Top comment of the morning: “All this is fertile soil for the idea of a ‘salvatur’ to take hold. The superman who will take over their miserable lives allowing them to do away with the hardest chore of all, that of having to think for themselves”
Posted by Bubu:
I myself went through a phase of disillusionment with democracy a while ago, but then I realized that with all its flaws, democracy is still the best and safest system we have.
The failure in Malta does not lie with democracy in itself. The problem here is lack of education which creates a tendency towards personality cults and fanaticism.
It is a well known fact that the bedrock of democracy is an educated populace. Only a person who has at least a minimum standard of education and reasoning faculties can analyse complex political and economic issues and see through propaganda. The PN recognized this and did everything in its power to provide quality education to everybody who wanted it.
But here lies the problem; not everybody wants it. There are complex social forces at work here . The colonial mentality of a people that for thousands of years eked a meagre living on a barren rock through subsistence farming and begging, is not easy to change.
Whole swathes of the population are so used to being on the bottom rung of the ladder that in their mind they cannot fathom ever being able to make a better life for themselves. I live in the South and I know what I’m talking about because I come across this abominable mentality every single day. Going to Bormla is like stepping through a time machine into the Malta of a hundred years ago.
This is the real place where time stood still, not Gozo. Here you hear parents complaining about having to take their children to school instead of putting them to work, because after all they never had any use for school so why should their children? And mind you, there are those who do put their children to work – especially if they are girls.
I am describing perhaps the worst den of ignorance in the country, but there are echoes of this kind of forma mentis all over the country. The survivalist mentality, which makes people content themselves with table-scraps, has served well a population constantly on the edge of extinction for thousands of years. It now holds them back in the cave because over so many generations of just surviving, the light of day has become unfamiliar and frightening.
All this is fertile soil for the idea of a “salvatur” to take hold. The superman who will take over their miserable lives allowing them to do away with the hardest chore of all, that of having to think for themselves; the hero who will give them a job, no matter how unproductive, and a wage coming in every week that they don’t have to think much about. And over and above that this superman will tell them that it is their right to be given a job, no matter how unqualified and useless they are or how badly they do that job, if at all.
No wonder there are families who still light candles at Mintoff’s shrine.
This is what democracy has to contend with in this country – but far from making me despair, though, the fact that we have had successes after all, in spite of all this damage, tells me that democracy can be made to work even against all odds. It’s a constant uphill struggle, but with people of real substance leading it CAN be done.
We are currently going through a bad time for democracy, and I’d say the worst is yet to come, but I am confident that the forces for democracy will rise again from the ashes of the PN stronger than before.
I am confident because I see so many valid talented young people making their way through the ranks of the party and so many more whom I speak to in all walks of life who do understand the importance of democracy and who are genuinely appalled at what is going on.
Bear in mind that the only people protesting outside parliament when the vote was taken to sell Maltese citizenship were young people from the Nationalist Party, and it was their photograph, not the prime minister’s, which made the headline news the world over.
I also see the shambles that Labour has become in only a few months, despite the hefty budget that seems to be the only thing propping it up.
So things are looking down right now, and unfortunately it will take years to fix the damage, but let us not despair. Democracy did work in the past and it will work again.
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Completely wrong analysis.
Personality cults find fertile soil everywhere. It is part of human nature to look for a strong leader. Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Portugal, France … all of these had and/or still have their Saviours leading them: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Putin, Franco, Salazar, de Gaulle. England experimented with that too, e.g. Cromwell and Churchill.
[Daphne – God, you are SO wrong. Cromwell and Churchill? In the same basket as Stalin, Hitler and Franco & Co? For heaven’s SAKE. The rise of dictators is directly linked to particular cultures. A dictator would have been impossible in Britain, in Sweden, in Norway, in Finland, because the culture works to bring down people like that before they get anywhere. And you may have failed to notice the common factor there: Roman Catholicism (Hitler built his base in Catholic Bavaria). Dictators are invariably associated with a religious or social culture that instills unquestioning obedience to a higher power: RC, Orthodox Catholicism, Islam, a long history of absolute monarchy (China/Russia).]
The root of all evil is greed.
Marx understood this and based his entire political argument on it.
[Daphne – Well, Marx was wrong, and that was largely because he wasn’t a psychologist. Radix malorum cupiditas est comes from the Latin version of the Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10. The correction translation is ‘love of money is the root of evil’. There is no reference to ALL evil. The root of much evil is actually not greed but fear and the desire for self-preservation, and their cohort, cowardice. This, on the other hand, Marx and his followers well understood.]
The only way to overcome greed is to distribute more. If you give the impression that only a few are eating and the rest are starving, then you simply fuel greed on both sides – those who are eating want to eat more, those who are starving (or think they are starving because they see that the others are eating more and more) want to start eating or to eat more.
