Attar Context- When the Prime Minister was being chosen through ‘Discord’ in Ekadesh, many people’s attention was drawn to the face of the one who was going to become the Prime Minister. This columnist’s attention was drawn to a digital app called ‘Discord’. Discord provided a playground for playing disguised games, and from behind the scenes, the disguised ones were confidently stamping their hands and getting the Prime Minister’s post.

Discord simply means chaos. In the digital age, chaos also has a code, that code is ‘open-source’ and its market is uncountable. Although the environment we live in is new but not incomprehensible, complex but not insurmountable. 

Let us continue the discussion with the context of the famous novel ‘Perfume’ by German writer Patrick Susskind. The novel tells the story of a character with an amazing ability to smell. His amazing sense of smell leads him to a perfume factory. He succeeds in making various types of perfumes by experimenting with new ones. Gradually, the fame of his perfumes starts growing and so does his ambition. Finally, one day, a ghost enters his mind, drawing the inherent scent of a young woman and preparing a wonderful perfume. In his desire to invent a supernatural perfume, he gradually kills young women one after another. One day he succeeds in making such a perfume.

Soon after, he is arrested and sentenced to death. And he is taken to a fort for a public hanging. The excited crowd is shouting – Murderer! Murderer! He smiles faintly and throws the perfume into the air. The excited crowd demanding to hang him starts getting drunk as soon as they get under the influence of the perfume. And immediately they start shouting ‘Angel! Angel!’ to him. The entire fort bows down before him. Using the same perfume that he had killed twenty-five girls to make, he is suddenly called an angel by the murderer and escapes the gallows safely.

The name of such a scandal is – Attarkand. Nowadays, there is a storm of Attarkand. In today's era, where the dominance of digital technology is taking over every mind and controlling it through the remote control of algorithms, the Attarkand has become a political reality. The Attarkand does not fit into any historical event like a court murder, corruption scandal or arson scandal, but rather it has presented a new challenge by disrupting it. Its power to spread artificial intoxication in the general society cannot be underestimated. Therefore, the future of this country will not be understandable without recognizing the Attarkand that has spread its feet in our society and politics.

People: A data point

A recently established fresh commentary says that the Gen-G movement was raised through 'Discord'. But the Gen-Gs who came to the streets did not know at what point the movement turned into a painful rebellion. Therefore, how the new government was produced from the algorithm of 'Discord', is even more surprising. Yet, why is ‘Discord’ considered the magic box for starting a movement? Here, the narrative of the amazing changes brought about by digital technology is strong. The easy explanation that not only movements and uprisings, but also the entire politics have come under the control of digital technology is prevalent everywhere.

The narrative that the balance of political power has changed is even stronger in Nepal, especially through the use of digital tools like Facebook, X, WhatsApp, TikTok, and YouTube. It has been said that technology made it possible for characters like Balen and Ravi Lamichhane to emerge in politics. It is not surprising that the rebellion of the Gen-G generation, which is considered to have grown up with digital technology, is even more possible because of technology. Has (un)social media really made the basic people stronger? Has it really made them well-informed? Has it really made them knowledgeable? Has it really made the young generation a rebel? Has digital technology really become the initiator of change? Or has it become a well-organized arena for staging an Attarkand?

Information technology has come as a new miracle of science, it is true that it has changed the dimensions of life, and has increased the access of information to the general public. The parallel truth is that the digital products we are consuming are owned by the most powerful billionaires in the world today. Scholars have named the new economy they have built as ‘digital capitalism’, ‘attention economy’, ‘surveillance capitalism’, etc. You – our personal information (image, interests, behavior, health problems, household habits, anger/jealousy/love, etc.) are the raw material that dollar billionaires collect moment by moment. You – our existence is just a data point for them. The time we spend on the flickering screen, that is, part of our age, is piling up in the coffers of those powerful billionaires.

The one who controls the information and wealth of the common man is the most powerful. This is a self-evident fact. In her explosive book ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’, Susanna Zuboff concludes that powerful tech companies have created a new web of surveillance economy, the raw material of which is the general public and consumers. They have not been collecting personal information about our interests, preferences, dissatisfaction, political leanings, etc. by monitoring us 24/7 through their apps. That information is not used to make clothes or electricity. Rather, your information is used to interfere with your own interests, desires, and behavior. Without you knowing, your mind has been taken over by hatred, interests, desires, and anger created by others.

Fake news, deepfake, fake photos/videos created by AI, hoolaha, babandar, etc. have become a daily experience today. People are being victimized by a situation where they cannot distinguish between truth and falsehood, fact and fiction, real and unreal. Why do people today feel as if they have no control over their own lives, as if they have no control over their own desires/aspirations, as if their privacy and dignity are being destroyed by the light of their mobile phones? Because the more you get entangled in the web of networks, the more the coffers of Zuckerberg and Elon Musk become filled with wealth and power. What are the political consequences of that? Global inequality increases, power and wealth accumulate in the hands of a handful of wealthy people, and the freedoms and rights of ordinary people are abolished.

