depending on your stamina for easy life, fast buck, becoming larger than life, degradation on this count can be full and complete. It is antithetical to transparency and fairness and what damage it is doing to our system, only posterity can tell.
THE DISCUSSION INDUSTRY IS A TERMITE WHICH WILL FINISH ALL WHAT WE ASPIRE TO.