fidelity of spouse or sexual partner.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by
acute discomfort with and reduced capacity for close relationships as
well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of
behaviour beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of
contexts as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. Ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference) - (SV:
the delusional belief that others are looking at him pointing at him,
talking about him, especially in a derogatory manner);
2. Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behaviour and
is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g., superstitiousness, belief
in clairvoyance, telepathy, or "sixth sense"; in children and
adolescents, bizarre fantasies or preoccupations);
3. Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions;
4. Odd thinking and speech (e.g., vague, circumstantial,
metaphorical, over-elaborate, or stereotyped);
5. Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation;
6. Inappropriate and constricted affect;
7. Behaviour, or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar;
8. Lack of close friends or confidants other than first-degree
relatives;
9. Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with
familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than
negative judgements about self.
(Article written on December 9, 1999 and published December 13, 1999
in "Central Europe Review" volume 1, issue 25)
Return
The Last Family
"One man cannot be a warrior on a battlefield"
(Russian proverb)
There is no word for it in Russian. Platon Karatayev, the typical
"Russian soul" in Tolstoy's "War and Peace", extols, for pages at a
time, the virtues of communality and disparages the individual - this
otherwise useless part of the greater whole. In Macedonia the words
"private" or "privacy" pertain to matters economic. The word "intimacy"
is used instead to designate the state of being free of prying,
intrusive eyes and acts of meddling. Throughout Central and Eastern
Europe, the rise of "individualism" did not give birth to its
corollary: "privacy". After decades (and, in most cases, centuries) of
cramped, multi-generational shared accommodation, it is no wonder.
To the alienated and schizoid ears of Westerners, the survival of
family and community in CEE sounds like an attractive proposition. A
dual-purpose safety net, both emotional and economic, the family in
countries in transition provides its members with unemployment
benefits, accommodation, food and psychological advice to boot.
Divorced daughters, saddled with little (and not so little) ones, the
prodigal sons incapable of finding a job befitting their
qualifications, the sick, the unhappy - all are absorbed by the
compassionate bosom of the family and, by extension the community. The
family, the neighbourhood, the community, the village, the tribe - are
units of subversion as well as useful safety valves, releasing and
regulating the pressures of contemporary life in the modern,
materialistic, crime ridden state. The ancient blood feud laws of the
kanoon were handed over through familial lineages in northern Albania,
in defiance of the paranoiac Enver Hoxha regime. Criminals hide among
their kin in the Balkans, thus effectively evading the long arm of the
law (state). Jobs are granted, contracts signed and tenders won on an
open and strict nepotistic basis and no one finds it odd or wrong.
There is something atavistically heart-warming in all this.
Historically, the rural units of socialization and social organization
were the family and the village. As villagers migrated to the cities,
these structural and functional patterns were imported by them, en
masse. The shortage of urban apartments and the communist invention of
the communal apartment (its tiny rooms allocated one per family with
kitchen and bathroom common to all) only served to perpetuate these
ancient modes of multi-generational huddling. At best, the few
available apartments were shared by three generations: parents, married
offspring and their children. In many cases, the living space was also
shared by sickly or no-good relatives and even by unrelated families.
These living arrangements - more adapted to rustic open spaces than to
high rises - led to severe social and psychological dysfunctions. To
this very day, Balkan males are spoiled by the subservience and
servitude of their in-house parents and incessantly and compulsively
catered to by their submissive wives. Occupying someone else's home,
they are not well acquainted with adult responsibilities. Stunted
growth and stagnant immaturity are the hallmarks of an entire
generation, stifled by the ominous proximity of suffocating, invasive
love. Unable to lead a healthy sex life behind paper thin walls, unable
to raise their children and as many children as they see fit, unable to
develop emotionally under the anxiously watchful eye of their parents -
this greenhouse generation is doomed to a zombie-like existence in the
twilight nether land of their parents' caves. Many ever more eagerly
await the demise of their caring captors and the promised land of their
inherited apartments, free of their parents' presence.
The daily pressures and exigencies of co-existence are enormous. The
prying, the gossip, the criticism, the chastising, the small agitating
mannerisms, the smells, the incompatible personal habits and
preferences, the pusillanimous bookkeeping - all serve to erode the
individual and to reduce him or her to the most primitive mode of
survival. This is further exacerbated by the need to share expenses, to
allocate labour and tasks, to plan ahead for contingencies, to see off
threats, to hide information, to pretend and to fend off emotionally
injurious behaviour. It is a sweltering tropic of affective cancer.
