Ken Eisold: Why Do We Riot?
Why Do We Riot?
"All of us, even the most sophisticated, intelligent, educated persons, are vulnerable to regression,” says Ken Eisold, a New York-based psychoanalyst who studies group behaviour.
By regression he means the primal state humans originate from, where an animalistic, pack-like behaviour was a strong pre-requisite for survival.
Ken adds that there's a primary desire to belong to a larger group and these groups can often be pulled from peaceful protests to violence by a few people. Most of us are law fearing but a chance to sidestep that can be euphoric.
It is this need that is fed into by those inciting violence. Thus every riot, irrespective of whether the rioters are political or not, is politically motivated. This does not always mean politicians but …show more content…
A riot tears through the fabric of a society and the cloth usually never heals enough to become whole again. On the economic front this results in monetary losses and a beating of reputation of that area, as well as long term damage to individual businesses that have directly suffered. But the worst casualty is on the social-individual front, where the resultant trauma, anxiety and anger causes ghettoism, feeds extremism and considerably weakens the bonds that have kept people together through life's ups and downs.
In Firaaq, this manifests through Muneera (Shahana Goswami) who struggles to relate with her close Hindu neighbour who she suspects of having looted her house. It manifests through Hanif (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who frantically searches for a gun to get his revenge. It manifests through Aarti (Deepti Naval) who is in shock and guilt because she did not help a Muslim woman who was being chased by a mob. It makes Sameer Shaikh (Sanjay Suri) feel neutered because he can no longer be himself and had to take his wife's surname (Desai) just so that he could save his
"All of us, even the most sophisticated, intelligent, educated persons, are vulnerable to regression,” says Ken Eisold, a New York-based psychoanalyst who studies group behaviour.
By regression he means the primal state humans originate from, where an animalistic, pack-like behaviour was a strong pre-requisite for survival.
Ken adds that there's a primary desire to belong to a larger group and these groups can often be pulled from peaceful protests to violence by a few people. Most of us are law fearing but a chance to sidestep that can be euphoric.
It is this need that is fed into by those inciting violence. Thus every riot, irrespective of whether the rioters are political or not, is politically motivated. This does not always mean politicians but …show more content…
A riot tears through the fabric of a society and the cloth usually never heals enough to become whole again. On the economic front this results in monetary losses and a beating of reputation of that area, as well as long term damage to individual businesses that have directly suffered. But the worst casualty is on the social-individual front, where the resultant trauma, anxiety and anger causes ghettoism, feeds extremism and considerably weakens the bonds that have kept people together through life's ups and downs.
In Firaaq, this manifests through Muneera (Shahana Goswami) who struggles to relate with her close Hindu neighbour who she suspects of having looted her house. It manifests through Hanif (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who frantically searches for a gun to get his revenge. It manifests through Aarti (Deepti Naval) who is in shock and guilt because she did not help a Muslim woman who was being chased by a mob. It makes Sameer Shaikh (Sanjay Suri) feel neutered because he can no longer be himself and had to take his wife's surname (Desai) just so that he could save his