A full circle

Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Documentary; 2019) 

 Based on the book written by Thomas Piketty.

We started in the pre-Industrial Revolution with a significant disparity between the haves and have nots. Under the feudal system, there were the extremely wealthy landowners and the dirt poor peasants. The inequality between the two was phenomenal. The poor simply cannot work their way to become rich. It is humanly impossible. One has to be born with a silver spoon to own capital. Alternatively, one has to be married into one, like in the many fairytales and novels of the yesteryears. 1% of the world population owned 70% of the world's wealth.

The divide between the affluent and the impoverished became more apparent. This triggered the exodus of people from Europe to newer lands like Australia and the USA and took them over. The emigrants replicated their master's strategy of wealth acquisition. They used slaves, a form of movable property, as collateral and capital to generate more land and wealth.

When machines rolled in during the Industrial Revolution, people were just replaced, creating the same kind of impoverished people as they had before. Businesses flourished. Mass production of goods by machines needed a market. Fashion designing, haute culture, gift-giving, splurging during festivities was popularised. Businessmen accumulate wealth.

Nationalism reeked in as inequality reared its ugly head. People forgot about their poverty and stood steadfast behind the banner of nationhood. Industries fanned this by churning out weapons and starting military competition amongst nations to start wars. Now the elites are also the one who controls the narrative at the international level. Again, the same schism morphed between the rich and the poor, the 1% owning 70% of the wealth.

The world wars that came about were actually equalisers that jolted the inequality. Capitalism was held accountable for the catastrophe. It seems that on the cusp of death, humanity appeared more critical. Everyone is equal in fear of death. In rolled in heavy State involvement in nation-building. Cradle-to-tomb benefits were handed out to societies. The working class and women demand their place in society. For the first time in human history, an individual could climb up the social ladder through education and hard work.

Anti-capitalist protesters - St Paul's Cathedral, London, 2011. 
Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Europe

Actually, during the wars, capital was only marginally lost. Some were used to finance the war, whilst some were retrieved later. With the euphoria of peace and the push to spur economies, many manoeuvres were put into place to help big corporations be in the role of what the aristocrats used to fill.
Resentment grew again. Wage did not expand in proportion to the increased cost of living. The increase in union strikes and demand for entitlement did not help either. Labour was no longer an asset but the expense of doing business. The welfare state was just too costly.

We are now in a world where greed is good. The poor are handout loans for which they are not creditworthy. The lust for luxurious, opulent and decadent lifestyles lure the ill-prepared to dream of the impossible to plunge them into more misery than mired in. On the other hand, the wealthy has the four corners of the world to hide their treasures. Using creative accounting and the intelligent use of international off-shore banking, 85% of the world's wealth is just floating around without generating any benefit to the needy.
On the other hand, it generates more income for them. Tax evasion manoeuvres are helped via cash-strapped tax havens in banana republics. The problem with these havens is that their local populace does not benefit from these transactions. They remain poor. They do not have to fear economic downturns as history has shown that bail-outs can be arranged.

Relationship between per capita national income
 and the degree of inequality in income distribution

Capitalism started out unequal, flattened inequality 

for much of the 20th century, but is now headed back

towards Dickensian levels of inequality worldwide.

Only 15% of the world wealth is spent to create a beneficial trickle-down effect to the not-so-wealthy 99%. The 'baby boomers' had it good. With the post-war prosperity and ability to acquire wealth, they can enjoy the fruit of their labour in their twilight years if they had done so. Meanwhile, the Millenials has it bad. With the rung of the social ladder getting wider and having had to finance their own education, they may spend their whole life in debt. They may not afford to own a roof over their head like their predecessors. The gig economy that they find satisfying puts them in a precarious position. They are not provided with a safety net against accidents, sickness and opportunity for holidays.
The author suggests that there should be a comprehensive tax revision. The ultra-rich needed to be taxed progressively the more they earn. Invasion of taxes by clandestine methods needs to be looked into. As inherited wealth will dominate wealth made form a lifetime's labour by an exorbitant margin, he propose an inheritance tax. His argument is that one cannot start the game of life with different terms, the have and have nots. His analogy is a game of monopoly of two players where one player starts the game with more money and has the chance to play with two dices. He will pass 'Go' more times and buy more properties and earlier in the game, hence collecting more rent. Well, one can say this is a Marxist or leftist view of the distribution of wealth.

