Expanding The Concept, Points To Ponder, Aesthetic Judgment, Quotable Quotes, Important Function Of Education & Political Parties

Expanding The Concept, Points To Ponder, Aesthetic Judgment, Quotable Quotes, Important Function Of Education & Political Parties 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.

Expanding the concept

Subliminal persuasion: coercive though subtle

·        Political marketing consultant uses the concept of thought reform (brain washing) in contexts unrelated to cult controversies. To manipulate emotions, decisions and behaviors; political marketing consultant applies techniques those include psychological and group social pressure and inclusion of guilt. When many people talk of the same thing, people tend to believe that these people reflect the general trend and adopt beliefs in order to avoid the plausible threat of ostracism.

Political marketing consultant hires anchors; hosts; and applies especially issue-information format in ads, featuring celebrities. The stream invades; belaboring the thread running through to urge recipients to slough off the “pathetically irrational beliefs” as these beliefs can render them out of tune with the mass opinion ‘The Tenor of Time’; and threaten them to be the ‘social outcast’ for “ refreshingly rational values”.

Washing of heart that occurs with conversion is celebrated in programs in which people thrilled at the change in the ‘quality of life’ relate the ‘wonders’ conversion has brought about in their lives.

Points to ponder

·        The fact that every crusader has its own crusade does not separate him from others; principles underpinning the very enterprise are the glue that binds all divided by barriers of time and space.

·        Indoctrinated children grow through learning__ but learning that is dictated by their ‘genetic programming’. Learning as thoroughly stereotyped as the most instinctive of behavioral responses.

·        Democracy sees man as a rational creature well equipped to achieve the good life by rational means and provides the most favorable conditions for achieving that end by those means.

Aesthetic judgment

·        Aesthetic judgments are susceptible to political climate. Aesthetic values of the democratic culture regard idealization as a falsification of the truth. Autocrat reduces the artist to an instrument; artist prostrates his talents for providing ideal images: picture needs not to be or not at all as much rosy as painted; it just has to be inspirationally animated to instill the gratitude into subjects for amenities those have eluded them so far.

Quotable Quotes

·        The good decision always includes the alternative of not making decision.  

·        Our tendency to interpret the responses of others as meaning that…….explains the riddle that ‘why is the world riddles with misunderstanding?  

·         Coordinated activities are greater than the sum of its parts as each contributor gets more than he contributes. 

Important function of education

·        Aims of education are set by the nature and purpose of society. Education system, therefore, becomes the elaborate mechanism for bringing about skills judged to be useful in the society. The more important function of education is, however, to pass on to one generation the achievements of a previous generation so that each generation does not have to learn for itself what had been learned by its predecessor. All sorts of intellectual and social development are possible because of this function of education. 

POLITICAL PARTIES:

Operational style: ‘A glance at the program and working of political parties in Pakistan reveals that the parties have mostly a regional, rather than national outlook. Even the manifestos of some of the parties make no mention of the problems of areas outside their ‘sphere of influence’. A regular practice of the politicians in Pakistan is to exaggerate the problems of their own regions to obtain local support. No political parties work in a scientific manner. None of the parties maintain a research cell or have a system to study the national problems thoroughly and scientifically. They neither have a system to ascertain the reactions of the people regarding certain political developments, nor do they believe in conducting opinion polls. Almost all parties have neither regular politically trained workers nor offices everywhere. Weekly meetings or other methods of keeping in touch with the masses are unheard of.

The art of demagogy plays an important part of in winning the political game; most leaders rely on public speeches, based on emotions, malice and superficial study.

Programs that have been presented by the parties are too idealistic to be implemented. Most of the manifestos reflect poor homework and lack of pragmatism. Several political parties have identical programs, but they do not merge with each other due to deep-rooted rivalry of their leaderships. Most of the Western countries where the parliamentary form of government has worked successfully have a two-party system. But, in Pakistan due to a larger number of political parties, none is able to attain a clear-cut majority. Thus political alliances pave the way for coalition government which carries the seeds of political instability.

As regards membership, none of the existing political parties can claim to be a mass organization. Membership is mostly fictitious. Membership forms are handed over to influential party leaders who distribute them amongst their followers and get their signatures. Landlords and industrialists get these forms filled by their tenants and laborers who know little about the party to which they are enrolled. The landlords and industrialists have their pocket constituencies and easily they get elected. Parties are joined with the objective of deriving material benefits rather than to serve the national cause. There is no concept of political loyalty as loyalties change with the change of political weather’. 

Image is built in the light of opinions polls, but as political parties neither have a system to ascertain the reactions of the people, nor do they believe in conducting opinion polls; ads do not provoke the required response, and political parties instead of seeking the reasons for ineffectiveness dismiss ads as ineffective.

Polices unguided by opinion polls fail to reflect general consensus and pit national leaders against nation. In democracy, democratic leaders have right to speak to people and they speak through media; but when they speak without knowing what to speak; right of speaking passed on to undemocratic forces. Undemocratic forces grow stronger as an alternative to unconcerned, indifferent, and ignorant democratic leaders. When leaders are out of tune with general aspiration, media loses much of its significance as leaders misses the line around which support could be built. 

Presence of pocket constituency accounts for the absence of even a single ad from many candidates. Electoral process theoretically provides equal opportunity to all citizens to seek a public office, but in reality, people having established following repeatedly contested elections; landlords/tribal leaders tend to be the primary contestants and they need not to have any media campaign to approach voters.