Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
Above link explains Stockholm syndrome in psychological context. I feel it can be extended to almost all part of human behavior, mob as well as individual. Let me explain a bit.
1. GOD
Biggest reason to write this article was to investigate how does GOD got so popular, even after we have witnessed so many dark consequences in his/her name.
This concept abducts and hostages individual usually in childhood. But as we grow up, we starts to question. Here comes the crucial stage when it becomes more and more inconvenient to question existence of GOD. Isn't this a glaring example of Stockholm syndrome. Most of us, join the others supporting the existence and reap the benefits of being within the mob event at the cost of our own reason. This is done after recognizing the irrationality in the whole argument against the existence. What else can explain this behavior if not Stockholm syndrome. Religions, Classes, Castes etc etc , these are just the projections of this behavior and we all have seen the consequences. Still masses disapprove to get out of abductor. They feel enraged to talk against the hostage taker. Hostages go for war in the name of their abductor. We learned from history that we never learned from history. Mass human behavior has no significant evolution along with physical evolution. Faith-based-hijacking of reason has dominated all ages of human history.
2. SCIENCE
When science is treated as religion (blind following, no questioning!), this phenomenon is observed amongst scientific community. Followers of Pre-quantum mechanics, opposed the new-science as vehemently as any religious group. Love and respect for the abductor which has been nurtured over the schooling and university years made them so adamant to disapprove the new inconvenient concepts that they ridiculed and opposed it even after understanding the truth. Even so-called men of reason hide behind faith-based arguments when confronted with an opposing view and then to make things more worse, they try to impose authoritarian hierarchy into scientific community. This behavior clearly indicated the infection of Stockholm syndrome.
3. PARENTS
This ideas also applies to the parent-child relationship. When we are children, we usually idolize our parents. Slowly we realize that they are also full of faults. Here comes the major turn towards maturity. Whether we give in to our irrationality due to our deep love for them or whether we turn the tables upside down and come to terms that they CAN BE WRONG, makes a hell lot of difference the way we approach our future. West boast about getting away from this problem but do they actually manage that, or do they become the same for their own children unknowingly. If not then that society must have become entirely rational by now. It didn't.
4. JOBS
Many of us are stuck with jobs we don't like. We keep convincing our self against freedom. Again the hostage taker (The Job) wins most of the times, except for few who manage to pursue what they like the most.
5. FAMILY
Same arguments as in section for parents. But I must clarify that there is a difference between these two cases. We don't choose our parents but we do choose our family. We decide who to marry and how to continue with the family making process. It does not behave as a hostage-taker if the decisions has not been based on compromises and instead based on true mutual understandings. Since i consider friends within the family so the argument goes the same for them.
6. MONITORY PROFIT
This is the case of business institutions. Most of them are established by creative men in search of inventing better tools than existing at their time. But soon the mirage of monitory profit acts as a hostage-taker and people who have no idea of real production, MANAGES and decides the market strategies for the new inventions. Almost all business houses end up striving for monopoly using patents, sabotaging competitors and whoring law/governments. What started as a game for being creative and advancing human civilization ends up in doing opposite and they also show great resistant towards any attempt to free from their hostage. They would make more money doing opposite but probably that's
tougher choice and hence not smart enough :)
So then the main question which arises is that, Why do we observe this behavior? What does abductor fill up which satisfies hostage?
As i see, following is the list of attributes being filled up for different abductors:
1. God fills up greatly the identity crisis. It also fill up to great extent the feeling of companionship in hard times. It gives aid to the sense of belonging to a mob for mutual security [social, political, economical, psychological and many other...als :) ]
2. In the case of Science, It fills up the false notion of having respect from others for what we know. If a new science has to change that then they feel threatened to loose their status and the respect associated. Feynman gave an excellent
interview in this regard.
3. Parent's case is much more straightforward. Childhood learning period shapes the whole personality and its most difficult to reverse/turn some other away. In many cases the nature of this phenomenon is entirely innocent.
4. Job gives security in many senses and hence this case is very obvious.
5. This has same arguments as the section for Job. Compromise based family is nothing but a series of Stockholm syndromes in succession and inter-twinged so heavily that after some time, people start to ignore it since its too
heavy to recognize and live with.
6. Monetary profit secures future and satisfies the individual desire of superiority amongst fellows.
To get out of this loop and see a birds eye view of this whole situation, it took me whole 3 months...Now that i know it, i am free off it :)
