SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
Samir Nazareth
It is not difficult to find similarities between SARS-Cov2 and the nationalism that is enveloping the world. Both are virulent for one. There are other very stark similarities. Both bring the best and worst in people, both are socio-economically destructive, and most leaders of so-called democratic countries have done little to deal with either crisis.
Given the similarities between these two seemingly very disparate crises’, can the spread of SARS-CoV19 explain the spread of hate and nationalism?
Just as those with a weak immune system are susceptible to a virus and more so to a virulent one, people who are disaffected are easy pickings for hate and nationalism to infect. Interestingly, just as the strength of our immune system is, at the minimum, linked to what we consume and our environment, so is our Immunity to hate and nationalism. This therefore means that one can choose to be infected by hate or can be insidiously infected.
Leader’s, like Trump’s, handling of the Covid situation in the US is a mirror to how they have mishandled the hate and nationalism that has spread across the country. Trump has also been instrumental in the spread of both diseases because of the false information he has peddled and his unwillingness to take a stand against either. There is a reason for this - as the nation gets weaker, he consolidates his support base. This can be seen in many countries across the world.
Besides low immunity, the spread of Covid is also dependent on a group of people known as ‘super-spreaders’. These are individuals who may or may not know they are infected but infect others because of the number of people they come in contact with. There is also something called ‘Super-Spreader Events’ which are public gatherings where large number of people get infected.
In the case of nationalism and hate, Super-Spreaders are our politicians and those with copious amounts of social capital. Thus artists, individuals with large following on social media, journalists and their media platforms are Super-Spreaders. What makes them even more dangerous is their self-righteousness, supporter base that perceive them as transformational and the neutered democratic institutions that are supposed to regulate them.
So then, what are ‘Super-Spreader Events’. Well, in pre-Covid times it would have been a public rally. A bigoted message on WhatsApp or on social media platforms are incidents that we come across daily. Now the ante can be upped if there is a request that this message be forwarded to a minimum of 10 people. On social media a concerted hashtag putsch is a Super Spreader Event.
Just as SARS-CoV2 can make a sudden appearance, unpleasantly surprising everyone, hate and nationalism are adaptive enough to pop up in issues that really do not have any link to it. The Sushant Singh Rajput issue is a case in point. The death of this Bollywood star was converted into a ‘Super-Spreader Event’. What was initially concern from fans became a media and political circus because the issue was co-opted by the evangelisers of nationalism. The death was used to target political parties and critics of the government. In the process hypocrisy was roped in. Those allegedly using drugs occasionally in private were hounded because they have taken a stance against the central government. This when one of our much-loved gods is believed to have used drugs to meditate and distil his powers.
Which finally brings us to the concept of ‘Over Dispersion’. According to a Guardian article titled “Understanding how 'overdispersion' works is key to controlling Covid” over-dispersion is the instance of a minority of the population being responsible for a high rate of transmission. In the last few decades India has seen a rise in the overt saffronisation of her society. Before 2014 there were a few institutions and political leaders instrumental in spreading this disease. However, since 2014 the numbers and types of spreaders have increased to such an extent that hate and nationalism have become bywords for saffronisation and are a language and socio-political culture. People are proud to say they have been infected by the disease and see virtue in evangelizing this way of life.
Which brings us finally to the concept of ‘Herd Immunity’, but first let’s touch upon its malapropism introduced to the world by Trump - ‘Herd Mentality’. Herd Mentality is a pre-requisite and a fallout of the transmission of covid and nationalism. It is a situation where individuals are no longer able to look at facts and think for themselves. They fall prey to fake news, conspiracy theories and distorted histories, putting themselves and others at risk.
According to Wikipedia, 'Herd Immunity' ‘is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through vaccination or previous infection’. Many people-including politicians – believe this is the best way to deal with the SARS-CoV2 situation. They willingly ignore the number of deaths that would occur in the process of achieving it.
On the topic of hate and nationalism, a consequence of ‘Herd Mentality’ is ‘Herd Immunity’. Those espousing hate and nationalism have also achieved ‘Herd Immunity’. They are no longer concerned with the consequences - which range from trampling of Constitutional rights, to the decimation of democratic institutions. They also believe such actions are necessary as they goose step their way into their monochrome world.
Fortunately, there are enough people immune to Herd Mentality who are questioning Herd Immunity and its fall out. Even as the world seeks a vaccine to SARS-CoV-2, we know the response to hate and nationalism. The antidote to the situation India is in has been written down in the Indian Constitution.
(Samir Nazareth is an author and writes on socio-economic and environmental issues)
