Italy and the Italians

Italy has a remarkable history. The Roman Empire became a fascinating society, starting at around 300 before Christ, ending at around 400 after the death of Christ. That is probably the only time of relative calm and order – and of strict punishments of those who did not obey the rules of the emperors. Otherwise Italy has been an area of lots of wars between different ethnic or nationalistic groups. Guiseppe Garibaldi succeeded during a period during the end of the 19th century to unite a lot of people living in Italy, but during the 1920’s the fasiscts came to power (remember Mussolini). After the second world war Italy became a modern republic. Up to present days there has been a lot of struggles in between the political parties – and so it goes.
It is not so very easy to make yourself understood in Italy – if you do not speak Italian. The Italians are certainly not any masters of English. Most people can not speak English at all. All movies sent by the TV channels are dubbed into Italian.
Travelling around by car in Italy is adventurous, especially if you select the smaller roads. Here and there road signs – but as they could be of a number of about 10 or 12 on the same pole you have to be a fast reader to find the right one. And you have to have a good eye sight, as the letters are not always so very big. Taking a bus ride in one of the cities could also become an adventure. The driver is not available for your questions as he is sitting in a plastic cage, and if you try to get in touch with him he does not understand any English. There is an automatic teller machine for your convience – if you want to pay for the ride, and there are other machines to mark your prepaid ticket (if you have got such a one), but I did not see any Italians use those techniques. They just climbed on and off the buses as they liked – no payment.
Italy has brought forward lots of special talents: artists, musicians, composers. And they have the famous Italian kitchens. Most of those are headlined Restaurant – Pizzeria.
I have to conclude: Italy is a must if you want to study human beings, groups and society. It is enchanting and mysterious and very interesting.

A short break

I will be back to my blog in a few days. At the moment I am on a private study tour in Italy. Very interesting. There are a lot to state about Italy and the Italians…

Denial of conflicts

Most people divide their attention and behaviour and thinking into two different spaces: the official one, which includes the nearness of all others: friends, colleagues, managers, so forth – and the private one, at home, behind your own barriers. And at home there are many times the possibilities of finding the open air in which it is possible to express yourself more freely, thinking more brave thoughts, talking with your critical mind in function. But in the official world most people cling to the group, forming the average attitudes, which normally means nothing at all. It is a normal defense action, used to try to be kept alive, avoiding to become a victim of the rage of the mass. Because when the mass gets angry it will strive to push everyone, who looks or supposes to be deviant from the average norm, far away. Lock them up! Hang them in a tree!
The large group is a potential danger to anyone – and so may even the small group appear – and with that knowledge in the back of the brain it is better to stand low: I have not heard anything, I have not seen anything, I will not say anything.
Sometimes I feel abandoned.

The good enough mampa

As I said in my previous post most people are followers. They look desperately for a leader and if they can not find anyone good enough they invent some invisible giant. But who is then good enough? Well, are we not all searching for a good enough mampa. By mampa I mean the perfect combination of the sweet, always attentive, feeding mother and the all mighty, wise and very competent father. My mam and my pa – and they are clinged together for eternity, and no one will become old and sick and weak, at least as long as I need them. But when I do not need them anymore I will slowly but steadily turn my back towards them, leaving them to their own fate. And I will start to look for a new perfect leader, possibly the unisexified man/woman of our time. The main question to reflect about is the backgrounds and the dreams of those people that candidate for general leader positions. Who are they? What do they want? What are they looking for and dreaming about?
Well, I think that they have transferred their wishes for one single leader into a mental image that is projected on a group of people. Sometimes this provides something that is even more powerful than the image of one person only. The group (many times an audience) may really carry the dreams of being strong, wise, and in the same time kind and re-feeding the one on stage.
That is dynamic pattern between the leader and the mass of people. Both sides are looking for the same thing, both sides are creating hopes and wishes, both sides are projecting their images on each other. And both sides may be content and happy…for awhile…until the day when the dream collapses due to the cruel reality. The ideal mampa is just a dream…

Most people are followers

A lot of people, especially those in the younger generation, strive for a sort of uniqueness, an identity of a special kind that would provide you to separate yourself from the center of the mass. They try by colouring their hair like a rainbow, or to put steel needles in their ears or in their faces, but the problem is that they seem to lose the speciality after a while as there are more and more people trying to make the same, or at least similar, marks of themselves. Gradually the uniqueness becomes something quite common on the streets. Which leads to the following conclusion: most people love to follow the others and as such we are always dreaming of The Great Leader, may he (or somtimes she) be white, black, red or yellow, and may he be named Obama or Usama or …. Jesus Christ or Muhammed or…lacking a real, living person we may try to invent Someone or Something, which we will put somewhere where he (or she?) can not be reached…in heaven for example. The vision is quite clear: we are hoping for someone that we can rely on in every situation, bad or good. We are herd people, a pack of Humans, who get stressed and worried when we feel alone without good enough support. That is the reason why we, most of us, are a bunch of look-alikes, dressing according to the dresscode standards and walking like penguines in a row, talking about the most common and harmless things, trying to avoid all sorts of conflicts.

Business psychology – and psychologists

There are psychologists, who are mainly researchers. They are investigating people, groups and organizations in their roles of problem analysts and trouble shooters, they try their best to find the best solutions according to well established and rational psychological theories and they are developing methods that are rooted in the theories. They form hypothesis and try their findings over and over again until they are satisfied. They are true researchers.
But there are other psychologists as well, trying to find the best ladder up to the business skies, where they belive the money is. They are the salesmen and they could sell anything, anything, if it brings in any profit. They are ready for slander and defaming others if they think that this is a faster way upwards. They could kick out the complicated theories if they think that their customers do not care of such things. They are businessmen, attracted by the Money – and not specifically of the Truth. I have met several of them. Some of them I used to call my friends, but they are not my friends anymore.

Economy behind the use of psychological test instruments

The development of all mental and emotional functions in each man and woman is very complex. It is based upon the genetic structures, the neurological constructions, the social networks and influences, the perceptual qualities and interpretations, the art and quality of the close relationships to others and so forth. If you really want to get to know another Human Being you´d better spend some time with him or her, investigating behaviour patterns, the expressions of attitudes and interests, the degree of rationality in his or her reactions etc. etc.. It takes some time. If you are really skilled as a behaviour scientist you could perhaps come to some important conclusions after a few hours, otherwise it will probably take days and weeks.
The business idea with psychological tests is to reach the same level of knowledge after perhaps one or two hours. Quick-fix! Fast it goes. And less money have to be paid.
The big problem though is that there are no psychological tests that are reliable or valid enough to provide a full scale knowledge about a person. For economical reasons they are used anyhow. Cheap could be good enough. This is a kind of common solution to lots of problems or questions in our society of today.

Risky business

It is a fast growing business. Some airline companies, among them some major, national airline companies, may now and then become short of pilots or short of airplanes or short of both. The drylease (airplanes only) and wetlease (airplanes with a crew) become then a play card on the table. The passengers have bought their tickets by one special airline company because they are very concerned about that they are to become flewn by a regular airline airplane with a well selected and well trained crew, but onboard they suddenly discover that the plane is very old and that the crew speaks another language, and when they ask they may get the reply that the airplane and the crew come from some low-cost company from some low-cost country.
This is really a scary business. You can not any longer be sure that you get what you are paying for. And above everything else could be the credo from the passengers: we want to fly with your own crew and with your airplanes because we put Safety first.
Today you´ll never know if that will be a guarantee.
Scary!