00:00As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that
00:07there are only two genders, male and female.
00:11In today's political climate, there's little room for nuance, just rigid binaries.
00:17You're either a patriot or a traitor, a nationalist or an anti-national, pro-government or a radical.
00:25But how did we get here?
00:27Why has political discourse across the world been reduced to such stark binaries?
00:32To understand this, we need to go back to the economic and political shifts that shaped
00:37the modern world.
00:39Welcome to Deep Dive with Outlook.
00:41Today we will discuss binary politics.
00:44After the Second World War, capitalism flourished.
00:47But by the late 1960s, markets became saturated, corporate profits shrank and economic growth
00:53slowed.
00:54Workers in the West demanded better wages and welfare benefits.
00:59But corporations pushed back.
01:01To revive capitalism, leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan championed a new
01:06model, neoliberalism.
01:09The state withdrew, industries were privatized and financial markets were deregulated.
01:15For a while, this seemed to work.
01:17But by 2008, it all came crashing down.
01:21The financial crisis shattered public faith in neoliberal capitalism.
01:26Governments bailed out corporations while working-class people suffered.
01:30As economic frustrations grew, political elites needed a new way to maintain control.
01:36And they found it in authoritarian populism.
01:40When economic solutions failed, leaders turned to ideology.
01:44Instead of addressing the real problems, growing inequality and economic instability, they
01:50offered simplistic enemies.
01:53From Trump to Bolsonaro to Adavan, leaders weaponized binary thinking.
01:58According to scholar and writer Anand Teltumde, they framed every issue as a battle between
02:04two sides.
02:05Patriots vs. traitors, dissenters became enemies of the state.
02:11Hindu vs. anti-Hindu, in India, religious identity became a political tool.
02:17Socialist vs. anti-nationalist, criticizing the government meant you hated the country.
02:23People vs. elite, populist leaders position themselves as saviors of the common people
02:28while being part of the elite themselves.
02:31But why do autocratic regimes love binary thinking?
02:35Teltumde writes that it keeps people divided.
02:39If society is split into opposing camps, no collective resistance can emerge.
02:45By creating an enemy, whether minorities, immigrants or activists, leaders justify
02:51repression.
02:53It consolidates power, positioning themselves as defenders of a religious or national identity.
03:00Authoritarian rulers silence opposition in the name of unity.
03:04And the consequences?
03:05The media is co-opted or silenced, judicial institutions are weakened, elections become
03:11mere formalities, civil liberties are curbed.
03:15But binary thinking doesn't just shape politics, it reshapes society itself.
03:20Political theorist and analyst Ajay Gudavarti argues that breaking binaries could create
03:26a crisis of meaning, ethics and direction.
03:29Binaries may create power, but they also structure how we understand the world.
03:34For instance, the concept of mother has no essence of its own.
03:39It only makes sense in contrast to father.
03:42Meaning is generated in a relational sense.
03:45When we dismantle binaries, do we gain true liberation or do we enter an era of confusion?
03:52The rejection of traditional binaries has led to normative confusions, where everything
03:57that was once considered stable is now in flux.
04:01Is this a space for creativity and self-fashioning or does it risk leading us into nihilism?
04:08The epidemic of loneliness, global regimes of boredom and rising anomie are symptoms
04:14of this crisis.
04:15Gudavarti writes that psychoanalysts have warned such uncertainty can be the breeding
04:21ground to fascism.
04:23When people feel lost, they often seek rigid order.
04:27Historically, moral ambiguity has been exploited by authoritarian figures.
04:32So, when we think of breaking binaries, are we at risk of mistaking banality for true
04:37multiplicity?
04:39But can democracy truly thrive without nuance, dialogue and coexistence?
04:45You can read more on this in our latest issue, The Grid.
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