Dear Simon,
who knows, perhaps the growing perplexity of mankind in today's world may on
the other hand favor and promote some deeper analysis, some analysis hitherto
overlooked. People assailed by the all the evident secondary effects of today's
technology may be happy to find out about Friedrich Georg Jünger having written
his prophetic book long ago. Published at a time when people still had high
hopes in the liberating promises of technology. As once stated here, i would
not have known EJ and his brother FGJ, if it were not from reading the works by
a notable German astrologer, Wolfgang Doebereiner, who quite often quoted EJ
and FGJ in his books. Doebereiner somewhere even goes so far as to modify the
popular Goebbels slogan to the masses: "Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg", which
resounded with an overwhelming "Jaaaah" from the hypnotized public; modifying
it with a more contemporary sounding "Wollt ihr die totale Technik?"
Ample reasons to be pessimistic, it seems.
For me, Georg Friedrich's book "Perfektion der Technik" has got something of an
unsparing diagnosis. As you say, gründlich, and with a depth of vision lacking
in so many contemporary commentators, and, of course, endowed with the
WOW-effect, as i would call it, of someone having been capable to foresee all
these present troubles, be it environmental, exploitative...you name it. My
optimism derives from the fact that an unsparing diagnosis may have a better
chance of healing the disease. My optimism derives from the fact that people
often are not as stupid as they are believed to be. Your blog and the list here
are just one instance among many others to prove it. And of course, there have
been all those develompments to the year 2009, for the better or for the worse.
It may sound strange, but reading the Juenger brothers always instills some
hope in me. For instance EJ often brings in the grand serpent. He sees the
serpent shedding it's skin whenever cataclysms happen, the catastrophes you
are talking about. What is he talking about?
"...An ancient Force ascending serpentine
The unhasting spirals of the aeonic road.
That's Sri Aurobindo speaking; in a sonnet called "Evolution".
Evolution as a serpentine force unfolding.
Man has been called the "crown of evolution": Sri Aurobindo challenges this
statement. From a Christian point of view, the theologician Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin has written about this evolutionary topic as well. Has evolution ended
with the appearance of man? Or is it continuing? Will there be something
beyond? That's the question arising in me, when EJ talks about the
skin-shedding serpent.
Hey, that was great,Simon, what you wrote about the elements, the fire and it
all.
Yours
Richard
----- Original Message -----
From: Simon Friedrich
To: juenger_org@yahoogroups.de
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 9:19 AM
Subject: AW: [juenger_org] Re-publication of The Failure of Technology
Yes, Richard, it made my day too when they replied this way. I wasn't
expecting it. I wonder what sort of distribution and marketing it will get
though.... I don't know Alethes or the International Institute of Arts and
Letters (though name of the latter is impressive enough), I wonder how much
publicity this reprint will get. We'll have to help them with own little
efforts!
This book explains so much about technology and so "grundlich" - far more
than the cleverest contemporary commentators, who mess around on the surface
and have lost sight of the fire in all the smoke of details and "solutions".
Unfortunately I also find reading this book very depressing - it only
confirms that our developments can only end in catastrophe. The only question
is the degree of that catastrophe and if humanity will learn anything by it. As
EJ says, the Titans are only stopped by catastrophe. This will inevitably
happen, and thank the gods that it will, for humanity's sake and the earth's.
But the question remains if humanity will learn anything from it all. I am
pessimistic - two world wars only promoted the perfection and faith in
technology.
Dare I be quite frank? I can only assume that the coming catastrophes will
dwarf even the world wars. The elemental powers that FGJ talks about are only
more enslaved and pent-up now than back then. When they find their freedom from
man's chains, may the gods help us. Of the 4 elements it is Fire that is
particularly worrisome. Water and Earth have been exploited and exhausted, but
Fire has only been multiplied and distributed to every small corner of the
world. It is momentarily contained - in refineries, nuclear and other power
plants, factories, combustion engines, heating furnaces, the whole electrical
grid. But fuel is everywhere, and increased in its volatility by the retreat of
water and earth. If, WHEN, this fire gets loose, the "firestorms" of Ernst
Juenger's Eumeswil may be the result. Even the summer fires in Greece,
California, Spain etc are not unrelated - bad omens.
I told my father recently that if I were to write a book about the last few
centuries of civilization it would be called "The failure of humanity".
Imagine: we come all this way over so many generations, with so much hope and
so much sacrifice to realize a future utopia, only to arrive and discover that
we have actually destroyed humanity, merely prepared the ground for someone
else, be it the insect or the robot - or most likely, the robot-man of a Brave
New World. Talk about a grand disappointment!
All the more reason to become an anarch and find your own meaning in life
beyond society's successes or failures.
Forgive my pessimistic tone - but "succeed in playing life as a game and you
will find honey in nettles and hemlock" (badly paraphrased from Eumeswil).
Simon
http://ernst-juenger.blogspot.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Von: Richard Krähenbühl <ri...@t-online.de>
An: juenger_org@yahoogroups.de
Gesendet: Mittwoch, den 21. Oktober 2009, 22:09:52 Uhr
Betreff: Re: [juenger_org] Re-publication of The Failure of Technology
You made my day, dear Simon. That's great news!
FGJ was so ahead of his time.
He seems to be catching up. I always found it such a pity that his works
should have fallen into oblivion.
Thanks once more.
Rich
----- Original Message -----
From: Simon Friedrich
To: juenger_org@yahoogroups.de
Cc: Tobias Wimbauer
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:19 AM
Subject: [juenger_org] Re-publication of The Failure of Technology
Dear List,
I eventually got around to writing to the rights holders of F.G Jünger´s
"Die Perfektion der Technik" (The Failure of Technology) to persuade them to
reprint this magically insightful book in English.
They replied that Alethes Press, the publishing arm of the International
Institute of Arts and Letters, will shortly be publishing it!
Excellent news - I am re-reading it now and am again and again impressed by
F.G.J´s deep insights into the true foundations and consequences of technology.
Insights which I believe also prove that myth speaks about deeper realities
than reason can reach - he certainly came to much of his understanding through
his deep knowledge of Greek mythology, in particular of the nature of the
Titans.
This book matches anything EJ wrote - and I say that as a very devoted fan
of EJ´s.
Simon
http://ernst- juenger.blogspot .com
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