Bulletin N°577
Subject: ON
LOOKING WITHOUT SEEING;
HEARING WITHOUT LISTENING; OWNERSHIP WITHOUT POSSESSION; AND
'THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND’.
10 August 2013
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
In
the Epilogue of his thought-provoking book, The
Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Joseph Campbell evokes the image of
the early Greek sea god, Proteus, “whose speech is smooth” and who will take
“all manner of shapes of things that creep upon the earth, of water likewise,
and of fierce fire burning.”
A life-voyager
wishing to be taught by Proteus must ‘grasp him steadfastly and press him yet
the more,’ and at length he will appear in his proper shape. But this wily god
never discloses even to the skilful questioner the whole content of his wisdom.
He will reply only to the question put to him, and what he discloses will be
great or trivial, according to the question asked. (p.329)
This
“pre-scientific” method of research is echoed in reputable establishments of
higher education today, where it is generally acknowledged that answers can be
no better than the questions that have been formulated.
But
when scientists forget our collective past, they alienate themselves from
society, sometimes at a dire cost to themselves and to the society in which
they live and practice their skills.
Mythology has
been interpreted by the modern intellect as a primitive, fumbling effort to
explain the world of nature [Frazer]; as a production of poetical fantasy from
prehistoric times, misunderstood by succeeding ages [Muller]; as a repository
of allegorical instruction, to shape the individual to his group [Durkheim]; as
a group dream, symptomatic of archetypal urges within the depths of the human
psyche [Jung]; as the traditional vehicle of man’s profoundest metaphysical
insights [Coomaraswamy]; and as God’s Revelation to
His children [the Church]. Mythology is all of these. The various judgments are
determined by the viewpoints of the judges. For when scrutinized in terms not
of what it is but of how it functions, of how it has served mankind in the
past, of how it may serve today, mythology shows itself to be as amenable as
life itself to the obsessions and requirements of the individual, the race, the
age. . . .
In his life-form
the individual is necessarily only a fraction and distortion of the total image
of man. He is limited either as male or female; as any given period of his life
he is again limited as child, youth, mature adult, or ancient; furthermore, in
his life-role he is necessarily specialized as craftsman, tradesman, servant,
or thief, priest, leader, wife, nun, or harlot; he cannot be all. Hence, the
totality –fullness of man—is not in the separate member, but in the body of the
society as a whole; the individual can be only an organ. From his group he has
derived his techniques of life, the language in which he thinks, the ideas on
which he thrives; through the past of that society descended the genes that
built his body. If he presumes to cut himself off, either in deed or in thought
and feeling, he only breaks connection with the sources of his existence.
(p.330) . . .
One
way to reduce such alienation is through an understanding of history; by
increasing our sense of belonging, and by understanding society as so much raw
material upon which we might work to shape it into a form that better suits
our human needs and the needs of others. History shows, however, that such
creativity can be easily subverted, leaving a society of automatons as the
composit crystalizations of personal inactions.
But there is
another way –in diametric opposition to that of social duty and the popular cult.
From the standpoint of the way of duty, anyone in exile from the community is a
nothing. From the other point of view, however, this exile is the first step of
the quest. Each carries within himself the all; therefore it may be sought and
discovered within. The differentiations of sex, age, and occupation are not
essential to our character, but mere costumes which we wear for a time on the
stage of the world. The image of man within is not to be confounded with the
garments. We think of ourselves as Americans, children of the twentieth
century, Occidentals, civilized Christians. We are
virtuous or sinful. Yet such designations do not tell what it is to be a man,
they denote only the accidents of geography, birth-date, and income. What is
the core of us? What is the basic character of our being? (p.332) . . .
The
oigin of historical study is mythology and the relationship, despite generations
of scholarlly disputes, cannot be denied. If psychology is “the science of
science,” as R.D. Laing argues in his book The
Politics of Experience (1971), then history can only be understood as
the birthplace of all knowledge, the environment which nurtures it to full
maturity, for better or for worse.
Centered in this
hub-point, the question of selfishness or altruism disappears. The individual
has lost himself in the law and been reborn in identity with the whole meaning
of the universe. For Him, by Him, the world was made. ‘O Mohammed,’ God said, ‘hadst thou not been, I would not have created the sky.’ . .
.
All of which is
far indeed from the contemporary view; for the democratic ideal of the
self-determining individual, the invention of the power-driven machine, and the development of the scientific method of
research have so transformed human life that the long-inherited, timeless
universe of symbols has collapsed. (p.333) . . .
The spell of the
past, the bondage of tradition, was shattered with sure and mighty strokes. The
dream-web of myth fell away; the mind opened to full waking consciousness; and
modern man emerged from ancient ignorance, like a butterfly form its cocoon, or
like the sun at dawn from the womb of mother night. p.(334) . . .
And
what if we forget our origins and no longer acknowledge our relationship with
the past, nor seek self-knowledge from our former states of mind? What is to
happen to us if we see ourselves as coming from nowhere, and heading nowhere .
. . ?
