The politics of moral panic: Anthropology of mass-panicking processes of contemporary Sri Lanka

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue XI, November 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

The politics of moral panic: Anthropology of mass-panicking processes of contemporary Sri Lanka

A. Sarath Ananda
Department of Social Science, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka

Abstract: Sri Lanka society is an appropriate arena of research to the nature of moral engineering and moral enterprising for unending power struggle of supremacy seekers and pressure groups. The political as well as cultural elite-sponsored moral panics that come from many forms that based on semi-authentic or fault factors makes a huge damage to the social order of the nation. The long term disturbance to the nation development, social integrity and cultural ethical codes is immeasurable. This article deliberates over selected cases such as debate over chronicle kidney diseases, food poisoning, DCD, satirizing pills and satirizing surgery panics appeared in the contemporary history in Sri Lanka. The basic objective of this research is building a sociological discourse on the prevailed reality of the concurrent socio-political structure and revealing its effectives on Sri Lankan society. This paper that has been employed enclosing the discourse building a literary discourse on the concept of moral panic such as, reviewing worldwide experiences on mass-panicking and the application these concepts to the concurrent Sri Lankan socio-political context. Primary data were extracted by selected newspaper articles, recorded public speeches made by influential individuals, blog reports, research reports and public acts regarding various issues related in the thematic area of this research. This study also has been built largely on the contour of secondary literature. Sociological as well as philosophical perceptions developed in multiple dimension on moral panic that has been used as tools of context analysis. Finally, this paper concludes the politicians, cultural elites and some pressure groups that seek contentment of their hidden political agendas shown as vital actors as moral engineers and moral entrepreneurs responsible for mass panicking. So-called mass media and uncensored social media users knowingly or unknowingly has carried out the needs of those groups.

Keywords: Moral Panic, Sri Lanka, Glyphosate, DCD, satirizing pills, satirizing surgery

I. INTRODUCTION

Understanding the political behavior of an individual may be complex and imperceptible. When it becomes a social phenomenon, the complexity may be rather cumulative (Amenta et al. 2010, Bide 2015, Dalton R.J. and Hans-Dieter 2013). Sometimes, a sudden and inescapable incident would be a cause of the turning point of the entire political system in a country. At the time absence of powerful natural cause, a politically fascinated group might be intervene creating controversial as well as effective dialogue that might be useful as a tool deteriorating yet a government or a ruling political system. This nature is apparently frequent in great degree in the Sri Lankan political system.

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