Teacher Is A Sparkplug Not A Fuel Pipe, Points To Ponder, Quotes & Fetishism

Teacher Is A Sparkplug Not A Fuel Pipe, Points To Ponder, Quotes & Fetishism By Dr. Sohail Ansari

Conceived and worded by DR Sohail Ansari (originality of concepts and originality of words).

He believes that there can never be a zero scope for improvement and appreciates criticism if it is not for the sake of criticism.

Teacher is a sparkplug, not a fuel pipe

·        Teacher as Maria Montessori says ‘can only help the work going on as servants wait upon a master’. If it is so, and it really is, a teacher must create through twin goads of reward and punishment a set of circumstances conducive to the development of learning muscles and stamina for self-management of learning; and be instrumental himself  in creating a constructive chaos of mind and anxiety among his pupils as the handmaiden of self-fulfillment, plus for creating people who have future in their bones must provide a fillip by giving multiplicity of visions, dreams and prophecies__ images of potential tomorrows.. 

Points to ponder

·        Many budding geniuses are washed down the drain. ‘Wasting half of their lives’ as they opt for a field they are not cut for ‘to learn to waste remaining half’ as they fail to rise above mediocrity.

·        Prejudice makes people intellectually blind and they tend to think that the stereotyped images and labels are forever; despite each individual has the capability of crafting new self in response to expectations and challenges.   

Quotable Quotes from “T”

Teacher

·        Teachers of non-government school are private participants with public responsibilities.

·        Purpose of teacher’s life is to give student the life of purpose. 

Things at best or at worst

·        Things are at their best or at their worst if joy defies definition, beauty defies description, and pain defies explanation.

Tragedy

·        Tragedy strikes students when they find that books accessible to them are inaccessible and accessible books are inaccessible.

FETISHISM

(Modern man is no longer characterized by personal impotency emanating from fatalism but by a psycho-social complex of norms based on democratic orientation that imply implicit faith on egalitarianism and meritocracy as value concept. Mass media act as mobility multipliers; infusing people with diffused rationality; consequently ways of thinking and acting cease to be articles of faith and become instrument of intention.

The rise of Political Marketing as the privileged forum for the transmission of political cues is the response to needs of time as all parties need political campaign not because they know it will deliver but because they do not know for sure it will not.

Article draws upon socio-cultural perspectives in seeking to understand how cultural, social and economic changes mediated by industrialization influence the way people relate to political parties or leaders).  

The notion of fetish is helpful for investigating to what extent the fixation on particular objects has changed in industrial societies. In pre-industrial societies certain material objects were regarded as embodying forces that affect human behavior, material objects like Scepter; Cap; or Flag of a spiritual leader were thought to carry special power.

But such objects are replaced by money in consumer society: fetishes of modern world are goods accessible through money. Happiness and relief are achieved not through spiritual power of certain object or by the blessing of one having such objects; but through material objects. There is no longer any halo around anyone; the health of nation    lies in the health of economy. The political marketing consultants capitalize on this shift in fixation by tying economy to leader they wish to project.  

A market society is a masked ball. Here we bring our needs to dance with their satisfiers (leaders) in close embrace to the melodies of an unseen orchestra (Political marketing practitioners).

The discourse through and about material objects is carried on from behind elaborate masks; Political marketers fashion huge numbers of masks(Image/Persona); and in selecting some, consumers allow themselves to be persuaded that they can serve their dreams. In fashioning masks for leaders, Political marketers apply metaphors; idioms and similes to move back and forth across the interface between the production of message and consumption spheres, restlessly creating and refurbishing zones of encounter between aspiration and parties.

Ads mirror the identifying sign of the consumer society_ the unending play with new possibilities for better life. This sign is reflected concretely in the general characteristics of leaders themselves.  As represented in ads, leaders are bearers of powers; and have all ingredients that can enrich and make our life better. In ads, we encounter a lush and entertaining realm where our fetishes of modern world (goods) are promised to us.

“In modern society goods themselves are not fetishes, rather, through marketing and advertising good are fitted with masks that ‘show’ the possible relations between things on the one hand and human wants and emotions on the other. These masks are our fetishes.”

In modern society leaders themselves are not fetishes, rather, through political marketing leaders wear masks that ‘try to establish relations between masks (our fetishes) and the mask (persona/image) they wear.

Change in fixation on object holds enormous potential for the growth of political marketing as it leads to emergence of new leadership by undermining leadership that elicit voters due to assumed spiritual power or possession of object that assumed to have such power. Any one capable of making electorate believes that he can deliver comforts and luxuries of life can win. New leadership has no permanent following it has to be established and retained through media