Bulletin
N° 625
Subject:
ON THE NATURE OF THE BEAST WITHIN.
11 September 2014
Grenoble, France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
On
this anniversary of 9/11/1973 and 9/11/2001, I found myself re-reading Wilhelm
Reich’s important book, The
Mass Psychology of Fascism, in an effort to come to terms with the micro/macro emergence of fascism in our
world today. For many decades now, social critics have complained of the disconnect between our daily lives and world events.
Increasingly we hear about the ‘interconnectedness’ and the ‘systemic’ nature
of life on this planet, but such ideas do not seem to translate well into
significant behavioral changes. Where is the missing link that would connect
the personal and the political, so that the consequences of our habitual
behavior would become more accessible to our conscious thoughts? Reich
attempted to answer this question during the rising tide of fascism between
1930 and 1933 in Berlin, where the first edition of this book was published in
September 1933. The second German-language edition,
was published in Denmark in April 1934, and the first English-language edition
did not appear until 1946.
Reich’s
book, Character
Analysis (also, published in 1933), has been widely accepted as a
classic contribution to the discipline of psychoanalysis. In it, he went beyond
Freud’s psychoanalytic technique of symptom
analysis and introduced the concept of character
analysis, which for the first time focused on character structure (‘an individual’s stereotypical manner of
acting and reacting’) as a key for understanding resistance to the therapeutic
process. “Our greatest obligation, wrote Reich in this classic, “is to enable
the human animal to accept nature within himself, to
stop running away from it and to enjoy what now he dreads so much.” However
Reich’s contemporaneous book on the social psychology of fascism was much more
controversial. Reich fled Nazi Germany in 1933, after the publication of these
two books, but the thesis of Mass
Psychology, which was nothing less than a search for the origins of fascist
behavior, brought him opprobrium from many quarters, by people who did not wish
to look at their shared characteristics with fascists.
By
this time, Reich had broken with Freud over several issues; among them was
Freud’s acceptance of the notion of Thanatos as a basic universal instinct, on the same level as Eros. The so-called ‘death instinct’ was
unacceptable to Reich, who identified destructive behaviors, such as morbidity
and sadism, as pathologies acquired from the social context, rather
than anything stemming from human instinct.
Likewise, Reich could not accept Freud’s idea that culture and all of
civilization was the result of sexual repression. Instead, he insisted that
sexual repression was necessary only under certain social conditions of production,
namely in cases of servitude and labor exploitation, but that new societies could maintain a vibrant cultural life
without repression and sublimation. He called this new social order,
‘work-democracy’.
Conducting
his psychoanalysis for a while in the working-class neighborhoods of Berlin,
Reich had made important discoveries ‘on the ground,’ so to speak, at a time
when the Nazi movement was growing. This study brought him into further
conflict with Freudian orthodoxies concerning the Reality Principle and the psychic hierarchy of id, ego, super-ego.
Extensive and painstaking therapeutic work
on the human character has led me to the conclusion that, as a rule, we are
dealing with three different layers of the biopsychic structure in the
evaluation of human reactions. As I demonstrated in my book Character-Analysis,
these layers of the character structure are deposits of social development,
which function autonomously. On the surface layer of his personality the
average man is reserved, polite, compassionate, responsible, conscientious.
There would be no social tragedy of the human animal if this surface layer of
the personality were in direct contact with the deep natural core. This,
unfortunately, is not the case. The surface layer of social cooperation is not
in contact with the deep biologic core of one’s selfhood; it is borne by a second,
an intermediate character layer, which consists exclusively of cruel, sadistic,
lascivious, rapacious, and envious impulses. It represents the Freudian
‘unconscious’ or ‘what is repressed’; to put it in the language of sex-economy,
it represents the sum total of all so-called ‘secondary drives.’
Orgone
biophysics made it possible to comprehend the Freudian unconscious, that which
is antisocial in man, as a secondary result of the repression of primary
biologic urges. If one penetrates through this second layer of perversion,
deeper into the biologic substratum of the human animal, one always discovers
the third, deepest, layer, which we call the biologic core. In this
core, under favorable social conditions, man is an essentially honest,
industrious, cooperative, loving, and, if motivated, rationally hating animal.
