Psychology, Stalin and Surnames

Psychology, Stalin and Surname may seem unrelated to the untrained eye (pun intended, for it's me putting the funda and not you, the reader ). 

But they do share some common grounds and here am starting off by showcasing 3 pictures of great importance in the World History. 

Am sure, you would have guessed the commonality , with the last being the iconic image of the century, Pulling down of Berlin Wall. 

So here are the answers. The last was pulling down of Berlin Wall .The second image is the Head of Statue of Stalin on the streets of Budapest just after the October Revolution of 1950's in Hungary. And the first is pulling down of Statue of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Interestingly the first operation is categorized as PSYOPS (Psychological Operations (United States) ) 

Yes indeed, these images and actions have transformed a whole generation for they questioned or shattered the prevailing ideologies or beliefs or conditioning that a population had received.

Now coming back to the surname problem, Government of Tamil Nadu ( A state in India ) has a clearly defined policy of discouraging usage of surnames in names of roads, streets and public utilities. In fact there are three generation of people from 1950's who stayed away from having a surname in their name. And thus now a population of nearly 70 million has done away with the prevailing practice of having surnames. 

You may ask, who is going to benefit, by removing surnames from everything that roads, streets etc. The answer is the Society itself. Here let me explain , with a bit of History.

Dravidian parties, which rose during 1940's were of opinion that having caste based and social status based surnames are a vestige of the past and hence were hell bent on removing that practice, for it propagated discrimination. This action was part of the empowerment of Backward castes which had lesser opportunities in Education and work due to the discrimination which was meted out. 

They questioned the then existing set up of top down control of society by elite set of people , used this plank to forward social equality and to mobilize masses for their cause from 1940's. They had Aryan - Dravidian theory in their hand to elicit empathy among the masses who were anguished by the caste system which propagated discrimination and conditioned people mentally about their abilities to empower themselves.

So when they came to power in 1960's , a mandate was passed to remove surnames from roads/Streets and Public Utilities. In fact they went a step ahead and discouraged use of surnames in Names too , for in Tamil Nadu, Surnames are closely linked to the Caste they belong to. 

You may ask, what's the use of such an action on part of government. My view is people get conditioned and may develop a sort of complex when they see names with surnames for public utilities. And with most of the utilities named after people from economically and educationally forward set of people, it may impede people imagination by thinking that only people of certain set can reach hallowed status. It also eliminates chest thumping by people who claim superior status just because they inherit a certain surname. 

So you can call this action as a defiance of established authority. It is similar to bringing down Stalin statues in Communist states once USSR was broken down. Similar to bringing down Berlin Wall. Though a simple act of demolition , it has a huge psychological significance.

Understanding of  socio-economic situation in Tamil Nadu during  pre-independence era and post Dravidian parties take over would be helpful in appreciating the impact of this action.

And in  villages of Tamil Nadu, every major caste have their own street. So to eliminate that practice which promotes social stratification, such an action was needed in first place. Elimination of century old habits needs much time and it certainly needs actions like these to start a churn.

So in short, you can call this action as a Psychological Operation or Psychological Operations (United States) ( as in terminologies of U.S. ) to question the prevailing mentality , usher confidence and bring about a society of Equality and Social Justice.

Public Opinion - 1 : European Union

European Union

It has always been an Utopia- sortie for Indians like me, for we always associate liberal ideals and ethical fairness with the word 'Europe'.

Right from the start of the millennium, EU has always been in news, world over , with its Unitary currency Euro coming into global basket of currencies.

Being a coin collector, I still can remember the frenetic pace at which the demand for Marks, Francs increased in the years to come, for they had adopted Euro.

Cut the story short, now EU is in news for all the wrong reasons like skeptics questioning the stability of EU itself, rise in unemployment numbers, re-emergence of Nazi- like parties in Greece (Rise of the Greek neo-Nazis: Ultra-right party Golden Dawn wants to force immigrants into work camps and plant landmines along Turkish border ).

Along with above said, the divide between Northern countries ( Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands ) and Southern countries ( Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal ) is fast increasing .

With Germany performing better than the rest of the Europe, people have started to harp the old tunes of supposed German supremacy and wildly imaginary tales of Germany trying to impose hard austerity measures over errant countries.

But contrary to the widespread view, public view in Europe is vastly different from what we would have imagined.

Here are the conclusions that have come out of a study by Pew Research Global Attitudes project. 

1. The faith in common currency Euro is unshaken

2. People are willing to accept austerity measures to reduce public debts.

3.  Contrary to the supposed belief, it is the French who are increasingly disillusioned with the current state of economy

And most of all People believe that Germany is the most trustworthy nation

Wish European Union emerge stronger from the ensuing crises. 

Source : The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union

Changing Europe : George Friedman from Stratfor , here to talk on how Geography shapes everything that we know. One man to hear, to know how Geo-politics shapes the world we live in . Here he explains Why Europe is in brink of collapse.

http://new.livestream.com/livecfa/Friedman