By DM Thapa
It is said that there was a time in the mid-sixties when Americans were afraid to read newspapers or listen to the radio. At that time there were lesser television sets, so no question of the now common TV being turned on just with a touch of a button craze.
Anyway, the reason for Americans to not read or hear the news was that there was too much news about wars, violence and other depressing reasons which even included the Cold War between the United States and the then Soviet Union and the fright that came with it.
It is almost the same now in many parts of the world. Even America is troubled by violence within America itself. Add to these tragedies the natural disasters which hit that country every year and specially poor states suffer the hardest hit. Just recently a series of tornadoes hit states like Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama among others. Many people were killed and houses and other infrastructures were destroyed while the people had to stay without electricity, something unimaginable in developed America.
How people were afraid of bad news, it is really true how depressing when one has to read about the tragedies suffered by others, no matter where they may be happening.
The saying that the impact of a tragic event becomes more hard-hitting when it occurs nearby is very true. For example, the air accident in Pokhara shocked the Nepali people and many mourned the incident. If a similar incident had taken place in a far-off place it would be a tragic incident but the people affected would just be numbered.
It is the same even in our own country when whole villages mourn when a transport carrying many members of the same village loses their lives, but a similar air accident may not touch them like a vehicle accident in the surrounding area where the people suffer.
However as readers have surely already guessed, we are not here to talk about air accidents or road mishaps, we will mainly concentrate on the impact of the media, not only in terms of news but over the strong impact it has over a spectrum of the society at all places.
Yes, we understand the Americans after going through some difficult times, including facing economic devastation, may be very sensitive and they wanted to live in a secure environment not afraid that the then Soviets would drop a nuclear bomb on their territory and there would be another destructive war. You see that was the time not only when they had defeated two great nations Germany and Japan in two different parts of the world, but they were also seeing a better life, economically and socially. They did not want to see their house of cards being blown away and more of their citizens being killed,
The media which had expanded a lot in the few decades since the arrival of TVs started to affect not only things political but also the behavior of the people. Naturally, the leader became America, which was economically and militarily strong and it also became the hub from which the lifestyles of the people, including what they wear, how they behave and what they eat among other decided things, naturally affect the society as globally.
Being powerful both economically and militarily, the Americans tried to play the role of a policeman, rapping the knuckles of anyone wrong in their minds. The first target was the then Soviet Union, then China and then other countries which the Americans thought were being run by dictators and others that they thought had immense natural resources. Most of such things were only in their imagination and they created many problems, including the armed conflict in many places, but America also received some backlash which hurt them. You can look at many places in the world, specially in the Middle Eastern region in the past decade or so. Have the Americans found any weapons of mass destruction or have they been able to bring peace to those regions? Instead of hanging their heads in shame, the Americans are looking for more trouble. They have run away from volatile Afghanistan, they have started a conflict in Ukraine and now it is trying to engage China by constantly raising different issues in Taiwan which China claims as its own territory. It has also invited the President of Taiwan to America though China pleaded not to do so. Now if some military exercise will be carried out by China, the Western-dominated international media will blame China at once and say it is trying to start a war in that region.
Our own neighbouring Inda has also been largely influenced by the Western media and even a strong man at the helm, prime minister Narendra Modi, has been able to do little about the impact of the US and its allies on the society and also in the markets of this otherwise a largely socialist nation.
What happens in India quickly follows in Nepal and I am very saddened to see our social structure being disturbed from the roots and changing the lifestyle of the people. From fashion to habits, politics and even the way people worship and celebrate certain religious occasions, everything has changed, it is heart-wrenching to see our country become a much poorer clone of India. Meanwhile, the political leaders are virtual puppets of influential Indian leaders and also of small-time lecturers who have taught our leaders. They just parrot what they are told and many times they also bring up the issue in the Parliament which has freshly been printed by Indian-dominated newspapers.
The US is in trouble itself, but by opening too many wars on different fronts and trying to influence the whole world’s way of thinking and living, it is leading not only a few countries but the entire world into a dangerous conflict.
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