His expression was that of a sincere man, calm and tranquil, and he wanted his job done well. His victim begged helplessly, but he remained deaf to his cries. The pleas and requests of the passersby didn't have any effect either. His hands were in his pockets because his knew that his knee was enough; he just had to wriggle it a bit to set it more firmly. It took him less time, but he was at it for almost nine minutes. Just to make sure. Or perhaps to savour. Who knew what was going on behind that placid demeanour?
The whole world watched the video of the act. But it was not the act itself (for it was not the first one, and sadly it won’t be the last) but the process, the effortless execution of it which sent shivers down the spines. The horror turned into rage. Many cities in the U.S. and outside erupted in protests which are still continuing.
Some time ago a similar incidence occurred on the other side of the world, in India. A policeman beat a Muslim man to death while making him sing the national anthem. One wonders what the poet who composed the national anthem, and who had little faith in the idea of nation would have thought of this particular rendition of his song. This killing was also captured on the camera but it led to no protests. Outrage might have been felt in private, but the incident was buried under a sea of overwhelming number of stories which are scripted everyday in the country and which we, the people of India, have masterfully learned to deal with stony indifference or maudlin sentimentality.
There is an obvious similarity between both the killings as they are perpetrated at the hands of the brutal, oppressive state machinery. But they are also similar in another respect which is symptomatic of a problem much larger and sinister. It is indicative of a certain kind of trend in politics which is ominously sweeping the globe. It is diversionary in nature and aims to divorce politics from its progressive contents which is seeking social and economic equilibrium. Instead, it functions in the realm of abstraction and promises to fulfil aesthetic and spiritual needs of the masses. In place of seeking to provide social justice and alleviate economic hardships, it privileges so called- culture, so-called religion, so-called race etc. Identity instead of equality, pride instead of justice is its main goal.
The trend is on the rise everywhere. In Europe, the Far right parties which till a few years ago seemed loony fringes, are today serious contenders for power. In the United States, the very personification of callousness and megalomania has occupied the White House. In India, the Hindutva brigade is finally entrenching itself in the corridors of power for the first time after independence. Brazil has elected a president who is not shy of proclaiming himself as the successor of brutal military dictators. The president of Turkey is slowly revealing his fondness of a lost caliphate and would very much like to reinstate it. Russia does not even pretend to be democratic anymore. And China is a Communist, Capitalist, and Fascist state, all at the same time. These are the most obvious examples, but the list can go on. The prized values of democracy are fast receding. More and more people are putting their faith in such leaderships which have scant regard for the values of freedom and human rights.
Any comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon has to be complex and many-pronged, of course. But one underlying factor which has undoubtedly given rise to it is unprecedented economic disparity. The chasm has widened to such an extent that top one percent of the world’s population owns almost half of the wealth, top ten percent has ninety percent of the wealth, and the bottom ninety percent scramble for the ten percent. The present condition is unsustainable in a democratic society because democracy tends to equalise things, albeit often frustratingly slowly for reasons that 1) democracy is still in nascent stage, and 2) democracy in form is often passed off as democracy in spirit. But whatever the criticism, the free voices of the people can not but bring about a more equitable economic distribution.Therefore, if the disparity continues to exist in the current state, democracy has to go. The very nature of politics has to change what Walter Benjamin describes as “aesthetization of politics”.
In the epilogue of his brilliant essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", Benjamin postulates that Fascism attempts to devoid politics of its contents and infuse it with the experience of art. When we see a piece of painting, or watch a play or film, or listen to a song, it stirs certain emotions in us what we call aesthetic experience. The nature of politics in Fascism is such that it arouses similar experience. It is done in order to preserve the "property relations" in society. It diverts people's attention from the issues of oppression, injustice, social and economic inequalities which politics should actually be dealing with. Politics is hollowed out of it contents and is supplanted with empty rhetoric, posturing and gestures. “The masses have a right to change property relations; Fascism seeks to give them an expression while preserving property. The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life.”
This is dangerous. Benjamin had a dire prediction when he wrote the essay in 1935, and, just in a few years, his prediction came true. He foresaw that failure to change the economic relations would inevitably lead to war because only war has the capacity to mobilise the masses, exhaust natural resources, make use of technological advancement to the capacity while maintaining the status quo. “The masses have a right to change property relations; Fascism seeks to give them an expression while preserving property. The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life.”
We are inching towards a time similar to one in which Benjamin lived, and it would be prudent of us to worry a little about what the future holds.
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