If the German nation beheld itself as a sacred, beloved object, then
anyone else could readily become the Other. As we saw (and I'm certainly
no scholar about Hitler about WW II) the Other began include more than
the Jews. When an object is sacred, then binary beliefs dictate the
other is profane. I believe it still points to myth and metaphor: when
the event is both actual and mythological there is arguably an
archetypal image to be found at the core. What that is I don't know.
Myths (the Jew as bacteria) explain ways of knowing and being in the
world. It is a myth that justifies the supremacy of the German (sacred)
nation and thus the unworthiness of others. While the socio-political
climate of the day or Hitler's own personal history may have dictated a
focus on the Jewish people, we know that gays and handicapped people
were also targeted, and if his goal of world conquest had continued we
would have seen the extermination of other races and peoples. Perhaps
I'm not understanding how you jump from justification/rationalization to
enactment without the former being a necessity. How would this apply to
other beliefs? How does, say, the resurrection metaphor function as the
means TO something. In dealing with metaphors, we have symbols. Symbols
do not eradicate a people. Language does not do it. But combine language
and symbols into myth and you have the means of influencing ideologies
and the crossing of the threshold from myth to reality.
James Hillman tells us that the origins of the word ?plot? stem from the
Greek word mythos. Plots are myths. Understanding the why in a story, he
says, can be found in myths. For Hillman, mythos is more than theory,
more than plot. "It is the tale of the interaction of humans and the
divine." We know from mythic history what happened when Actaeon
witnessed Artemis and her nymphs bathing in a wooded stream: he was
turned into a stag then torn from limb to limb by his own dogs. Semele
burned to ashes at the sight of Zeus. There clearly are consequences for
directly beholding the divine. Like Semele who burns to ash at the sight
of Zeus. What happens when someone beholds the forbidden divine? The
injury is to the witness, not to the archetypally divine, the one who
wields power. The same may be said of Lot?s wife, who turned into a
pillar of salt for glancing back to behold the sight of God. The damage
befalls those who catch glimpse of the divine. The source and meaning of
the Nazi discourse could be rooted in mythologies of this nature.
Kevin
anyone else could readily become the Other. As we saw (and I'm certainly
no scholar about Hitler about WW II) the Other began include more than
the Jews. When an object is sacred, then binary beliefs dictate the
other is profane. I believe it still points to myth and metaphor: when
the event is both actual and mythological there is arguably an
archetypal image to be found at the core. What that is I don't know.
Myths (the Jew as bacteria) explain ways of knowing and being in the
world. It is a myth that justifies the supremacy of the German (sacred)
nation and thus the unworthiness of others. While the socio-political
climate of the day or Hitler's own personal history may have dictated a
focus on the Jewish people, we know that gays and handicapped people
were also targeted, and if his goal of world conquest had continued we
would have seen the extermination of other races and peoples. Perhaps
I'm not understanding how you jump from justification/rationalization to
enactment without the former being a necessity. How would this apply to
other beliefs? How does, say, the resurrection metaphor function as the
means TO something. In dealing with metaphors, we have symbols. Symbols
do not eradicate a people. Language does not do it. But combine language
and symbols into myth and you have the means of influencing ideologies
and the crossing of the threshold from myth to reality.
James Hillman tells us that the origins of the word ?plot? stem from the
Greek word mythos. Plots are myths. Understanding the why in a story, he
says, can be found in myths. For Hillman, mythos is more than theory,
more than plot. "It is the tale of the interaction of humans and the
divine." We know from mythic history what happened when Actaeon
witnessed Artemis and her nymphs bathing in a wooded stream: he was
turned into a stag then torn from limb to limb by his own dogs. Semele
burned to ashes at the sight of Zeus. There clearly are consequences for
directly beholding the divine. Like Semele who burns to ash at the sight
of Zeus. What happens when someone beholds the forbidden divine? The
injury is to the witness, not to the archetypally divine, the one who
wields power. The same may be said of Lot?s wife, who turned into a
pillar of salt for glancing back to behold the sight of God. The damage
befalls those who catch glimpse of the divine. The source and meaning of
the Nazi discourse could be rooted in mythologies of this nature.
Kevin