Last week's instalment, the Cudjoe Moment, was a run-up to establish how easy it is to change or create the emotional/mental environment of a small place by manipulating the media, inter alia. T&T's emotional/psychic toxicity spiked during the decade of 1997�2007, when hate radio was roaring, the idea that half the population was being cheated of its racial birthright, and anarchy was encouraged for electoral purposes. Unfortunately, the consequences of that decade will last much longer, and its effects have spread much wider than electoral politics.
Of interest was that no social scientist noted (or recognised) the increase in social toxicity, and second, as the moral panic went viral, reality was just the opposite. Crime was falling crime and relative economic stability was established. Yet media and "civil society" establishments were whipping themselves into hysteria to prove otherwise.
Why that was so is an interesting question, but that aside, three narrative themes crystallised: the unchallenged axiom that Indians were Orientalist outsiders; the idea of "natural birthright" among the African population; and that crime was acceptable as a form of reparation. Cro Cro obligingly stated the final bit this in his Face Reality (aka Kidnap Dem): "Kidnapping go equalise the economy." What effect did all this have on young children, teens, adolescents–intended perpetrators and intended victims–who are now adults, who heard this over and over again for a decade?
The consequences of these messages being internalised by the mass of the population (I perceive) included the unbelievable rise in crime in numbers and variety in such a short space, from gang warfare to kidnapping, but also paedophilia, domestic violence and white-collar crime. For those who did not succumb to the atmospheric incitement, tried to resist the malignant urges, it created a condition I call "the loss of happiness"–not merely occasions for happiness, but the notion of happiness. This, I believe, is the key to the silent epidemic of mental illness we're now living through.
A couple of years ago, trying to get usable information in this, I spoke to someone from the psychiatry department at the UWI and a couple of psychologists in private practice. All reported that mental illness is much more widespread than anyone admits, and there's little to no usable data which can be used to make usable hypotheses and propose solutions.
The former Minister of Health (Express, July 29 last year) announced that 25 per cent of the population suffered from some form of mental illness, most of which remains untreated and undiagnosed. And here's the kicker. Happiness is one of those subjective things, and if these mental illnesses work their way into the "culture" and become the norm, many bizarre, dangerous things become acceptable. Common examples include the sexualisation of children, the epidemic of statutory rape, domestic violence, which spills onto the roads and most of all, the culture of alcoholism which isn't even seen as a social, cultural, or mental health problem.
Incidentally, all this has an economic dimension, can be quantified, and the direct economic cost calculated. Conversely, if, if the situation improves, it can have positive economic returns in increased productivity, less violence and stable families. Unfortunately local social researchers seem to be too busy researching the profitability of Carnival and the horrors of slavery to notice.
I should say the problem of social disintegration caused by the normalisation of mental illness is not local, if we provide an excellent local illustration of its dynamics. Sebastian Junger in his recent book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, proposes that one source of metropolitan/Western malaise is the alienation inherent in modern society, the individual's response to machine-cog or 99 per cent status.
In this society, these traits were built in from the start: the Plantation was designed to turn a human into a machine-cog. It stifled innovation, encouraged brutality. It subjected people to the notion they were irrevocably subject to distant, apathetic authority (ie, Crown Colony government). To think independence and republicanism cured this is a delusion.
Western societies have responded to the malaise with institutions which give individuals opportunities to realise their potential and feel connected. It's also responded with Facebook, Tinder, Grindr and Internet sex traffic. Interestingly, Facebook and those new media have, in aggregate, the opposite effect of connecting people here, and serve as theatres for narcissism, misanthropy and neurosis. In real life, Carnival is proposed as an answer to those questions (which, incidentally, Carnivalists are not capable of even formulating): why are we so unhappy? How can we feel more connected to each other and part of something meaningful?
These things are of crucial importance to the society's survival–far more than oil and gas. An obvious solution would the remodeling of culture to focus less on resistance, riots and massacres, and focus more on cultivating sentience and empathy. The state's apparatus is large and well-financed enough to do this, but right now, it seems to be working to achieve the opposite.
So, knowing the macro solution's not going to happen, whither the unhappy sufferer, other than pining for marijuana legalisation? Before seeing a GP for a Xanax or Rivotril prescription, help is as near as YouTube's many recordings of white noise, Solfeggio tones, and Tibetan, Indian, and other harmonies which offer mental relief.
For those not online there's an old-school method. Rebecca Gladding, MD, writing in Psychology Today in 2013 wrote: "Sitting every day, for at least 15-30 minutes, makes a huge difference in how you approach life, how personally you take things and how you interact with others. It enhances compassion, allows you to see things more clearly (including yourself) and creates a sense of calm and centredness that is indescribable. There really is no substitute."