24-03-2014, 08:59 AM
David Healy Wrote:David Guyatt Wrote:The problem as I see it David, is that the US has been involved with - mostly started - around 100 big and small wars since 1945. War has become its geopolitical and economic raison d'être. Not by chance but rather by conscious design of the elite leaders of the US. And the number of wars it was involved in prior to WW11 is pretty impressive too.
There's probably no one on this forum who would more happily get into a Jungian discussion than I, and as you probably know I often bang this particular drum. It is a malaise of the shadow. My position would be that for the great mass of people of any nationality, learning to absorb their own personal shadows is a vital ambition - because the evidence is uncomfortably clear that our leaders have completely abandoned peace and consciousness as a meaningful way of life.
Instead they have knowingly grasped war, fear, greed and misery as their personal totems.
Since the early 1900's (in particular, the advent of the Wall Street-Bond Street bond fiasco (Young and Dawes bonds in particular), war, the rumor of war and its immediate aftermath have proved in my mind mere tools of crass capitalistic-material thought. I think those 100 other wars or so, would follow the same thought. The why's and wherefore for another thread perhaps?
When there is spiritual void there's nothing like the the old gold dollar-pound sterling to steer the hearts and minds of the discontent and greedy -- that includes governments--in fact, without government bashing, forums like this would not exist... after all, we all like to, need to pound that particular drum (perhaps atonement?). In any case, commercial banking provided that nationalistic avenue, with or with out their corporate knowledge.
We all share those types of "totems," David. By merely discussing it perhaps we're endorsing Jung's "wondered whether modern individuals are trying to atone for an ill-defined sense of moral failure: we are no longer sure what makes something valuable." THAT, is a spiritual character defect shared by most of us, if not ALL of us.
When you're born into it there is no other option other than of course, sack cloth and ashes. And I have gotten use to, even at this age: a solid days work, evening shower, good book and clean sheets. That leaves not much room for spiritual insight and reflection. BINGO-Failure!
I suspect what we're really talking about here is the "designer flaw" of creation...
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
