Can you please bring your wide and deep knowledge to prevent the vote-catching projects by Rajaoakses and to make them agree for proper planning of sustainable development of the Northeast by appropriate people?

Ordinary Lankan, I think you are on the ball.

thanks. In a couple of words “close relationships” throughout your life will make or break you. they have been described as sites of psycho social destruction and also reconstruction.

If we work hard at supporting a change of consciousness – a shift that is taking place and has taken place in Arab countries for example the transformation will happen

This is my contribution – the inner work is always complemented by a study of great personalities with whom you can enter into a kind of silent communion through their writings …. this association can also be another close relationship – the way St Francis related to Jesus…

Dear Dayalan, take a leaf from the French Revolution. Before a major, positive transformation is possible, enlightening and inspirational ideas have to achieve a position of prominence, even dominance. The work of the French Encyclopaedists provide a model. So, simply put, these ideas, of a moderate, pluralist, inclusionary patriotism, willing and able to defend national sovereignty and the gains of our military victory over secessionist terrorism, while building a different and better Sri Lanka based on a New Social Contract and a more ethical politics, have to be elaborated, developed and popularised. They must take hold at a mass level. This is what Fidel Castro calls ‘the battle of ideas’.

Red Lines and Historical Realism, published as a Long Read on Groundviews. Relevant excerpt:

“Marx, Lenin, Trotsky and Gramsci have highlighted the difference—unflatteringly–between West and East (especially the West and Asia) in terms of state and social formation, and Stalin once argued heretically but accurately that in the relationship to imperialism “the Emir of Afghanistan is more progressive than the British Labor Party”. (I venture the same case for Mahinda Rajapakse). A successful project of Sri Lankan social democracy has to incorporate this recognition of uneven development and the specificity of Asian concerns and consciousness into a new synthesis: an Asian social democracy, which is marked by a communitarian inflection, not a deracinated transplant of pro-Western liberalism.

In no way do I intend this as an adoption of the ‘Asian cultural values’ perspective or a rejection of universalism in political philosophy and thought. A group of quite outstanding thinkers have staked out a position distinct from the antipodes of liberal individualism and collectivist fanaticism. These theorists stand for a ‘moderate patriotism’ and a ‘communitarian’ perspective. They include Richard Rorty, Charles Taylor, Alasdair Macintyre, Michael Walzer and (if you revise the formulation to ‘left patriotism’ or ‘left republicanism’ instead of the ‘communitarian’) Regis Debray.”

Communitarian yes, well said, but with several qualifiers. Liberal Communitarianism would not imply a dimunition of individuality. The ‘Communitarian’ ASPECT of my perspective would be the ‘moderate nationalism’ of communitarian thinkers such as Charles Taylor and Michael Walzer. I believe I have said this before in an essay on GV.

Dear Dr Jayatilleka

Thank you kindly for your response.
If one charts the points you make on a rudimentary biaxial spectrum with the X axis indicating a measure of Cultural focus with polar opposites being the community and the Individual and the Y axis measuring Economic focus with its polar opposites too being the Community and the Individual, based on what you alluded as Late Mr Kumarathunga and Mr Premadasa were suggesting, they would pitch on communitarianism; More economic and cultural focus on the community than the individual. (Please correct me if I am wrong) This could exist in a government that would provide for the welfare of the community, and restrict individual freedoms? If yes, in building our National Identity, based on the above ideas, wouldn’t one have to sacrifice individual freedoms?

Secondly, you indicate that one need to embrace 1) passionate patriotism, and 2) a sense of anti-imperialism. On a related note, scholars seem to indicate that ethnic people seem to ‘wear’ their National Identity more when they are posed with an external threat and at other times to be ‘wearing’ their cultural identity within a multicultural society . Considering the present level of military occupation in the North, would it be fair to assume that the Tamils may be left to feel threatened by the presence of the military as the Jacobin Force and further solidify a Tamil Nationalism?

Sincerely
Thilina Rajapakse

1. Li Gong, Ethnic identity and identification with the majority group: Relations with national identity and self-esteem, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Volume 31, Issue 4, July 2007, Pages 503-523, ISSN 0147-1767, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2007.03.002.

DJ,
Primary Caregiver should be read as one, not separately. In social and psychological sciences this is a technical term used to identify the mother. It is recognised that the mother-infant relationship is primarily important in the emergence of a secure sense of self.
I presume what Ordinary Lankan refers to is that it is ones parents who make you or break you at the start. This then determines the rest of the course of your life until you have a therapeutic experience which allows you to give up the false sense of self.

Interestingly, some sources appear to believe that “therapeutae” was derived from “thera putta”=”sons of the elders”, an ancient name for followers of theravada. : )

Will an intrepid reader take up this offer?

I used to and still use the software “Inspiration” for Mac. I am told that it is also available in Windows format. It has many Templates for all topics that can be modified to suit various topics. Each box has buttons that lead to boxes to write notes or give references.

May I suggest that Groundviews staff use the software,”Inspiration”, choose the diagram from it that would fit the topic of discussion and document in short topics the ideas expressed. In the Social Studies file there is Template on “Conflict Resolution”. The current topic is Sri Lankan identity can be summarised in that Template. Much has been written but where does each of the positions take us?

The space provided for comments now does not permit the diagram to be displayed. May be your Tech people can find a way.