A friend once told me this. Even if all the world's wealth is equally divided among the world's inhabitants right to the last penny, creating an ideal egalitarian society, we just have to give ten years. After ten years, wealth distribution and inequality will revert to their previous pattern. Some people are just good with money. Others have different priorities. One glaring thing that is not taken into all these systems is the human innard qualities. As quoted by Gandhi, the Earth has everything to fill our needs, but not our greed.

History has shown that everything in life happens cyclically. Man will create an economic model. It will be a good, best thing since forever. Then slowly, one by one, its shortcomings will surface. Then more. Suddenly it will be the worst thing Man ever thought of. Then more calls for reform, a revolution maybe. A new system will be proposed - the best thing since sliced bread. And the cycle will continue.

Whatever said and done, the idea of utopia on Earth is a piped dream. The dream of eternal fairness and equality is as real as seeing a pink unicorn. Even the Universe is not kind to its dwellers. They have to endure thunders, typhoons, volcanic eruptions and asteroid collisions and their devastating effects. The presence of a large middle class is essential to form a buffer between the haves and have nots, to narrow the division in wealth inequality. Transformation and modification will happen, but we will keep on looking for the ideal elusive economic model.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

“you don’t work for us, you work with us…”

Sorry We Missed You (2019)

During the infancy of my career, many a time, being the most junior of the team, I usually ended up having to see poor patients who just made it to the clinic at closing time. I soon came to know that they were living far from civilisation, deep in rubber or palm oil estate. Coming to the hospital meant getting up at four in the morning, preparing breakfast for the school-going children and being able to get on the first 6 o'clock morning bus to town. Invariably, they would be delayed. The transport out to the main road would not turn up. Perhaps, the feeder bus would break down or the bus that they had to change left earlier.

They would eventually reach the hospital close to noon. After getting an earful for not keeping to their time, they would have to seen by the junior most doctor of the team. The senior ones would have left the clinic for more pressing needs. Unable to make a definitive plan of medical treatment for them, these patients who would require most of the expertise from the medical team ended up discarded by the system. They would be given another appointment; the whole ritual needs to be repeated. On top of all these, as they are daily wage earners, absence from work meant the loss of a day's earning.

I thought all these slave-like working conditions would end as the world changed. With globalisation, workers were promised working conditions and preservation of unassailable rights of the workers. Marx's dream of working for sustenance and having leisure time to enjoy the reason for their existence, they thought, would of fruition with the gig economy. They do a gig when and if they want. The workers would be their own boss. They work for themselves; not for the bosses or company. They do not work for a company but with the company. What the company failed to highlight were the fine prints, the exclusion clauses and the penalty they were to be imposed if specific rules are not followed.

Fast forward, and workers realise that the whole economy is just a scam. The same old economic ideology is just re-packaged. The same plot of scheming the poor to feed the rich is in full force. The workers continue breaking their back until a new horizon emerges. Who knows what else would they promise the next time. Meanwhile, like Sisyphus, the unendowed have the find simple pleasures within their unending cycle of hardship, a flicker of hope, resolution, pain and the curse of repeating it all over again.

Still reeling with debts from the 2008 economic downturn, Ricky thought he found a sure way to end his financial woes. The promise of good returns as an independent despatch services provider, he felt his hard work was the only thing that separated him from economic independence. For that, however, he needed to purchase a pickup van. For its down payment, he had to sell off the family car in which, the wife, Abbie, a home care nurse moved around to meet her patients. 

