Empiricism For Propaganda, Points To Ponder, Quotable Quotes & Capability Of Embracing An ‘As If’ Standpoint

Empiricism For Propaganda, Points To Ponder, Quotable Quotes & Capability Of Embracing An ‘As If’ Standpoint 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.

·       (‘Man is born free but every where in chains’ is the most galvanic rallying cry in the arsenal of every revolutionary. With the advantage of hindsight we know that the people of post-revolutionary period had more to lose than their chains.)     

The use of narrow conception of empiricism for propaganda

·       One strand within an entire web of knowledge is projected as a whole so that every generalization is true as confirmable by specific observations. This overly narrow conception of empiricism is applied successfully by not integrating any observation that can refute unequivocally the proposed generalization.  The narrow conception of empiricism is used to damage absolutely ‘Thing or person can pass from the status of being regarded as of the questionable worth to the status of being wholly condemned’ or restore partially the ‘Thing or person can pass from the status of being wholly condemned to the status of being regarded as of the questionable worth’ the image of a person or a thing. The narrow conception is used as well to craft good or bad image by presenting the one aspect as the only aspect.

Points to ponder

·       Scientific ideology is not only an ideology postulating change but a theory with scientific claims, so it is inevitable that its forecasts should eventually be confronted with the actual course of events.

·       Journalists have decidedly biased viewpoints if they always assume that if something goes wrong there must be s sinister reason for it; therefore, reporting events filtered through a conspiratorial prism presents a distorted view of reality.

Quotable Quotes

·       Perfect incorrigible is only capable of doing the wrong thing in the right way.

·       One can read without understanding but one can not understand with out reading.

·       ‘With out love intelligence is dangerous’ and with out intelligence love is dangerous.

·       ‘Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity’ but one should have the wisdom to understand the difference between impossible and possible to avoid courting the risk of stupid adventurism.

Capability of embracing an ‘as if’ standpoint

Advent of communication system was both indicator and agents of social change. Local culture which had limited the horizon of the people to local matters constituted the impediment on the way to modern society; therefore, the parochialism had to be supplanted by cosmopolitanism and character change regarded as the correlate of modernization had to be taken place to facilitate the transition from traditional to modern society.

 The introduction of mass media resulted in the education of the public for receptivity to supra-local news; thus creating the forerunner of actual mobility: Sensibility to incorporate new requirements that emerged outside of the familiar experience; signifying the transmutation of the basic self-imagery by which one defines what he is and what he can be. Capability of embracing an ‘as if’ standpoint in relation to new life-forms defined modern personalities as well as capability of adapting, readiness to innovate; and aspirations for upward mobility.       

Mass media acted as mobility multipliers; infusing people with diffused rationality; thus ways of thinking and acting ceased to be articles of faith and became instrument of intention; giving rise to tendencies of evaluating prospects in terms of attainments rather than heritage: Modern man was no longer characterized by personal impotency emanating from fatalism but by a psycho-social complex of norms based on democratic orientation that implied implicit faith on egalitarianism and meritocracy as value concepts.

The psychological basis or mental life of urban individuality was formed on the one hand by his adjustment to the complexity of and the consequent variety of stimulation intrinsic to urban life and on the other by his will to safeguard himself against the threatening currents and discrepancies of external environment. The openness toward innovation and preparedness for new experiences needed the use of initiative which in turn enabled urban man to have a giant leap of imagination while being fully guarded against any endeavors that might conspire against pursuit of Fancy-realization.    

Industrialization annihilated particularisms and brought about psychic dispositions (structure and content of thought) in urban men standing in sharp contrast to one dimensional atrophied personalities of agrarian era due a great deal to socializing effect of factory life that had significant effects on feelings of personal efficacy and attitude towards change and distinguished by the ability to gain reflexive insights into social and political milieu due a great deal to cognitive orientations acquired in working life. 

Social and cultural values are bedrock of norms of behavior and the most prominent source of influence on personalities. Modern societies receive such standards in good part by mass media of communication that channel doses of modern thinking into broader circles of the population; thus allowing media to impose its symbol-world on the recipient who himself is already   under the sway of influences unleashed by urban experience.

Social structure is the function of personality “Satisfaction in yielding to the judgment and wishes of superiors and satisfaction in dominating inferiors; are interwoven in the personality of the simple folk in traditional societies the world over…we may conclude that the structure of traditional society has lasted as long as it has, because the personalities of simple folk are authoritarian.”  

Urbanization, ubiquity of media and contact with technological advances bring about the change in fixation in which formerly looked-up undergoes the withdrawal of status as society grows disinclined to esteem inborn worthwhileness in favor of the one obtained through the business or trade channels.

Urbanization contains within it the unending prospects for political marketing by creating new questions unanswerable by long accepted definitions, by setting new targets, by presenting new challenges. Fluidity of classes fuels the drive to climb up the ladder; the ambitious individuals though never in search of royal road but always to the fast-track route to what they have long coveted. Straddling of globe by media gives broader realm of comparison; and for sustained economic growth, the culture of sustained consumption develops. Package of stimuli is to be designed to re describe social realties in order to transport electorate into his dream land and projective medium is to be breathed with life so that it can mediate political affiliations.