Surely, the joy must have been insurmountable, to realize that what you needed to make your “movies” sell was no rocket science (imagine, if them producers, distributors and “the publicity committee” had to mix all sorts of complex chemicals, experiment compound formulae and whatnot!!).[break]
So, my reaction to all them posters: what the heck, you’re free to do what you want to do; unless of course you’ve forced and tortured those poor actors into doing it, go ahead, be my guest (not literally though). Only, perhaps, use the right labels to sell them: porn perhaps?
If only I could forgive the politicians and leaders that easily! They are of a different breed. They belong to the proud tribe of “saving faces” and “pointing fingers”, two of the most ancient forms of understanding defense mechanisms of groups under duress.
The use of “face” and “fingers”, body parts of human beings, are symbolic in understanding the way human beings associate with concepts of human emotions like shame and humiliation.
“Saving faces” allows the politicians and leaders to literally save their faces from being gnawed off their skulls by angry civilians where they meekly accept humiliation and put up a façade of a “brave face”.
“Pointing fingers” has been considered by many anthropologists and psychologists as a more advanced level of defense that only highly sophisticated and evolved human beings are capable of mastering, which obviously our politicians and leaders are.
The use of an index finger to suggest that the direction at which the finger is being pointed at, either towards an alley or an adversary, is where the blame must be directed and it requires the mustering of all human physical and mental strength.
In case of the malfunctioning of the finger (which usually happens when the brain neurons fail to effectively send out the message to the finger (that is as far as my science goes) can lead to fatal disillusionment in the civilians. Imagine, while giving a speech, if a politician was to mistakenly point the finger at himself/herself!
However, the “pointing finger” mechanism can go all wrong if instead of an index finger, a middle finger is used. This form of “pointing finger” has come into argumentative usage by many youths who have become empowered by the realization of the infinite ways of using human anatomy to express disgust and anger.
When effectively directed towards the leaders, this form of finger pointing can provide a sense of catharsis to those who feel cheated; therefore, “pointing the middle finger” has become a common PDA, public display of anger amongst the younger generations.
So much so that some weeks ago, there was an image of Prithvi Narayan Shah, notoriously controversial “national” figure, photoshopped as pointing a middle finger that was circulating the world wide web.
I am sure whoever had the exciting task of manipulating the image had a lot of fun. However, I do not usually like to log onto my social network page and be pointed a middle finger at!
After the May 27 fiasco, there has been a significant increment in the use of “saving faces” and “pointing fingers” mechanisms that has allowed the politicians and leaders to get away with “it”.
However, one point that the anthropologists were able to figure out was that the mechanism of “saving faces” and “pointing fingers” can be of benefit to the politicians in an environment of impunity and corruption. These mechanisms aid in allowing liberties despite the distinctly expressed disapproval of the people.
Someday, however, the wheel of karma will repeat its revolutions and hopefully it isn’t too late.
For more on Sisakalam, visit sisakalam.wordpress.com.
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