Democracy is better than dictatorship because of a fairer distribution of wealth.
This is what Muscat promised: Malta Taghna Lkoll: meaning wealth will be distributing among all.
This was the great failure of the PN: it allowed the perception to thrive that wealth was not being fairly distributed.
It’s all about eating – The Grande Bouffe.
Indeed perceptive as always, Daphne.
I did not explicitly make the link to religion in the comment, but it was there in the forefront of my mind while I was writing it.
I also see the parallels between religion and personality cults. The line between religion and politics frequently seems to blur in countries that are traditionally religious.
The parallels between Maltese and American politics and religion is a never-ending source of fascination for me. Both nations are intensely religious as well as intensely politically polarised. Both nations looking up in awe at their political gods.
The difference, perhaps America’s saving grace, is the strong streak of individualism that runs through the American psyche as well as the very well defined systems of checks and balances designed to limit the excesses of the zealous. Checks and balances designed, it must be said, by the “founding fathers” who were anti-clerical rationalists almost to a man.
There is very little of all this in Malta.
Splendid exposé, Bubu, but I put it to you that the survivalist mentality is a very recent import in Malta’s history. Early 20th century, I’d say. Coinciding with the Italian Irredentist rabble-rousing. Nevertheless, it flourished. Independence changed nothing, and today it’s worse than ever. We went from the Mintoffianist Salvatur, to the Nationalist gvern li jhenn, back to Joseph’s foqra bl-SUV and if you distil the essence of each, they’re essentially all perpetuating the “population on the edge of extinction” myth.
I think what Min Weber means is religion, or better, God, used to bash others around the head. Fine, and can we please agree Giordano Bruno chose the stake?
Germany, Spain, Italy and to some extent France had one thing in common, regional kingdoms; autonomous, wealthy and in fierce competition with each other.
The ones which flourished were also those which were the most defiant of Rome’s rule. The enormous difference in mentality between Italy’s north and south has been largely placed at Spain’s domination of the south, leading to obscurantist ideology.
Unification in all Europe came about painfully, to this day, tremors abound (kev could tell us a thing or two).
Mussolini was a revolutionary socialist, anarchist even, in Milan, but harnessed his power base in the south, all he did initially, was propagate Crispi.
Franco did the same, both siding with landowners in largely underdeveloped and pre-industrialised regions. Although it has to be said that what the communists did in Spain was utterly horrific. They took iconoclasm to an extreme, murdering thousands.
Hitler did the same in Germany, legends to him facing firing squads during social upheaval crucial, communists outwitted and later outlawed.
What all three managed, given the threat of Marxism, was to be accepted by the elite. Put in a good dose of anti-semitism and its traditional sore point, the banks, and your average industrialist subscribes.
Fascism had by then, acquired status as protector of the faith, be it money, catholicism or maintaining status quo.
Britain had empire and industry which allowed her to increase the wealth to distribute exponentially, supply and demand virtually infinite. The system was both closed and worldwide at the same time. Being an island also helped.
Fascism fed on both a non-existent social justice as well its opposite, physical expansion, to bring it about, after all, if Albion can, why not the continent?
In all cases, Bolshevism was the big motivator of support and opinion.
As for Britain’s dark secrets, well, they sure learnt to keep that away from their shores, managing to keep in check Europe’s numerically largest fascist party in the process. No mean feat, but having an industry geared to expand indefinitely was key.
I do not agree Daphne. Let me tell you why point by point.
Historian David Sharp, for example, considers Cromwell a regicidal dictator. Sharp is not the only one.
Scandinavia did not have dictators not because of religion but because of the Jantelagen.
You are mixing up Catholicism with Gallicanism. This is probably due to the fact that you know the history of Britain not of Europe. But the last Stuart King wanted to imitate the absolutism of the French King … and since the last Stuart King was Catholic, there’s this mixing up of both principles. But the last Stuart King wanted to impose Gallicanism as a model of State-building.
Indeed, Catholicism militates against dictators, as it always militated against the Holy Roman Emperor. Inside the Church itself there were always profound tensions between the Pope and the Bishops.
Basically, Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy cover all of Europe and Russia … except for the Protestant countries … i.e., the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Britain and parts of Germany. Then again, the Low Countries and Britain did not allow dictators not because of religion per se, but because of mercantilism, which saw religion as a useless and profitless quarrel. The Protestant parts of Germany did not proclaim dictators – but they embraced militarism. Prussia dominated Germany for the simple reason that its powerful army and its successful militarisation of society led to victory over the seemingly invincible Swedes. With regard to the Swedes and the other Scandinavians, I repeat that Jantelagen, which is embedded in their culture and has nothing to do with Protestantism, does not allow them to cultivate personality cults and therefore dictators. On the other hand, the Scandinavians pay a high social price for Jantelagen.
