#TLATOS (The Lives And Times Of Sentiments) --- SynTalk

SynTalk thinks about collective sentiments and its antipode, Reason, and constantly wonders if this historically naturalised dichotomy is perhaps at the root of the phenomenon of ‘hurt sentiments’. We simultaneously wonder if the realm of sentiments and affect have somehow been pathologised. The concepts are derived off / from Abhinavagupta, Plato, Descartes, Hume, Dayanand Saraswati, Marx, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Samuel Huntington, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, & Woody Allen (off Emily Dickinson), among others. Is it possible to create spaces for dialogue and ‘ruthless criticism of everything existing’? Is sentiment ever hurt spontaneously, or is it always constructed, and how do sentiments get their collective force? Where do sentiments and cultural common sense begin to develop, and what are the linkages with childhood, neighborhood, family, religion, media, vigilantism, capitalism, & the State. Which is a better path: tolerance, or dialogical curiosity? Why is reason never hurt? How there are many ways of describing everything. The special status of religious sentiments, given the claim of sanctity from a transcendental source (beyond rationality & argumentation), and their ability to articulate aggressive sentiments. Is every religion also a social and political power structure? Why (paradoxically) the UK Government could not prosecute Salman Rushdie (for Satanic Verses) for blasphemy. How the sanctity of the human life is above any hurt sentiment. Is offence for offence fine, and is offence a part of the right of expression? Is the realm of creative expression characteristically different? How the pogroms, riots, & ‘women being pulled by their hair out of a pub’ become mediatized events, & the sometimes-cynical-sometimes-critical-sometimes-partial role played by the media. Can / should the State act as a buffer zone between opposing sentiments? The need to listen fearlessly. Should diversity be seen as a universal human value? Is there a need for renegotiated and renewed sense of universal human values. The need for laws which can be critiqued and rejected or accepted in the public sphere. Is the future bleak for the spirit of negation and questioning? Is a different future dependent on a different political order? What is the future of nationalistic sentiments. The need for “Hope” (the thing with feathers), which needs no reason. The SynTalkrs are: Prof. Purushottam Agrawal (cultural history, literature, ex-JNU, Delhi), Prof. Anjali Monteiro (media studies, documentary film making, TISS, Mumbai), & Geeta Seshu (journalism, The Hoot, Mumbai).