Newly found materialism brought these territories a malignant form of
capitalism coupled with a sub-culture of drugs and crime. The
eventuating disintegration of all polities in the ensuing moral vacuum
was complete. From the more complex federations or states and their
governments, through intermediate municipalities and down to the most
primitive of political cells - the family - they all crumbled in a
storm of discontent and blood. The mutant frontier-"independence" or
pioneer-"individualism" imported from Western B movies led to a
functional upheaval unmatched by a structural one. People want privacy
and intimacy more than ever - but they still inhabit the same shoddily
constructed, congested accommodation and they still earn poorly or are
unemployed. This tension between aspiration and perspiration is
potentially revolutionary. It is this unaccomplished, uneasy
metamorphosis that tore the social fabric of CEE apart, rendering it
poisoned and dysfunctional. This is nothing new - it is what brought
socialism and its more vicious variants down.
But what is new is inequality. Ever the pathologically envious, the
citizens of CEE bathed in common misery. The equal distribution of
poverty and hardship guaranteed their peace of mind. A Jewish proverb
says: "The trouble of the many is half a consolation." It is this
breakdown of symmetry of wretchedness that really shook the social
order. The privacy and intimacy and freedom gained by the few are bound
to incite the many into acts of desperation. After all, what can be
more individualistic, more private, more mind requiting, more
tranquillizing than being part of a riotous mob intent of implementing
a platform of hate and devastation?
(Article written on January 9, 2000 and published January 24, 2000
in "Central Europe Review" volume 2, issue 3)
Return
Rasputin in Transition
The mad glint in his eyes is likely to be nothing more ominous than
maladjusted contact lenses. If not clean-shaven, he is likely to sport
nothing wilder than a goatee. More likely an atheist than a priest,
this mutation of the ageless confidence artist is nonetheless the
direct spiritual descendent of Rasputin, the raving maniac who governed
Russia until his own execution by Russian noblemen and patriots.
They are to be found in all countries in transition. Wild and insidious
weeds, the outcome of wayward pollination by mutated capitalism. They
prey on their victims, at first acquiring their confidence and love,
then penetrating their political, social and financial structures
almost as a virus would: stealthily and treacherously. By the time
their quarry wakes up to its infection and subjugation - it is already
too late. By then, the invader will have become part of the invaded or
its master, either through blackmail or via tempting subornation.
This region of the CEE and the Balkans provides for fertile grounds. It
is a Petrie dish upon which cultures of corruption and scandalous
conduct are fermented. The typical exploiter of these vulnerabilities
is a foreigner. Things foreign are held in awe and adulation by a
populace so down trodden and made to feel inferior in every way, not
least by foreign tutors and advisors. The craving to be loved, this
gnawing urge to be accepted, to be a member of the club, to be
distinguished from one's former neighbours - are irresistible. The
modern Rasputin doles out this unconditional acceptance, this
all-encompassing affinity, the echoes of avuncularity. In doing so, he
evokes in the recipients such warmth, such relief, such fervour and
reciprocity - that he becomes an idol, a symbol of a paradise long
lost, a golden braid. Having thus completed the first phase of his
meticulous attack - he moves on to the second chapter in this book of
body snatching.
Armed with his new-fangled popularity, the crook moves on and leverages
it to the hilt. He does so by feigning charity, by faking interest, by
false "constructive criticism". To his slow forming army, he recruits
the media, the flower children, the bleeding hearts, reformers,
dissidents and the occasional freak. By holding old authority in
disdain, by declaring his contempt for the methods of the "tried and
true", by appearing to make war upon all rot and immorality - this
creature of expediency emerges as a folk hero. It is the more cynical
and world weary and "sophisticated" members of society that lead the
way, succumbing to his ardour and conviction, to his child-like
innocence, to his unwavering agenda. He cleverly thrusts at them the
double edge of their own disillusionment and disappointment. Thus
mirrored, they are transformed and converted into his camp of renewal
and clean promises by this epiphany. They hand him the keys to every
medium, the very codes and secrets that make him so powerful. They
pledge their alliance and allegiance and render to him the access they
possess to the nerve centres of society. The castle gates thus opened
from inside, his victory assured, the rogue moves on to consummate this
unholy marriage between himself and the deceived.
Always in fear of light, he surreptitiously and cunningly begins to
interact with the foci of power and money in the land. However
loathsome he is to them, however repulsive the experience, however
undesirable the effects of their surrender - they are made to recognize
him as their equal. With the might of the media and a large part of the
people behind him, he can no longer be ignored. Their conspiracy-prone
mind, awash with superstitions and its attaching phobias, tries to
comprehend his meteoric rise, the forcefulness with which he treads,
his unmitigated, inane, self-confidence. Is he a spy? A member of a
secret order? The latent agent of a hyperpower? The heart of a world
conspiracy? Has he no fear of retribution and no remorse? Before this
great unknown, they kneel and yield, an atavistic reaction to atavistic
fears. Now all doors are thrown open, all deals are made available, all
secrets are revealed. The more he learns, the mightier he becomes - the
more his might, the more he learns. To him, a virtuous cycle, to his
hosts - a vicious one.
