I´d try reading Kershaw´s biography of Hitler before adding this speculation, or the bios by Fest, Bullock etc
best wishes,
Paul Murphy
> from: Kevin <imagery@xxxxxxx>
> date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 01:25:51
> to: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> subject: Re: Ideology and Fantasy
>
> 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 Lots 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
>
>
Paul Murphy
Tel: 0044 02890 659866
Fax: 0044 02890 322767
best wishes,
Paul Murphy
> from: Kevin <imagery@xxxxxxx>
> date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 01:25:51
> to: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> subject: Re: Ideology and Fantasy
>
> 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 Lots 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
>
>
Paul Murphy
Tel: 0044 02890 659866
Fax: 0044 02890 322767