RE: [A-List] Awakening from the Nightmare of History

["Orion Anderson" <libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tony,

	You should be able to access this paper (and others I have written
on the psychology of war and genocide) at my website directly below:

Website for RICHARD KOENIGSBERG
http://home.earthlink.net/~libraryofsocialscience/

	Click the link for ONLINE PUBLICATIONS at the top of the page.

	The paper is pretty long, so I don't want to post the entire piece
here. However, below is an excerpt that may be of value to A-list members.
The First World War is the case study from which I derive my
generalizations.

With regards,

Richard Koenigsberg
---------------------------------------------------------------
WAR AS SACRIFICE

	Perhaps Great Britain's Lloyd George was onto something when he
observed that during the First World War every nation was "profligate of its
manpower and conducted its war activities as if there were no limit to the
number of young men who were fit to be thrown into the flames of war" (in
Haste 78). One may suggest that First World War constituted a gigantic,
sacrificial ritual. Young men were thrown onto the altars of the Western
front, the Eastern Front, or whatever front in order to die and be mutilated
in the name Gods called France, England, Germany, Russia, Italy, etc.
Horace's phrase, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," "It is sweet and
proper to die for one's country" lies at the core of the Western ideology of
nationalism. The First World War represented apocalyptic fulfillment of this
ideology.

	Some scholars speak about nations as "imagined communities." We
speak about reality as a "social construction." It is easy to say that
nations are imagined communities or social constructions, but much more
difficult to know that they are. Deep down, most people believe that nations
are real. When people utter words like "France" or "Germany" or "America,"
they feel that they are referring to entities that substantially exist.

	Perhaps, however, at certain historical moments people do begin to
sense that their nations are contingent rather than absolute realities.
Elaine Scarry focuses on injuring as the essence of warfare, stating that
the "massive opening of human bodies" in battle occurs in order to reconnect
"disembodied beliefs with the force and power of the material world" (129).
Wars are undertaken we may hypothesize, in order to prove that nations are
more than social constructions. Surely we feel, that which can generate the
death and mutilation of human beings in massive numbers must be eminently
real. Wars occur in order to verify the existence of nations.

	According to the 19th century German nationalist Johann Fichte,
people embrace their country as "vesture for the eternal." One's nation
represents the idea or promise of a "life here on earth extending beyond the
period of life here on earth." Nations, we may suggest, embody the fantasy
of immortality, idea of a realm of existence that goes on eternally,
independent of concrete, human existence.

	Nations symbolize the idea of an immortal, self-perpetuating body
politic that will "live on." War represents a ritual whereby human bodies
are sacrificed in order to affirm the reality of omnipotent bodies politic.
Dead and maimed bodies on the field of battle constitute "proof." These
bodies testify to the fact that there is "something else" beyond mere,
day-to-day existence; this "something else" is one's nation, the entity in
the name of which the dying and killing has occurred. 

	When a nation goes to war, soldiers are called to duty, fitted with
uniforms and trained. Guns, bullets, bombs, artillery shells, tanks, ships,
and airplanes are manufactured. Soldiers are transported to the front where
they engage in battle. Men are killed and bodies maimed, giving rise to a
massive hospital industry. All this occurs in the name of "nations."If
nations can evoke the extraordinary sound and fury of war, mobilize
prodigious expenditures of energy and resources, motivate people to die and
kill, then surely, people think, they must be real. Few would have the
effrontery to say that these momentous events have occurred in the name of
nothing. The parsimonious hypothesis is that wars occurred for some thing.

	However, consider an alternative hypothesis: that war is a "tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Watching a
movie in the darkness of a theater, witnessing the chaos, absurdity,
futility and destructiveness of war, a thought often passes through one's
mind: "War is insane." I do not believe I am unique in having had this
thought. Perhaps hundreds of millions of people have had a similar thought
as they have watched a feature film or documentary about war. 

	Why can't people hold onto this idea that "war is insane" once they
get out of the Movie Theater? Why do social scientists and historians so
rarely use the word "insane" as they chronicle the bizarre events that
characterize political history? Why are psychologists so willing to
characterize individual forms of behavior as "disorders," but so unwilling
to apply the term disorder to collective forms of behavior? 

-----Original Message-----
From: tony black [mailto:tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 9:25 AM
To: libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; The A-List
Subject: Re: [A-List] Awakening from the Nightmare of History


Richard / Orion,

I hasten to add that I was writing 'in the abstract' - and literally from
the abstract you provided - as I was unable to access the piece through the
web link given....Perhaps you could post the essay (in plain text) here on
the list.

Regards,

Tony

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Orion Anderson" <libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'tony black'" <tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "'The A-List'"
<a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 1:32 AM
Subject: RE: [A-List] Awakening from the Nightmare of History


    Tony Black's response is appreciated. Yes, I am writing about
"collective myth and fantasy" as the source of political ideology. However,
I'm not focusing on "individualistic" parameters, rather upon fantasies that
are SHARED by people within a culture or population.

For example, I write about (my papers can be read at the first website
below) the shared fantasy of the "body politic." Nazism grew out of this
fantasy, with the Jew being conceived as a parasite or bacteria or "disease
within the body politic." Genocide proceeded on the basis of the fantasy
that it was necessary to "exterminate" the disease by destroying its source.