Of course, you are quoting the Bible, and yes cupiditas has been translated as money. But, as you know, cupiditas is “greed”. It is not money per se which is the radix malorum, but the want for more and more money – i.e., capitalism.
That fear and self-preservation is the root of all evil is a Hobbesian interpretation of society, and – in a perversely positive way – one which is in tune with Smith.
But, I cannot agree with you that greed is NOT the root of (much or all) evil. If Subject A were not greedy, Subject B would not feel fear and the desire for self-preservation. Therefore the sentiments in Subject B are a direct consequence of the greed shown by Subject A. The root is therefore greed. Whether it is for money or for land or women or cattle or what have you is immaterial. It is the WANT, the GREED, which matters.
It’s all about eating – the Grande Bouffe.
I think you’re both wrong.
There is no single narrative to the rise of dictators in various countries. The one unifying mechanism is that the First World War and the failure of democratic governments to protect their peoples from mass slaughter and economic collapse drove most European countries to dictatorship.
As for the rest, Germany and Italy were two young countries in search a unifying ideology, Spain was a Communist-infested backwater, and Russia would have avoided revolution if Stolypin had lived, Germany went from monarchy to republic after the First World War (ALWAYS the worst path), Italy was pissed off because it thought it deserved a shower of colonies for its effort with the Allies, China – let’s not go there, Japan – ditto, Ireland – I’m not touching that with a bargepole, Portugal – backwater monarchy to republic again, Poland and the rest – newly-created countries, just like Malta (so we were told) are always impressionable.
If I had to give a one-sentence judgement it would be on the wisdom of a monarchy over anything else. It’s not as if we haven’t the example of France, Germany and Russia.
Excellent piece. Indeed it does give hope to the rest of us who can think. Well done to ‘Bubu’.
Well said – however to bring about the paradigm shift, it’s imperative to understand the materialistic evolution which took place over the last 25 years.
It’s no different to the one in Albania and most ex-Soviet republics and is on the rise in China right now. It’s wealth in simple numeric measurable quantities.
Bigger, heavier, faster, costlier, loaded. It is, for all intents and purposes, unsustainable. There will be a time when physical constraints and abstract socio-economic factors will clash. Muscat’s accelerating the process, even because his method is fragmented amongst blinkered lobbies each doing their best to push their single-faceted agenda.
Growth, the traditionalist’s mantra, will ironically be achieved via methods inversely proportional to quantitative criteria. Muscat knows this and will try to counteract by moving in with energy generation costs, throwing in an unspecified number of ‘jobs’ in the process. But that’s only until the next generation of power plants comes onto the grid. Then what, demolish and proceed with another agreement?
There’s a perverse link between Labour’s idea of work as some social service for a state to provide, the gold rush on all ministries is plain evidence of that, and unregulated consumption as personal achievement.
It won’t last – Malta’s that small until he’ll have to tax the life out of the rest of us.
Is Louis Grech serious? From The Malta Independent today:
“Mr Grech dismissed the opposition’s criticism on the fact that the programme – which has been widely derided as the selling of citizenships – was not in the Labour Party’s electoral manifesto, noting that the arrival of Lufthansa Technik in Malta some years ago was similarly not on a manifesto.”
I used to think that Mr Grech was one of the few in the PL who made some sense. I now know they are a sorry lot, the whole bunch of them. Since when have private investment projects been part of election manifesto?
Since when is major industrial investment comparable to a government selling its passports for hard cash?
The PL simply cannot find a valid reason, or shall we call it excuse, why such an important proposal such as the IIP was not part of it ‘roadmap’ – at least, not the published version. They knew people would hate it and refuse to vote for it, or they had some other obscure reason that does create a lot of speculation.
The comparision between the sale of citizenship and the decision years back to promote the Malta maritime flag and build a new maritime industry is also pathetic. This comparision is being used by many PL exponents, who are trying with great difficulty to defend the indefensible.
Thanks for the excellent piece Bubu. I’m sure a little well-founded hope is what many of us need right now.
I’m afraid there’s more to this. Unfortunately we also have graduates, young supposedly well educated citizens, who still keep at heart the Mintoff mantra. I certainly do know a few, and they are as hardheaded in their beliefs as any of those who fear education in favour of cheap work and free bucks.
Maybe I’m wrong but if so, education during consecutive Nationalist governments, failed to teach the basics in democracy. Then again you don’t really need to be qualified to learn certain things in life though it does help or, shall I say, it should.
