National Unity & Hatred

[pynchonoid]

More from PSYART today:


       What are these things called "nations" anyway?
Why are persons so
deeply attached to them, and why does everyone get so
excited about them?

       Writing about the First World War, Randolph
Bourne observed that
the leaders demand a "100% Americanism among 100% of
the population."
The State, he notes, is a "jealous God and will brook
no rivals" It
brings a terrific force to bear against "heretics."

       A full page advertisement appeared in the
Arkansas Gazette, Little
Rock, Arkansas, Sunday, April 14, 1918:

"Any man or woman in this town, who does not take all
the Liberty Bonds
that he or she possible can buy, is in exactly the
same class with those
wretched creatures of feeble brain and feeble spine,
those cowards we
call 'SLACKERS.' Such men and women are not fit to
associate with Real
Americans. Such men and women are not fit to live in
this community, or
anywhere else in America. They are not fit to live at
all."

What a durable phenomenon nationalism is! Scholars
write about "mental
representation" and "social construction." However in
the hysteria of
the hyper real they lose their minds along with
everyone else.

"And the rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through
the night that our flag was still there." Bourne notes
that a nation's
patriotic history is solely "the history of its wars,"
that is, of "the
State in its healthy and glorious functioning."

War testifies to the existence of nations, reminding
us that they are
more than mental representations or social
constructions. The reasoning
is as follows:  If some thing can mobilize great
armies, drop bombs and
kill, it must be real. Armies, bombs and killing
function to PROVE THAT
THE NATION IS REAL. Wars are undertaken in order to
valorize, validate
or verify the existence if nations.

However, why is it necessary that everyone
participate, or at least
affirm agreement with the national cause? Why is
absolute unity,
complete unanimity
insisted upon?

They say that we live in a "secular" age. What an
interesting fantasy.
Religion is everywhere, all around us.

"National life" is the contemporary religion. The
eleven o' clock -news
is part of this religion, as is Charlie Rose and the
New York Times.
Nobody wants to be left out (it's a family affair).
Slavoj Zizek doesn't
want to be left out. We are so close to the object
that we worship that
we barely know that it is separate from the self. We
so attach to the
object that we worship that some (those most deeply
attached to the
fantasy of culture) assert that without this
attachment there is no such
thing as a subject. Nationalism is symbiotic fantasy
of union with an
omnipotent object. This object and those who represent
it are imagined
to be big and powerful and "up above" us.

"It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"

Hitler stated that his aim was "dictatorship of the
whole people, the
community." His mission was to win men to the idea of
an "eternal
national and social ideal--to subordinate one's own
interests to the
interests of the whole society."

By 1935 he believed that his dream had been fulfilled.
Nevertheless, he
complained: there still seemed to be a few
"incurables" who had never
understood the "happiness of belonging to this great,
inspiring community."

Hitler's imagined that some persons refused to embrace
his dream of
glorious national unity. He found this unbearable. He
felt the need to
exterminate these "party poopers." "We are fanatic in
our love for our
people," Hitler said.  We can go as loyally as a dog
with those who
share our sincerity, but we will pursue with fanatic
hatred the man who
believes that he can play tricks with this love of
ours." Hitler's rage
was directed against those who did not share his
faith.

The passionate nationalist is enraged by
"non-believers," those who seem
to turn against the national dream of power and glory.
 He may even feel
(see the newspaper article above) that these infidels
are "not fit to live."

It is not self-evident why some feel that everyone
must believe in,
embrace and demonstrate devotion to the national
cause. It does seem
that unanimity is required. However, what is the
psychological source of
this need for unanimity?

War requires that a nation believe in the
righteousness of its cause.
Those that doubt the righteousness of the cause
disturb the fantasy of
unanimity. They may become targets of hatred, and
worse.

War is undertaken in the name of one's nation, which
one loves. How does
it happen that hatred and rage come to be so
intimately bound to love?

With regards,


Richard A. Koenigsberg, Ph. D.

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