Although the media stress Breivik's anti-Islamic and "cultural Marxism" views, one thing that they have overlooked is the priority he places on the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Horkheimer, Lukacs (not technically a member but close in philosophy), Erich Fromm and particularly Herbert Marcuse. He appears to have a very ambivalent response to these thinkers holding them in contempt and awe at the same time, vastly overestimating their influence while describing the writing as virtually unintelligible.
Even odder is his extensive "interview" with himself. He appears at times to be aware and slightly uncomfortable with his extreme narcissism and at times self-analyzes using 'Freudish' concepts (such as 'compensation') that may have been influenced by his reading of (or about) Fromm or Marcuse. In other words, he seems to be dealing with a repressed attraction to the so-called cultural Marxism that he posits as chief bogeyman. His manifesto reveals a strong intellectual aptitude that has been arrested at the stage of rationalizing his core beliefs, not unlike Ted Kaczynski's. As a result his analysis and conclusions are rather juvenile and self serving. There is a tension between his desire to master the material and his fear of being corrupted by it. I am reminded of a conversation with a pyschopathic rapist/murderer I had while teaching at a prison. He told me his victim was latina and for quite some time before he attacked her he had obsessed on her "exoticness" which made her, in his obsession, both fascinating and unapproachable. Right-wing response to the atrocities will and already has been characterized by cognitive dissonance. "Something stinks here. (It must have been Islamic radicals and the Norwegian government is covering it up)." We have nothing to do with this; Breivik is not one of us." nevertheless "Breivik is a serious political thinker who's ideas should be studied, even if his actions were deplorable." and... wait for it... "He only killed 100, leftists mass murderers have killed 100s of millions.(the proportionality defense)" These are paraphrases of actual commentary I've read yesterday. And just what does all this have to do with futurework? I thought you'd never ask. The book that Breivik singles out as most reprehensible is Marcuse's Eros and Civilization. (No doubt, B. "saw his reflection" in Marcuse's discussion of Narcissism there!) Marcuse was talking about the dilemma of moving "beyond the reality principle," something Freud viewed as threatening to the very survival of civilization (Civilization and its Discontents). Modern industry creates a dilemma whereby the amount of repression and sublimation of instincts in no longer necessary for material consumption, it remains vital for maintaining the existing hierarchy of social dominance. "Civilization has to defend itself against the specter of a world which could be free. If society cannot use its growing productivity for reducing repression (because such usage would upset the hierarchy of the status quo), productivity must be turned against the individuals; it becomes itself and instrument of universal control... The rationality of domination has progressed to the point where it threatens to undermine its foundations; therefore it must be reaffirmed more effectively than ever before." (Eros and Civilization, p. 85) On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 1:59 AM, Keith Hudson <[email protected]>wrote: > My posting of yesterday may well turn out to be irrelevant with regard to > the childhood and adolescence of Anders Breivick, the Norwegian assassin of > Friday. He turns out not to have the 'loner' profile that's often the case > of perpetrators of similar acts of violence. (And, curiously, he didn't turn > the gun on himself when faced by the police, as so often occurs.) His > killing of 92 people was highly political. Although he may have acted alone > on this occasion, he had already been enmeshed in an anti-Muslim, > anti-immigrant group called the Knights Templar, a putative resurrection of > those knights of the Middle Ages who rode forth to Palestine to fight the > Saracens and regain Jerusalem for the Roman Catholics Church. > > He turns out to be nearer the equivalent of Osama Bin Laden, though with > opposite religious polarity. Without doubt, the modern Knights Templars are > psychologically similar to the 19 extremists who carried out the 9/11 > attack. But there's a deeper and more disturbing level to all this. Just as > millions of Muslims in Middle East countries were jubilant in the streets > about the success of the New York outrage in 2001, so there are possibly -- > probably -- millions of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim Europeans who are > equally, though privately, jubilant about Breivick's act. > > And this is what the more perceptive of European politicians will be > considering. Publicly, they'll express the pain that most of us feel that so > many Norwegians in the prime of their lives were cut down. Privately, within > their own enclaves, they'll realize that the problem of multiculturalism > among the masses in Europe will have now risen further and that their > pro-immigration policies of the last 20 years for tax-base reasons were not > so clever after all. The politicians have had more than enough hints already > -- what with the growth of numerous anti-immigrant groups, the appearance of > would-be demagogues here and there, and the broad shift to the right in > recent elections (and, no doubt, many confidential opinion polls and focus > groups) -- that immigration, and particularly that of Muslim people, is now > reaching the threshold of acceptability. > > In times of high, and probably growing, unemployment in most European > countries, and the ghetto-like growth of concentrations of immigrants in > many cities, it's to be wondered whether even the present threshold will > hold in the coming years. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Maybe governments > will be able to stem the level of immigration. Maybe they won't. Maybe > governments will be able to afford welfare payments to both indigenous > populations and immigrants alike in the coming years. Maybe they won't. > Maybe Anders Breivick will regret his terrible act as he spends the rest of > his life in prison (surely even liberal Norwegians won't be able to let him > out sooner?). Maybe, behind bars, he'll quietly applaud subsequent terrible > events -- both by, and against, governments -- as they might take place in > the coming years. > > Keith > ** > > ** Keith Hudson, Saltford, England > http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/07/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > -- Sandwichman
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
