{"id":91830,"date":"2019-07-31T23:11:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T05:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91830"},"modified":"2019-08-01T13:57:21","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T20:57:21","slug":"nazis-narcissists-and-nincompoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/31\/nazis-narcissists-and-nincompoops\/","title":{"rendered":"NAZIS, NARCISSISTS AND NINCOMPOOPS!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>\u2018I am an entertainer, albeit one with the temerity to deal\nfrequently with serious ideas, concepts or &#8211; as we say in the theater, where I\ncame from &#8211; the spines\u201d of drama. Simple things like the abuse of power, the\nconspiracies of manipulators, the debasers of the public weal, the\nsanctimonious screamers hell-bent on transforming their personal morality into\neveryone else\u2019s legality, the bastards of the social contract who corrupt the\nagreements between the governing and the governed. Not exactly buck-and-wing\nstuff.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Robert\n     Ludlum (1927-2001), American novelist\/thriller writer, opening his\n     Introduction to the \u2018Ludlum Triad\u2019 published by WINGS BOOKS, New York,\n     1989<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Issues associated\nwith the \u2018serious ideas, concepts or\u2026\u2026.. the spines\u201d of drama\u2019 that Robert\nLudlum set himself to deal with in his fiction have largely contributed to the\nevil realities that the 21 million hapless Sri Lankans are plagued with today.\nHowever, few present day Ludlum readers, if any, among Sri Lanka\u2019s English\nreaders might know that there is a connection between&nbsp; Sri Lankans\u2019\npresent predicament and the evils that the late American novelist criticized in\nhis fiction. Even if there was such awareness among the elitist dominated\nEnglish language reader minority, it might be ignored as something\ninsignificant. The real tragedy, though, is that most ordinary Sri Lankans are\nstill not adequately informed about the evil impositions surreptitiously made\non them from outside with the servile acquiescence of a bunch of petty local\nNazis and narcissists who are guilty of many offences including all those\nmentioned in the Ludlum extract.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;What Ludlum next says is about his engagement with those\nthemes in his entertainment- oriented professional novel writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Yet, although privileged to have received a decent education, I\nam certainly no scholar in those areas that so disturb me &#8211; nay, outrage me.\nTherefore, like a painter with his oils, I can only interpret my impressions\nand reactions with words, expressing themes through the depiction of <em>people <\/em>framed\nin a succession of scenes that form the stories in which they are intensely\ninvolved\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;He adds that this may not make sense to judges of\nliterature, but that it does make sense to him. Ludlum is not unconscious of\nhis vulnerability to be treated with suspicion as a professional literary\nartist with a past theatrical background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u2018Then again, I come from the theater and we\u2019ve always been\nsuspect. They tell their demon stories with mirrors and smoke! Beware the <em>jongleurs!\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&nbsp;<\/em>He can\u2019t help it if readers are sceptical about the authenticity\nor seriousness of his \u2018impressions and reactions\u2019 in respect of the social and\npolitical problems he deals with in his novels.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ludlum\u2019s relevance to Sri Lanka today is obvious. I have pretty\nmuch similar things to say in this instance about my topic and my purpose,\nthough both are different from the bestselling author\u2019s. The serious problems\nthat Ludlum says he tackles in his narratives, we find duplicated in the\npolitical social context in Sri Lanka today, at least forty years after he\nwrote them (The three novels in the 1989 trilogy were first published in the\nperiod 1978-1980). I am not writing a story, but I am going to direct the\nreaders\u2019 attention to a mildly entertaining, but actually disconcerting, scene\ncurrently taking place in Sri Lanka against a somber backdrop of impending\ndoom, as reflected in the online media (on which I depend for news from Sri\nLanka). Some players in what I enjoy conjuring up&nbsp; as now being enacted in\nmy country of birth that could be called \u2018Janadhipati Koloma\u2019 or \u2018Presidential\nMasquerade\u2019 are from diverse fields of activity including mainly the business\ndomain, its close relative the political arena, and the lawyer community that\nshares a special affinity with both, education, entertainment and media. They\nare joined by some non-presidential buffoons as well. The last mentioned come\nfrom the media and the entertainment worlds, which I find indistinguishably\nmixed. Fortunately, however, the most popular young social media activists such\nas Iraj W and Lahiru J, have begun to identify with the emerging broad national\ncause of rescuing Sri Lanka for Sri\nLankans.