Soon everyone realises that it is not all hunky-dory. Ricky has to spend long hours at work. Abbie finds it taxing to meet her demanding schedule. Their two teenage children are left to their devices. The parents are unable to meet up to their school and their children's emotional needs. Ricky's woes only accumulate. He has to pay damages for lost items which are not covered by insurance and to work despite his injuries after mugged.  

It looks like the dependence on others will spill over on to the next generation. Their dependency on their digital hand-held devices is not mere addiction. It has become their essential tools to do their school, learning, communication and more. The digital world is another platform that is manipulated by the economic giants to make people fall at the service providers' feet. This is yet another doublespeak and the dehumanising trap of the neoliberal economy. Instead of building an antifragile society that grows stronger with every stress that is hurled upon them, we will be left with a brittle one, needing support at the mere thought of pressure.

Again, our electron microscopic friend, COVID-19 has shown us the fragility of the gig economy. Being locked down for two weeks may be excellent for family time and bonding, but neither bring in the cash nor pays the bills.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Grab a cab?

My experience in Spain is that the taximen there are not really affected by the hailing of rides stimulated by the digital economy. Nobody calls in or rather uses the Uber App to pimp their rides. The taxis still function as before, and they never lost their sleep over it. Just why is this possible?

Sure, the taximen invested a lot of money in their machines and their licences. For the Uber drivers, it is just another way to make extra revenue. Being the socialist, people-minded that the elected government is, it naturally cared more for the people that elected them rather than the business people who financed their campaign. Furthermore, at a time when everyone has become nationalistic if not, practising 'identity politics', it does not help that the parent company is foreign-owned.

Whatever way the debates go, the bottom line is providing a service. Mobility and agility is an essential tool for an economy to prosper. The service providers cannot hold the end-users to ransom. Above all, they should provide a reasonable and workable facility.

This could be a wake-up call to our local cabbies, who, when given the carte blanche of solely providing the private chauffering amenity, were too haughty, lazy and lackadaisical at best. Above all, the taxi drivers are providing a vital service to spur the economy and even to promote the country to that occasional tourist like my experience in Spain. Still, no one is indispensable.

Backfired! Public perception of taxi drivers at the lowest ebb 

after being rude to the 93-year old re-elected PM, during a 

public discourse.

Everyone, their own.

Aramm (அறம், Deed, Tamil; 2017)


This must be one of few attempts of Kollywood at a disaster movie; one which delves into the procedural intricacies of a rescue mission. It probably goes in the vein of great Hollywood flicks like 'Earthquake!', 'Jaws' and even 'Apollo 13'.

On top of dealing with the nitty-gritty issues of rescuing a child trapped in a disused well, the film managed to bring to light many of the issues plaguing the common man in Tamil Nadu, may be in anywhere in the world.

It is the eve of the launch of a rocket in India. The euphoric mood is palpable everywhere, but nobody seems to know what the hype is all about, but they join the revelry, nevertheless. On the one hand, the country appears to be at the zenith of technological know-how. At the same time, the state fails to satisfy its citizens' fundamental necessity, water supply. The film then focuses the plight of villager plagued with extreme water shortage. In this urgent situation, a toddler falls into a 93-feet narrow disused well.

It would have been just another sob story of a child from the disadvantaged class of the community succumbing to the negligence of the people entrusted to serve the people if not for the dedication of an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer. Her non-swaying stand against the powers that be exposes the lackadaisical attitude of the administrative arm of the Government, the partisan stance and the kowtowing of the police to the political leaders, the corrupt practices of the elected leaders and the ugly nature of class politics. The media can sometimes be a double-edged sword when their practitioners become overzealous in trying to expose a scoop.

The film ends on a positive note. It sends home the message that we determine our future. Nobody can be trusted to do our dirty work. We have to fend our ourselves. There is only so much that can be depended on the assistance of the state. Above all, we must have our own safety nets. Everyone is on the lookout for their own skin.  

