When it comes to support, the image of some bored billionaire is immediately drawn in the imagination, who, out of an excess of philanthropy and money, provides gratuitous assistance to poor people of art. They usually don't have money. But this is not the only meaning of the word "patronage". This is a more complex phenomenon that permeates a person's entire life.
Meaning
But as always, before discussing a concept, you must first define its meaning. The dictionary gives us three values.
1. Patronage is help and protection for people who have a lower status than their benefactors. Help does not always come from we althy philanthropists, sometimes they are just people with power, but power does not always involve money. Although in the popular mind power and money are inextricably linked.
2. Patronage, as noted just above, is also a form of patronage.
3. When a person is lucky, then you can meet such a turnover:he is supposedly under the protection of fate.
In fact, patronage is what accompanies a person all his life, and there is not a single man or woman who would not have a mentor or mentor at different stages of their life.
School
When a person goes to school, money doesn't play such a big role. But the patronage of high school students is valued above all the treasures in the world. If you imagine that there is a certain boy, weak and frail, then he will certainly need a good friend among the strong and athletic high school students.
University
In a higher educational institution, the situation is approximately the same as in school, only at the next stage of education, people have been selected and want to learn and have the knowledge, skills and abilities that will be useful to them in real life. At school, let's be honest, not many people have a desire to learn. The higher education institution collects the cream. And there the role of patronage of peers has already been reduced to a minimum, much more important is the patronage of the teaching staff. The respect of teachers in this case must be earned by diligent study. But even in this case, patronage is a mandatory part of the program only for those who are planning an academic career, and for the rest such support is optional. You can call the time of study at a university relatively free from all kinds of benefactors, if a person does not set himself ambitious goals.
Career
When a person is harnessed to the so-called adult life, he immediatelyfeels the need for connections, that is, contacts that could bring him certain bonuses and advantages.
Someone might ask: “That's all well and good, but what does patronage have to do with it? We have already figured out the meaning of the word! Exactly. Therefore, it is necessary to reveal the essence of the phenomenon, but how to cope with such a task, if you do not look into the turbulent stream of life, which nevertheless lends itself to a certain standardization.
It would seem that it would be nice to have a good job, quality medical care and other benefits of civilization. But the thing is that every time a person is given a favor, big or small, one way or another they expect reciprocity from him. If, for example, a woman goes to a qualified doctor through an acquaintance, and then pays him money, then there is no problem. Everyone gets what they want. Such a service can hardly be called patronage.
But how to pay for a good job when a person receives it from the hands of superiors? We're getting close to the dark side of patronage.
Don Corleone and his "friends"
Everyone who has read Mario Puzo's masterpiece "The Godfather" or watched its film adaptation remembers that many people asked the head of the mafia for something. Vito Corleone almost always said, “Okay. But one day you will do me one favor.” It goes without saying that this request cannot be refused.
Think it's dangerous to borrow only from the bigwigs of the underworld? Not! Borrowing should not be done from any person in authority and superior in anysense. No wonder the words of M. A. Bulgakov in the novel “The Master and Margarita” are immortal. "Never ask for anything, especially from those who are stronger than you." I would just like to say that even if offers come from the powers that be, they should not be accepted, because this could be a trap.
So what, completely refuse patronage? No, but you need to choose your "defenders" with the greatest care, so as not to regret it later.
But let's leave this difficult topic. The main thing is that we have clarified the essence of the concept of “patronage”. What it means is now known to the reader.