The problem of
mankind today, therefore, is precisely the opposite to that of men in the
comparatively stable periods of those great co-ordinating
mythologies which now are known as lies. Then all meaning was in the group, in
the great anonymous forms, none in the self-expressive individual; today no
meaning is in the group –none in the world; all is in the individual. But there
the meaning is absolutely unconscious. One does not know toward what one moves.
One does not know by what one is propelled. The lines of communication between
the conscious and the unconscious zones of the human psyche have all been cut,
and we have been split in two. . . . The
modern hero-deed must be that of questing to bring to light again the lost
Atlantis of the co-ordinated soul. . . . that of rendering the modern world spiritually significant,
. . . that of making it possible for men and women to come to full human
maturity through the conditions of contemporary life. (p.334)
Campbell
concludes his essay on universal patterns in mythologies from around the world
with a word of warning to his contemporary colleagues :
Consciousness
can no more invent, or even predict, an effective symbol than foretell or
control tonight’s dream. The whole thing is being worked out on another level,
through what is bound to be a long and very frightening process, not only in
the depths of every living psyche in the modern world, but also on those
titanic battlefields into which the whole planet has lately been converted.
(p.335) . . .
It is not
society that is to guide and save the hero, but precisely the reverse. (337)
To
place Joseph Campbell’s research on mythology in a wider perspective, there is
no better place to turn than Bertell Ollman’s study of Marxist methodology. [See CEIMSA
Bulletin #253 and the French edition of his
book, LA DIALECTIQUE MISE EN ŒUVRE : Le
processus d’abstraction dans la méthode de Marx.] Here we find an
emphasis placed on social class relationships rather than “exceptional
individuals.” Without denying the role played by exceptional individuals (for
better or for worse), Ollman insists that different viewpoints of the social context of class struggle and of modern capitalist imparatives are essential if we are to
understand the dynamics of change in the contemporary world. In this view,
Campbell’s focus on the individual and the universal may be helpful, but it by
no means offers us a complete explanation for our widely shared state of
alienation in the contemporary world, much less a strategy to end it.
The
usefulness of Campbell’s research, it appears to me, is that it provides us
access to understanding the bewildering array of human relationships that
sometimes paradoxe us into paralysis. By looking at
our ancestors’ mental constructs, before and after the Manichean formulation of
Good and Evil, as independent entities which penetrate social actors,
Campbell draws attention to the fact that gods are created in the image of man,
that human relationships are not permanent and that this fact can be recognized
in what man has created over the past millennium. This discovery has some
predictive powers, and could possibly lead to insights into how the status quo is perpetuated in society,
despite the continual violations of the interests and well-being of the great
majority of us, “the 99 percent.”
In
the 11 items below, CEIMSA offers its readers opportunities to see,
to listen to, and to posses the truth about themselves and
about the world they live in; social class interests will govern their actions,
but the question is, as always: Whose interests will prevail?
Item
A., from Truth Out, in as article by
Greg Palast and
Michael Nevradakis : “Why Are the
Greek People Agreeing to Their Own Destruction?”
Item B., sent
to us by Reader Supported News, is an
article by Paul Krugman
on “The Phony War Factor.”
Item
C., sent to us by Information
Clearing House, is an article by Neil Harrison on the “Achilles Heel” of the US Empire.
Item D., from The Daily
Koz, is a reminder of why the corporate media
cannot be trusted.
Item
E., sent to us by Information
Clearing House,
is a article by Finian
Cunningham on the US/Israeli
inability to forgive their victims.
Item
F., sent to us by GRITtv
is an interview with film director
Joshua Oppenheimer, discussing his new documentary film, The Act of
Killing.
Item
G., from Truth
Out, is an article by Gar Alperovitz on the US economic collapse and his long,
tortured history.
Item
H., sent to us by Information
Clearing House,
is a broadcast by The Young
Turks, discussing Obama’s “Drone Warfare”.
Item I., sent to us by Mark Crispin Miller, founder of Notes from the Underground, is an exposé
of the uncertainty of journalist Michael Hastings’s death, by Christian Stork.
Item J., sent to us by Mark Crispin Miller, is a series of reports on the latest nuclear contamination “Emergency”
at the Fukushima Power Plant.
Item K., from Truth Out, in as article by Marjorie Cohn on why Bradley Manning
must be considered as truly a contemporary Hero.
And
finally, we offer readers a look at the recent four-part interview with Professor Vijay Prashad,
Edward Said Chair at American University at Beirut, speaking on
:
Reality Asserts Itself
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10523
Sincerely,
Francis
Feeley
Professor
of American Studies
University
of Grenoble-3
Director
of Research
University
of Paris-Nanterre
Center
for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The
University of California-San Diego
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
_______________
A.
From Truth Out :
Date: 8 August 2013
Subject: The Greek Suicide?
http://www.truth-out.org/
In a
recent interview on Dialogos Radio, Palast turned his attention to Greece and to the austerity
policies that have been imposed on the country by the IMF, the European Union
and the European Central Bank.
Why Are the Greek People Agreeing to Their Own Destruction?
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18069-why-are-the-greek-people-agreeing-to-their-own-destruction
by Greg Palast and
Michael Nevradakis
_______________
B.
