The recent Lapid fire which called out a propagandist regime pushing vulgarity as an international piece of art had sent its foot soldiers trying to save face. The nervousness and defensiveness displayed to artistic appraisal only exposes the extent of intellectual and emotional bankruptcy which has set in. What appears vulgar for the rest of the world is insisted to be pleasing and artistic by nationalists. It’s most unfortunate that every criticism which does not conform with the fantasies and delusions of grandeur get stamped as leftist; every debate degenerates into binaries and dichotomous arguments. Had the same comment been made by some local artist, probably a sword wielding mob may have stationed itself outside the venue to lynch him on the pretext of the remark having hurt sentiments and the national pride, while the cops looked away. The lunacy of an authoritarian regime experienced this far is just the tip of the iceberg. The worst can be expected to follow in a year or two.
Coincidentally, the Israeli filmmaker's stinging observation was made at an international film festival hosted in Goa. And as usual in repressive political regimes, it’s outsiders who can see the bluff while the insiders retire into their shells fearing repression and terror tactics by the State machinery. These times are not much different than those when emperor Herod began a hunt to kill the infant who the astrologers predicted was born to be king.
The political crisis, whether in the country or in Goa, is far beyond communalism, corruption and corporate appeasement. If repeated and remorseless betrayals of public trust, cold-blooded attacks on critics, jailing of opponents, exaggerated propaganda on achievements, ducking accountability and transparency, the contempt for public opinion on development policies, the tweaking of laws to win elections at any cost, the shielding of criminals and violators of law and the defiance of the judiciary are not reflective of narcissistic and anti-social personality traits in governance, then what are these?
The increasing global trend of leaders with antisocial personality traits finding their way into positions of political power and triggering real catastrophes for human communities has prompted scientists to understand the ‘political pathology’, which is a recently born branch in political science. The anti-people policies and projects and abuse of power are possibly symptoms of anti-social tendencies in leadership. Just as dysfunctional family roles enable substance addictions, similarly dysfunctional roles unconsciously adopted by citizens to cope in the toxic climate help sustain narcissism and sociopathy in political leadership. This is why the complaining and anger witnessed on the street does not reflect in the electoral outcomes and appear contradictory.
The insights of Bill Eddy, a clinical social worker and author of the book “Why we elect narcissist and sociopaths - And how we can stop”, highlight the manipulations by what he labels as high-conflict politicians (HCPs). He cites 4 reasons why citizens get foxed into electing such leaders, as cited below.
• ‘Seductive personalities of narcissists and sociopaths who learn how to seduce whole populations and are temporarily highly effective to get elected, but end up being harmful in the long-run.
• High-Emotion media, like TV and social media platforms, make it easy for people with extreme personalities to drum up euphoria and grab the most attention without personal grass-root contact with communities, unlike in the past where leaders rose from party workers, unions, NGOs and business houses and gave people ample scope to experience their true personality. In order to generate viewership and subscribers the media is compelled to show-case such exciting faces and voices who talk about conflict, crises, chaos and fear which appeal to public emotions.
• The Fantasy Crisis-Triad is about a pattern followed by HCPs to present a threatening crisis and some evil villain, for instance Maoists and jihadis, which needs an incredible hero who will destroy the villain and solve the crisis ‘with easy all-or-nothing solutions’. The people are left thinking about the fantasy triad instead of analysing the real abilities of such persons, and
• 4-way vote splitter which involves splitting voters into four groups, viz.,
Loving Loyalists that make up 30-40% of the voters, in most cases, who are comfortable with the authoritarian leader and emotionally seduced to the extent that they will defend his U-turn on policies even if he hurts them the day before.
Riled-Up resisters that comprise 10-20% of the voters who intuitively feel the authoritarian leader is a threat to the community and nation’s existence.
Mild moderates could be 30-40% of the voters who are in the middle and can decide elections. They see no sense in the arguments, complaints and protests of the loyalists and resisters.
Disenchanted dropouts who see both the villain and the hero as equally bad and do not vote.’
If the reasons spelt out above sound familiar to our political situation, then the solution to the problem lies first within each one of us as citizens through our political responses. With political candidates spending millions in elections on hiring consultant strategists, AI, surveys and polls to gauge the public mood and give them what they would like to hear, it has become easy for those with anti-social personality traits to get elected with the promise of bringing change. Is it not a contradiction when politicians known to have climbed their way up the social and political ladder by using immoral and unethical means get voted to governments by citizens as the alternative? Merely mocking politicians and screaming on the streets will not impact the HCPs, unless citizens develop a scientific approach and a spirit of inquiry in individual and collective political activity to recognise the leaders with anti-social personality traits.
(The author is a Social Activist.)
https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/Dysfunctional-Citizens%E2%80%99-roles-aiding-antisocial-tendencies-in-governance/198624
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