The idea of a teacher: paradigms of change

The focus of the article is the ‘idea’ of a teacher; not just the proactive role teachers play in inculcating creative traits in students but the meaning of a teacher within an institution. Is the idea of a teacher a dated notion of a paternalistic figure playing the role of transmitter of values from a mainstream social order to students in classrooms who are relearning what has already been given to them within the confines of a home? Have teachers been made redundant in the era of Internet technologies where information along with critical interpretations have taken an impersonal character and students are less inclined to be influenced by one dominant way of thinking? Although information is democratized to include wider sections of people, there is no basis to subscribe to the notion that people are more open-minded than in earlier times. The argument applies to the idea of a teacher as well: while corporatization at a global level has reduced the role of a teacher to teaching what is useful in fulfilling the requirements of the free market, the resistance of students to tailored worldviews is greater than ever before. There are changing paradigms of the idea of a teacher while there are also paradigms of change that teachers could espouse to bring about social and political transformation. My paper deals with the dynamics of imagining such a transformation

Revolutionary medicine: a response to corporatizing healthcare in India

This article explores Che Guevara’s notion of “revolutionarymedicine” and how it is imperative to challenge the corporatizationof healthcare in a developing nation such as India where millionslive under subhuman conditions owing to lack of basic necessitiesthat constitute any definition of a human life. With the corporatizationof healthcare the deprivation gets further magnified creatingthe grounds for a social revolution. The notion of “revolutionary medicine”helps us analyze the role of corporatization of healthcare infurthering the haves-havenots divide, the need for nationalization ofhealthcare, the possibilities of a social revolution and the role of arevolutionary doctor in changing the order.Political institutions are formed upon the consideration ofwhat will frequently tend to the good of the whole, although now andthen exceptions may occur. Thus it is better in general that a nation should have a supreme legislative power, although it may at times beabused. And then, Sir, there is this consideration, that if the abuse benumerous, Nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturna corrupt political system.” James Boswell: Life of Johnso

A construção da modernidade: violência e revolução social no contexto do sul da Ásia

The article examines the interrelationship between violence and modernity in the South Asian context. A social revolution is neither spontaneous nor is it a carefully planned project with a timeline prepared in advance keeping the political situation in mind. There are objective conditions to be met for any large-scale social transformation; apart from those conditions, the role of human intervention must be emphasized for change to be realized. The central argument of the article is that in the context of mass poverty it becomes imperative for the poor to come together and revolt with the intention of acquiring material gains resulting from economic growth. To what extent do victims of class society feel the need to revolt against their oppressors is an open question. The fact, however, is that there is a potential for revolution built into the nature of the oppression. Where the poor are in a vast majority, there is an authentic possibility that a spark is enough to create a chain reaction leading to changes along various levels. It is important to examine seemingly unrelated situations where a group of people fighting for an immediate cause are able to make their point through organized struggles. The paper examines the South Asian region where colonial contradictions are intertwined with structural inequalities in order to understand what the poor do in the process of revolting against an unequal condition; how they are able to modernize themselves through the use of violence that is paradoxically emerging as a result of a lop-sided modernity.O presente artigo examina a inter-relação entre violência e modernidade no contexto do sul da Ásia. Uma revolução social não é nem espontânea nem é um projeto cuidadosamente planejado, com uma linha do tempo preparada com antecedência, mantendo a situação política em mente. Existem condições objetivas a serem atendidas para qualquer transformação social em larga escala; além dessas condições, o papel da intervenção humana deve ser enfatizado para que a mudança seja realizada. O argumento central do artigo é que, no contexto da pobreza em massa, torna-se imperativo que os pobres se unam e se revoltem com a intenção de adquirir ganhos materiais resultantes do crescimento econômico. Até que ponto as vítimas das sociedades de classe sentem a necessidade de se revoltar contra seus opressores é uma questão em aberto. O fato, no entanto, é que existe um potencial de revolução incorporado à natureza da opressão. Onde os pobres são a grande maioria, há uma possibilidade real de que uma faísca seja suficiente para criar uma reação em cadeia que leve a mudanças ao longo de vários níveis. É importante examinar situações aparentemente não relacionadas em que um grupo de pessoas que lutam por uma causa imediata seja capaz de defender suas idéias através de lutas organizadas. O artigo examina a região do sul da Ásia, onde as contradições coloniais estão entrelaçadas com as desigualdades estruturais, a fim de entender o que os pobres fazem no processo de se revoltar contra uma condição desigual; como eles são capazes de se modernizar através do uso da violência que está paradoxalmente emergindo como resultado de uma modernidade desequilibrad

Imagining the Community of Beggars and Homeless: Constructing the Paradigmatic Third World City

Movies like Slumdog Millionaire (2008) made in an orientalist mode where knowledge is the power to define how the others live construct the third world city, Mumbai in this case, for the benefit of the western gaze; the gaze that shows the city as not only practically unlivable but also dirty, dysfunctional and dangerous on a day-to-day basis; contrarily, movies produced primarily for Indian diasporas living abroad especially in the West and the Indian middle classes show India as a nation with western-style development where you don’t necessarily have to confront poverty and homelessness.My argument is that both the points of view are neo-colonial in character with a strong classist dimension because they are either representative of what the western bourgeoisie expects to see in the third world or how the nationalist bourgeoisie, which Franz Fanon views as the complementary other of the west, would like to present itself to the Eurocentric gaze. Both are deeply exclusionary in how they construct the paradigmatic third world city.My paper intends to examine the politics of exclusion that goes into defining cities like Mumbai and Delhi; the beggars and the homeless not only occupy the landscape of the senses but they also define the “physical” experience of belonging to the city; while their marginalization by mainstream media and film makers is deliberate the fact remains that no one forgets the smells of street life made possible through the existence of the poor who, although rendered invisible, define the stage through their presence as working classes

