Delusions

 

“Whom did you lose first, yourself or me?” Draupadi asked Yudhishthira when the latter lost her as a stake in a gamble. Yudhishthira had lost himself first, in fact. He was not his own master when he staked his (as well as his four brothers’) wife. Even if he had not lost that game and even if he was the sole husband of that woman, was he her owner who could stake her like a material possession? Is the wife a property of the husband? Is a ruler the owner of what he rules over?

Most rulers behave as if they are the owners and masters of their territories and people. That is one of the most common delusions of those who wield power over others. All of us nurture some delusions even if we don’t have any power over other people. Perhaps human life is impossible without some delusions.

Duryodhana, the man who started the game that eventually led to an epic war, was actually envious of his cousins, the Pandavas. “An enemy, however tiny, whose might grows on is like an anthill that eventually destroys a mighty tree.” Duryodhana masks his simple human envy with great philosophy. He cloaks his envy with the rationale of self-defence even when his father assures him wisely that there is no such danger from the Pandavas. Duryodhana is deluding himself to mask his envy and perhaps greed too.

What is a delusion? It is a belief that is maintained in spite of data, argument, and refutation which should reasonably be sufficient to destroy it. Duryodhana had much wise counsel against what he was going to do. But his delusion had blinded him. Delusions necessarily blind us. Delusions make you think that you are the master when you are in fact the slave.

Why do we delude ourselves? “One person’s delusion may be another’s salvation,” as the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology says. Delusions are self-defence mechanisms. They help us to avoid certain unpleasant or painful truths about ourselves or about issues that matter vitally to us. [Religions are the most universal examples of delusions. They act as exceptionally effective palliatives and panaceas. Religious delusions acts as our salvations.] 

We have ingrained tendencies to shut our ears to all major truths about our deeper selves. When we are confronted with certain truths about ourselves, our religion and its gods, our culture, or whatever we regard as sacrosanct, we choose to be deluded. We pretend not to understand. We pretend to be hurt. Our sentiments which are otherwise as sensitive as the toilet seat now become highly touchy. We would prefer to do anything other than take in information that could save us. We would also choose to forget inconvenient truths.

Those who wield power over others tend to make use of delusions for a variety of purposes. Chinese novelist Chan Koonchung’s science-fiction novel, The Fat Years, is an extraordinary illustration of this. Published in 2009, the novel is set in 2013 and shows us how a government keeps an entire country deluded with drugs and falsehood.

The month of February is missing from the Chinese history of 2011 in the novel. The missing period coincides with the collapse of the world economy and the Ascendance of the Chinese Golden Age. The people of that country tend to forget certain things and remember certain other things. There is selective memory, in other words. The Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 is not in the history or people’s memory anymore. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), and the Civil War (1927-1951) are a few of the many events deleted from history and memory. Those who remember them won’t live long. Books not in accordance with the Chinese Communist Party’s historical discourse are banned. Fang Caodi, one of the characters, says that “certain collective memories seemed to have been completely swallowed up by a cosmic black hole, never to be heard of again.”

The government projects the country as the best in the world using all available means such as the media and other propaganda. The economy is boosted through such fraudulent means as conversion of the people’s savings accounts to expiring vouchers, deregulation, crackdowns, supply of counterfeit goods, misinformation, and price controls. Truth is fabricated through expedient rewriting of history.

Nevertheless, the people are happy in the country. Not just happy, they are buoyant. They have a sense of gratification. They are proud to be citizens of the greatest country in the world though they have no individuality. There is no independent thinking. The Chinese Communist Party is “great, glorious, always correct.”

The government has a simple strategy for keeping the people so buoyant. Small doses of Ecstasy (a drug) are added to the drinking water supplied through pipes. There is euphoria in the country. What else do you want?

If you think this is just a novel about some other country, you need to examine your own delusions.

PS. This is powered by Blogchatter’s #BlogchatterA2Z Challenge.

Read the previous chapters of this endeavour:

A for Absurdity

B for Bandwagon Effect

C for Chiquitita’s Sorrows

Tomorrow: Ego Integrity