The last general election was probably the most intense and emotionally charged election I've ever witnessed in my country. The emergence of three aspirants from the three major tribes in the country was pertinent to making the election a tense affair. With that, reasonability was thrown out of the window. Most people were more or less canvassing directly or indirectly for the candidate from their tribe, whether he was worthy or not.
In the last decade or so, social media has taken the world by storm. It has given voice to the voiceless; it has given the platform to every reasonable and unreasonable person out there to air their opinion, concern or otherwise. With added features that allow people to follow their mentors or leaders, it became a place to defend, gather, group, regroup, strategize and finally, attack the opposition. It became much more than a couple of apps on personal computers.
The aftermath of the last general election continues to mirror the days leading to it. A few weeks before the election, aspirants brutally exploited the opportunities the social media afforded them. With it, each aspirant turned their tribesmen into foot soldiers, marching them to the social media war. For whatever reasons, it seems they all suddenly believed the election would be won on social media and they were doing everything to win the space.
Unsurprisingly, the social media played its part. I read recently where a dude talked about how the human mind gets easily controlled. He cited WWE events as a prime example where recorded sounds were played to direct the crowd. A wrestler would walk into the ring and the crowd won't care about him. And then the backstage engineers would play a prerecorded cheering sound and suddenly the whole crowd would follow that sound to cheer the wrestler they didn't even notice some seconds earlier. That's the mind of an average folk; that's the mind of most folks.
One of the attributes of the dominant politicians is they know how to game the system, how to play the people and still call them suckers for it. They learned long ago that with power and some little incentives, you can tell grownups to walk right into their deaths and they will foolishly obey without batting an eyelid, all in the name of loyalty. With social media, it became easier to control people. It became easier to make people fight to death for no just course.
I'm sorry to say this but an average individual is gullible. Feed them wrong information and they'd swallow it hook, line and sinker. With that, they can be weaponized to fight whichever unholy battle one deems fit. That's why some fools find it easy to kill a fellow human because someone they trusted told them to never allow anyone to insult their god. In the last election, campaign managers put out a lot of fake news to heat the polity and tame the average folks. After all, all is fair in love and war. And here, election is war.
After the last election, social media exposed a lot of people. In fact, despite the intertribal marriages in place it became glaring the tribes don't love each other that much. What we have here is a coerced marriage that benefits some and punishes others. The good effect social media had was that it was a gathering tool for people, tribes, for clans. The bad effects? Numerous.
In the end, whatever change I wish to effect becomes inconsequential. An average folk will still pander to gullibility and be used to fight and die fighting another man's battle. It has always been that way. I'm not some wise man who will change that so I'd rather not waste my time attempting to. Ire oo.
