The over-hyped existential anxiety of 2019 Elections and how to deal with it
Here we are a day before the election results are declared. If you are the group that’s writing those frantic status updates stating “winter is coming for us”, “let’s brace for the worst”, “we will get through these five years if we stay together”, “we are preparing for the worst”, “let’s keep fighting”, “our democracy is under threat”, this is for you. If you belong to the other group that’s already started stalking your ex-girlfriend emboldened by Narendra Modi’s predicted victory and renewed faith in your decision-making power you might save this for some future election (given that the tables don’t turn on 23rd May.)
Whatever happens on 23rd May, you have no choice but to accept it. And accept it with grace, without falling into a sulking mode, spinning conspiracy theories or spreading more hate without having anything real to gain for it. The reason many of us are feeling this existential anxiety and angst is because we have extended our self-identity to include the candidate we voted for. Nothing is worse for your mental health. Here are some ways to deal with the pre-23rd and post-23rd May anxiety —
- Exposure therapy: Progressively imagine all the bad things that can happen to you and your immediate family and friends if the current government comes to power. Start from the least threatening scenario and move to the most terrifying one. Do you and your family, friends survive it? If yes, then probably your anxieties are unfounded or exaggerated to a great degree. Then you can progressively expose yourself to a coffee with a so-called Bhakt of your educational background and discuss some of the ideas of Sangh parivar with him (given that you have really read them properly). See how that goes.
- Do shadow work: Ask yourself if you are projecting an internal conflict, a personal fight onto the current political fight? What is the internal/subjective meaning you attach to this election? Are your projecting your own evils, or your own shadow — the unconscious part of your psyche on the current government particularly on Narendra Modi? In fact, is your entire political community and comrades collectively projecting its evil on one or two people? Do some shadow work, which aspect of your personality are you most scared of, is a part of you a bigot and doesn’t want to own up to that and projecting it on the evil other? Find out the people you hate most, who are the people who you bother you and you love the most. You will get the answer. Before you declare a war on bigotry you need to figure out if deep down you are a bigot not projecting your evils on some external force. You need psychic clarity, resolve your internal issues before you fight the alleged injustices of the current regime.
3. Reality testing: Talk to a person from the opposite camp and convey your concerns about the current regime factually. Let them justify their side with facts and then update your views if you get satisfactory answers. Keep it civil and in the domain of facts. Even if the person is not able to convince you, the mere fact that you could have a conversation with a so-called Bhakt without getting hurt or sent to Pakistan should assuage your fears.
4. Talk to your parents: This is perhaps the best and the easiest way to deal with your fears “democracy is under threat”. It worked wonders for me. My father is a BJP-voter but had been a CPI(M) cadre since his teenage years for a long time. Both my parents have told me stories about our political past, I did a bit of reading too myself. But when your parents are the source of information, you know there are no vested interests involved. You can easily do a comparison of their freedoms and the political environment they lived in and what kind of environment you live in . That will automatically reduce your threat-perception, and increases your faith in the strength of your country’s democracy. It withstood some really shitty stuff. Right now seems like a pretty good time, even if not the best of times.
5. Quit social media and stop watching dystopian shows on Netflix for sometime — This will protect you from crippling anxiety taking over due to blame-game and the toxic narrative post election results.
6. Fortify your sense of self: Finally, don’t conflate your political ideology with your spiritual guide or your sense of identity. You are not your political ideology, you are not the candidate you vote for. People who vote Congress aren’t pro-dynasty, or people who vote for Modi aren’t anti-Muslim. We all have our practical reasons to vote the candidate we do. Politics is all about pragmatism, not sentimentality. Don’t label others, and don’t get attached too deeply with the party you voted for. If you are looking to find meaning and purpose, explore your inner self. If you want to to do it within a secular framework you can experiment with Vedanta, Yoga, Buddhism, Stoicism, Existentialism. Political philosophy is good for intellectual sparring but not for existential grounding.
Leaving you with my favourite song for anxious times. Love and peace.
