Why the 3rd World is Fighting Modernization

1. The assumptions of the pioneers of scientific psychiatry about the negative influences of modern western civilization on mental health were not unfounded;
2. Rapid Westernizing modernization of tradition-directed societies has been shown to have pathogenic effects on social and mental functioning, and these pathogenic effects are especially deleterious for tribal societies.
3. The further exploration and identification of the psychiatric sequelae of rapid sociocultural change and the working out of preventive measures are today among the
   greatest challenges confronting transcultural psychiatry.
-- http://www.mentalhealth.com/newslet/tp9901.html

It is these three factors which have had Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and much of the 3rd World wonder if Americanization is worth the suffering.

For people not currently treated for mental illness but treated within the socio-cultural framework (via shamans and medicine men) are able to be integrated back into society, either due to remission of their transient psychoses or initiation into the magico-religious setting to replace the shaman they were "cured" by.

Yet it is the fear of psychosis felt by society which stigmatizes the mentally ill regardless of culture.

The true fear of undeveloped nations is that rapid urbanization would overwhelm the often underfunded and underdeveloped health-care system.

As well, the replacement of shamans and medicine men with psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers would imply that the ancient healers would become marginalized and not integrated into the urban landscape as a vital link to the nation's cultural traditions at first.

However, Africa seems ripe to have a civilized African be both priest and shaman, doctor and medicine man.

Indeed, it is possible to integrate cultural tradition with Westernized medicine, so that no loss of cultural tradition is incurred.

Let's hope that America does not force a loss of tradition in the new nations born in the ashes of Yugoslavia.

Let's also hope that both Afghanistan and Iraq manage to retain the best that is of imams and of psychiatrists to take care of the shell-shocked.

And let us hope that the Wahabis' influence dies so that the most enlightened of Islam revives the equality of men and women in their rich culture.

Corruption as Metaphor for Urbanization

Corruption is difficult to hide in the country than in a city.

For one of the reasons for urbanization is to mask corruption such that the most successful urban citizens are often called "city fathers", even though their current philanthropy is based on years of socializing with the "right crowd".

We can also see this in how people watch TV. In the city setting, usually people watch TV in their apartment buildings with their family.

Most people in rural India do not watch TV like we do, but as a group in a rural setting. For not all people own TVs.

So their corruption only happens when they move to the city during the struggle involved in earning a living whilst keeping a roof over their heads.

Thus, the New Left's critique of the State is actually a critique of urban life i.e. "Smash the State" actually means "Humanize the Process of Urbanization" and actually is a critique of rapid urbanization ("fast urbanization").

Most people involved in the counterculture movement tried to form communes in a rural setting. However, because public education does not include any education on raising livestock but instead focuses on academics, most of these communes failed.

More than likely, recreational drug use associated with the counterculture movement was a sign of corruption which was not heeded by the movement's advocates. It diverted attention from learning how to raise livestock and how to get along with rural society.

Corruption in India is a metaphor for the corruption of urbanization. Actually, the yogis represent resistance to urbanization on a rapid scale.

Tokyo gives us an example of the side effects of massive urbanization: the hikikomori kids are similar to the mentally ill in the West with regard to their social isolation, which is seen as reaction to being bullied for not fitting in with society. This isolation results in mental health issues.

Thus, the hikikomori effect is due to "fast urbanization" i.e. urbanization on a massive scale.

In order to reduce urbanization's effect on its citizens, concerned members of cities around the world have demanded "slow urbanization" i.e. urbanization that is held in check by red tape and bureaucracy with the city obtaining input from concerned citizens and nearby rural areas that supply food helping to slow down urban growth in cities using agricultural laws to limit what rural areas are used for housing.

Reform in city governments which allows for chickens and rooftop gardens is a step in the right direction, but must be accompanied by a "slow urbanization" manifesto.

So far, the spirituality community has given no such manifesto but a smörgåsbord of spiritual materialism.

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Population and human well-being: http://www.wri.org/publication/content/8479
Urbanization benefits Asia but not Africa: http://www.aviewfromthecave.com/2012/10/urbanization-is-great-not-so-fast.html
Explanation of slow and limited urbanization of the Americas: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100810212943AAbyLcW