In all this tumult, he does not lose sight of his original goals -
power, money, fame, all three. It is a relentless pursuit, an obsessive
hunt, a ruthless and unscrupulous chase. In his war, no prisoners are
taken, no price too dear, no human in his orbit left untouched. He will
manipulate and threat and beg and promise and plead and blackmail and
extort to accomplish that which he set out to achieve: decision making
powers, wealth, clout, exposure and resultant fame. It is at this stage
that the latter day Rasputin emerges from the shadows and joins
officialdom or concludes lucrative transactions based on favourably
deflated prices and insider dealing. By now, his shady past is no
longer a hindrance. His prowess far exceeds his invidious biography.
Well installed, he ignores both media and the people. He brushes aside
contemptuously all criticism and enquiry. His true, narcissistic, face
is exposed and it is hideous to behold. But there is nothing to be done
and all resistance is futile. The con man now is in a haste to maximize
his hard earned profits and exit the scene, on his way to another realm
of guile and naiveté.
(Article written on January 25, 2000 and published February 14, 2000
in "Central Europe Review" volume 2, issue 6)
Return
The Honorary Academic
Mira Markovic is an "Honorary Academic" of the Russian Academy of
Science. It cost a lot of money to obtain this title and the Serb
multi-billionaire Karic was only too glad to cough it up. Whatever else
you say about Balkan cronies, they rarely bite the hand that feeds them
(unless and until it is expedient to do so). And whatever else you say
about Russia, it adapted remarkably to capitalism. Everything has a
price and a market. Israel had to learn this fact the hard way when
Russian practical-nurse-level medical doctors and
construction-worker-level civil engineers flooded its shores.
Everything is for sale in this region of opportunities, instant
education inclusive.
It seems that academe suffered the most during the numerous shock
therapies and transition periods showered upon the impoverished
inhabitants of Eastern and Central Europe. The resident of decrepit
communist-era buildings, it had to cope with a flood of eager students
and a deluge of anachronistic "scholars". But in Russia, the CIS and
the Balkans the scenery is nothing short of Dantesque. Unschooled in
any major European language, lazily content with their tenured
positions, stagnant and formal - the academics and academicians of the
Balkans are both failures and a resounding indictment of the rigor
mortis that was socialism. Economics textbooks stop short of mentioning
Friedman or Phelps. History textbooks should better be relegated to the
science fiction shelves. A brave facade of self-sufficiency covers up a
vast hinterland of inferiority complex fully supported by real
inferiority. In antiquated libraries, shattered labs, crooked buildings
and inadequate facilities, students pursue redundant careers with the
wrong teachers.
Corruption seethes under this repellent surface. Teachers sell exams,
take bribes, and trade incestuous sex with their students. They refuse
to contribute to their communities. In all my years in the Balkans, I
have yet to come across a voluntary act - a single voluntary act - by
an academic. And I have come across numerous refusals to help and to
contribute. Materialism incarnate.
This sorry state of affairs has a twofold outcome. On the one hand,
herds of victims of rigidly dictated lectures and the suppression of
free thought. These academic products suffer from the twin afflictions
of irrelevance of skills and the inability to acquire relevant ones,
the latter being the result of decades of brainwashing and industrial
educational methods. Unable to match their anyhow outdated knowledge
with anything a modern marketplace can offer - they default on to
menial jobs, rebel or pull levers to advance in life. Which leads us to
the death of meritocracy and why this region's future is behind it.
In the wake of the downfall of all the major ideologies of the 20th
century - Fascism, Communism, etc. the New Order, heralded by President
Bush, emerged as a battle of Open Club versus Closed Club societies, at
least from the economic point of view.
All modern states and societies must choose whether to be governed by
merit (meritocracy) or by the privileged few (oligarchy). It is
inevitable that the social and economic structures be controlled by
elites. It is a complex world and only a few can master the knowledge
it takes to govern effectively. What sets meritocracy apart is not the
number of members of its ruling (or leading) class, usually no larger
than an oligarchy. No, it is distinguished by its membership criteria
and by the mode of their application.
The meritocratic elite is an open club because it satisfies three
conditions:
1. The process and rules of joining up (i.e., the criteria) are
transparent and widely known;
2. The application and membership procedures are uniform, equal to
all and open to continuous public scrutiny and criticism;
3. The system alters its membership requirements in direct
response to public feedback and to the changing social and economic
environment.
To belong to a meritocracy one needs to satisfy a series of demands,
whose attainment is entirely up to he individual. And that is all that
one needs to do. The rules of joining and of membership are cast in
iron. The wishes and opinions of those who happen to comprise the club
at any given moment are of no importance and of no consequence.
