What type of a leader (PM) we need ?

Many of us have a dream. Even I have one.

My dream goes like this :

Had I been the PM of India !
 

Rajan C Mathew

The NAMO Brigade seems to have taken over the space for any civilized discourse. The answer obviously is 'No one wants such a divisive karyakarta to even come in the consideration set for the post of the P.M. ?

R Saroja - I agree that it's problematic to use specific medical terms (neurotic, etc.) when speaking about whole groups and ideologies - perhaps it is not helpful : - )

And good for you, sharing the skies with those children.  It's your way of doing desh seva and I salute you.

 Zafar,

There is a lot of misconception about mental illness. Some of them are clearly medical involving imbalance of certain chemicals in the brain eg epilepsy or hearing voices. Some of them are like dementia again have medical origin and some stroke patients or those with tumours in some part of brain or people with head injuries some times show behavioural problems. Clearly medical origin.

Now we have a tendency to think that if a person is involved in serious crime let us say like the mass murderer , the Norwegian Killer Anders Breivik, he must be mentally ill. Anyway doctors agreed that he was OK and fit to stand trial. Sure such a person has a serious problem but that is not medical. it is cultural, social and behavioural, lack of proper social training ?! Much has been written about the banality or commonplaceness  of these evil doers who are otherwise indistinguishable from others.

Let me give an extreme example. You probably will agree that cutting open another human being is depraved and probably those who do that have something not OK with them, some hidden anxiety blah blah. But there is a class of such people whom we accept in our social circles happily -- surgeons. Of course they go through training. I have an aunt who routinely does many surgeries but can not give a simple injection to close family members.

And there are things that we may not do alone but do when there is a group or crowd that applauds us, inhibitions are lowered in company. An acknowledgement of this fact is Sec 144 ( imposition of curfew) when there is tension. 

The effect of ideologies on what we are and what we do is often underplayed. We must debate and discuss ideas and opinions without denying the humanity of our opponents. 

If you have held a few day old baby and made faces at it slowly you would have seen that he/she imitates you. I find that babies are dead serious about learning. What makes a baby realise that there is something common between her and the person holding her? It is an inborn instinct - projection. By projecting the image of a person inside us, conversing with that image, we soak what we see as the essence of that person. I am referring to what is commonly understood as hero worshipping. We do that to our parents, teachers etc. and soak their personalities inside us. eg It is not unsual for children to have their parents' mannerisms. There is a converse of this process when we project aspect of ourselves on outside world, on other persons, and we do not see this projection as  part of us but as other. It happens all the time, parents project themselves,their aspirations on their children, most people have a favourite child on whom projection is strongest. It is part of living, part of growing up. 

Sometimes the projection is negative and is called shadow projection. Again it is part of growing up, we quarrel with our siblings ,make up.

Bura jo dekhan mein chala, bura na miliya koye

Jo dil khojun aapna, mujhse bura na koye

This shadow projection helps us in understanding what is good and evil, what is acceptable and what is not. In a trial, eg more than the victim and the criminal are involved. The crime itself is named even if the accused is acquitted.

Trouble starts when this process goes out of hand and an entire group is seen as carrying some characteristics by some other group. I see no other option except bringing more and more information which challenges the projection (eg give data abt prevelance of bigamy among various groups) and giving voice to people who carry the identity of both the groups (eg there are people who use both Bihari and Marathi equally well, so why this anti north Indian bashing? 

There will always be youngsters who want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Engage them. I have a small telescope. Because of the city light not much can be seen,but I show the children around the craters of moon, jupiter and some of its moons, saturn and its ring,.....They are as thrilled as I was when I was their age. A simple magnifying lens opens entire world for them. That is my solution. 

Zafar,

I must apologize. This psycho analysis is not a science. It is more like literary criticism. Every psychologist has his/her own meaning for terms like neurosis,psyche, masculine, feminine, ego, unconscious etc. I have something very definite in my mind but I should use some other words to describe not private words with private meanings. Lot of psychoanalysis is anyway only word play. Good novels or mythology capture the meaning better. Drop this whole thing about neurosis.

Please read my post # 67. It and the link within has suggestions about what can be done (panel discussions) . and educate people about rural economy (considering beef/pork issue ). 

If you look at primitive cultures they are characterised by phallic worship and worship of mother goddesses. In any culture if you find something ritually unclean, if you go back in time, you will find that the same thing was sacred. eg pig, because of its fecundity was a symbol of mother goddess and hence sacred. Later when this meaning is forgotten, it becomes dirty. Similarly, woman seen as the source of life is sacred. The same woman also becomes dirty and is to be hidden. Now everyone tells women what and how to dress. Those who torture and sexually mutilate the "other" may have no problem in their personal life & no personal sexual anxiety. I will write more later tonight or tomorrow. Yes it is important to discuss and what I have to offer is only a private view.