So, I discovered today that certain somebodies in the 18th century British society decided one fine day that they were going to redeem their society of all its dull wit and excite the spirits of what can only assumed to be a rather fatigued lot. They felt the need to publish a set of essays that would be read by a certain class of people with the the objective of making it "part of the tea-equipage." Together they undertook the lofty responsibility that would require them "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality..."
The two gentlemen being referred to in the above lines are Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. They were powerful icons and undoubtedly two individuals who were crucial in the process of shaping what their society's intellectual collective came to be. They were admittedly yet subtly; and rather remarkably prescriptive in these journals, which were known as Tatler and The Spectator. Prescriptive of the code of conduct, philosophical debates to be carried out and perhaps much more than we can even fathom. The journals were seems as educative in many ways and the gentlemen achieved what they claimed to have aimed for - "to bring philosophy out of the closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffeehouses."
This discovery of this fact made me slightly queasy. Imagine the kind of control the then-society allowed publishers and authors to have over their social and intellectual lives. Being led by a set of individuals and letting them steering your train of thought - what a grave violation! Permitting them to twitch the society's rationality as per their personal aims and ideals made me sympathetic towards the readers of these papers/journals. What a crazy thing it sounds like , to allow oneself to be influenced by something that a set of people should influence them -heh- Wait. What?
And these were the exact thoughts that led to realize that WE are subjects to the exact same cerebral tyranny. Simply that the two minds have been replaced by fancy, layered, structured organizations. And the mediums have developed and changed to great extent. The crux, however, remains that the black and white letters that we lay our eyes on on a regular basis (think newspaper!) are ultimately popularizing their own interests and preferences. They create an image of what they feel should be, which is usually something obviously admirable. What is most admirable is liked by people, evidently. That then, becomes the idealised for the masses. And this merely perpetuates the conceptions of perfection in the minds of people, rather than allowing it room to grow and evolve.
It has, as Russell Peters and other great men have often claimed, been put in our heads by the Media! Articles, adverts, analysis and editorials, are , if we consider the larger perspective, somewhat prescriptive and expect their audience to mould them according to their representations of reality.
And let us just face it kids, we almost always do.
Just saying.
Excuse me, I must get back to reading the papers now.
The two gentlemen being referred to in the above lines are Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. They were powerful icons and undoubtedly two individuals who were crucial in the process of shaping what their society's intellectual collective came to be. They were admittedly yet subtly; and rather remarkably prescriptive in these journals, which were known as Tatler and The Spectator. Prescriptive of the code of conduct, philosophical debates to be carried out and perhaps much more than we can even fathom. The journals were seems as educative in many ways and the gentlemen achieved what they claimed to have aimed for - "to bring philosophy out of the closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffeehouses."
This discovery of this fact made me slightly queasy. Imagine the kind of control the then-society allowed publishers and authors to have over their social and intellectual lives. Being led by a set of individuals and letting them steering your train of thought - what a grave violation! Permitting them to twitch the society's rationality as per their personal aims and ideals made me sympathetic towards the readers of these papers/journals. What a crazy thing it sounds like , to allow oneself to be influenced by something that a set of people should influence them -heh- Wait. What?
And these were the exact thoughts that led to realize that WE are subjects to the exact same cerebral tyranny. Simply that the two minds have been replaced by fancy, layered, structured organizations. And the mediums have developed and changed to great extent. The crux, however, remains that the black and white letters that we lay our eyes on on a regular basis (think newspaper!) are ultimately popularizing their own interests and preferences. They create an image of what they feel should be, which is usually something obviously admirable. What is most admirable is liked by people, evidently. That then, becomes the idealised for the masses. And this merely perpetuates the conceptions of perfection in the minds of people, rather than allowing it room to grow and evolve.
It has, as Russell Peters and other great men have often claimed, been put in our heads by the Media! Articles, adverts, analysis and editorials, are , if we consider the larger perspective, somewhat prescriptive and expect their audience to mould them according to their representations of reality.
And let us just face it kids, we almost always do.
Just saying.
Excuse me, I must get back to reading the papers now.
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