What lies beneath

Kabali (கபாலி, Tamil; 2016)

The strategy of doing business in the new world is such. Just like in the computer software market, you create a hype. You promise the moon and the stars. You advertise. You create catch phrases. You create a concept, a theme. Then you set a launch date. Everybody waits with bated breath. Could it be the panacea of their computer glitches? Then the release is delayed. People get hot under the collar. Their pulses race. They cannot wait any longer. Everyone thinks that it the one - the greatest invention since sliced bread. Then the floodlights open after what seems like for eternity! And it turns out to be... just another whimper. It is the same old same old with the same perennial issues.

They used the same strategy with Kabali - creating a worldwide hype with giant billboards and even posters on Boeing planes. With so much of hoopla, everybody was just dying to find what it was all about. Even people who never understood the language or never gave a second look at a single Tamil movie before, started taking notice.

Nothing could stop us from achieving 

goals if we chose the right path and 

work with utmost dedication.

So far, the film reviews have been at extreme ends of the pole. Some praise it to high heavens whilst others suggested Rajnikanth should take a career change.  Yours truly decided to make the pilgrimage to have a first-hand experience.

The movie has to be seen at two levels. At the first level, it is the physical, visual form that looks cluttered all over. The story is confusing with too many characters, all out to hack each other in unnecessary bloodbaths. The first half of the story throttles on aimlessly without direction in sight. An interesting mode of storytelling is employed here. Like a scene from CSI, the background story of a particular of a major event is told in short flashbacks. There seems to be some confusion in the timeline - 25 years before his release, the British were no longer estate owners and salary discrepancy by races were a pre-Merdeka issue.

Straying away from his trademark genre of releasing a wholesome family movie which infuses comedy and tree circling duets with young actresses, diehard fans will quickly realise that this one is sombre one.

Herein comes the real untold story of Kabali, the second level. It is the story of the orphan Indians who were left behind, forgotten, as the country headed for an accelerated pace of development in the 1980s. The people who were neglected by their leaders who were supposed to chart out vocational options when their livelihoods were affected when their services in the agricultural industry were not needed. Ignored by the current of modernisation with no economic prowess and living skills to stay afloat, they resorted to physical brute to demand their rights. They saw the country prosper at their expense and felt like second class citizens in a giant chess game of the politicians with personal agendas.

Kabaleeswaran (Kabali) is a small-time unionist who fights for the estate workers' rights. He is noticed by the national trade unionist who keeps power through gangsterism. Kabali gets entwined in dirty gang politics. The scramble for power finally lands him in prison and him losing his pregnant wife. In spite of the life in crime, Kabali is a 'Robin Hood' of sorts who is remembered for his philanthropic deeds.

So, 25 years later, Kabali returns to right the wrongs after realising much had changed in the country. He goes after his nemesis, Tony Lee and his henchmen. In the spirit of a Tamil film, his assumed to be dead wife is found to be alive and a daughter to top the icing. After senseless killings, brutal deaths and thugs running with machetes and guns, Kabali self-crowns himself as the head honcho of the KL and Malaysia's gangland.

Many spectators view the movie only at the Rajni styles and bloodbaths. They fail to see the underlying undertone of the storyline. From the word go, it is quite apparent that is a tale of the underclass. When Rajnikanth makes the iconic first appearance, he is seen with the English translation of Professor YB Satyanarayana's 'My Father Baliah'. This is an autobiography of a struggle of a Dalit who professes that one can be whatever he wants if he strives hard at it. Hence, the Malayan immigrant labourers of lower castes, their struggle and their need to prove their mettle. Many soft cues appear ever so often to denote that it is a display of class struggle. In the passing, the audience can observe (if they do) portraits of freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela, Che Guevera, Malcolm X. Gandhi and Ambedkar are also mentioned in a jocular fashion - that their clothes do not maketh the man they were. The tone of the underdog is present all over the narration,  metaphorically and point blank through its shabbily snipped dialogues. 