The Last Supper

According to Zuboff and many other researchers, the extent to which digital capitalism controls people's daily lives has threatened the future of democracy. What does the fact that tech billionaires in Europe/America are pouring money into supporting far-right politics say? Why is the surveillance capitalist system finally pouring its power, money, and technology into fostering a politics of white nationalism that hates immigrants? Because that is its true character. If there is a generation that has been the biggest victim of this economy, it is Gen-G. In the end, the very fact that a generation was tagged as Gen-G was for commercial purposes.

It is the same to become modern by drinking Coca-Cola and to become informed or knowledgeable by watching memes. You cannot become free or a charioteer of the new era by repeating some vocabulary created by digital corporations like a parrot. According to the book ‘Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism’ by Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, today’s human world has reached techno-feudalism by leaps and bounds. If all the rules of the game are being made by techno-feudalists, then those who consider that same playing field to be a field of liberation can be seen to be badly trapped in the unconsciousness of the Attarkanda. Therefore, critical thinking and struggles for freedom are being misled by unprecedented ambiguity and confusion.

Nepal's latest political transition seems to be a direct product of techno-feudalism. In the two and a half decades of the twenty-first century, not only is the liberal world order led by the US collapsing, but the extreme right is gaining a grip on the national governments of Europe/America. Its direct impact is having a fatal impact on a dependent and uprooted society like Nepal. The economic and social crisis of this country is increasing day by day. The political crisis is becoming extreme from the navel of that crisis. At this time, one by one, messiahs have entered the political arena, spreading the perfume of 'nation-building'. It seems that they are scrambling to eat the last supper of history.

Personalistic thinking

Messianism is a form of feudal tradition. There is a history of feudal regimes being overthrown by fighting for the basic rights of the people under the liberal or Marxist ideology. Even in the democratic constitution of 2047 in Nepal, no member of the royal family could be questioned in court. Since the monarchy was a feudal system of government, the royal family was above the constitution or the law. In the politics of a democratic republic, ideas and systems are central, while the individual is the doer of the system. Messianism, on the other hand, makes the individual the main character, so in a way, it becomes the doer of feudal ideas.

Techno-feudalism has created an environment for the growth of Mahisapanth within the democratic system. As American journalist Chris Hayes said in his book ‘The Siren’s Call’, the (un)social media industry is the commodity for sale. They not only eat away at our age, they make us focus on the whirlwind of those who are creating scandals. They destroy the time and state of mind to think about the issues and problems of our real lives. Our individual and collective struggles are left behind and we become victims of a messiah-inspired conspiracy in a desperate mindset. In this way, those who have no interest in our lives become rich and powerful by attracting the age, money, and attention of the general public. The messiahs even take away our politics from our hands.

Techno-feudalism destroys not only the field of democracy, but also the market economy that liberalism considers ideal. Surprisingly, it even traps the vanguard intellectuals and politicians of the democratic system in a dense circle of personal debate, thought, and criticism. The charioteers of a democratic republic are political parties built on an ideology that puts the people at the center. Even if autocratic leadership develops within those parties, the struggle against it must be ideological. A struggle based on personal thought only envisions one person in place of another. 

How is autocratic leadership built within a democratic party? The direct answer is – by obstructing the continuous development of ideas and systems. So, is the struggle against autocratic leadership possible only through personal reflection and struggle? No. The starting point of such a struggle must be ideological. Whatever the importance of a political party, it can be questioned based on the ideas and agenda it carries. Personal debate and struggle ultimately pave the way for messianism. Therefore, raising debates by keeping ideas at the center, sharpening issues, and pulling politics from the game of power to the people's doorsteps has become today's challenge.

Finally,

The wind of populism has blown all over the world. The messianism that emerged in Nepal is just one incarnation of it. Its roots are not connected to the real problems of Nepali society and their solutions. It has inflated like a balloon in the air. Its entire strategy can be understood in one word – Attarkand.

(a) Social media and techno-feudalism have provided a platform for spreading perfume and deceiving people. The power of the common people is that the day the influence of perfume leaves, people wake up in their own homes/villages/tolls and come to fight for their own and their society's issues.

The roots of Nepali society are being uprooted. The roots of culture, the roots of production, the roots of family structure, the roots of agriculture, all the roots. As soon as we return to the crisis that this society is facing, the intoxication of the perfume scandal starts to subside. Because to face this multifaceted and challenging crisis, a different level of ideological and political preparation is required. The hardworking Nepalis living abroad may be confused for some time, but it will not take them long to realize that the movie shown through the digital window is not real.