David Hume, the Scottish philosopher advocated a very interesting hypothesis. According to him, what ever ideas that get generated in a human mind are solely because of the interplay of ones senses, i.e., sight, smell, touch, taste, hear. And to prove this he gave the following example.
Immediately after the child is born, keep it(sic) in a completely secluded place. Drug the body so that it is perpetually in the state of comatose and somehow make sure that all his five senses are never utilized, even once.(Don't forget to feed intravenously).
Now after the body has reached a certain physical age - let say nineteen, do you think it is possible that the mind has some sort of an idea in it? Even a grain of a one. Does the brain have any incoherent picture even?
Hume says no, It's not possible. The mind is bound to be completely blank.
Ergo, any idea or opinion that has inherently percolated in our mind is nothing but an extension of those senses which have prevailed in us.
SPIN DOCTORS:
Now the key word to contemplate in the above passage - Prevailed.(Yeah alright, took us a long time, but what matters' is we are finally there).
Achoo! aaggh. - Now what does this tell you.
For starters, the most obvious thing, that I might be down with a cold. Maybe I am too perceptible to it'cuz this is not the hay fever season. Implies that I might even have sinus. Stretching the imagination a bit, it might also be possible that somebody/something am allergic to might be next to me.(Heck my granny used to say if somebody suddenly remembers you, it makes you sneeze).
But suppose, it's not in my personal interest to let you know that I have cold, (maybe it would scare away all my potential girl-friends out there), So I start spreading that I had been in fact sitting in my uncle's safe and that sneeze was on account of all the accumulated gold dust in there. Does this sound plausible? Well.
And before I give you a chance to think, I bombard all the contact points that you have with the outside world(TV, magazines) with lots of images, news/talk shows, even hire a Bollywood top hero(home trade?) to drum and harp that I had indeed been lolling around in my Uncle's safe and that it's the coolest thing these days, would you believe me now?
Ummm.
Oh - Yeah, Now What? - do I shake a leg to that.
No, instead beat your meat. There was this famous photo where Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were shown spiking the American flag on the zit like surface of the moon. A historical moment caught fleetingly on the paper forever. While the froth was still bubbling somebody pointed out -* how come the flag is fluttering when there is no air(atmosphere) on moon?
Though nobody could(or can) take off the sheen from the'.A giant step for mankind' moment, doubts were still cast on whether NASA had actually sent a man up there.(Or did it stage the whole thing in a Hollywood studio? I see Jessica Lynch nod)
The argument was plausible because viewed in the context of Cold War, where USSR had already stolen the thunder by sending a human in outer space first, (and bringing him back alive too) probably made States desperate to win the race to conquer Moon.(Both were heavily into flexing their tech-prowess. Who's better, the free world or those behind the Iron curtain)
Nevertheless, casting aside all the hearsays and bush whacking, this event was single handedly responsible for shaping up positive opinion among the Americans and the world at large, that they were really the best out there.
(Manhattan project, i.e. the nuclear development program could never equal the Moon event in terms of wow-awe-gape funk which unfolded straight in front of the viewers' eyes)
What I have just spoken about is probably the first ever case of opinion-shaping undertaken on such a grand scale. Sort of mass hypnotism.
Speaking of closer home, how can anybody not know about the impact of cable TVs on Kargil war. I read in India Today that Capt. Vikram Batra was among Top 5 regarding some popularity or something poll conducted. Would this have been possible had media not played such a pivotal role.
I don't think so, and newspapers could have never had the same effect as the visually appealing '.yeh Dil maange more' war cry of the Capt.
In Black & White:
What do you think of the Jallianwala Massacre?
What we read about this event in our school history books comes immediately and foremost in our minds. Majority of us will refer to Gen. Dyer as the scum of the earth.
We can safely say here, that the history book was responsible to some extent in shaping our opinion about this event.
On the other hand, a little bit research would reveal that during those days in Amritsar, riots were dime a dozen. Also a hapless missionary, Miss Sherwood; some where in the age group of 60, while traversing a congested neighborhood in the city was abducted and mercilessly beaten up by the locals. This incident and the general lawlessness infuriated the British and a strict rule was imposed against any sort of assemblage in the city.
Now in spite of the order of the day, that meeting was called and proceeded with. Already the British were seething & emotionally charged up, and when the laid down rule was disobeyed, Dyer knew he had to do something to'.teach a lesson', as he put it.
What happened next, we all know. It is well covered in our text - books. But they had also forgotten to mention that popular newspapers of those times, like Telegraph(Calcutta), had endorsed the Gen.'s action. In this the Gen. also got support from the housewives of his home country, who formed a fund to compensate him after he was relegated from his services in India.
I am not trying to tell you what is right or wrong, (you go and find that out for yourself), but only that the written word has a lot of power in shaping up what we feel or think about something or someone. And collectively that feeling may morph into a potent force, ending up changing the world.
As you shall see it happening real time in my case. I already have this subjective feeling, pertaining to gastronomy rising all through this ever so slowly in me. By the time you finish reading these lines, the feeling would have slowly morphed itself into absolute action and I'll be well on my way to down the second of those cheese mixed with deli pickle sandwiches.
Shifting on to kinesthesia, I feel a belch coming already. But I have a feeling we'll not be dwelling much on that.
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Talk about missed opportunities in life. Shucks.
