XPost: alt.psychology, alt.psychology.jung, alt.psychology.psychoanalysis   
   XPost: sci.psychology.theory, sci.psychology.misc   
   From: mlwi@swipnet.se   
      
   According to Azar Gat ("War in Human Civilization"), primitive man's   
   mortality rates in war, skirmishes, or   
   intra-group violence, before the coming of state authority, is   
   extremely high. In the Amazon, a study of the Waorani showed more than   
   60% of adult deaths over five generations were caused by feuding and   
   warfare. In a prehistoric Indian site in Madisonville Ohio, 22% male   
   skulls had wounds and 8% were fractured. In a similar site in   
   Illinois, 16% had met a violent death. In New Guinea, about 15% died   
   as a result of inter- and intra group violence: 24% males and 7%   
   females. At the Australian island of Tiwi, the aboriginals lost 10% of   
   the male population in a decade. An Aboriginal tribe of Murngin of   
   Arnhem Land lost 200 men out of a population of 3,000, during a period   
   of 20 years. 30% of the warriors died. Another study suggests   
   aboriginals in a generation lost about 5 to 6.5%. Studies of Eskimos   
   show a murder rate of one in a thousand, about ten times the US peak   
   rate in 1990.   
      
   But violence is not predicated on the motif of keeping the population   
   down. Agriculture has allowed an enormous increase in population   
   numbers, whereas our murderous activity hasn't increased, but rather   
   abated. An important factor is  the way in which the frail   
   consciousness of natural man is sustained by tradition. Accordingly,   
   the introduction of alien thoughtways and traditions (a form of   
   multiculturalism) has a passivating effect, with the result that   
   consciousness loses its impetus. The introduction of Christianity in   
   primitive society has resulted in a collective lethargy. Carl Jung   
   sees this as a very tragic complication of cultural colonialism. It   
   works almost like a poison that kills their distinctive cultural   
   character and their will to proclaim themselves as worthy humans.   
   There are many examples of vigorous and ecologically sophisticated   
   cultures, such as the African Bantu, in which people lived worthy   
   lives in harmony with nature. However, in the Third World, today,   
   there is a strong tendency toward an unworthy vegetating lifestyle.   
   The conscious level is generally lower than in animistic society,   
   which had a great awareness of the spirit. Whether these developments   
   could have been avoided, is another question.   
      
   In traditional culture, Thanatos was institutionalized, as human   
   sacrifice, warfare, and initiation rites involving marring. Thanatos   
   revolves around the archetype of death as provider of the conditions   
   for new life. For instance, when the vegetation is burned, you also   
   create very fruitful agricultural land. The abatement of the conscious   
   level is connected with the removal of Thanatos from culture. As a   
   result, the ego is today in closer proximity to the Mother. It would   
   explain why primitive society is so very conservative and tends to   
   keep sternly to the traditions of the forefather spirits, and why   
   aborigins are so prone to make war against other tribes. To defend   
   culture and territory is also to defend the conquests of ego   
   consciousness. The injuries sustained by the warriors of primitive   
   society make them incomplete. A missing limb, for instance, is a sign   
   that the warrior has departed from childlike wholeness and become a   
   free agent with respect to unconscious wholeness. He has obtained   
   precious consciousness and a relative independence of will, Thus, he   
   is endowed with immense power. Wotan (Oden) sacrificed an eye, thus he   
   came to possess wisdom and the knowledge of the runes. Tezcatlipoca   
   sacrificed a leg in the jaws of the Earth Monster, which is the   
   grounds for his rise to power.   
      
   Mats Winther   
      
      
   "M Winther"  skrev i meddelandet   
   news:4ff5c3b5$0$4266$c83e3ef6@weathergirl-read.tele2.net...   
   >I am merely saying that those who project the demonic evil are the   
   >very people who are possessed by it. Well worth to remember is that   
   >the force of Thanatos exists in us all. The vital point is whether we   
   >succeed in keeping our foot upon his neck.   
   >   
   > Mats   
   >   
   >   
   > "M Winther"  skrev i meddelandet   
   > news:4ff5bdd0$0$4261$c83e3ef6@weathergirl-read.tele2.net...   
   >> The phallus is a god that stands on one leg, and has one eye   
   >> looking upwards. Wotan, who hung on the world ash, could set   
   >> himself free from the motherly tree, by the sacrifice of one of his   
   >> eyes. Carl Jung, at a tender age, dreamt of the phallus seated on a   
   >> king's throne in an underground hall, although at this young age he   
   >> couldn't identify it as such: "It was a huge thing reaching almost   
   >> to the ceiling. But it was made of a curious composition: it was   
   >> made of skin and naked flesh, and on top there was something like a   
   >> rounded head with no face and no hair. On the very top of the head   
   >> was a single eye, gazing motionlessly upward." His mother said   
   >> "That is the man-eater." It was a subterranean god, not to be named   
   >> (Memories, Dreams Reflections, pp.11f).   
   >>   
   >> This was the deity responsible for the two greatest carnages in   
   >> world history, an epoch which Jung was destined to live through. We   
   >> like to think of our civilization as ruled by an enlightened   
   >> spirit, but the presence of the subterranean god can always be   
   >> felt. Hatred, calumny, and contemptuous remarks, are part and   
   >> parcel of our culture. It should be apparent to everyone that   
   >> people aren't as good as they pretend. It is a falsehood   
   >> characteristic of our civilization. Destructivity and malevolence   
   >> does not depend on a misunderstanding, as always supposed. Most   
   >> people, it seems, cannot withstand an opportunity to damage other   
   >> people provided that they risk no harm themselves. Malevolence is   
   >> used as a means of self-therapy. For this reason, it is exceedingly   
   >> difficult to maintain civility in an Internet discussion forum.   
   >>   
   >> Why do people subscribe to ideologies, such as multiculturalism and   
   >> cultural relativism? It has nothing to do with ethical motives. In   
   >> fact, through ideological affiliation the adherents are able to   
   >> castigate other people as devils. A multiculturalist notoriously   
   >> accuses people of antidemocratic views, racism, right wing   
   >> extremism, egoism, etc. This is the great allurement of collective   
   >> ideologies, to be able to bully people. The only consequence is   
   >> that one's social status is augmented. Such people cannot get along   
   >> in life without recourse to calumniation. In another epoch, they   
   >> would have appropriated the politically correct norms of that   
   >> particular period in time. With great likelihood, they would have   
   >> been firm Nazis. It enables them to partake in collective hatred,   
   >> which is really the underlying motif, deriving from the god of   
   >> Thanatos. They subscribe to the prevailing views on account of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)