Political socialization, the process of obtaining political knowledge, beliefs and perceptions and their generational transmission is evident in our own society. The analogy of Human organisms as a "black box" waiting to be filled is all too realistic whereby our generation is considered too be too impressionable and easily shaped by the views of those around us. The most common agents of political socialization can be seen around us.
Firstly, family is said to predominantly transmit their views to the offspring. This is all too evident in teenagers and early 20's adopting the political sympathies to and voting patterns of their family such is the case in sense of PPP jialas where NOT voting for the party that one's family supports would be a kind of treason to the household system and the party support is a historical legacy that must be carried forward despite the current situation or competency of existing party leaders.
Secondly, after households, we are most susceptible to be influenced by formal tutions; education. Schools are the easiest possible form of brainwashing and transferring one's views on a massive scale. How we are educated defies how we thin. In most institutions in Pakistan, challenging the professor is not allowed and what he preaches shall we follow. It is the law of the classroom. Free thinking is prohibited. Hence, education produces uniformed opinions. Since students cannot have conflicting thoughts to those of instructors, in majority Pakistani classrooms, a form of mindless unthinking obedience forms one's political views. But if you go to an institution like LUMS where you are taught to have your own views and to not take anything at face valuw you views on politics will be proportionately different. We think according to how we are taught and what is preached to us.
The importance of religion cannot be undermined, especially in such a radically religious nation such as ours. Our religion guides our every day activities therefore, it is only natural that our political beliefs are also influenced by it. This can be seen in madrassas e.g. whereby what the maulvi says is how the student shall think and no other way of thinking is encouraged therefore if he is against communism, there can be no question of a student thinking otherwise. And any party talking about secularism or drifting away from religion in its policies will instantly lose its support at the hands of not being "Religious enough". This is a predominant reason Zia was so popular was "Islamising" Pakistan; religion is the strongest form of mass ideological domination.
The role of the mass media as a dissemination device is all too known to us especially in the past elections where channels like GEO and ARY are not shy to establish what party they support and are clearly biased in their talkshows. The text talks about authoritarian regimes dominating the media for propaganda but the highest level of propaganda are present in our own media where communication is manipulated deliberately and opinions are shaped in such a way by our media so that political action is stimulated. We saw this in the case of Imran Khan where most tv channels portayed him with such enthusiasm that one actually started believing in him having the power to bring our nation out of distress simply because that was the message repeatedly advertised. The media is a strong and crucial tool for political influence on a massive scale.
Lastly, our political socialization occurs through governments. Governments recognize that their ability to stay in power stems from the views of the people and their capacity to build broad popular support. As long as we believe that the government does good, we shall vote for them. This is the reason Nawaz is building metros and never-ending fly-overs in Punjab because that is his major vote bank and keeping Punjab happy is how he shall remain in power. A recent revelation on me was that history is changed according to who's in power. Therefore, all school books are improvised to portray the histories of current political leaders in a white light. If that's not political brainwashing, then I don't know what is.
Basically, the idea of political socialization breeds so many conspiracy theories about how whatever we believe regarding our current political system can be false because it reflects the views of ALL forces around us. We may, in fact, not even know what our own opinions are simply because we have been dominated to such an extent that we are so isolated and distant from our own thoughts.
Yeah I would like to agree with you on the point that our views are affected and altered by different kinds of factors, which might confuse us, regarding making a decision. They include religion,sects,education (the influence of teachers),media and family. But I would like to add to it that somehow as time has passed, people's mind have somewhat changed and their decisions are under their own will, not hundred percent but upto some extent and maybe the political culture, now has some positive features too. e.g. when giving votes, first people always listened to their baradaries and families but now they look towards patronage.
ReplyDeleteTheir thinking process includes things more than just what affects them, externally.