You would be surprised that many in the country are ignorant and clueless about the disappearance of the workers of rubber and oil palm estates after these plantations, which were cash cows to the colonial masters and the newly independent Malaya, were converted to housing estates. The clueless fret that this latest Rajni offering brought himself down to a cheap matinee star level to paint Malaysia as a wild, lawless land with every citizen a thug In the clueless minds, the delinquents are plain lazy and want life easy. Everybody can fend for themselves, why can't they? Interestingly, these same people are quite passionate about police brutality against the African Americans!

There was a hint of leaders of the community selling off their kind for self-interest. In what one may look as a tongue-in-cheek gesture, a free premiere screening of Kabali was shown to a packed hall of MIC leaders. The feted leaders who viewed the show were happy that Malaysia was used as the backdrop of an international movie. Little did they realise that the joke was on them. They were blamed for the community's follies! It is a cruel joke, like feeding dog meat to the dogs and finding pleasure in watching the dog dig in the chow!

As usual, it takes someone from outside the country to show how picturesque our country looks. The lush plantation greens of Carey Island is a sight for sore eyes. The aerial view atop the helipad Chulan Towers of the Twin Tower is breathtaking. Even the PPR (People's Housing Project) seem captivating.

To add further to the Malaysian flavour, many Malaysian actors and musicians are seen strutting their stuff. Even, the Indian characters are heard speaking with Malaysian Tamil lingo.

In summary, this is not one Rajni's best movies. At his age, the filmmakers managed to make a 65-year-old man appear gung-ho to beat up men less half his age. It is a Malaysian movie with Malaysian issues. Maghilzhchi! மகிழ்ச்சி!

Skip a generation for love!

Nenjam Marapathillai (நெஞ்சம் மறப்பதில்லை, Tamil;1963)
Screenplay and Direction: Sridhar

Sati, daughter of Daksha, had the hots for this hunk named Siva. Siva, however, probably not Sati's father's favourite icon, did not make the guest list of the invitees to her father's prayers. Feeling humiliated that even unimportant guests, like her sisters, for instance, were invited, Sati was overcome with shame and fury. She immolated herself (or maybe also jumped into the sacrificial fire). Sati died and was reborn as Parvati daughter of the mountains Himalaya. Siva, being Siva, whom even Brahma and Vishnu could not predict where he starts and ends, quickly went in pursuit of his divine love. He knew where she would be reborn. But attaining her was another Herculean task that involved celibacy and meditation. That is another story for another day. Their union which took place eventually is the energy that spins the universe. Some quarters insists that Sati's self-sacrifice is the first Sutee and is the yardstick of loyalty. Intertwined in this practice was also public order, interest in the inquisition of property by a third party and fear of clandestine carnal activities.

Many figures in the scriptures, like Buddha and Krishna, are said to remember vividly of their past lives. There are even mythological stories which tell of individuals who die, live another life to 'wash' their sin and return to their previous lives to continue living!

It seems that in the local newspapers, back in the 1950s, there were many write-ups of people retelling their past lives. This was where Director Sridhar got the idea for this movie.

I remember squinting to see this film in the grainy 16" TV screen back in the days when the transmission sometimes ran like a movie of dirty oil floating on water; could not make out what was swimming under the surface, could not visualise the video. We could only hear the screechy high pitched decibels of P. Suseela's voice against the whirling and rustling sounds of wind. Anyway, when the video came around, it was easily one of the scariest shows that I ever viewed in my childhood. (Together of course with Athey Kangal, 1967). Amma was not impressed. All that long camera shots and silence to create the suspense was a waste of time for her. She demanded emotional display and dialogue, not 'inaction'!

Anand (Kalyana Kumar) follows his university mate to his village to spend his holidays. At the first sight, upon laying his eyes on the plush greenery of the fields, a sense of déjà vu hits him. Everything seems familiar. He swears that he has seen an old tree and the lake before. He is quite sure there must be a bungalow some around there. Sure enough, there is an old debilitated one nearby. The mate's sister is locked up in a room after apparently being hit by bad spirits. One day, Anand wanders to the old bungalow. An avalanche of the memory of his previous life flowed through him. He was the son of a haughty Zamindar (MN Nambiar) who was entwined in a forbidden love with a peasant girl.

