A new word “digitine”, the modern equivalent of “guillotine”, is currently trending in cyberspace, post a Let Them Eat Cake moment at the Met Gala, held in New York on May 6. US influencer Haley Kalil, who has 9.9 million followers, attended the event in a dazzling gown adorned with crystalline flowers, a throwback to 18th century aristocracy, and posted a video mouthing those legendary words attributed to Marie Antoinette. All the while, pro-Palestine protests were taking place right outside. This triggered the hashtag #blackout2024, a celebrity boycotting campaign targeting stars for tone-deaf responses to the conflict in Gaza.
The inference is clear. In popular imagination, the French Revolution was an uprising against the elite so disconnected from the poor, they casually suggested cake as an alternative to the humble loaf. Similarly, the outrage mob has reacted angrily to this era’s royalty, Hollywood stars and millionaires for participating in a lavish party, while battered Palestinians are in the midst of a full-blown famine. Except, their ire is misplaced.
The most basic argument being there’s nothing wrong with people going about their lives and, indeed, attending galas if that’s part of their career agendas. They’re not personally responsible for strife elsewhere on Earth, nor do they have any say in their governments’ military decisions. In all likelihood, their understanding of complicated West Asian politics is superficial at best.
Besides, who decides that support for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza supersedes support for the war in Ukraine or starvation in Yemen? Even if a celebrity were to speak up for the beleaguered Gazans on Instagram, it would achieve nothing. It’s not like Biden is seeking advice from Taylor Swift (post #blackout2024, she’s lost 3,00,000 followers for her silence on the issue).
The logic behind #blackout2024 is that celebrities rely on social media engagement for advertising deals and blocking them en masse lessens their online stature, thereby, reducing their income. That a financial blow would arm-twist the famous into rallying behind Gazans and, somehow, this would influence policy and ultimately liberate Palestine, is laughably far-fetched. Recent history suggests that movements with huge traction like #metoo and the #arabspring kick-started a conversation but ultimately fizzled out. Public memory is short. Internet trends, even shorter. Despite that there’s a persistent, subliminal pressure not just for celebrities but everyone, that we must cultivate opinions on issues we have no expertise in. Pertinently, righteous indignation, or the need to be right, is spoiling relationships.
An earlier generation could engage in passionate dinner table debates holding opposing points of view that would be forgotten by breakfast. I’ve lost count of the number of my friends who’ve fallen out because of ideological differences. Disagreeing civilly is a lost art. In the interest of preserving our sanity (and our friendships) it’s okay to keep shut, shrug one’s shoulders and flatly acknowledge ignorance on some matters. It is worth remembering if we could solve the problems in our own lives it would be a feat; better that than offering meaningless, half-baked solutions on issues beyond our level of competence.
Having said that, there’s something deeply humbling about watching college students in the US set up camp and demonstrate peacefully, undeterred by threats from the police, motivated purely by the heartbreaking plight of the underdog. Whether they’re right or wrong, or that their prescriptions are imprudent isn’t even the point. Unlike the armchair activism of #blackout2024, they’re forcing the world’s gaze towards terrible injustice. It’s only in the heady idealism of youth that one raises these legitimate if simplistic moral questions, like how can a mass annihilation occur before our very eyes? Vigils, protests and marches for Palestine indicate that students are not hardened cynics, who’ve given up on a cruel and indifferent world. Thank God for that.
The writer is director, Hutkay Films
