Category: Psychology

Use of the zombie in horror films symbolises what George A. Romero put forward as tool to criticise Society’s attitudes of general apathy to Politics, War, Education, the Environment in favour of practicing Consumerism, worship celebrities etc. Zombies could also represent Mankind’s fear of Death and one of the ways to express denial of our mortality – the continual torture of something having to be forced to continue its existence past it’s own death, to resist death from wounds that would normally kill a living person, to be killed off/ feared/ hated by the living, to act as a form of ridicule through its crude imitation of life etc.

There’s always sides, clashing of Egos, who is right/ wrong, superior/ inferior, all the way throughout time.

The differences because we live in a world of duality, disparity, inequality as what Lao-Tze pondered about a considerable time ago. Both sides try to annihilate each other, feeding the fire of this vicious cycle of hate like love.

Hannibal Lecter wanted to destroy his enemies by eating their flesh but in a way he became his opposition by absorbing their flesh, transforming their essence into his. To defeat your enemy whether in War, your workplace, family etc, you must think and understand like them, in a way you symbolically absorb their thought processes and Mind and this is shown all too well in history, especially ancient Roman history. When the ancient Roman empire fought a bitter long war with its rival, Carthage and eventually won through treachery, great bloodshed etc., Rome decided to wipe out the ancient city of Carthage from the face of the planet by destroying every building, every weed, every item that belonged to Carthage and enslaving its people. Rome thought it destroyed its enemy completely but no, the very memory of Carthage is etched in her conscious mind, embedded there like a poison. Rome may have destroyed the physical aspect of the enemy but not its Idea as today we remember Carthage. Rome destroyed herself in the process because she was forced to adapt to defeat Hannibal Barca’s mind and armies who represented Carthage so she became one with the enemy.

It’s the same with the Troubles in Northern Ireland, where the feud between Protestants and Catholics escalated to the point where Britain was involved and more bloodshed and atrocities occurred. The late Protestant religious leader, Ian Paisley had made it his lifelong mission not to compromise with the Catholics over who should control Northern Ireland but eventually he gave in and cooperated with them in his later years prior to his death.

Hegelian dialectic, a system of thinking named after its creator who was a German Philosopher, organised a method of argument to resolve disagreements between one side, called the thesis and the opposition, called the anti-thesis. How these two positions are resolved is by combining the sides of Truth that they offer and bringing forth a new thesis called the Synthesis. It’s this same process that has happened in Northern Ireland and ancient Rome. The case with Hannibal Lecter is arguably true because what became of his enemies’ bodily matter was incorporated into his own protein structure, their presence having caused him to change no matter how small a change it was whether emotionally/ cognitively etc.

Enemies will change us (whether a person, thing, environment, at work etc) but for better or worse, that is where we have control. There is also the question of who becomes the dominant one after the process of assimilation/ Synthesis (like the North Americans of European descent) and the one who becomes a footnote, only to be a vague reminder of the events leading to Synthesis/ assimilation (like the Native Americans who are remembered for being the original Americans who had their lands taken away from them).

Narcissus was a character in Greek Mythology who was so proud and egotistical that he fell in love with his own image reflected by a nearby river. Narcissus eventually died because he was so obsessed with his own self-image and wanted to make love to it.

The Ancient Greeks were truly a wise and insightful people, much of Western Civilisation is influenced by their ideas. In particular, this myth of Narcissus yields an underlying, universal Truth about human nature and its flaws. As a side note, if you read the Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung’s work on the Archetypes, he also gains insights into the meanings underlying many of our Myths. Narcissus is very similar to arrogant and vain people, people that you surely have met in your daily lives, yes? These types of people are to be avoided at all costs or if you have the misfortune to share your moments in life with them, they are merely to be tolerated with until an opportunity arises to leave them permanently.

