Democracy and Mental Health

As a teenager around year 1976 or 1977, back homeschool.
in Tehran, I was reading a novel that was aboutNow looking back, I do not question why we (Iranian)
participating events during the Russian revolution.are where we are now. I question how we would not
The novel was attention-grabbing and several times Ibe here in this crisis that we are in now.
came across the word Democracy. I really did notMany of us Iranian enjoy the democracy and human
know the meaning of that word. My curiosityrights in Western cultures we reside in. We live the
motivated me to look up the word in a dictionary weword and live the meaning of what democracy means
had in our library. I did not appreciate to skip thein the countries we live in.
unfamiliar word that like many other Latin words wereOur history, the Iranian one, the real Persian one, is one
being printed in our Persian literature.of the saddest stories on earth. The rise and fall of
I looked up the word just because I had an emergingdemocracy is truly a sad story that has happened in
need for conceptualizing the story. I think the meaningour history numerous times. We have to analyze our
that I found was too vague or too broad and I tried tohistory from every angle, particularly from the angle of
put things into a context by that simple mindedmental health and psychology. Rigidity in thoughts and
meaning of a big concept as Democracy.in feelings causes mental heath issues. How can we
I was not satisfied with the dictionary. I guess this wordsay that all the repeated and patterned attacks on
had been reluctantly overlooked by the system ofdemocracy are not due to rigidity pertinent to mental
censure at that time or it might have been by accidenthealth issues?
or because of translation errors. I remember I wasWe just give this hypothesis a chance and
thinking how come this was the first time I had seencontemplate on it.
this word, while I used to read books. Who knows?Mental health issues damage the actualization of
I asked my father what that word meant. He did notdemocracy. People, who lack the psychological stability,
like my question and he did not know the answerwould not care for democracy. Now looking back I
either. He suggested that I do not care about thatbelieve that we can not reach democracy if people
remark because that word did not meant to be for usare scared, traumatized, silenced, and domesticated.
Iranian. I become conscious that if my father did notPeople who have been excluded and ignored can not
have a respond to my question, it maybe due to thesee the benefit of democracy.
fact that the word itself did not relate to our livesWe are where we are historically, physically, mentally,
anyway, so why learns it?spiritually, and psychologically just because we have
For some reason I took the matter further, I took thebeen manipulated time after time. We have let go of
book to school and asked my literature teacher. Iour own power because we are falling for mental
expected this very knowledgeable teacher to knowhealth issues due to anger, hatred, avoidance,
because he knew meaning of the most rigorousignorance, fear of rejection, and fear of failure. No
Persian poems. Somehow I guess I liked to show himwonder we Iranian are fragmented. No wonder we
my book to may be show-off to him as he was a roleare where are now.
model to me. My teacher did not like my questionPoran Poregbal
either, his face turned red and he advised me to forgetJuly 29, 2008
about that word and never again take that book toVancouver, B.C.