The catastrophe of war in Iran is being effortlessly masked by a fog of abstractions, circumlocution, and feigned normalcy. It is almost as if the populations of democracies, particularly in the United States but also elsewhere, have been morally anaesthetised into indifference. In all wars, there is disinformation, self-delusion, and a rallying around the flag. Yet the paradox here is striking: A Pew Poll reports that 61 per cent of Americans disapprove of it. Even globally, there is no rousing support for this conflict, only a sullen, quiet coping. Normally, such facts might reassure us: Not all publics have surrendered to cruelty. But the nature of the impending catastrophe is such that these facts only deepen our anxieties rather than relieve them.

For those of us familiar with the US, it is difficult to recall a war of such consequence so thoroughly removed from effective public consciousness. The media landscapes of most democracies have become, in effect, more reminiscent of the propaganda apparatuses of authoritarian states than of free societies. There are multiple mechanisms at work. First, there is the sheer lack of coverage, or at least meaningful coverage, of the war and its tangible consequences. The fragmented media ecosystem, with its partisan reporting, random social media clips, and endless expert analyses, produces the illusion of knowledge without offering the public any real experiential confrontation or synthesis. Democracies, astonishingly, have perfected the art of disguising the true character of war.

Second, the language in which the war is described is deliberately abstracted: “Capabilities degraded”,........

© Indian Express