Osman Lee, Ma Bitar:
It is logical to link the living conditions of life to the psychological conditions, even if only partially, as well a the environmental, heritage, historical and religious conditions, especially among peoples who have filled their lives with religion and religiosity. It is possible to identify the psychological conditions, and consequently the behavioural conditions of peoples, by identifying the psychological conditions of their rulers and leaders. Many psychological manifestations in the individual are magnified by his ruler or leaders. The conditions of peoples are an image of the conditions of leaders, and vice versa.Instinctive behavior patternsThe vileness that originally characterizes the behavior of Arab leaders is perhaps moderately ingrained in the being of most of the people. The leaders did not fall from the sky, nor did they learn the arts of humiliation and exploitation at the Sorbonne or Oxford. Even their education, as far as we know, was in most cases local and simple, like Assad the father and his high school diploma, then the forged certificates of the henchmen from Ceausescu’s Romania or from Lumumba University in the Soviet Union or today’s Russia, where Hafez II is now receiving his education. Hafez II was prepared for the third Assad presidency.
From a social perspective, it can be said that these leaders mostly belonged to popular circles, and most of them carried noble slogans about freedom and social justice, but most of them, or even all of them, turned against what they called for, and turned into kings without crowns. They were not just kings of power, but leaders of gangs specialized in theft and corruption. If it weren’t for theft and corruption, Aisha Gaddafi’s bank account would not have exceeded 100 billion dollars, and if it weren’t for theft and corruption, Bushra al-Assad would not have been able to live in Dubai at that financially expensive level. There are many examples of these types of people.
It is easy to mention many psychological traits that are widespread even globally in a light way, but they are deeply rooted locally in the Arab political entities and in the psychological entities of Arab leaderships more deeply than they are rooted at the popular level. The Arab leader is usually narcissistic in all or most cases. His narcissism drives him to a passion for wealth and accumulating money, and his narcissism makes him feel the need to immortalize and deify himself, so these leaders accept the destruction of those around them. In general, the leader is no different from any employee who wants to remain in his position and practices corruption from his seat. The employee is also narcissistic. He is thus a miniature image of the leader, and the difference between them is quantitative, not qualitative.
If we reflect a little on the state of the soul and sex and the relationship between them, as many psychologists have reflected, we find that sexual repression, which characterizes the peoples of this region, was a factor that strongly influenced everyone, rulers and ruled. Sexual repression, in everyone, leads to a halt in emotional and psychological growth, hinders human development, and then leads to a decline in peaceful social relations between people. Repression incites violence.
The sexual instinct is considered part of the life instinct, and its failure to satisfy it transfers it to the world of repression, and with it the life instinct moves to the world of death, that is, deletion, that is, to the lack of interest in this life, because, as Ibn Abdullah told them, it is transient and ephemeral. Whoever is sexually congested on earth, will be released and unleashed in the gardens of heaven between the thighs of dozens of eternally virgin houris. Whoever is forbidden from drinking alcohol on earth will find rivers of it in heaven. There is a contradiction between the values of earth and the values of heaven, and this contradiction is known and documented in the verses. Here, it can be said that the absence of the life instinct on earth will mean the presence of the death instinct. Examples of the presence of the death instinct include the implementation of the death penalty on those who abandon prayer, or on apostates, or other people. In this regard, many fathers announced their intention to kill those of their children who abandon prayer, and in doing so, they surpassed in their brutality the overwhelming majority of predatory animals. Here, a person asks himself about the eligibility of these people to marry, have children, and form a family, since slaughtering children simply because they are distant from God is… Regarding prayer, it does not align with the mission or instinct of caring for children, nor with the life instinct, but rather with the death instinct, which a large segment considers a path to a better life in heaven. And for whom will this better life be? Will it be for the young man or woman who was slaughtered by his father because he abandoned prayer, or will it be for the one who slaughtered his son or daughter? The matter requires more explanation, clarification and analysis, which there is no room for in this article.
Megalomania is another psychological problem that plagues people in this region, whether they are leaders or ordinary people. Unfortunately, murderers and criminals monopolize this trait, and this is what we see in the names of schools, streets, and public places such as mosques and others. We see a relationship between addiction to glorifying criminals and the infatuation with glorifying oppressors such as dictators, who have been sitting on the necks of people for decades. The public has not realized the meaning of greatness and its lack of relationship with negative or positive, but only with the extent of the influence of a certain personality on the course of events, whether the course is destructive or constructive. Even the translator of Michael Hart’s book about the hundred greatest people in history did not understand this point, and considered everyone mentioned in Michael Hart’s list great in the positive sense, while the author of the book only meant the extent of the influence of these hundred on events, whether the influence was negative or positive!
Has there ever been an Arab leader who doubted himself, his necessity, and his suitability for all times and places, even after his death? After death, he must rule from his grave. Monopolizing power was the rule, and voluntary replacement of the ruler was the only exception, as was the case with Field Marshal Suwar al-Dahab in Sudan, who handed over the country to a civilian government after successfully carrying out a coup without shedding a single drop of blood. The consecration of power and the deification of the ruling leader is linked to the concept or illness of the “newcomers to power,” in addition to the neurosis of “fate,” then the neurosis of schizophrenia and other psychological illnesses that are widespread globally and exacerbated locally, especially among Arab leaders who differ from the general public only in the severity of their affliction!