Yet it is not at all possible to bring about a loosening of the character
structure of present-day man by penetrating to this deepest and so promising
layer without first eliminating the nongenuine,
spuriously social surface. Drop the mask of cultivation, and it is not natural
sociality that prevails at first, but only the perverse, sadistic character
layer.
It is this unfortunate structuralization
that is responsible for the fact that every natural, social, or libidinous
impulse that wants to spring into action from the biologic core has to pass
through the layer of secondary perverse drives and is thereby distorted. This
distortion transforms the original social nature of the natural impulses and
makes it perverse, thus inhibiting every genuine expression of life. . . .
Everything that is genuinely
revolutionary, every genuine art and science, stems from man’s natural biologic
core. Thus far, neither the genuine revolutionary nor the
artist nor scientist has won favor with masses of people and acted as their
leader, or if he has, he has not been able to hold them in the sphere of
vital interest for any length of time.
The case of fascism, in contrast to
liberalism and genuine revolution, is quite different. Its essence embodies
neither the surface nor the depth, but by and large the second, intermediate
character layer of secondary drives.
When this book was first written, fascism
was generally regarded as a ‘political party,’ which, as other ‘social groups,’
advocated an organized ‘political idea.’ According to this appraisal “the
fascist party was instituting fascism by means of force or through ‘political
maneuver’.”
Contrary to this, my medical experiences
with men and women of various classes, races, nations, religious beliefs, etc.,
taught me that ‘fascism’ is only the organized political expression of the
structure of the average man’s character, a structure that is confined neither
to certain races or nations nor to certain parties, but is general and
international. Viewed with respect to man’s character, ‘fascism’ is the
basic emotional attitude of the suppressed man of our authoritarian machine
civilization and its mechanistic-mystical conception of life.
It is the mechanistic-mystical character
of modern man that produces fascist parties, and not vise
versa. . . .
My character-analytic experiences have
convinced me that there is not a single individual who does not bear the
elements of fascist feeling and thinking in his structure. As a political
movement fascism differs from other reactionary parties inasmuch as it is born
and championed by masses of people.
I am fully conscious of the enormous
responsibility involved in making such an assertion. And in the interest of
this lacerated world I should like the toiling masses to be just as clear about
their responsibility for fascism.(pp.xi-xiv)
In
her Forward to the 1970 English-language edition of The Mass
Psychology of Fascism, Mary Boyd Higgins, a Trustee of The Wilhelm Reich
Infant Trust Fund, wrote that,
The importance
of this work today cannot be underestimated. The human character structure that
created organized fascist movements still exists, dominating our present social
conflicts. If the chaos and agony of our time are ever to be eliminated, we
must turn our attention to the character structure that creates them; we must
understand the mass psychology of fascism.(p.x)
The
11 items below will remind CEIMSA readers that most of us have indeed
been degraded by contemporary events to the status of a coolie, fearful,
obedient and self-deceptive, in a desperate effort to somehow survive the
debacle of a failed political economy.
Item
A.,
from Information Clearing House, is an article by Pepe Escobar on the true role of
NATO in the world today.
Item B., from Information Clearing House, is a video explaining the origins of ISIS and the Western war economy.
Item
C.,
from Information Clearing House, is an article by Noam Chomsky discussing the high-tech
destruction of our world.
Item
D.,
from Jeanne-Henriette Louis, is a message on
Ukraine from the Friends
House in Moscow, Russia.
Item
E.,
from Information Clearing House, is an article first posted
on Electronicintifada
offering a ‘guide’ for the growing movement in support of boycott, divestment
and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
Item
F.,
from Mark Crispin Miller, founder of
News from the Underground, is
a report the growing presence of Fascist forces in Ukraine.
Item
G.,
from Truth
Out, is an interview by Laura
Flanders, talking with David Harvey
and Gar Alperovitz
about the failure of capitalism.
Item
H.,
from Democracy Now !,
is an interview with public TV and radio broadcaster, Tavis
Smiley, on the last year in the
life of Martin Luther King, and the legacy he left for the human rights
movement.
Item I., from Truth Out, is an article by John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, discussing how Greece and other eurozone countries have become the new victims of ‘economic hit men'.