Upbringing is the key word in my view.
If you’ve lived all your life in a family and social circle with a single-minded devotion to a political party/ideal/religion it is extremely difficult to shake it off later in life. Even if intellectually you know that your beliefs do not make sense, emotionally you still cling to them.
The brain is remarkable in its ability to partition off conflicting ideas, somehow accepting them all at the same time. The same thing occurs, for example with scientists who metaphorically speaking have to leave their religious beliefs at the door of their lab, while still piously maintaining a religious supernatural world view outside the lab, notwithstanding the deep contradictions between science and religion.
Yet this is beyond religion, it’s to extreme. We are rightly discussing fondamentalism
We normally tend to attach this word with the much hated Arab culture and yet in this tiny insular society, for some, if not for many, fondamentalism is gladly appreciated though under a different name. Yes devotion encourages fanatics.
That said a scientist who is also a believer is conscious of some kind of conflict. Fondamentalists aren’t consciences of any contradictions and that’s beyond sanity. You might argue that there are no suicide bombers but people in Malta can go to great lengths to make their point. One such example is the past election
As a result democracy will be incapacitated since a huge mass of our society react like a sect whatever the subject in question.
Sorry to be pessimistic but I really cannot find the right solution for this ‘Maltese paradox’. No matter how many years a good natured political party governs Malta for the benfit of all and for prosperity, at one point in time all is to be undone by a huge section of fanatics within our society.
Will this country be ever set free? Hope I’m wrong but I doubt it.
I totally agree with you. I spent 25 years teaching in the secondary and post-secondary sector and know through experience that it is all too common to see students who are extremely intelligent in academic subjects fail miserably to make a decent and logical argument when the subject is ethical or philosophical.
Their powers of objectivity are almost nonexistent, as is their ability to reason outside of their socio-economic mind-sets. This particular group are hard working and extremely ambitious young people who very often lack any aims or ideals other than their own material and social success.
They are incapable of empathy and hardly ever question anything.
Through the years I have realized that these young people usually originate from both the lowest and the highest rungs of the social ladder. On the other hand, the most objective students equipped with empathy and an enquiring mind, who value ideals and who are capable of three-dimensional perception, very often originate from church Schools, notwithstanding and very often in spite of, their socio – economic background.
This is probably due to the fact that these schools give huge importance to character formation and the education of the whole person; in other words they educate the emotions, train empathy and give values their importance.
Perhaps state schools especially should concentrate more on their ethos and hidden curriculum and take a leaf out of this book rather than producing highly academically qualified and poorly ‘educated’ students, a dime a dozen. This in my opinion, and adding compulsory topics like ethics and logic to the curriculum, is the only remedy to this national epidemic of ignorance.
[Daphne – The main problem is the home, not the school.]
Mr Grech had his back to the wall and was desperately looking for an analogy. Hence the poor choice. He also sought to excuse the government for insisting on the secrecy element on the grounds that Henley & Co had advised it.
Yet we know that firm also advised a scheme based on investment but the government rejected this. Mr Grech was, thus, trying to have it both ways. There is no escape from the fact that the government is responsible for the fiasco and it’s consequences, nobody else.
So very true. Well done for this excellent analysis. I like you have not despaired. More because I see many more youths getting a good education.
I do get let down when I see educated people still following their heart and voting Labour. However I am very confident that truth will sink in slowly in the educated lot, even if they have voted Labour for all their lives.
Labour’s failure to rule the country and create jobs will show them the light, a couple of them at least.
Most importantly, more educated PN supporters will make them better speakers, give them better arguing tools, and make them more capable of showing what’s right. That’s what I have chosen to do. I show the truth to as many people as I can.
At work, with your friends and family, don’t fear to say what you think, what you KNOW. Some people are too stupid to learn a thing, that’s true. But most are not stupid; they are just not seeing things right, that’s why it’s important for us, the educated PN supporters to speak out.
We must speak out to all, even the PN supporters. PN supporters who always hear wrong will eventually be fooled, so don’t let them hear one side of the story.
We MUST bring the news to those who don’t search for it. Otherwise democracy will be under threat. The future is in our hands.
I feel that the world is again in the throes of a new revolution. Communism did not work and Capitalism (the raw American type all over the world) is definitely not working.
What workers all over the world, whether educated or not, are going through is fuelling and fomenting discord. Money is overriding all values.
I wonder if it will be the French again who will start it.
The Europeans are incapable of starting anything more than an “alternative” gig for world peace. Real revolutions required bloodshed, and your own and the enemy’s dead.
Our brothers in Syria and North Africa have shown us how to do revolution in the 21st century. And it turns out it requires the old tried and tested, messy and bloody methods. Not Facebook and Twitter.