A standard computer backs up data at regular intervals — once a week, once a month, etc. This process comes in handy when the computer stalls and it has to reset or rollback to a certain date and time when all the data and functions were just about right. When it can go no further, it fetches data it has backed up and rolls back or resets to a time when the computer was perfect. The earth does not have a time capsule. The earth does not have a backup folder. The only form of a time capsule that the world has is history.
And history with its biases, negligence, and lopsided narratives is often accused of leaving out important details because they didn’t seem interesting. History is an unreliable piece of backup that we can rollback to if the world starts going haywire. The world has started going haywire. A ban on human beings by another human being in the name of immigration and an entrapment of government offi cials by another non-government offi cial in a beach resort is enough evidence that the universe has lost its way.
I think we were heading towards ‘use technology wisely, be kind’ land but we missed a U-turn and then we ended up at ‘an accused rapist is the President of the most powerful country in the world’ land. But what if the 95% of human beings in this world recognize that the other 5% is delusional and megalomaniacal, would we rollback to a period in the past when everything was all right? If a rollback option did exist, would we ever do it? The caveat is, when we do a rollback to a date and time in the past, we will undo all the progress we have made; unlike time travel, rollback isn’t only about one person; it is about the entire world.
Would we be okay with sacrifi cing snapchat and selfi es for a time in history where utopia wasn’t just a concept of literature? Keeping logistical nightmares aside, let’s assume that the 95% agree to roll back in exchange for losing progress, which period in history would we go back to? Given how you’d rather indulge in a piece of technology that I just made up than try and make sense of the real world, it is fair to say that we have run out of options.
Unless, you think that world’s problems aren’t your problems and you are having a great life, courtesy, your privilege, then step out of the bubble, read a book, look around, acknowledge that even though none of the world’s problems are affecting you directly, the world’s problems will soon become your problems when caste or gender or race or religious privilege means nothing to the 5%. Rolling back would be the best option right now, but since the technology is limited to only Windows computers, why don’t we take a second to check our privilege?
Do you think you have an advantage, of some form or the other because you belong to a certain gender or a certain caste or a certain religion? If you do, then, congratulations, you are privileged. Now that you know that you have been a cause of discrimination and antagonizing, by virtue of something you didn’t really have any control of, take control of it. Try creating an environment to when your privilege meant nothing to the people around you. Rollback.
(When he isn’t writing, the creative producer with The Rascalas watches a lot of ‘cat videos’ on YouTube)
Bhargav Prasad
@CFLlightsabers