Rootless and Routeless: Driving of the present youth to Schizophrenia

We live in the era of trolling; incels, internet bullying and on-line aggression.

An era where self violence and rudeness are considered normal. An era where “I don’t care a hoot” attitude projection, topped with foul mouthing is seen by young people as the “cool” thing.

Behind this “cool thing” pretence, there are incessant tears in the bath room untold to anyone; just welling up.  A pathetic secret of mental illness. This secret is not shared even with parents / blood relations nor treated by any counsellor for the fear of social stigma. Thus it gets fermented inside the individual. Many young people are victims of this secret and being unable to bear this trauma, they strongly want deliverance by death.

 But committing suicide is not so easy; it requires tremendous courage to do as well as means to facilitate like poison or a gun. So they desperately invite death by wishing to be killed by another person, or by an accident like car hitting them from behind, or falling from speeding train, accidental tripping from the terrace or the ceiling fan falling on the head killing them instantly. I cannot bear to think what if in the accident they don’t die instantly but survive with terrible consequences. May God forbid!

 This is the face of mental illness.

Paradoxically most victims are young, extremely bright, creative and beautiful people. The brighter one has more chances of mental problems because brightness is a quality of people who know more and think more. Creativity on the other hand, thrives on a very high emotional sensitivity and thus creative people are more vulnerable to depression. Remember Vincent Van Gogh, the world famous artist? He tried several times to kill himself. Brightness with creativity is a sure double danger.

Lets us now turn our focus on our country, India.

Research findings say that the menace of growing mental illness among Indian youth today is very grave indeed and its prevalence is much more in South India than in other parts of India. Why is this so?

The reason could be that South India being a more conservative society there is greater conflict between modernity and deeper religious and cultural roots, which make one prone to bipolarity. Since birth the South Indian child is made to live in and cope with two totally different “poles apart” worlds. One world is the home connecting to the local community around while the other is the school and the Social Media connecting to the global community out there. As a result, the poor child grows up to adolescence juggling with both theses contradicting situations or poles as I call them, as below.

Pole 1 : At Home and in the                               Pole 2: At School and in the

Community                                                                         Social Media

Speak Tamil / local language              -           Speak English language

Traditional Rituals / beliefs                 -           Scientific thinking / logic

Decent language                                   -           Four letter words and crude language

Carnatic music                                      -           Western music

Celebacy as virtue                                 -           Explicit sex as fashionable

Draw / view (Kolam )                          -           Draw / view (Manga) comics for adventure

Local art for peace and calm                         and thrill

Lasting commitment in relations       -           Casual in relations: Hi - bye

Wear body covering loose dress        -           Wear body hugging tight / exposing dress

Respect to experience and age           -           Respect to knowledge and energy

Slow and steady                                   -           Fast and constant hopping

Patient nurturing over time              -           Instant gratification

Stable with Strong anchoring           -           Free with vast open space

Mythology filled mind                        -           Materialistic, pragmatic mind

Theosophy (belief in God)                  -           Atheism (No belief in God)

Spiritualism of East                             -           Existentialism of West

“Surrender to the ultimate and happy -    “We are condemned to be free”:  

in being one with all” : Sankaracharya      Jean Paul Sartre

 

I merely wish to point out the existence of these conflicting worlds. I do not support any.  It is up to the person to choose one. Not able to choose and oscillating in between the two is the mental conflict. We must well understand that riding two horses simultaneously is not only very traumatic but it is impending disaster.

The Indian youth who is born into Pole I, is uprooted as he/she grows up and inevitably, drawn into the overwhelming free mental space of pole II. There he / she gets totally lost. Western Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre’s phrase “condemned” is what is eventually happens with young people. They are lost souls.

 

The eastern philosophers suggest individual merging with the ultimate. They are merged souls.  Persian poet Philosopher Rumi metaphorically echoes the same ideology saying, “let go little drop, you will be secure in the ocean”.

The pull of individualism over the restrained collectivism is too great. The emerging free individualism is affecting another basic human need; love. There is desperate search for love, the most fundamental need of man. But love by nature is “inter- dependent” which is the opposite of “individualism”. One cannot scratch ones back all by oneself; while two people mutually can do that happily and easily as a win-win for both.

If the rift between the two poles started the crisis, the new technology only deepened it. The “information overload” of the age of internet and smart phone has robbed us of real experience, time and personal contact in preference to cold impersonal information. Thus the young are driven to a traumatic situation where there are no roots to stand firm and no route that they are confident to take. Everything seems tentative and meaningless pushing one inevitably towards suicide; to end such traumatic and meaningless life.

What is the solution? There are no easy answers. But don’t we know that understanding an issue clearly is half the solution?

The choices are between absolute freedom and collectivision between individualism and inter-dependence, and between information abundance through technology and real experience through personal contact.