The lovebirds, who were shot to smithereens in cold blood by the Zamindar, vowed to return in their next birth as lovers, and they just did. The friend's sister is peasant girl in her previous life! And what do you know, the 109-year-old Zamindar is living incognito in the corner of the bungalow after serving time in Andaman prison. And he has vengeance on his mind! Nagesh and Manorama make a short but memorable presence with his wisecracks, witty and philosophical.

The view of a quicksand made its presence here. It used to scare the hell out of me those days, indicating the wrath of Mother Nature when evil hits the ceiling and man cannot do anything to kerb it.

The film must have been made with the intention of imparting the message that the social setup of old India is over. With Nehru's socialist programmes to spearhead India to regain its glory days, the new social order was the order of the day. The old stratum of blind obedience to the feudalistic economy was over. Equality was the new way of life. As seen at the end of the movie, the Zamindar is a shadow of old past, unkempt, unwanted and without his henchmen, living alone in a uncared surrounding. In fact, he is fearful of the general public, afraid that he may be ostracised for his past misdeeds. The country was all set to pave the way to a new horizon. 

Another swipe at capitalism?

Babu (பாபு, Tamil; 1971)

I remember this movie as the one that we, in our childhood, could not watch as our annual Deepavali film. Amma was disappointed when we could not get the tickets and had to watch something else instead. Many of its songs used to fill the airwaves regularly, and one of the songs, 'Kanji Varuthappa', was a hit during Thaipusam at the refreshment stalls before movie songs were banned by the Thaipusam organising committees. Even though the song talks about the various avatars of Lakshmi and their roles, there is the uneasy colloquial association of kanji (broth) and vanji (woman) in the same sentence!

At one look, one can easily see that it sees its socialistic-communistic leanings. The story, written by a writer from Kerala, argues about the actual meaning of divinity and the division of classes. It tries to wake the general public from the slumber that God paves the way for us to follow. We are masters of our destiny.

The signature tune of this film, 'Itho Enthan Deivam Munnale' (Here in front of me is God), tries to tell the audience that God lives in simple things in life. You see Him in a child's innocent smile and a philanthropist's compassionate gaze. He lives in the heart of the kind individuals.

A clip from the song 'Kanji Varuthappa'.

The lyrics suggest that food unites all of us. 

Because of societal pressures, the Brahmin avoids the 

prawn in the Christian missionary's tiffin. The Hindu 

priest gets upset when the meat eater's gravy somehow 

mixes with his, but he likes it, even though he shows 

his resentment!

His Grace is seen in the blossom of a flower, the fragrance of bloom, creepy crawlies and the quenching flow of the river. One attains divinity through education. Wealth is in performing public service. Joy is in uplifting others and seeing the smile of a downtrodden. Herein lies God! Our life is in our toil and sweat. What else could this sound like but communist propaganda?

Babu grew up as a rough and tough kid on the street. Despite his tough exterior, he is tender on the inside, ever to help out a soul in need. By circumstance, he takes the job of a rickshaw puller in his adulthood. [In the socialist circle, the position of a rickshaw puller must be the epitome of abuse of human labour; the well-to-do, by virtue of their wealth and subsequent upliftment of class, can easily buy the toil and sweat of the poor.]

The other main characters comprise his confidante, a religious restauranteur (VK Ramasamy) who looks up to him and after him; a ruthless but comical moneylender (MRR Vasu); his fellow rickshaw puller (Nagesh) and a kind, liberal-minded wealthy contractor who gave Babu shelter and a warm meal (Balaji).

Babu was pleasantly surprised that someone well-to-do could be so kind as to give him due recognition as a human being that he became eternally loyal to him like a guard dog.

Two families of different classes join;

the industrialist and the labourer.

After serving time for murdering the killer of his sweetheart, he is shocked to see the contractor's daughter (a very young Sridevi) begging for food. For the single kindness that her deceased father had given him, Babu decides to make it his lifetime duty to support the contractor's widow (Sowkar Janaki). Understanding the importance of education, he educates her with his meagre income.

