In the British American historical epic movie Gladiator released in 2000, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) said "Rome is the mob."In the film Romans were portrayed barbarians who enjoyed watching gladiators who played games full of blood. They were with who played well whether they were slaves or emperor's men. If you haven't seen the movie you can watch the trailer here.
However, the thing which is being discussed here is that if one may stand oneself outside the circle of our Pakistani society and analyse the situation, one might understand that the condition is not much different here, Pakistanis are not more than a mob who can not even think critically to examine the situation. They only have blind faith in those channels who have more greasy tongues and express their views emotionally rather than rationally. It is because of illiteracy, lack of critical thinking, failing to see the other side of the picture; Pakistanis are so vulnerable to False Memory.
According to Elizabeth Loftus; Professor of Social Ecology, and Professor of Law, and Cognitive Science at University of California, Irvine, false memories are those which a person remembers as a truth but they never occur in reality. In fact, these memories are the result of falsity which has been presented as a truth.
According to Elizabeth Loftus; Professor of Social Ecology, and Professor of Law, and Cognitive Science at University of California, Irvine, false memories are those which a person remembers as a truth but they never occur in reality. In fact, these memories are the result of falsity which has been presented as a truth.
The current situation is that a news channel after besmirching the Lieutenant-General, has now been hit in the reverse gear without taking care of their own dignity and presenting the opposite picture which was portrayed some two days before. One can notice how these big names are accusing and maligning each other on different news channels.
It is not the first time happened in Pakistan. I had been associated with a private news channel for two years when in an hourly headline I was asked to write about eleven murders and just after two hours I was asked to convert those eleven into nine, meaning two became alive!
Nonetheless, Pakistani media is playing a vital role in creating these false memories. Our masses are with those who present the picture in more sensitizing way like gladiator. They are after the emotions rather the skepticism. One example is today's news in which a Vise-President of the same private news channel is saying that after the bullets hit the famous journalist "he recited Kalma-e-Tayyaba, then Nara-e-Takbeer and then Pakistan Zindabad."
This news has been the part of the bulletin several times. One might ask that after two days why he came up with such sensitizing words without any evidence. Was he present at the incident? If not then who told him all this? These emotional attacks of injecting false memory is to get support from the audience who does not have their own ability to distinguish false memories from true memories.
If I've learned anything from these decades of working on these problems, it's this: just because somebody tells you something and they say it with confidence, just because they say it with lots of detail, just because they express emotion when they say it, it doesn't mean that it really happened. We can't reliably distinguish true memories from false memories. We need independent corroboration.
In short, today our masses are so frail that media has captured their minds completely. If someone tries to explain them and show other side of the coin they will shun him. Professor Loftus truly said, " we should all keep in mind, we'd do well to, that memory, like liberty, is a fragile thing."
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