The sun rises in the east. There, I said it. Now that I said it, do you feel enthused? Do you want to jump up and down with excitement and give me a standing ovation for daring to utter this revolutionary truth?
You probably don’t. All I said is something that is mundane. Something everybody knows.
But imagine if we lived in a world where it was illegal to ever look at the sky. Or even to open our eyes. If we were forbidden to acknowledge whether it is day or night. If we were forced to repeat falsehoods such as “The rising of the sun has no direction.”
In such a crazy world, telling the truth about the sun rising from the east would feel so liberating.
Now think about the thunderous applause that Trump got at the Howdy Modi event in Houston yesterday.
How sad is that? We have all experienced it in our countries. We all know about it. We see it every day. But we are not allowed to say it.
We remember the strewn body parts of our 44 jawans in Pulwama. The suicide bomber wanted to punish those he considered ‘gaumutra drinkers.’
We remember the terrorists on 26/11 walking through the streets of Mumbai, entering even hospitals, even children’s wards to murder sick babies in their sleep.
We remember the images of terrorists in the compound of Indian parliament. If you are old enough, you will remember the time President Bill Clinton visited India. In Chittisinghpura village in Kashmir, Islamic terrorists lined up 35 innocent Sikhs and shot them dead. We have all heard stories of how Hindus were chased out of Kashmir, out of Pakistan and out of Bangladesh.
When we go online, we see gruesome images of beheadings posted by ISIS. What does the “I” in ISIS stand for? Sorry, we are not allowed to say it. And who has forgotten images of 9/11?
We see all this. But we are not allowed to describe what we see. The religion of peace, we must say.
We are allowed to humiliate poor Hindus by calling them “Hindu Taliban” and “Hindu Pakistan.” We are not allowed however to name the religion which inspired the Taliban and Pakistan in the first place.
In our Orwellian, politically correct world, hearing the President of the United States say it feels liberating. That was the raw emotion that burst out in a thousand cheers when Trump said the words.
What does it say about modern society?
This is what made it so easy for Trump to get elected. All he had to do was state the obvious. Because in the contemporary world, the truth itself has become a taboo.
Freedom is dying. It is being strangled bit by bit by political correctness. We have learned to avoid the truth, or even sense it. Even when a terrorist screams out their religion at the top of their voice, we must pretend that we cannot hear. Otherwise, the liberal complex would come after everything from our social media handles, to our jobs and to our families. There are now “anti-hate” groups in the United States that maintain lists of proscribed individuals. These groups have lobbied with banks to even prevent blacklisted individuals from opening mere savings accounts. Or getting credit cards. Or jobs. Or entrance to any college. This has now spread to the online world, with big tech companies disallowing them from using online services.
No education. No job. No bank account. No credit. No internet access.
You *must* fall in line. You must obey the liberal complex. And above all, you must not speak the truth.
The thunderous applause to President Trump’s comments on terrorism was a desperate cry of an increasingly marginalized group. Not any race nor any gender in particular. But people who speak the truth.
In his novel 1984, George Orwell famously imagined a dystopian future in an absolute Communist state, which had three basic principles.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
These words were always accompanied by the unforgiving face of “Big Brother” who was always watching you. And if you don’t agree with them, they erase you, you become an “unperson.”
Now think about the words “Terror has no religion.” And imagine with it the face of …
Fortunately, Orwell’s nightmare of a Communist-ruled future never came true. Will we be so lucky about.