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly all of the\nnegligible lot hinted at before, in my opinion, display most or all of the\nfollowing symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) as outlined by Dr\nSteve Bressert (<a href=\"http:\/\/psychocentral.com\">psychocentral.com<\/a>): a\ngrandiose sense of one\u2019s own importance, preoccupation with unlimited success,\npower, brilliance, etc., a strong belief that one is special\u201d and\nunique,&nbsp; great yearning for excessive admiration, an unreasonable sense of\nentitlement, being exploitative of others, arrogance, lack of empathy with\nothers, that is, unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings of\nothers, being envious of others or believing that others are jealous of one,\nbeing arrogant and haughty in one\u2019s social behaviour and attitudes. Intelligent\nvoters have no difficulty in identifying affected individuals both among the\nold hands in the political game, and the crowd of little known upstarts\nassociated with the aforementioned fields, who fancy that they are fit to rule\nor lay down moral laws merely on the strength of their personal successes in\ntheir careers. They have no track record to show in politics or in\nadministration; neither do they have any practical visionary plans to implement\nin the future. But they are able to impress a few thousand gullible voters\namong the millions of ordinary citizens with the help of their NPD-inspired\npretentions. Neither these vain upstarts nor their silly admirers seem to know\nthat there were far more insightful articulators of the same shortcomings half\na century ago, and national leaders of proven ability since, who did a lot to move\nthe country away from Western hegemony.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NPD brings\nsuffering to the affected persons, and might cause some inconvenience to their\nclose associates. At the individual level, however, there is nothing to worry,\nfor it can be tackled by consulting relevant specialists when the persons\nbecome aware of it and decide to take treatment. But when people who aspire to\nplay important public roles such as giving political leadership to the country,\nor projecting&nbsp; it as a sovereign nation to the outside world, or managing\nthe religious identities and freedoms of the diverse communities, or educating\nthe young, and offering them moral advice, etc. are afflicted with NPD, the\npotential harm it could cause to millions of people need not be elaborated, as\nevident to any Sri Lanka observer at this juncture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like Ludlum did\nabout American politicians of his time, I express here my sense of distress and\ndisgust at the disordered tragic-comic display&nbsp; put up by this motley\ncrowd of middle-aged or old male individuals in the current Sri Lankan\npolitical theatre who are probably suffering from Narcissistic Personality\nDisorder (But I don\u2019t include all contesting politicians, media persons, and\nsocial activists in this crowd.There are many honourable exceptions). This is no\ntime for&nbsp; clowns and jokers. Yet, they seem to be taking centre stage at\nthe present moment at least in the media. What is unacceptable is that their\nantics draw undue attention while the real burning issues are relegated to the\nbackburner and the potential saviours with the necessary experience, vision,\nand love of the country are patiently waiting in the wings until Democracy,\nthat is being temporarily suppressed, allows them to enter the stage. It is my\nfervent hope, as it is sure to be that of all patriotic Sri Lankans, that the\nnarcissistic nincompoops will be pushed to the periphery in due course. They\nwill simply be forgotten along with the unsolicited comic relief they have\nalready begun providing, when the serious contest for president is hopefully\nover in less than four months\u2019 time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Readers who\ndiffer, please bear with me. These are only my personal opinions for what they\nare worth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rohana R. Wasala \u2018I am an entertainer, albeit one with the temerity to deal frequently with serious ideas, concepts or &#8211; as we say in the theater, where I came from &#8211; the spines\u201d of drama. Simple things like the abuse of power, the conspiracies of manipulators, the debasers of the public weal, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}