From Reader Supported News :
Date: 8 August 2013
Subject: More on the The Politics of Fear.
http://readersupportednews.org
We
live in a golden age of economic debunkery;
fallacious doctrines have been dropping like flies.
The
Phony Fear Factor
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/opinion/krugman-phony-fear-factor.html?hp&_r=1&
by
Paul Krugman
_______________
C.
From ICH :
Date: 5 August 2013
Subject: How best to honor the bravery and sacrifices of Manning, Snowden and others like them.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
The
US empire's illusion of benign omnipotence has been
broken by the heroic acts of Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden.
The Gods of War: Don't Believe
the Hype
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35763.htm
By Neil Harrison
_______________
D.
From The Daily Koz :
Date: 7 August 2013
Subject: The credibility crisis in the liberal media.
http://www.dailykos.com/
_______________
E.
From ICH :
Date: 5 August 2013
Subject: Blaming the Victim.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
The art of US diplomacy in the Middle East is evidently to give Israel a carte blanche to do whatever it likes with regard to trampling on Palestinian rights and lives.
Israel-Palestinian
Talks
Washington Acts Like
Matchmaker… Between Rapist and Victim
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35759.htm
By Finian
Cunningham
_______________
F.
From GRITtv :
Date: 30 July 2013
Subject: Director Joshua Oppenheimer’s new documentary film,
The Act of Killing.
Why does extreme violence happen and what do the perpetrators really think of themselves? Director Joshua Oppenheimer asks just that in his new documentary film, The Act of Killing, executive produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris. The movie follows Anwar Congo and his fellow Indonesian para-militaries as they recreate their country’s 1965-1966 mass murders. The catch – they are the mass-murderers!
What does it mean to live in a country where impunity rules, a country where the killers have won? We already know. We, in the US, live in one! Oppenheimer tells Laura Flanders in this thought-provoking discussion on GRITtv.
http://grittv.org/?video=grittv-a-country-where-the-killers-have-won
_______________
G.
From Truth Out :
Date: 2 August 2013
Subject: A Thirty-Year Trajectory of the US Economic Collapse.
Over
the past 30 years the US political economy has been trending toward greater
inequality and poverty and a diminished capacity to respond democratically. How
do we counter this systemic breakdown?
Current Political
System Incapable of Meeting Social, Economic, Environmental Challenges
by Gar Alperovitz
_______________
H.
From ICH :
Date: 5 August 2013
Subject: Obama’s Drone Warfare.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
'Double Tap' Drone
Strikes US Deliberately Targeting Rescuers
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35758.htm
_______________
I.
From Mark Crispin
Miller :
Date: 7 August 2013
Subject: How did journalist Michael
Hastings die?
by
Christian Stork
_______________
J.
From Mark Crispin
Miller :
Date: 7 August 2013
Subject: Nuclear Contamination from Japan.
Yesterday, the NYTimes reported this "emergency" (as TEPCO is now finally calling it) on p. A6.
Tepco needs public cash to dig deep wall --Radioactive flow to sea
300 tons daily; Suga says utility can't halt it 07 Aug 2013 The public
must help fund Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s effort to freeze the soil around the
reactor buildings at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, creating a barrier to
prevent more groundwater from becoming radioactive, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday. It
was revealed the same day that 300 tons of tainted water is flowing to the
Pacific daily from the stricken plant. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry is considering including the costs [¥30 billion to ¥40 billion] in the
fiscal 2014 budget request.
Radioactive
water may overflow at Japan plant 06 Aug 2013 The operator
of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant is struggling to
stop radioactive underground water from leaking into the sea. Tokyo
Electric Power Co. said some of the water is seeping over or around an
underground barrier it created by injecting chemicals into the soil that
solidified into a wall. The latest problem involves underground water which has
built up over the last month since the company began creating the chemical
walls to stop leaks after it detected radiation spikes in water samples in May.
'State
of emergency' at Fukushima nuclear plant over ongoing leaks of radioactive
water --'Right now, we have an emergency.' - TEPCO 06 Aug 2013 Japan's
nuclear watchdog says there is a state of emergency at the shattered Fukushima
nuclear plant over ongoing leaks of radioactive water. An official from the
Nuclear Regulation Authority says contaminated groundwater has risen above a
shore barrier meant to contain it and is seeping into the Pacific Ocean.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency, Shinji Kinjo revealed the leak is
exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge. Countermeasures planned by Tokyo
Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear complex, are
only a temporary solution, Mr Kinjo added.
"Right now, we have an emergency," he said.
_________________
K.
From Truth Out :
Date: 10 August 2013
Subject: Bradley Manning, a contemporary Hero.
After Manning exposed
Iraqi torture centers established by the United States, the Iraqi government
refused Obama's request to extend immunity to US soldiers who commit criminal
and civil offenses there. As a result, Obama had to withdraw US troops from
Iraq.
Bradley Manning's
Revelations Saved Lives
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/18075-bradley-mannings-revelations-saved-lives
by Marjorie
Cohn