AAP - Sorelian Myth Makers

 Anarchic objectives through Sorel Myths

Within a span of 15 months Delhi sees another colossal waste of money as it goes into election once again. The 2015 one appears to be the mother of all elections given the high pitch campaigning and the cacophony emanating from the capital. 

The reason for the second election is squarely on AAP which frittered away its chance to provide Governance and establish credibility amongst voters. However they blamed BJP for not forming government with the help of their arch rival Congress. It seemed irrational to put the blame on BJP but there is a method in the madness of AAP’s diabolic working.  

During the Anna movement, incipient AAP, or the embryonic AAP declared in one voice that it will not join politics and stay apolitical but soon Team Anna reversed that decision. Post separation from Anna, VK Singh and Bedi, the left over Team Anna coalesced as AAP, with Arvind Kejriwal leading the pack. It was evident from the beginning that this was a party that painted the establishment black and explicitly painting themselves the opposite. From the beginning AAP campaigning is based on the paradigm of ‘I am right and you are wrong and the proof is, I am right’ type of circular logic escaping people like me. It cleaved the society into two convenient sections, ‘We’ the good and ‘They’ the bad. While most of us know that such ‘Black and White’ classification is incorrect representation of reality, AAP knowingly employs such divisive tactics as it serves the purpose of easy consumption of such an idea by its gullible followers. The party arrogantly overlooks the inherent flaws of such an argument yet seems to succeed on the ground. This needs explanation and this blog tries to do just that.   

It all looks very confusing in the beginning for these are the guys who are intelligent or at least clever and talk of integrity and honesty but their actions often seem to be antagonistic to their image. On TVs they appear composed and talk of tolerance and democracy and the next moment and they also throw stones at political opponents. They talk about human rights and fuel xenophobia at the same time. They don the image of Gandhian and support violent Marxist elements. The leader claims to have turned a believer at convenient political moment. AAP claims to be secular yet turns vassal to the rabid communal Bukharis. They speak of Nationalism and dividing the country. It is a never ending story of a successful psychopath who churns out new version of a convincing lie to those who want to believe in whatever crumbs they are throws at.

To understand AAP better, one needs to be conversant with George Sorel; for those who are not, here is a brief introduction to Sorel and AAP’s action conforming to his theory of myths.

George Sorel, a French philosopher who lived between 1822 and 1922 propounded the “theory of revolutionary syndicalism. His notion of the power of myth inspired Marxists and Fascists” – Wikipeida (Italics mine)

What is to be noted is the group that is inspired by Sorel. Very close to what many think AAP really is.

Sorel was a champion anti-Statist who extolled the virtue of using myths in achieving the ends. He advocated the role of ‘myth’ in ‘constituting and fomenting political activism’.

AAP has repeatedly and consistently made outrageous conspiratorial claims that are easy to believe in but impossible to prove or intellectually defend. The target audience are the simple minded and disgruntled votary groups where debate is an expensive mental exercise but slogans of hope, however unrealistic, bind them together.  And the purpose was to break the State, an anarchist ambition that AAP has always been accused of and to an extent conceded by its leader.

He (Sorel) ‘celebrated doctrine of social myth which alone gives life to social movements (approximate quotes from Mark Atliff)

There are numerous examples of AAP created myth that caught the imagination of public and media. In India, where outrage is the only criteria for coverage, myths were outrageous while being saleable making it attractive to TV houses selling their honor for TRP. The media actively participated in spreading the myth as widely as possible. AAP’s spends all its efforts to build and energize a social movement not by intelligent debate but by selling snake oil myths.

When Sisodia blared into a megaphone from within the Hospital, he created a myth of AAP being a sympathetic and people focused party. Once the emotions are aroused with a myth, it is difficult to undo it. After that particular rape, there have been many more that took place in Delhi, but there was no repeat of high decibel drama as the lie has been entrenched in the minds of people for good.

“A myth is compounded of images that are ‘warmly colored’, and affect men not as reason does, nor education of the will, nor the command of a superior, but as ferment of the soul which creates enthusiasm and incites to action, and if need be, to turbulence. Myths need have no historical reality; they direct our emotions mobilize our will, give purpose to all that we are and do and make.  

The quote seems to describe AAP politics prophetically.

One only has to do a rough calculation of money that is required to turn to reality the electoral promises being made by AAP to understand that there is no intent to keep those promises by AAP. But that does not matter. The imagery is being created to leave a deep favourable iimpression in the minds of the voters. The promises are ‘warmly coloured’, and is intended to create enthusiasm and turbulence.  The purpose of the promise is to create a myth which requires little mind flexing.

Myth, according to Sorel was “artificial combinations invented to give the appearance of reality to hopes that inspire men in their present activity”

There freebies that are promised are so unrealistic that any government that tries to implement will go broke multiple times. Greece is an example of the effect of perpetual freebies that broke the economy and the susceptibility of the disgruntled to fall victim to Socialistic myth. The power, water, library, CCTV and all other things paint an impossible to achieve state of harmony and tranquil that are promised only by Abrahamic religions in return to acceptance of their Gods as supreme. In that AAP tries to become a religion in political arena.  It does not matter that the myth is an atrocious lie; what matters is it stirs the hope in the hopeless today, for tomorrow will be presented another myth to alleviate the pains. And such a path leads to a socialistic anarchy, the objective of ideologies that believe in Sorelian myths.

Sorel’s theory continues to be attractive to the radical left by virtue of his intransigent call for an abrupt rupture with the political status quo, and his recourse to mobilizing myths as a means of galvanizing activist cadres as the potential ‘spark’ of revolution.

Here lies the crunch. AAP has always been masquerading as a democratic party yet there have been many instances when its actions appeared to have been Anarchistic or Naxal inspired. Sorelian myths historically inspired Marxists and Fascists that creates a breakdown of Law and Order, an Anarchist’s dream. AAP has cast aspersions on Police, Judiciary and Elected representatives and these aspersions and media, except the ones that saw a ‘revolutionary’, a Marxian accolade in Kejriwala. 

On the political front, the party spreads such blatant lies because they know that reason is not the weapon that gets political victory but Sorelian myth.  

Selling lies -Sorel Style

There are two things BJP should undertake to counter AAP. One, by explaining the larger picture to public, that AAP believes in creating myths, falsehood as a matter of political ideology to seize power as planned strategy. Two, by exploding the myth, not all of them but the most salient ones with catchy communication, thus, paying back AAP in the same coin. In other words, BJP should refuse to drawn into multiple myth-breaking wars but focus on those which it assesses to be won with cost-effectiveness and selectively attack the low-hanging fruits. 

Though I do not claim to have found a solution to counter the Sorelian myths being created by AAP, I am sure understanding the workings of AAP, many would be able to devise better strategies.