At Bukit Jalil stadium I sit with 12000 others to watch two Englishmen men, Calum Scott & Ed Sheeran run around, singing to the top of their voices.
I am not a fan of either man. I don’t even know the lyrics of their songs. So, what was I doing there?
I’m not alone. Maybe, a majority of the other 12,000 people, mostly Muslim Malays, also don’t really know why they were there.
A few weeks ago the country’s Islamic party declared Ed Sheeran should be banned from performing in Malaysia because his pro-LGBT stance would ‘pollute the sanctity’ of Ramadan. But that didn’t prevent young hijabi women holding hands with their friends to sing along with Ed Sheeran.
A month ago another Englishman, Chris Martin of Coldplay, was here pulling even larger crowds.
When Chris Martin or Ed Sheeran show up at a stadium, even the staunchest defenders of the anti-colonial narrative temporarily shed off their anti-British-imperialist narrative, decide to part with half a month’s salary to brave traffic jams & rains for hours to stand in long queues to see the Englishmen sing for an hour.
When Taylor Swift shows up next month in Singapore, thousands of environmentalists sipping their drinks with soggy paper straws talking passionately about carbon emissions will join thousands of good Muslims spending their days berating the decadent West to suddenly stop whatever they are doing to catch a glimpse of a private jet-setting half-naked Taylor running around singing 500m away.
When Wonder Woman hits the screens millions of Muslim women & men updating their profiles with the colors of the Palestinian flag on a platform owned by Mark Zuckerberg, suddenly forget about the bombs raining down on Gaza to flock to the cinemas by their millions to see ex-Israeli soldier Gal Gadot beat evil as an Amazon given superhuman powers by Greek gods.
How does that work?
The human condition is bizzare. Absurd. It doesn’t feel like we are doing things contrary to what we believe. But that’s exactly what it is.
Cognitive dissonance - doing things inconsistent & totally incompatible with ours beliefs - is what makes us human. 🤔
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