Last I heard, Carl Jung is still the psychologist-icon of choice for liberal Democrats. But perhaps they are forgetting that Jung had some views regarding Islam that might make Obama and Pelosi supporters squirm a bit. Here is something Jung said in 1939:
We do not know whether Hitler is going to found a new Islam. He is already on the way; he is like Mohammed. The emotion in Germany is Islamic; warlike and Islamic. They are all drunk with wild god. That can be the historic future.
Jung was not a Jew, and does not mention the anti-Semitism that forms the common denominator between the Nazis and some schools of Islam. Nonetheless, rabid anti-Semitism is the sore thumb that sticks out from this quote.
Christopher Hitchens has an article in the September 2010 Atlantic making the point that anti-Semitism has been much more than a Nazi and Islamic fascination. Up through WW2, anti-Semitism was quite rampant throughout Christian Europe. It was even fashionable in seemingly progressive England (and yes, my ancestors from Poland certainly had many sins in that regard). Had Hitler not pushed this trend to extreme lengths, who knows how long Europe (and the USA) would have taken to purge this infection from the social body of ‘western enlightenment’.
Hitchens is a committed atheist. Even now as he dies of cancer, he is still taking shots at the idea of God and religious faith. At the end of his article, he states that the roots of anti-Semitism lie not just in political theocracy, i.e. of integrating religion into government; but in the whole notion of theistic faith itself. Jung might agree up to a point, given his words that both the Nazis and Islam are “drunk with wild God”.
Yes, faith in God is a powerful thing. Like alcohol and narcotics, it can be harmful, even deadly (my friend Dawn Joy recently said “God talk is dangerous”). But as with alcohol and narcotic pain-killers, the “God idea” can also heal and make life better. I give Hitchens and his atheist companions much credit for pointing out that spirituality and theistic faith need to be used with caution.
Compared with most if not all other living things, humans were endowed with both conscious awareness (allowing them to “feel” the reality of God), and cognitive, logical facilities (allowing them to think about God and our relationship to God). If the latter ability were working up to speed, it would help us avoid the dangerous aspects that emanate from the former. Unfortunately, we still have a ways to go on that.
I had not been a fan of Hitchens because of his convoluted writing style. His atheism further turned me off. But to be honest, I now think that I’m going to miss him. I hope that he hangs on as long as possible, and takes as many parting shots at God as he can.
Jim, I just finished a book–not on anti-semitism–but strangely enough giving lots of
info on the anti-semitism of the Catholic Church throughout history. It’s absolutely
incredible that the Jews were hounded as they were by Catholics throughout history–
almost from the beginnings of the Church. Almost an unrelenting “Christ-killer” view of
Jews.
And I’d say I agree with Dawn Joy–God talk IS dangerous. I never really trust anybody
who says “you can trust (believe, fill in any appropriate word) me because I’m a
Christian.” I say run, run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. Too many
Christians have far too much judgmental assurance that they are right. Over this last
weekend there was a guy on TV loudly proclaiming that “if it’s not in the Bible, it’s
not true.” That stance surely limits one’s ability to see what may be right in so many
other areas.
And when it comes to all the suicide bombers who are “martyrs” for their cause, I find
myself wishing that Clement of Alexandria’s (mid-100s A.D. to early 200s A.D.) approach to
martyrdom had been given more attention by the Christians. He said that martyrs
committed a “sin” by putting themselves in a position where they might become martyrs
because in doing so a person caused another person to kill them (and/or forced them
to kill others and themselves in the case of suicide bombers); thus martyrdom was
sinful. Too bad his teaching has not received more attention by the RCs and even by
later religions–such as Islam. Clement himself put his money where his mouth was, moving
to another city when martyrdom came too close to him.
But then too from another standpoint (and to take a sort of skewed approach to your initial
topic) I wonder about Israel’s attitude toward the Palistinians. Israel has made it
virtually impossible for the Palistinians to exist. So in effect, the Jews are doing to
another group what has been done to them throughout history. Thus, the situation becomes
one where nobody is right. Everybody is wrong. What is the solution in such a case?
The only thing I’ve been able to figure out is that empathy (putting oneself in the shoes
of the other) has been lost in the world, and forgiveness has also become a lost virtue.
MCS
Comment by MCS — September 7, 2010 @ 2:06 pm