As the child grows older with the company she keeps in her convent school, she is embarrassed of the man who singlehandedly rose her from the pits. Over the years, the rift grows, but finally, life knocks sense into her. She graduates from university and marries a man of her liking after a little glitch with his high social status.

Vijayasree

Money and accumulation of wealth are portrayed as a bad thing here. The urge to be chasing after affluence is frowned upon. The pursuit of education for self-development and empowerment of society is revered, not for selfish self-interest.

A little bit of trivia here. Vijayasree, who made a brief appearance as Babu's love interest before being killed off, is a sultry actress from the Malayalam cinema. She had made quite an impact there and was labelled the Marilyn Monroe of the East for her vivaciousness. Sadly, her short career ended prematurely at 21 years of age when she committed suicide.

Buried deep in the crypts lurks danger!

The Century of Self (2002) 
Produced and Written by Adam Curtis
#2. The Engineering of Consent
The unleashing of raw human brutality in World War 2 made it more urgent to control the aggressive feelings hidden in the crypts of the human mind as described by Sigmund Freud. In the post war era, Freud's youngest daughter, Anna became a doyen in psychoanalysis on her accord. Even though her father was pessimistic on man's future, Anna believed that she could alter their behaviour with the right approach. Meanwhile, Edward Bernase and big companies continued making more money through their subtle advertisement messages whilst the US government and the C.I.A. used psychoanalysis to hoodwink the American public with their own agenda.
During the second World War, 49% of the American soldiers were incapacitated by mental illness and to be rehabilitated. Interestingly, they called it nostalgia then! Well, then the whole concept of this blog must be pathological as it dwells on sentimentality and nostalgic subjects! Psychoanalysts theorized that the mental illness was not the effect of war itself but rather of the unleashing of suppressed violent feelings. They cautioned that this irrational behaviour is infective and need to be controlled before it repeated itself like it did in Germany in WW2.
Anna Freud, a firm believer that environmental manipulation, conformity to said social rule and conduct would help people to live. When she was in Vienna, before their escape to England in 1938,  she was seeing the children of a divorced American millionairess, Dorothy Burlingham. She thought that by strengthening our control on ego, it would be strong enough to crush the unconscious negativities. Unfortunately, we would see later on that her two kids did not do well, the son fought in vain against alcoholism and the daughter killed herself showing that the human mind is just too complicated.
In 1946, the Truman government passed The Mental Health Bill increasing the post of psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and counselors. Ernest Dichter used focus groups and psychological techniques to identify and people's inner desires to help to increase sales.
In 1953, the Soviet Union tested their hydrogen bomb, increasing the fear of the Commies. At that time, the United Fruit Company who exported bananas from Guatemala had problem when the popularly elected President Arbenz nationalised the land. The Company seek Bernase's help. Even though they were no communist threat in the country, Bernase, CIA and Eisenhower government created a propaganda of fear of the Reds being just a stone's throw from US soil to justify their backing for a coup. Everybody was happy for managing to overthrow a communist government!
The CIA also tried to control minds and wipe unsavoury memories through the use of ECT and LSDs. Donald Ewen Cameron tried to make a new slate of the brain and implant new positive materials. All these endeavours only ended up in utter failure, leaving a trail of people with headaches and memory loss!
Another high profile failure was in the case of Ralph Greenson who tried to create a conductive home environment and father figure for a sorely lacking Marilyn Monroe who committed suicide in 1962.
Many, including Monroe's ex-husband, Arthur Miller, started questioning the role of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. They asked whether we are setting constraints on normal human behaviour to satisfy certain quarters in society. Suffering, they reiterated, is not a mistake and need not be undone. We should not only be looking for happiness.
Another philosopher Herbert Marcuse described the consumerism world as a schizophrenic existence and a wastage of resources giving empty prosperity. Humans had inner emotional motivational desires and not always violent or evil. Society, by conforming people to society made them dangerous. And the debate continues....