A construção da modernidade: violência e revolução social no contexto do sul da Ásia

The article examines the interrelationship between violence and modernity in the South Asian context. A social revolution is neither spontaneous nor is it a carefully planned project with a timeline prepared in advance keeping the political situation in mind. There are objective conditions to be met for any large-scale social transformation; apart from those conditions, the role of human intervention must be emphasized for change to be realized. The central argument of the article is that in the context of mass poverty it becomes imperative for the poor to come together and revolt with the intention of acquiring material gains resulting from economic growth. To what extent do victims of class society feel the need to revolt against their oppressors is an open question. The fact, however, is that there is a potential for revolution built into the nature of the oppression. Where the poor are in a vast majority, there is an authentic possibility that a spark is enough to create a chain reaction leading to changes along various levels. It is important to examine seemingly unrelated situations where a group of people fighting for an immediate cause are able to make their point through organized struggles. The paper examines the South Asian region where colonial contradictions are intertwined with structural inequalities in order to understand what the poor do in the process of revolting against an unequal condition; how they are able to modernize themselves through the use of violence that is paradoxically emerging as a result of a lop-sided modernity.O presente artigo examina a inter-relação entre violência e modernidade no contexto do sul da Ásia. Uma revolução social não é nem espontânea nem é um projeto cuidadosamente planejado, com uma linha do tempo preparada com antecedência, mantendo a situação política em mente. Existem condições objetivas a serem atendidas para qualquer transformação social em larga escala; além dessas condições, o papel da intervenção humana deve ser enfatizado para que a mudança seja realizada. O argumento central do artigo é que, no contexto da pobreza em massa, torna-se imperativo que os pobres se unam e se revoltem com a intenção de adquirir ganhos materiais resultantes do crescimento econômico. Até que ponto as vítimas das sociedades de classe sentem a necessidade de se revoltar contra seus opressores é uma questão em aberto. O fato, no entanto, é que existe um potencial de revolução incorporado à natureza da opressão. Onde os pobres são a grande maioria, há uma possibilidade real de que uma faísca seja suficiente para criar uma reação em cadeia que leve a mudanças ao longo de vários níveis. É importante examinar situações aparentemente não relacionadas em que um grupo de pessoas que lutam por uma causa imediata seja capaz de defender suas idéias através de lutas organizadas. O artigo examina a região do sul da Ásia, onde as contradições coloniais estão entrelaçadas com as desigualdades estruturais, a fim de entender o que os pobres fazem no processo de se revoltar contra uma condição desigual; como eles são capazes de se modernizar através do uso da violência que está paradoxalmente emergindo como resultado de uma modernidade desequilibrad

LiBRI Journal - Noam Chomsky: Post-structural Anarchist

ABSTRACT Noam Chomsky (an essentialist who subscribes to the Cartesian notion of the mind) is one of the most articulate of modern intellectuals. This essay attempts to unravel the connection between Chomsky’s notion of language as connected to an innate device in the mind and the making of an anarchist society based on the libertarian philosophy of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Thoreau, Orwell and Russell. Who is a libertarian and how is s/he different from a liberal and what is her connection with language? Is there a human nature or is it a political discourse that is, in essence, libertarian? How does Chomsky’s view of human nature apply to women, children, gays, lesbians and other minority groups? What has language to do with human nature? In a fundamental way, we attempted to read in Chomsky’s writings a connection between language as human nature and anarchy as a philosophy of social transformation. The focus of this essay is to show how Chomsky opens himself to a post-structural reading which involves reading a text at multiple levels - in this case, Chomsky as a language theorist, libertarian socialist, essentialist and political critic - and examine the strands of similarity that run through his writings that for short of a better word could be termed a Chomskyean world-view

LiBRI Journal - Noam Chomsky: Post-structural Anarchist

<i>Abstract</i><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Noam Chomsky (an essentialist who subscribes to the Cartesian notion of the mind) is one of the most articulate of modern intellectuals. This essay attempts to unravel the connection between Chomsky’s notion of language as connected to an innate device in the mind and the making of an anarchist society based on the libertarian philosophy of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Thoreau, Orwell and Russell. Who is a libertarian and how is s/he different from a liberal and what is her connection with language? Is there a human nature or is it a political discourse that is, in essence, libertarian? How does Chomsky’s view of human nature apply to women, children, gays, lesbians and other minority groups? What has language to do with human nature? In a fundamental way, I attempted to read in Chomsky’s writings a connection between language as human nature and anarchy as a philosophy of social transformation. The focus of this essay is to show how Chomsky opens himself to a post-structural reading which involves reading a text at multiple levels in this case Chomsky as a language theorist, libertarian socialist, essentialist and political critic -- and examine the strands of similarity that run through his writings that for short of a better word could be termed a Chomskyean world-view.<br></div><div><br></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Learn more about the paper at:</b></div><div><b>https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/libri/article/view/84</b><br></div