‘ A blind combs the hair of a lunatic”

“The big show ends in vain and bloodshed”

  By Dr.Khalil Fadel

“The blind who combs the hair of lunatic” …this is how the scene started, regardless of who the blind and who is the mad, or they could even be  exchanging roles all  the time, while the theater is still in action, well lit for them to manipulate it and mock  us.

We can imagine the scene, whether we are participants in the mockery of the 2005 parliamentary elections in Egypt or not. The blind does not see the lunatics' hair. However, she holds the comb and in a swift moment she can twist her neck and even sever it from her body, just as the malicious boy does when he separates the head of a plastic doll from its body. Since she is a blind woman, she can put the comb anywhere, in the back neck, or in her brows, or even inside her eyes to make her blind, or she can bang it into her scalp in a harsh and painful manner. Or, she may be gentle in combing it, but can not see ; (even if she has  memorized the topography of her scalp), simply because she is untrained, ignorant, and lacks sight and insight, and lacks creativity.

The lunatic surrenders her hair to the blind to comb it mercilessly. She is brainless, incognizant, and unimaginative and can not comb her own hair. Maybe she does not want and does not see any need to comb her hair. The matter does not require beauty, because the mind which is the wisdom of existence has diminished and matters are confused and blurred. However, there is a dangerous threat and a great risk that the lunatic will suddenly and abruptly get up and refuse to surrender her head to the blind woman, and prefer to keep her hair unruly and uncombed (madness), and moreover, shouts in the face of the blind woman and discloses her deep hatred to her, and her absolute rejection to the process of combing her hair. The matter ends with a horrible fight, in which the blind woman does not see the face of her attacker, but rather feels her existence and direction, similar to the electronic knight in the famous videogame “Tomb Raider”, starred by the beautiful “Angelina Jolie”, who strikes swords in all directions. All this leads to the very absurd scene in which we are similarly living now, and will continue to live tomorrow.

Have we really become a herd of blind masses searching in the emptiness for heroism, or have we turned insane do not have a compass to determine our goal and direction? The primitive scenes of aggression, using hired outlaws, gunshots, flagrant and explicit lying, intentional denial and continuous lying, scenes of the political street which were more visible in Damanhour (Mustafa Al Fiqqi) and Doki (Amal Othman) districts, and the more tragic in the uprising of (Nuha Al Zaini[1]).

The dilemma of the 2005 parliamentary elections in Egypt ended in vain and bloodshed. The election exercise was performed in its most horrific aggressive forms. The effects were very serious, ranging from a very low participating percentage and a very low total, who contributed (politically) in the elections. Money ruled (in the form of bribes in cash or in kind), disorder and corruption prevailed, as well murdering people while on their way to earn their living. The outcomes of the elections reflected our psychological, political, and social state. A true deformed image of ourselves, the confusing alliance between the biggest parties in the dispute (National Democratic: Al-Watany – Islamic brotherhood : Al-Ekhwan).[2], as well as other alliances – only known to God - between the National Party and anyone ….. (Even the devil), in order to get the two thirds, and probably with a blessing of Seniora Condoleezza Rice. Here, the horrible gap between the un- politicized intellectual and the uneducated politician manifested itself, as well as the educated employee and the employed intellectual, and all these leftists and progressive persons who did not understand  the scene and came out from the cloak of the (blind woman and lunatic) as  losers.

The model of (Amm Saber), the owner of the beans carte, who brags about religion, whose eyes rotate between the beans pot, oil, salt and the beans dish[3] who tells us the career history of Saber, from a masonry lad to a free football coach, through which he tried to achieve his ego, but he found out that matters were complicated. Saber smiles, with a smile resembling crying and says the solution is in the beans cart, on which he yells and says: God said so and the Prophet said so “and God doeth no change to the people, unless they change themselves”. [4]

The big show ended with endless turmoil, and a strange statement from Safwat El Sherif - we entered the elections with our independent sons in order to fragment the votes! A lot of horrible contradictions reflecting the State crisis; its administrative and oppressive system and the people with all their pains and simplicity, as if they all are qualified  to meet with the story of the (blind combing the lunatic’s hair). This is the social madness, which means examining the general collective psychology of masses, in light of what has happened. This means that the blind woman and the lunatic have the same characteristics - composition of a bizarre personality which lacks touch with reality, knowing and interacts with it. This has carried the seed of madness in three locations. First, Egypt is trying to put its primitive embryonic self, a room inside another room, which is reflected by its attempt to place the seed of madness inside this capsule "there is nothing - by Almighty God, we are very democratic - what happened were mere encroachments - the brotherhood alone are responsible for aggression - we are living in the most prosperous eras of democracy." 

People in Egypt indulge themselves in strange activities, trying to change and induce change, trying to change their external worlds according to the circumstances, and as per the world around them, according to their contradictions and indefinite capabilities, their limited expectations, with the conditions of their confusion. In other words, they started synthesizing change according to their mode which has approached disappointment, disability, withdrawal, negligence, denial and preference to escape with their skin to any place remote from the scene of the (blind woman and the lunatic.)

