Culture seems to be the only answer

After observing the spontaneous upsurge that the nation had displayed after the ghastly and heinous crime in Delhi on Nirbhaya, we thought that such shocking incidents might not recur. But to our shock and dismay, the frequency of such ghastly incidents had gone up and every day the media is informing that a gang rape had taken place at so and so place. Delhi is becoming notorious for such incidents. Our beta-noire, China had already dubbed Delhi as the 'rape capital of the world'.

How come so many rapes, that too gang rapes, are taking place in spite of so much condemnation by all sections of society and demand for the severest punishment to monsters in the shape of men? Common people think that the fear of severe punishments like death by hanging would act as deterrents to such crimes. But the shocking and brutal incidents that are taking place day in and day out prove that fear of punishment is not the answer to such horrendous crimes.

Sex is one of the most powerful instincts in man. According to Sigmund Freud, sex acts as a driving force in men. In every individual's mind, there are three forces dragging him to three different directions. They are Id, Ego and Superego. Id is the unconscious part of our mind. Major part of our psyche is occupied by this Id (Id is a German word meaning of which is: It). Id is the place where all our instincts are stored.

All our suppressed desires take shelter in our Id. Id doesn't care for moral values or traditional dos and don'ts. It is always in search of pleasures, particularly sexual pleasures. It doesn't care for any punishments, or social condemnations. Id is concerned with only fulfilling one's desire and does not think whether such desire is socially acceptable or not.

Its only concern is pleasure. All the primitive forces of man are stored in Id and they are being inherited to man from one generation to another. The second force in man's mind is Ego. Ego is our conscious part and it thinks about the possibility or impossibility of fulfilling our desires. It tries to control the unwanted desires of Id.

How come so many rapes, that too gang rapes, are taking place in spite of so much condemnation by all sections of society and demand for the severest punishment to monsters in the shape of men?

The third force in our mind is Superego. Superego in man is developed as he attains maturity with age. Social norms, the traditional, cultural and moral values play a dominant role in shaping our superego. Superego is our conscience. It always tells us what is good and what is wrong. It acts as a stimulating block to the rampaging desires that are taking place in our 'Id'.

When the superego in us is allowed to grow into a strong force, it acts as a real deterrent to all the evil desires that are concentrated in our Id. But are we at this present juncture allowing the superego to grow in to a strong force in our young people who are now occupy 60% of our population? The answer to this question is no.

The circumstances in our present day society are only encouraging the 'Id' in our young men. You take any of our modern entertainment media like cinema, television, internet etc. What are they showing to our children? They show the naked and unbridled sex in its worst form of vulgarity.

Our films are being flooded with sex in the form of item songs. The heroines in our films expose their anatomy to the maximum extent possible. Our cinemas also glamorize and glorify the heinous crimes by the villains. Our TV serials show women as conspiring one against the other. Our political leaders are shown as villains indulging in all sorts of crimes.

Our media shows only negative incidents that are taking place in our society. The idealism which was once dominating our young men's minds had taken a beating in our present day atmosphere. Our children are not habituated to reading books. Literature is the best way to refine and sensitize our instincts. Our young men lost the habit of looking in to themselves.

The very foundation of a family has been affected by the tumultuous changes in the society. Children are deprived of their childhood and they are under constant stress to cope up with a highly competitive society and they are frustrated and under intense pressure to fulfill the demands of their parents and also the society. They do not know how to introspect their inner world.

In one word, today's generation is tech savvy and improved a great deal in handling computers and other modern technical gadgets like cell phone, I phone, I pods etc., But they are very poor in understanding human relations and abysmally failing to strengthen the bonding between each other. Cultural growth is the only answer to the crimes like rapes. We are not creating an atmosphere which strengthens the positive part of our psyche.

On the other hand, we are creating an atmosphere with our films, TV, media and political leaders who encourage the negative side i.e., our 'Id' in us. Unless we create an atmosphere in our society which is conducive to the growth of a strong 'superego' and a strong family to support a child when he or she is under pressure, we can't prevent horrendous crimes like gang rapes and murders.

The cultural activities like reading good books, listening to good music, seeing good Plays on the stage, watching good movies and Paintings will elevate the young men's thinking and understand the values that can strengthen their 'superego'. It is absolutely necessary to cleanse our so called commercial movies and daily serials on TV screens. When our young men watch these commercial films, they wonder whether there is any authority like censorship in our country. I wonder what our women's organizations are doing. www.ampashayyanaveen.com

OPINION