Si-acum desenul in cuvintele….altcuiva:
"The only feeling that anyone can have about an event he does not experience
is the feeling aroused by his mental image of that event. That is why until we
know what others think they know, we cannot truly understand their acts. I have
seen a young girl, brought up in a Pennsylvania
mining town, plunged suddenly from entire cheerfulness into a paroxysm of grief
when a gust of wind cracked the kitchen window-pane. For hours she was
inconsolable, and to me incomprehensible. But when she was able to talk, it
transpired that if a window-pane broke it meant that a close relative had died.
She was, therefore, mourning for her father, who had frightened her into
running away from home. The father was, of course, quite thoroughly alive as a
telegraphic inquiry soon proved. But until the telegram came, the cracked glass
was an authentic message to that girl. Why it was authentic only a prolonged
investigation by a skilled psychiatrist could show. But even the most casual
observer could see that the girl, enormously upset by her family troubles, had
hallucinated a complete fiction out of one external fact, a remembered
superstition, and a turmoil of remorse, and fear and love for her father.
[...]
In all these instances we must note particularly one common factor. It is
the insertion between man and his environment of a pseudo-environment. To that
pseudo-environment his behavior is a response. But because it is
behavior, the consequences, if they are acts, operate not in the
pseudo-environment where the behavior is stimulated, but in the real
environment where action eventuates. If the behavior is not a practical act,
but what we call roughly thought and emotion, it may be a long time before
there is any noticeable break in the texture of the fictitious world. But when
the stimulus of the pseudo-fact results in action on things or other people,
contradiction soon develops. Then comes the sensation of butting one’s head
against a stone wall, of learning by experience, and witnessing Herbert
Spencer’s tragedy of the murder of a Beautiful Theory by a Gang of Brutal
Facts, the discomfort in short of a maladjustment. For certainly, at the level
of social life, what is called the adjustment of man to his environment takes
place through the medium of fictions.
By fictions I do not mean lies. I mean a representation of the environment
which is in lesser or greater degree made by man himself. The range of fiction
extends all the way from complete hallucination to the scientists’ perfectly
self-conscious use of a schematic model, or his decision that for his
particular problem accuracy beyond a certain number of decimal places is not
important. A work of fiction may have almost any degree of fidelity, and so
long as the degree of fidelity can be taken into account, fiction is not
misleading. In fact, human culture is very largely the selection, the
rearrangement, the tracing of patterns upon, and the stylizing of, what William
James called "the random irradiations and resettlements of our
ideas."(8)
The alternative to the use of fictions is direct exposure to the ebb and flow
of sensation. That is not a real alternative, for however refreshing it is to
see at times with a perfectly innocent eye , innocence itself is not wisdom,
though a source and corrective of wisdom. For the real environment is
altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We
are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many
permutations and combinations. And although we have to act in that environment,
we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage with it. To
traverse the world men must have maps of the world. Their persistent difficulty
is to secure maps on which their own need, or someone else’s need, has not
sketched in the coast of Bohemia.
The analyst of public opinion must begin then,
by recognizing the triangular relationship between the scene of action, the
human picture of that scene, and the human response to that picture working
itself out upon the scene of action. "
Pt cei care au avut rabdarea admirabila de a citi cateva scurte paragrafe trebuie sa dezvalui evident motivul "ascuns" pt kre am folosit ghilimelele: acest text este unul al lui Walter Lippmann, o personalitate interbelica foarte insemnata in SUA si cu o importanta deosebita pt studiul opiniei publice. Odata cu aparitia si dezvoltarea presei (incepand cu epoca penny-paper-ului, ziare fff ieftine si multe deci) a aparut bineinteles intrebarea: ce ne facem cu opinia publica????? Lippmann este printre primii care s-a asezat la o masuta confortabila si-a inceput sa scrie cam care ar fi treaba cu aceasta.
De ce am ales aceste pasaje? Simplu: pt ca, studiindu-le pt un seminar, am ramas cu paharul de wiskey in mana… plin…si mi-am dat seama inca o data cat de pacatoase sunt imaginile astea din mintea noastra atunci cand nu suntem noi constienti de faptul ca unele dintre ele sunt construite pt noi de presa, TV, cam tot ce inseamna mass-media.
Cred ca printre primele mele insemnari am consemnat acest lucru, acest parazitism al mintilor noastre pe ale altora care din intamplare ne construiesc noua "realitatea" (pseudo-environment-ul la Lippmann, care explica mult mai frumos decat mine).
Nu am mai scris de ceva timp si probabil ca o revenire la inceputuri era poate cel mai clar mod de a convinge ca nu sunt decat roata a unei biciclete BMX .
ps: pt cei interesati de textul lui Lippmann, are si un capitol despre stereotipuri, care este nici mai mult nici mai putin decat o capsuna maaare si dulce, iata un link .. albastru: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Lippman/contents.html
ps2: astept parerile oricui!
: 
… eu n-am avut
) iti alegi un