Item J., from National Security Archives, is a document on the Nixon Administration's debate in early 1969 over the Israeli nuclear program, with Richard Nixon prevailing.
And
finally, we invite CEIMSA readers to review their own psychological state
within the matrix that constantly reproduces it by looking at the important film :
The Century of the Self
Episode 3:
“There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed”
Adam Curtis, BBC
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 Information Clearing House :
Dates: 8 September 2014
Subject : NATO.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
First thing we do, let's kill all the myths. The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization is nothing but the Security Council of the Empire of Chaos
NATO Attacks!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39599.htm
by
Pepe Escobar
_______________
B.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 8 September 2014
Subject : The Western War
Economy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Evidence exposing who
put ISIS in power, and how it was done.
The Covert
Origins of ISIS?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39603.htm
Video
C.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 8 September 2014
Subject : Man-Made “Natural”
Catastrophes.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Human civilization, may now be approaching its
inglorious end.
ISIS and Our
Times
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39601.htm
by
Noam Chomsky
_______________
D.
From
Jeanne-Henriette Louis :
Dates: 12 September 2014
Subject : Mists, lies and candles: News from Friends House Moscow.
|
_______________
E.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 8
September 2014
Subject : How to boycott Israel.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
This comes at a crucial
moment – in the wake of Israel’s latest spasm of horrifying destruction and
mass killing in Gaza, and after a period of unprecedented growth in support for
boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).
How to boycott Israel: updated guidelines for academics
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-boycott-israel-updated-guidelines-academics
_______________
F.
From Mark Crispin Miller
:
Dates: 10 September 2014
Subject : Racism, Anti-Semitism, & the Rise of
World-Wide Fascism.
World newsAzov fighters are Ukraine's greatest weapon and may be its
greatest threat
The
battalion's far-right volunteers' desire to 'bring the fight to Kiev' is a
danger to post-conflict stability
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis
by Shaun Walker in
Mariupol
·
"I have nothing against Russian nationalists, or a
great Russia,"
said Dmitry, as we sped through the dark Mariupol
night in a pickup truck, a machine gunner positioned in the back. "But
Putin's not even a Russian. Putin's a Jew."
Dmitry – which he said is not his real name – is a native of
east Ukraineand
a member of the Azov battalion,
a volunteer grouping that has been doing much of the frontline fighting
in Ukraine's
war with pro-Russia separatists. The Azov, one of many volunteer brigades to
fight alongside the Ukrainian army in the east of the country, has developed a
reputation for fearlessness in battle.
But there is an increasing
worry that while the Azov and other volunteer battalions might be Ukraine's
most potent and reliable force on the battlefield against the separatists, they
also pose the most serious threat to the Ukrainian government, and perhaps even
the state, when the conflict in the east is over. The Azov causes particular
concern due to the far right, even neo-Nazi, leanings of many of its members.
Dmitry claimed not to be a Nazi, but waxed lyrical about Adolf Hitler as
a military leader, and believes the Holocaust never happened. Not everyone in
the Azov battalion thinks like Dmitry, but after speaking with dozens of its
fighters and embedding on several missions during the past week in and around
the strategic port city of Mariupol, the Guardian
found many of them to have disturbing political views, and almost all to be
intent on "bringing the fight to Kiev" when the war in the east is
over.
The battalion's symbol is reminiscent of the Nazi Wolfsangel, though the battalion claims it is in fact meant to be the letters N and I
crossed over each other, standing for "national idea". Many of its
members have links with neo-Nazi groups, and even those who laughed off the idea
that they are neo-Nazis did not give the most convincing denials.
"Of
course not, it's all made up, there are just a lot of people who are interested
in Nordic mythology," said one fighter when asked if there were neo-Nazis
in the battalion. When asked what his own political views were, however, he
said "national socialist". As for the swastika tattoos on at least
one man seen at the Azov base, "the swastika has nothing to do with the
Nazis, it was an ancient sun symbol," he
claimed.
The
battalion has drawn far-right volunteers from abroad, such as Mikael Skillt, a
37-year-old Swede, trained as a sniper in the Swedish army, who described
himself as an "ethnic nationalist" and fights on the front line with
the battalion.