When I speak about the "nightmare of history," I'm suggesting that political
discourse often is dominated by these fantasies or myths that are taken as
reality. We live within the heart of our own culture's fantasies, but often
don't even know it because we are so close to them.

Right now, there are other fantasies that are being collectively embraced
and acted upon. I think it's a mistake to believe that those in power
actually know what they are doing, that they are acting upon some sort of
rational, conscious intelligence. They too are in the grip of myths and
fantasies of which they are unaware. Political violence and destruction is
based on the acting out of these ideological fantasies that are put forth by
the leaders, and shared by many members of the population.

Best regards,

Richard Koenigsberg

P. S. Orion Anderson is by research assistant who posts the e-mails. I am
the author of the pieces. I will instruct Orion in the future to post my
messages in text format.

-----Original Message-----
From: tony black [mailto:tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 12:56 AM
To: libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; The A-List
Subject: Re: [A-List] Awakening from the Nightmare of History


Though it is IMO true that many cultural and political institutions and
products can be usefully analyzed though the conceptual prism of collective
myth and fantasy (i.e. See James Hillman's scintillating 1972 work, 'The
Myth of Analysis' for just such an investigation of the history of Western
science, and, particularly, of modern psychiatry), I am, at the same time,
extremely wary of attempts made to explain collective, social phenomena
within the constraints  of individualistic - and thus reductionistic -
parameters.

...And of course, sometimes, a cigar.. is just a cigar.

Tony
___________________________________________________________
Library of Social Science
92-30 56th Avenue, Suite 3-E
Elmhurst, NY 11373, USA
Fax: 1-413-832-8145

Richard A. Koenigsberg, Ph. D., Director
Telephone: 1-718-393-1081

Mei Ha Chan, Associate Director
Telephone: 1-718-393-1075

Orion Anderson, Communications Director
Telephone: 1-718-393-1104

Website for RICHARD KOENIGSBERG
http://home.earthlink.net/~libraryofsocialscience/

Website for THE KOENIGSBERG LECTURES ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CULTURE AND
HISTORY
http://www.conflictaslesson.com/why_main.html



-----Original Message-----
From: tony black [mailto:tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 9:25 AM
To: libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; The A-List
Subject: Re: [A-List] Awakening from the Nightmare of History


Richard / Orion,

I hasten to add that I was writing 'in the abstract' - and literally from
the abstract you provided - as I was unable to access the piece through the
web link given....Perhaps you could post the essay (in plain text) here on
the list.

Regards,

Tony

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Orion Anderson" <libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'tony black'" <tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "'The A-List'"
<a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 1:32 AM
Subject: RE: [A-List] Awakening from the Nightmare of History


    Tony Black's response is appreciated. Yes, I am writing about
"collective myth and fantasy" as the source of political ideology. However,
I'm not focusing on "individualistic" parameters, rather upon fantasies that
are SHARED by people within a culture or population.

For example, I write about (my papers can be read at the first website
below) the shared fantasy of the "body politic." Nazism grew out of this
fantasy, with the Jew being conceived as a parasite or bacteria or "disease
within the body politic." Genocide proceeded on the basis of the fantasy
that it was necessary to "exterminate" the disease by destroying its source.

When I speak about the "nightmare of history," I'm suggesting that political
discourse often is dominated by these fantasies or myths that are taken as
reality. We live within the heart of our own culture's fantasies, but often
don't even know it because we are so close to them.

Right now, there are other fantasies that are being collectively embraced
and acted upon. I think it's a mistake to believe that those in power
actually know what they are doing, that they are acting upon some sort of
rational, conscious intelligence. They too are in the grip of myths and
fantasies of which they are unaware. Political violence and destruction is
based on the acting out of these ideological fantasies that are put forth by
the leaders, and shared by many members of the population.

Best regards,

Richard Koenigsberg

P. S. Orion Anderson is by research assistant who posts the e-mails. I am
the author of the pieces. I will instruct Orion in the future to post my
messages in text format.



____________________________________________________________
Library of Social Science
92-30 56th Avenue, Suite 3-E
Elmhurst, NY 11373, USA
Fax: 1-413-832-8145

Richard A. Koenigsberg, Ph. D., Director
Telephone: 1-718-393-1081

Orion Anderson, Communications Director
Telephone: 1-718-393-1104

Website for RICHARD KOENIGSBERG
http://home.earthlink.net/~libraryofsocialscience/

Website for THE KOENIGSBERG LECTURES ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CULTURE AND
HISTORY http://www.conflictaslesson.com/why_main.html

-----Original Message-----
From: tony black [mailto:tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 12:56 AM
To: libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; The A-List
Subject: Re: [A-List] Awakening from the Nightmare of History


Though it is IMO true that many cultural and political institutions and
products can be usefully analyzed though the conceptual prism of collective
myth and fantasy (i.e. See James Hillman's scintillating 1972 work, 'The
Myth of Analysis' for just such an investigation of the history of Western
science, and, particularly, of modern psychiatry), I am, at the same time,
extremely wary of attempts made to explain collective, social phenomena
within the constraints  of individualistic - and thus reductionistic -
parameters.

...And of course, sometimes, a cigar.. is just a cigar.

Tony