Knowledge at work 4

Media source: Election campaign videos of Congress and BJP
Links: BJP video ad
Congress video ad

The Congress Campaign video, titled 'Jai Ho' - Leaders, takes its name from the song 'Jai Ho' by A.R Rahman, which was in the film "Slumdog Millionaire", which won the Oscars. Since an Indian film winning the oscars is a cause of pride in some Indians (urban Indians - who know about the Oscars), this could be one of the reasons chose this song - to use the emotion of pride to their advantage. The video however, focuses on the "aam aadmi" or common man, and highlights the achievements of past Congress leaders, and how they benefitted the common man. The video shows rural men and women at work, students in a classroom, scientists carrying out experiments, space scientists launching a satellite (with particular reference to the Chandranayan launch) , and a soldier in uniform, among other people. The video later shows four major Congress leaders of the past – Nehru, Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and glorifies them in different ways. The use of History, which is often biased in favour of politicians who were once part of the Independence movement like Nehru, is used so that knowers can generalize that “since past Congress leaders were nationalists, the Congress is a nationalist party”.

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign video is also accompanied by music. Like the Congress video, this video also appeals to the emotions of the knower. The emotion of national pride made to be perceived by the viewer – by the constant depiction of soldiers, army vehicles, and the Pokhran nuclear tests which took place during the rule of the BJP. However, since the Congress is the party in power, various negative emotions are also depicted. In fact, the video begins with a view of slums and the suffering of people during a flood, which instill a sense of sympathy. The family members of those dead in terrorist attacks are shown crying. The music also helps in bringing out the emotions. The words used in the song, which are translated as “What has happened to this country” and “The country that I had thought it(India) was has been lost”, which are accompanied with crying rural people and various people coming for jobs, seeing a “No vacancy” sign. Just like the Congress advertisement in which “Jai Ho” and praises of past leaders in the lyrics of the song are used to emotionally influence the knower, the BJP advertisement too uses language in music to play upon the emotions of the knower.
In an election, the voter has to choose between parties, and this choice is based on the voters’ perception of what each party is capable of doing. The purpose of these videos is undoubtedly to improve the perception of their party in the eyes of the voter, who is the knower. Their reasons behind it is to win the trust of the voter, so that they can gain power. For the voter, the most rational thing to do is vote for the party which they think is willing and able to work for their welfare. However, the fact that the politicians are appealing to emotions is diluting the effect of reason in the decision making process.
In these advertisements, the parties take credit for various national achievements such as India’s first mission to the moon, the Pokhran nuclear test, scientific development, etc. From an ethical perspective, I am forced to question whether they have the right to take credit for such achievements, merely because it occurred during their rule. For example, although ISRO receives funds from the government, the space scientist are carrying out continuous research to launch new satellites. Simply because the launch occurred during a parties rule does not allow the party to take credit for it as it was not directly planned by the government. Demonstrating it in advertisements only influences the emotions of the voter, reducing the role of reason, which in turn leads him to lead a blind eye to the failures or scams of a government.
Using negative advertising to a large extent, especially in the issue of loss of lives due to terrorism, has a similar effect on the knower(voter) , causing him to vote for opposition only because of the weaknesses of the current govt, irrespective of whether the opposition is more capable or less capable of solving their problems (which reason can play a role in finding out) . Thus, Indian democracy will benefit when voters are less easily swayed by emotions, and make their decisions more rationally.

"It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover"

-Poncare

Reflection - 20th April, 09: Intuition

I had heard the word intuition many times, and had a vague idea of what it was, but never understood it clearly. Before attempting a few questions, let me try and define intuition. Intuition can be defined instinctive and unconscious knowing without deduction or reasoning. It is sudden, and no inference is involved in the process of knowing using intuition.

1. If something is intuitively obvious, must everyone agree about it?
There are very few things that are "intuitively obvious" and are agreed upon by everyone. For people to agree on subject-specific and social intuition is very unlikely to be agreed upon. For example one biologist may get the intuition that a particular experiment will give better results if carried out on a particular plant, and another biologist may intuitively feel that it needs to be carried out on another plant. Since intuition cannot be expressed in terms of reason, there is no way one biologist can convince the other; and an agreement cannot be reached on the intuition.
Neither are social intuitions likely to be agreed upon as people rarely have the same intuitions about other people. However, in the case of core intuitions which are perceived to be obvious such as "I exist" and "Life is not a dream" are likely to be agreed upon.