Meritocracy is a "fair play" by rules of equal chance to derive
benefits. Put differently, is the rule of law.
To join a meritocratic club, one needs to demonstrate that one is in
possession of, or has access to, "inherent" parameters, such as
intelligence, a certain level of education, a potential to contribute
to society. An inherent parameter must correspond to a criterion and
the latter must be applied independent of the views and predilections
of those who sometimes are forced to apply it. The members of a
committee or a board can disdain an applicant, or they might wish not
to approve a candidate. Or they may prefer someone else for the job
because they owe her something, or because they play golf with him.
Yet, they are permitted to consider only the applicant's or the
candidate's "inherent" parameters: does he have the necessary tenure,
qualifications, education, experience? Does he contribute to his
workplace, community, and society at large? In other words: is he
"worthy" or "deserving"? Not WHO he is - but WHAT he is.
Granted, these processes of selection, admission, incorporation and
assimilation are administered by mere humans and are, therefore,
subject to human failings. Can qualifications be always judged
"objectively, unambiguously and unequivocally"? Can "the right
personality traits" or "the ability to engage in teamwork" be evaluated
"objectively"? These are vague and ambiguous enough to accommodate bias
and bad will. Still, at least appearances are kept in most cases - and
decisions can be challenged in courts.
What characterizes oligarchy is the extensive, relentless and ruthless
use of "transcendent" (in lieu of "inherent") parameters to decide who
will belong where, who will get which job and, ultimately, who will
enjoy which benefits. The trouble with transcendent parameters is that
there is nothing much an applicant or a candidate can do about them.
Usually, they are accidents, occurrences absolutely beyond the reach or
control of those most affected by them. Race is such a transcendent
parameter and so are gender, familial affiliation or contacts and
influence.
In many corners of the globe, to join a closed, oligarchic club, to get
the right job, to enjoy excessive benefits - one must be white
(racism), male (sexual discrimination), born to the right family
(nepotism), or to have the right political (or other) contacts
(cronyism). And often, belonging to one such club is the prerequisite
for joining another.
In France, for instance, the whole country is politically and
economically run by graduates of the Ecole Normale d'Administration
(ENA). They are known as the ENArques (=the royal dynasty of ENA
graduates).
The privatisation of state enterprises in most East and Central
European countries provided a glaring example of oligarchic
machinations. In most of these countries (the Czech Republic,
Macedonia, Serbia and Russia are notorious examples) - state companies,
the nation's only assets, were "sold" to political cronies, creating in
the process a pernicious amalgam of capitalism and oligarchy, known as
"crony capitalism" or privateering. The national wealth was passed on
to the hands of relatively few, well connected, individuals, at a
ridiculously low price. The nations involved were robbed, their riches
either squandered or smuggled abroad.
In the affairs of humans, not everything falls neatly into place. Take
money, for instance. Is it an inherent parameter or an expressly
transcendent one? Making money indicates the existence of some merit,
some inherent advantageous traits of the moneymaking individual. To
make money consistently, a person needs to be diligent, resilient, hard
working, to prevail and overcome hardships, to be far sighted and to
possess a host of other - universally acclaimed - traits. On the other
hand, is it fair when someone who made his fortune through corruption,
inheritance, or luck - be preferred to a poor genius?
That is a contentious issue. In the USA money talks. Being possessed of
money means being virtuous and meritorious. To preserve a fortune
inherited is as difficult a task as to make it in the first place, the
thinking goes. Thus, the source of the money is secondary.
An oligarchy tends to have long term devastating economic effects.
The reason is that the best and the brightest - when shut out by the
members of the ruling elites - emigrate. In a country where one's job
is determined by his family connections or by influence peddling -
those best fit to do the job are likely to be disappointed, then
disgusted and then to leave the place altogether.
This is the phenomenon known as "Brain Drain". It is one of the biggest
migratory tidal waves in human history. Capable, well-trained,
educated, young people leave their oligarchic, arbitrary, influence
peddling societies and migrate to less arbitrary meritocracies (mostly
to be found in what is collectively known as "The West").
This is colonialism of the worst kind. The mercantilist definition of a
colony is a territory, which exports raw materials only to re-import
them in the form of finished products. The Brain drain is exactly that:
the poorer countries are exporting raw brains and buying back the
finished products masterminded, invented and manufactured by theses
brains.
Yet, while in classical colonialism, the colony at least received some
recompense for its goods - here the poor country is actually the poorer
for its exports. The bright young people who depart (most of them never
to return) carry with them an investment of the scarce resources of
their homeland - and award it to their new, much richer, host
countries. This is an absurd situation, a subsidy granted reluctantly
by the poor to the rich. This is also one of the largest capital
transfers (really capital flight) in history.