Arrogant people get angry when their wishes are unfulfilled, they believe they are always right, they act very rudely towards others, they will not accept most people’s ideas that are contrary to their own etc.  Arrogant people hold this belief that they are far greater than everyone, are flawless and they are trapped in this grand delusion which they are not aware. Their mind and its thought do not align properly to the Reality that occurs before them; their interpretation is skewed and incorrect. This idea of perceived superiority expresses itself in their rude, brash and brazen behaviour towards others they consider lower in status than themselves. They lower or devalue people so they can feel better and elevate themselves which is a parasitic and weak thing to do. There is no point disagreeing with them because of that deeply fixated belief in themselves. The best thing to do is “agree” with them which works wonders and lowers their guard. When you “agree” with them, they will no longer be hostile to you because you appear to mirror them and their attitudes when you agree with them. Hence they see a mental reflection of themselves in you as you defer to them and fall in love with that mental projection which is similar to how Narcissus loved his own image. Thus, this prolongs the cycle of their arrogant thoughts and behaviour. When you mirror their behaviour and thoughts, you camouflage yourself from them. They think they are superior but in fact this idea of theirs opens them to attack where they can be controlled just like with the mirroring technique. In their belief that they are perfect, they are in a state of self-denial and are wilfully CHOOSING to be ignorant. That is stupidity defined clearly. We see forms of arrogance everywhere like when the old colonial Western Powers would roam outside Europe, doing as they pleased, taking other countries’ resources, subjugating native populations etc. It is through the process of Colonisation that they project their own self-image to the countries they conquer which is reflected back at them, fuelling their arrogance and feelings of superiority.

Vain people, like arrogant people, tend to be obsessed with fashion, they put a lot of attention to their appearance, they get angry if you make a mocking comment on their appearance etc. They want to derive pleasure from being visually and aesthetically “perfect” and when they come across someone who does not reflect their thoughts back at them, they respond with anger and frustration; their minds doesn’t align with the Reality that they observe before them.

Much of what I have written on arrogance and the self-love gained from mirroring the arrogant/ vain person’s attitudes and beliefs originated from an author called Robert Greene.

Ideas are indestructible. You can’t kill them. No matter the span of time between two points, age does not hinder or corrode ideas e.g. ideas like Democracy and Nazism are still alive and in people’s minds, believers and non- believers alike, despite the origins of the respective ideologies being in the order of decades/ millenia.

Ancient Rome wiped out the empire of Carthage at the conclusion of the Punic wars and so great was Rome’s hatred of Carthage that it decided its soldiers should level all of Carthage’s structures and place salt on the ruins of the former empire in order for no life to grow there. In assuming ascendancy of the known world at the time and despite its efforts to wipe out its enemy completely, Rome failed because the idea of Carthage remains in our minds as well as the minds of its destroyers. We still remember ancient Carthage and the great Hannibal who destroyed Rome’s armies many times.

The same can be said for Adolf Hitler and Nazism. Despite Hitler’s armies being beaten and Germany being occupied by the allies, the concept of Nazism was never destroyed and it has been reformed in the form of Neo-Nazism. The idea of Neo-Nazism still endures in the countries of the Western world that opposed Hitler and it grows stronger in times of crisis like in the case of Greece’s and its mounting debt due to the Recession. Greece’s extremist party “Golden Dawn” is modelled exactly like Nazism, even its party symbol resembles the Nazi swastika.

By going against the very ideas we oppose, we become a part of it unwittingly; it defines us. As what the great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said in his book Beyond good and evil, “He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster.” Sometimes the idea that we hate so much becomes a part of our personality, infecting us like a virus e.g. killing someone who has caused atrocities makes you no better than that person, you become like him. Even Leonardo DiCaprio’s character states that ideas are like viruses in the film Inception.

 Ancient Rome persecuted the early Christians and killed a considerable number of them. Likewise, the ancient Catholic church massacred “heretics” and free thinkers who didn’t believe in their ideas. The more Ancient Rome/ ancient Catholic Church tried to wipe out its dissenters, the more Christians/ Atheists thrived and multiplied in number.

Symbols are ideas in material form yet they are almost substantial; they are blots of think, pieces of fabric, paper etc. Were I to burn a flag of the UK on live television, a lot of people would get angry and want to kill me. The same can be said if I desecrated religious icons and money. When we look at the icons and symbols of corporate companies, we instantly know what type of company it represents and its products because the idea and symbol of the company is repeatedly shoved in our faces in the form of adverts. The symbols invade our minds. The ideas behind the country flags, religious icons, money, corporate logos etc affects us greatly depending on what viewpoint we have of the symbol, whether its favourable or unfavourable. Ideas and Symbols are Power assuming the symbols meaning is already established in the mind of the beholder.