2. Could you be wrong in thinking that something is intuitively obvious?
It is quite possible that a knower is wrong in thinking that something is intuitively obvious. Intuition could be based on biases and prejudices that are rooted in the knower since are long time, and subconsciously play a role in his/her thought process. If other ways of knowing, like reason contradict intiution completely, it is more likely that you could be wrong than when reason and intuition lead to similar conclusions..

3. Whose intuitions should you trust? Are some people's intuitions better than others?
In my opinion, in social and core intuitions, you should trust your own intuitions, as nobody else would be in your shoes have your view-point. However, you should make sure that the intuition does not lead to confirmation bias in ur perception. Be careful, and look out for contradictions to your intuition. However, in the case of subject-specific intuitions, we should surely trust the intuition of an expert in that subject/ area of knowledge to a greater extent than a non-expert.

James Lang Theory

Reflection for 13th April, 2009

What causes emotions? Do emotions affect the physical/physiological state of the knower? Does a change in emotion only occur when someone perceives something through his senses? .... These were just some of the questions that had arisen in my mind in today's class, when i was introduced to the topic of emotion. I then came to know that something called the James Lang Theory existed........

This theory proposes that emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events. According to the theory, you see an external stimulus that leads to a physiological reaction. Your emotional reaction is caused by those physical reactions.

This, at first seemed to be vague. I had always thought that emotions were the cause of the physiological changes - for example sorrow would lead to crying and joy would lead to smiling. Was this theory was suggesting that crying was the cause of sorrow and smiling causes happiness?



Then i realized that this theory must be more valid to internal or involuntary physiological reactions to external stimuli, which could possibly cause emotions. Symptoms like muscular tension, a rise in heart rate, perspiration, and dryness of the mouth could cause certain emotions, dependind on the circumstance. However, the validity of this theory is still doubted..... and many new theories have replaced it which contradict the claim that emotions are caused by physical changes.

Expression and Communication

Based on class discussion on Mon, 16th March.

When I first thought about Expression and Communication, I felt that they were the same thing. I thought they both were the transmission of thoughts, feelings or ideas. However, when i pondered on the two words a little more profoundly, I began to feel that there is some difference between them. I was eager to figure out the difference, but could not succeed immediately.....

Our discussion was based on a handout titled "Expression vs Communication - The Heart of Songwriting." We first explored an example - of a man whose pet gorilla leaves him and runs away with a group of wild apes. This causes an outburst of emotions in the man, and he begins to cry, and tell his story in a frantic manner to a group of locals that he meets. After his long story, he finds out that the locals are unaffected by it. It took him so long to realize that they didnt speak his language, and so didnt understand a word of what he said!! This gave me a clue to what the difference between expression and communication may be. The man was expressing himself when he bloated out his story. However, he wasn't communicating - as the locals failed to understand him.

The handout provided us with a more concrete and specific difference btwn the two. We learnt that expression is a one-way process whereas communication involves both a transmittor and a receptor. Expression is the outward display of what a person is thinking or feeling, it may not be understood by the other person. Communication, on the other hand, is clearly perceived and understood by the other person. Only if a message is received the way it was intended and the meaning understood has communication occured, else it remains expression.

I then began to reflect on these differences, and tried to think what are the differences in the ways of knowledge used in the two. I realized that emotion does play a major role in expression. Emotions such as sorrow (as in the case of the above example), or joy or love or hate can cause a person to transmit his thoughts and ideas, without using reason and perception to confirm whether the other person is receiving the message or is able to comprehend it. The expressor may use his own subjective reasoning to send a message that is not clearly understood by others, for example, modern poets using symbolism that is rarely understood in a precise manner by another person. Expression is also widely used in other Arts, such as paintings, sculptures, and even music where it is based on emotions being experienced by the expressor and his or her perspective (personal beliefs) regarding an issue. Thus, expression is often done for personal satisfaction.

I figured out that Communication deals mainly with language - not merely words, but also sign language, images or codes that are understood by both parties. Communication is used in our day to day life, and plays an extremely important role in every Area of Language. For communication to occur effectively, there needs to be some similarity in the perception of the transmittor and receptor.