Despite
the presence of these elements, Russian propaganda that claims Kiev's
"fascist junta" wants to cleanse east Ukraine of Russian speakers is
overblown. The Azov are a minority among the Ukrainian forces, and even they,
however unpleasant their views may be, are not anti-Russian; in fact the lingua
franca of the battalion is Russian, and most have Russian as their first
language.
Indeed,
much of what Azov members say about race and nationalism is strikingly similar
to the views of the more radical Russian nationalists fighting with the
separatist side. The battalion even has a Russian volunteer, a 30-year-old from
St Petersburg who refused to give his name. He said he views many of the
Russian rebel commanders positively, especially Igor Strelkov, a former FSB officer
who has a passion for military re-enactments and appears to see himself as a
tsarist officer. He "wants to resurrect a great Russia, said the
volunteer; but Strelkov is "only a pawn in Putin's game," he said,
and he hoped that Russia would some time have a "nationalist,
violent Maidan" of its own.
On
one afternoon earlier this week the Guardian travelled with a group of Azov
fighters to hand over several boxes of bullets to Ukrainian border guards.
During an artillery attack outside Mariupol in the days before, the border
guards had come to the rescue of a group of Azov fighters, and the bullets were
their way of saying thank you. "Everything in this war is based on
personal links; Kiev does nothing," explained the Azov's Russian
volunteer, as we sped towards a checkpoint in a civilian Chevrolet; the boot
full with the boxes of bullets and rocket-propelled grenade launchers; one of
the windows shot out by gunfire during a recent battle.
"This
is how it works. You go to some hot spot, they see you're really brave, you
exchange phone numbers, and next time you can call in a favour. If you need an
artillery strike you can call a general and it will take three hours and you'll
be dead. Or you can call the captain or major commanding the artillery
battalion and they will help you out straight away. We are Azov and they know
that if they ever needed it, we would be there for them."
For
the commanders and the generals in Kiev, who many in Azov and other volunteer
battalions see as responsible for the awful losses the Ukrainian army has
suffered in recent weeks, especially in the ill-fated retreat from Ilovaysk,
there was only contempt. "Generals like those in charge of Ilovaysk should
be imprisoned for treason," said Skillt. "Heads are going to roll for
sure, I think there will be a battle for power."
The
Ukrainian armed forces are "an army of lions led by a sheep", said
Dmitry, and there is only so long that dynamic can continue. With so many armed,
battle-hardened and angry young men coming back from the front, there is a
danger that the rolling of heads could be more than a metaphor. Dmitry said he
believes that Ukraine needs "a strong dictator to come to power who could
shed plenty of blood but unite the nation in the process".
Many
in the Azov battalion with whom the Guardian spoke shared this view, which is a
long way from the drive for European ideals and democracy that drove the protests
in Kiev at the beginning. The Russian volunteer fighting with the Azov said he
believes Ukraine needs "a junta that will restrict civil rights for a
while but help bring order and unite the country". This disciplinarian
streak was visible in the battalion. Drinking is strictly forbidden. "One
time there was a guy who got drunk, but the commander beat him in his face and
legs until he could not move; then he was kicked out," recalled one
fighter proudly.
Other
volunteer battalions have also come under the spotlight. This week,Amnesty International called on the Ukrainian government to
investigate rights abuses and possible executions by the Aidar, another
battalion.
"The
failure to stop abuses and possible war crimes by volunteer battalions risks
significantly aggravating tensions in the east of the country and undermining
the proclaimed intentions of the new Ukrainian authorities to strengthen and
uphold the rule of law more broadly," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty
International secretary general, in Kiev.
Fighters
from the battalion told the Guardian last month they expected a "new
revolution" in Ukraine that would bring a more decisive military leader to
power, in sentiments similar to those of many Azov fighters.
Despite
the desire of many in the Azov to bring violence to Kiev when the war in the
east is over, the battalion receives funding and assistance from the governor
of Donetsk region, the oligarch Serhiy Taruta. An aide
to Taruta, Alex Kovzhun, said the political views of individual members of Azov
were not an issue, and denied that the battalion's symbol had Nazi undertones.