The Egyptian status and ego, in its attempt to crawl or walk, or even to climb the stairs without the bosom of the mother or hand of the father, with a lot of aggression from inside and outside, tries to reconstruct various matters. However, regretfully, amidst a confusion of matters.

The competition for buying the shares of Egypt Telecom, the spread and diversity of family crimes, dealing with the outer surfaces of civilization and globalization in an obscene manner, being outstanding in hacking - Egyptian medicine student encroaches upon the websites of banks and buys a machine from China to forge credit cards and embezzle huge amounts of money, is now in the custody of justice, after winning the best fifth internet hacker in the world- news agencies – Cairo – 8/12/2005.

The big show ended, so will quietness prevail in the villages, districts and graveyards? Will the candidates’ election programs materialize? Have we passed the experience of democracy successfully? Are we prepared to sacrifice all this and more?? This has reminded me of a sixteen year old teenager who woke up from his sleep one day and looked in the mirror to see the devil. He was (shipped) to the nearest mental hospital where he received electroconvulsive therapy (E C T). But, never was he asked about the manifestation of the devil. Who said that he is actually mad, and that the struggle of his parents on an unknown estate of a relative who passed away in the USA is the reason? However, after the lapse of long months, the boy reclined on the psychoanalysis couch and said in a very quite tone:

-         I did not see my face in the mirror; I did not see the devil as well. The world blurred in front of my eyes. I only saw whiteness, as if it was death, dream, end, loss, emptiness, blankness.

Between this and that, the elections cost us 11 deaths and hundreds of injuries. But, more importantly, it uncovered the very ugly face of the political practice in Egypt now. It has uncovered the acquired disability resulting from the long period of deep political suppression and ignorance, repressing freedom for 53 years during which we suffered and turned like a chronic mentally ill patient. We did not develop, nor improve or heal. However, in the midst of this wild experience, we revolved around a vicious circle, in which personal interests, corruption and open bribery dominated. We were dreaming of progress and development, transfer and change, but what we reaped was a low political speech with all its malice and practices. A rotten environment of suspicious alliances prevailed, discrimination and bias without a true belief, merely common and overlapped interests. We found ourselves too far from the functions of the free civilian society which demands the freedom of establishing enterprises, freedom of exchange and expression of ideas[5].

If we want to diagnose the state which led to the situation of the (blind woman combing the lunatic’s hair), we will find two essential matters: first, lack of collective ego skills (representing the total psychology of the people), which means the overall people in Egypt, especially the basic and major block, lacks the collective psychological spirit, they lack skills such as those existing in the West.  For example : election right, the concept of the parliament, accountability of the ruler, the right of tax payers to all services, human rights in its widest meaning, his right to food, cloth, fresh water and unpolluted air, to express opinion, health, treatment….etc.  On the individual level, the (ego skills) starts from simple matters such as tying the shoe laces, to those which are multi-leveled and complex in negotiating, dialogue, counterpart, ability of persuade, enrich the other, good listening and everything related to interactions within the person and himself and his interactions with the others as individuals, as the society, institutions and traffic system.

If we can see what happened as a childbirth, then the matter requires a strong interaction between the (non fearing independent ego) and the dominating (patriarchal authority) representing an unparallel form in lying, cheating, oppressing the opponent and hiding behind fruitless and useless allegations. Here, we should not overlook the capacities of the idle self in its intentional play or its indulgence in the search for bread and butter, or develop the modern life with all its consumer dreams, spending money and wasting time in (mobile cha t- air published on the wires and dishes of the cities and villages). The enlightenment process which can be carried out by the intellectuals finds itself in confrontation with intolerable storms, strange tensions, and the arbitrariness of ugly daily behavior. The harsh feeling of sourness which may end with hating oneself. Here, people learn or do not learn the skills of life such as politics, like a child who can learn or not, can be nurtured or not, can grow up to be a good person, or a liar, thief, failure, depressed, missing his parents, the school and the informative life system with all its dimensions. Nations such as America and Britain do not learn from their rulers, but from their research, scientific and community institutions, from their development and progress, from their freedom and systematization with the people under a known and accustomed contract which does not permit turmoil, error, distortion or absolute corruption which strolls  and rambles in vicious circles to turn everything idle.

As for the second part, the thought disturbances, which range between severe internal aggressiveness, that can be so rigorous that they liquefy the thinking pattern, leading to its idleness, and later to the inability of using the mind - the concept of the lunatic..

We have drowned in the double bind dilemma, an oxymoron, such as the mother and child: she hits him with the palm, and then takes him in her arms. The government hires outlaws to hit the electors with sharp rods, swords and fire, then it constructs buildings to house the youth. Always something and its contradiction all the time. Arresting the symbols of corruption, and in the meantime diffusing and spreading an unprecedented manner, creating all this state of confusion, pathetic truth and the decline of the proper  world, we do not say the ideal world. This leads to a horrible process of exchanging error and risk, and continuing it mercilessly, and moreover, being delighted with it to the extent of manslaughter and homicide.

A blind woman combing the lunatic’s hair… it is not important who is the blind and who is the lunatic, what is important are the effects of this combing process on the blind and lunatic, the parents, spouses, neighbors, source of living, raising, health, education, yes… all the above.

Khalil Fadel

Cairo 9/12/2005