Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter
  • Home
  • Translation
  • Interpreting
  • About
  • Photography
    • MINI GALLERY 1
    • MINI GALLERY 2
    • MINI GALLERY 3
    • MINI GALLERY 4
    • MINI GALLERY 5
    • MINI GALLERY 6
  • Contact
  • Support

Part 5:

5/25/2015

 

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 5: Are you sure Wellington is in New Zealand?


Tree in Sunset
The characteristics of Stockholm Syndrome as described in Part 4—negative feelings towards the metaphorical SWAT Team, positive feelings toward the captors, parallels with BDSM erotic practices—do not only reveal a familiar template but also underline how prevalence Stockholm Syndrome is. Like a malignant cancer, it spreads uncontrollably into various forms of human behavior and activities; from the corporate world to interpersonal relationships; from psychological to political to governance, and financial spheres. By any chance, can the restrictive, constraining, debilitating, and counter-productive nature of Stockholm Syndrome also affects what we believe?

Indeed.

In Stockholm, Kreditbanken employees believed that the bank robbers are harmless. In the Corporate world, overworked employees believe that the employer’s poor treatment of them is necessary for the overall interest of the company in the long term. In Japan, workers performing karoshi continuously believe in the importance to keep working in the office with the lights off or simply take their work home by performing hidden overtime. In complex interpersonal relationships and unhealthy marriages, battered spouses believe that the abusive relationship is sustainable. In America, taxpayers and bank regulators believe in the impunity of Goldman Sachs and too-big-to-fail mega banks. In the cold, rainy, and windy November darkness, hard-core Black Friday shoppers — who camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday — believe in the "value" of "doorbuster deals" which are nothing but derivative products specifically manufactured with lower-quality specifications.

To believe.

According to Merriam Webster, "(to) believe" may mean (1) to accept or regard (something) as true; (2) to accept the truth of what is said by (someone); (3) to have (a specified opinion). Oxford lexicographers offer a similar set of definitions. "To believe" may mean (1) to feel certain; (2) to think that something is true or possible, although you are not completely certain (emphasis added); (3) to have the opinion that something is right or true; (4) to have a religious faith.

It is the aforementioned Oxford's subordinate clause "although you are not completely certain" that signifies the vulnerabilities of a belief to circular reasoning. From circulus in probando (Latin, meaning "circle in proving") circular reasoning is a logical fallacy in which the person begins with what he or she is trying to end with. A classic example of a fallacious circular reasoning is offered by Canadian academic and author Douglas Walton: "Wellington is in New Zealand. Therefore, Wellington is in New Zealand." In other words, "I believe in X, therefore X is true." One needs not be a scholar to realize that such logic does not fly. Yet circular reasoning has often distorted and corrupted what we believe.

It takes two to tango. Likewise, it takes two to believe—the belief and the believer. It also takes two parties to have a hostage situation—the captors and the hostages. Clearly the problem is not always with the belief (as "the captors"), but also with the believer (as "the hostages").

                                                                      ###

In the annals of hostage negotiation, the best outcome is called Lima Syndrome, which is considered as the opposite of Stockholm Syndrome. In Lima Syndrome, the captors develop sympathy for their hostages. Not everything about Lima Syndrome is fully understood, but there are several reasons why Lima Syndrome may develop. When there are multiple captors, sometimes one or more will start to disagree with the leadership. Other possibilities for Lima Syndrome to happen include (1) the captors, collectively, just start to develop sympathy with the hostages and decide to discontinue hurting them; (2) random act of kindness; or (3) sheer luck of the hostages.  

Lima Syndrome is named after a hostage situation at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru, on 17 December 1996. At that time, 14 members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took hundreds of foreign diplomats, government officials and business executives—who were celebrating Emperor Akihito's 63rd birthday—as hostages. However, in contrast to the situation in Stockholm 23 years before, within a few hours, the captors had released most of the hostages, including the most valuable ones, due to sympathy towards them.

[To be continued.]


Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter


Part 4.5:

5/18/2015

 

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Notification


Cows crossing the street
Due to an urgent translation assignment with a short turnaround time, Part 5 will be delayed for one week, and only be posted next Monday, May 25, 2015. Thank you very much for your patience and understanding, and have a wonderful week!


Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter

 



Part 4:

5/11/2015

 

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 4: Shooting the Messenger and BDSM 

Barbed Wire
By now we have seen similar characteristics among the Kreditbanken hostages in Stockholm, Miranda Priestly's co-assistant in The Devil Wears Prada, Japanese workers who inconspicuously conspire with their employers to perform karoshi, battered wives who maintain irrational bonding with their abusers, corrupt legislators beholden to special interest groups, bank regulators under the thumb of too-big-to-fail megabanks, 401(k) and IRA account holders who sustain and feed in a broken system with their pre-tax dollars, and naive Black Friday consumers who valiantly endure the elements merely to buy derivative products specifically manufactured with lower-quality specifications. Stockholm Syndrome may occur anytime and anywhere on anyone indiscriminately. Like it or not, almost everyone is susceptible to it. There are three characteristics:

First, the hostage(s) may show resentment or negative feelings towards family, friends, authorities or third parties who try to rescue and/or liberate them from the situation. Instead of welcoming the metaphorical "Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) Team" rescue efforts, the hostages deny to be liberated. They want to be controlled and manipulated by their captors indefinitely. This "shooting the messenger" attitude usually surfaces when brainwashed cult members show resentment against family members who try to awaken them from their Stockholm Syndrome. It's common for cult members to resent family members who try to "awaken" them to no avail—often with disastrous results.

In November 1978 cult leader James Warren "Jim" Jones organized the mass murder-suicide of 909 Peoples Temple members (including over 200 children) by cyanide poisoning in Jonestown, Guyana. In April 1993, David Koresh and more than 70 of his Branch Davidians followers burned to death following a blaze at their Waco, TX, compound after a 51-day standoff with federal law enforcement agents. Then in March 1997, San Diego police discovered the bodies of 39 Heaven's Gate  members who had committed mass suicide through self-suffocation with plastic bags. These members believed they were reaching an alien space craft following the Hale-Bopp comet.

Sadly, no amount of intervention from family members would likely have saved those brainwashed victims. It's instructive to cite Scottish author Iain M. Banks' analysis on David Koresh: "Cults and sects and religions tend to be set up by men because they are a power trip. Look at David Koresh of Waco fame. He tried to be a rock star and failed. As a prophet though, he got the rock star life, the sex and drugs and worship, without having to be one." This groupie-like adoration is exactly the next characteristic of Stockholm Syndrome.

Second, there are positive feelings and irrational bonding between the hostages towards their captors, and vice versa. As outlined in Part 1, hostages suffering from Stockholm Syndrome express empathy, sympathy, loyalty, or affection, and have positive feelings toward their captors, to the point of defending and identifying with the captors. A notable example is the case of Patricia Hearst, an American heiress from the Hearst publishing empire. She was kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a student-led group in Berkeley, California, which campaigned for black prisoners' release. Isolated and threatened with death, Hearst was brainwashed to support SLA's cause, make propaganda announcements for SLA and participate in the robbery of Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. (She was found 19 months after her kidnapping, by which time she was considered not merely a victim but a fugitive. Her conviction and long prison sentence were widely seen as unjust, but the procedural correctness of her trial was upheld by higher courts. Eventually President Carter commuted her sentence, and she was pardoned by President Clinton.)

Third, there are interesting parallels between Stockholm Syndrome and BDSM erotic practices. Now… wait a second. I do not mean "that" kind of psycho-sexual BDSM as illustrated by E.L. James in her Fifty Shades of Grey. (As if I have read the book! So far, the mixed reviews on Amazon.com have not motivated me to read Fifty Shades of Grey. Then I thought about skipping the book altogether and just watch the film, but again the 1-star review from Rotten Tomatoes and 2-star review from have IMDb failed to spark any enthusiasm; though, as they say, never say never. But I digress…)  Stockholm Syndrome, from a clinical perspective, consists of similar components of BDSM: bondage (capture-bonding, lost of freedom), discipline (restrictions enforced by the captors), domination (of the captors), submission (of the hostages), rewards (for obedience), punishment (for deviance), even sado-masochism (as manifested in karoshi, Black Friday, etc.). Now, that I get your attention…

 [To be continued.]

Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter

 



Part 3:

5/3/2015

0 Comments

 

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 3: Interpersonal, Political and Financial Stockholm Syndrome


Blindfolded Man
Beyond the corporate world, abused spouses in complex interpersonal relationships, unhealthy marriages, and abusive households may also suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. Captors may include an abusive fiancé or fiancée, parent(s), or any other role in which the captor is in a position of control or authority over the abused hostages. Victims of Battered Person Syndrome (BPS), due to repeated cycles of violence and reconciliation, may also believe that the violence is their own fault, and that their captors/abusers are omnipresent and omniscient. 


The love-and-hate relationship between hostages and captors has not escaped Hollywood. As outlined in Stockholm swooning: 22 films where women fall in love with their kidnappers, Stockholm Syndrome has been around even before the 1973 incident at Kreditbanken in central Stockholm. Films from The Sheik (1921) to Three Days Of The Condor (1975) to In Time (2011) share the Stockholm Syndrome theme. For the sake of gender equality, I think, there should also be films where men fall in love with their kidnappers.