"The
views of some of them is their own affair as long as they do not break the
law," said Kovzhun in written answers to questions. "And the symbol
is not Nazi. Trust me – some of my family died in concentration camps, so I
have a well-developed nose for Nazi shit."
As
well as their frontline duties, the Azov battalion also functions as "a
kind of police unit", said a platoon commander who goes by the nom
de guerre Kirt. A medieval history buff who takes part in Viking
battle reenactments and once ran a tour firm in Thailand, Kirt returned to east
Ukraine to join the Azov. He took the Guardian on an overnight patrol through
the outskirts of Mariupol and the villages around the front line.
Part
separatist hunters, part city cops with no rules to restrain them, they
travelled in a convoy of three vehicles, all heavily armed. As midnight
approached we set off across the bumpy tarmac roads to the outskirts of
Mariupol, and soon came across a parked car by the side of the road that the
men found suspicious.
Fighters
dashed from the front two cars and rushed at the vehicle pointing their guns at
it. A startled man got out of the passenger seat, then a sheepish looking woman
in a cocktail dress and holding a half-smoked cigarette emerged, smoothing her
hair. The Azov fighters apologised, but only after demanding documents and
thoroughly searching the car.
As
we edged closer to the front line, Kirt and the others scanned the skyline with
binoculars, on the lookout for snipers and separatists. Later, fighters
sprinted towards a suspicious jeep parked on the beach while the sea was
scanned for hostile support vessels, but it turned out that again the men had
stumbled upon people just trying to have a good time: a group of women drinking
sparkling wine out of plastic cups on the beachfront.
The
Azov have been partially brought into the military and officially function as a
special police unit. There are discussions that Azov and other battalions could
be integrated into the army or special forces when the conflict is over.
Some
of them, however, are hoping Ukraine will look very different in the
not-so-distant future. And while they may be a tiny minority when it comes to
Ukraine as a whole, they have a lot of weapons.
President
Petro Poroshenko will be killed in a matter of months, Dmitry said, and a
dictator will come to power.
"What
are the police going to do? They could not do anything against the peaceful
protesters on Maidan; they are hardly going to withstand armed fighting
units."
_______________
G.
From Truth Out :
Dates:
11 September 2014
Subject : On “Cooperation” and “Capitalism”.
David
Harvey and Gar Alperovitz dig into the failure of capitalism, the hope
presented by worker co-ops, and what activists fighting for a just economy must
do to get there.
David
Harvey and Gar Alperovitz on Cooperation and Capitalism
http://truth-out.org/news/item/26124-david-harvey-and-gar-alperovitz-on-cooperation-and-capitalism
_______________
H.
From Democracy Now ! :
Dates:
11 September 2014
Subject : What
would Dr. Martin Luther King do?
What
would Dr. Martin Luther King do? As debate continues over U.S. plans to launch
airstrikes in Syria, we look at the final year of King’s life when he became a
fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War, calling his
government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." We
speak to public TV and radio broadcaster Tavis Smiley, author of the new book,
"Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final
Year."
What
Would Dr. King Do? As U.S. Moves to Bomb Syria, Tavis Smiley on MLK’s Antiwar
Legacy
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/9/11/what_would_dr_king_do_as
Interview with public TV and radio broadcaster, Tavis Smiley
_______________
I.
From
Truth Out :
Dates:
11 September 2014
Subject : An
Economic Hit Man Speaks Out !
John
Perkins, author of Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man, discusses how Greece and other eurozone countries have
become the new victims of "economic hit men."
An
Economic Hit Man Speaks Out: John Perkins on How Greece Has Fallen Victim to
"Economic
Hit Men"
_______________
J.
From National Security Archives :
Dates:
11 September 2014
Subject : Israel Crosses the Threshold II: The Nixon Administration Debates the Emergence of the Israeli Nuclear Program.
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb485/
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, September 12, 2014 -- During the spring and summer of 1969, officials at the Pentagon, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council staff debated and discussed the problem of the emergence of a nuclear Israel. Believing that Israel was moving very close to a nuclear weapons capability or even possession of actual weapons, the Nixon administration debated whether to apply pressure to restrain the Israelis or even delay delivery of advanced Phantom jets whose sale had already been approved.
Check out today's posting at the National Security Archive's Nuclear Vault -
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb485/