It's probably not a stretch to say that politicians and legislators who are beholden to special interest groups and K Street lobbyists suffer from Political Stockholm Syndrome. Basically these politicians are being kept as hostages — voluntarily or otherwise — for fear of losing campaign donations to finance their election or re-election campaigns. Handcuffed by a conflict of interests and torn apart by two opposing forces — whether to kowtow to their campaign donors or to serve their constituents — they become ineffective legislators and too paralyzed to execute their promised agendas. Like reforming Wall Street for example.

Which brings us to Financial Stockholm Syndrome. In his November 2009 blog, Dylan Ratigan, the fiery New York Times best-selling author and MSNBC's former host argues that "Americans Have Been Taken Hostage" — the title of his post. American taxpayers, according to Ratigan, have been taken hostage to a broken system in which taxpayers "provide the banks with the use of $14 trillion from the Federal Reserve, much of the $7 trillion outstanding at the US Treasury and $2.3 trillion at the FDIC" to bail-out Goldman Sachs and other mega banks. This underlines the previous paragraph: Congress, so far, has refused to outlaw the most anti-competitive structure known to the American economy, often referred to as "too-big-to-fail banks". Since most of our 401(k) and Individual Retirement Account investment portfolios include stocks and bonds, basically we all suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. By continuously investing in a broken system that we sustain and feed in with out pre-tax dollars, we (including myself) are practically bonding with, and supporting, our captors. How foolish, one may say; but the alternative is to invest in a Picasso or Vermeer or Cezanne, and how many can afford that?  

In this day and age most of us also suffer from Consumer Stockholm Syndrome. We are shackled by what we call "brand loyalty", handcuffed by Conspicuous Consumption and blindfolded by a desire to shop 'til drop and buy 'til die in order to keep up with the Joneses. As illustrated in "The Corporation" (2003) documentary, some of the best creative minds have been employed to create illusions — castles in the air, if you will — that divert consumers from the real issues through the so-called Perception Management. Much more important than selling products, in fact corporations do sell "a better way of life" and plot subtle propaganda to sustain consumers' dependency on — even addiction to — their products.

Anyone who doubts the magnitude of Consumer Stockholm Syndrome, should simply observe the ridiculous annual ritual of shoppers who camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday. These hard-core shoppers valiantly endure the cold, rainy, and windy November darkness in pursuit of securing a place in front of the Black Friday line, merely to get the most desirable "doorbuster deals" offered by quite sophisticated captors. Even if these hostages know that the doorbuster deals are merely "derivative" products, which are specifically manufactured with lower-quality specifications just for the Black Friday commotion, that is just fine. Like in other versions of Stockholm Syndrome, the irrational bonding and sympathy towards the captors is irresistible; and the captors understand it. Since 2005 mega-retailers have taken advantage of Cyber Monday to entice online shoppers with even more "online-only-deals" the Monday after Thanksgiving.

 [To be continued.]

Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter 


0 Comments

    Continuously exploring literal, semantic, idiomatic, contextual, metaphorical, symptomatic, conceptual and metaphysical meanings of everything worth thinking about.

    Copyright © 2016 by Johannes Tan. All Rights Reserved.

    Archives

    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Awareness
    Evaluation
    Interpreting
    Meaning
    Meanings
    Translation

    RSS Feed

Photos used under Creative Commons from Scott McLeod, massimob(ian)chi, final gather, Didriks, angesha, h.koppdelaney, Red Rose Exile, freestock.ca ♡ dare to share beauty, colinpoe, KateTheC, charlotte henard, the evil monkey, ninara, SFB579 Namaste, Eric Kilby, Tracy Hunter, lovelornpoets, Monado, tm-tm, Paul Mannix, Helmut Südema, Lexie Stevenson, joiseyshowaa, DncnH, Ömer Ünlü, dok1, colinpoe, LeonArts.at, Stifts- och landsbiblioteket i Skara, h.koppdelaney, sjsharktank, CPOA, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, Doggettx, Dunleavy Family, KAZVorpal, yigitozan, John-Morgan, Alan Cleaver, woodleywonderworks, Schleeo, Finntasia, Janitors, twm1340, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, kelseylynne.obrien, astrologyphotographywesildssharon, eli.pousson, [Duncan], Nature2Nurture, h.koppdelaney, Onefound, acca-67, tnssofres, JayCob L., youngil_pyun, pilarcopete, lundyd, One Way Stock, spinster cardigan, Moyan_Brenn, T I M E L E S S, Catarina Oberlander, Sean MacEntee, FutUndBeidl