Ernst Jünger, DIE SCHERE #35 Text Die Vorschau widerspricht der Erfahrung; sie ruft selbst bei dem Betroffenen Befremden hervor. Meist sucht er sie zu verdrängen, sie zum Traum zu degradieren - doch war es, wie Shakespeare sagt, "kein gewöhnlicher Traum". Ein Bild wurde empfangen, nicht in der eigenen Werkstatt erzeugt. Wenn die Gabe des Zweiten Gesichtes verbreiteter wäre, würde das Verhältnis des Einzelnen zur Gesellschaft sich anders darstellen. Der Unterschied zwischen dem Propheten und dem Vorschauer wurde bereits erwähnt. Beide bewegen sich an den Grenzen der Zeit und überschreiten sie. Vergleichsweise ist zu bedenken, daß Propheten die Weltgeschichte stärker verändert haben als die größten Feldherrn, und sie sind immer noch dabei.
DIE SCHERE #35: Translation Second sight is in contradiction to everyday experience. Even the visionary himself will find himself disconcerted by what he has seen. More often than not he will try to suppress the memory of it, to write it off as a mere dream. But, as Shakespeare says, (1) it was no ordinary dream. An image was received from out there, it was not homemade. If the faculty of second sight were more common we would have a different concept of the relationship between individual and society. I mentioned earlier the difference between the prophet and the person gifted with second sight. Both move along the limits of time and cross them. As a comparison it should be taken into consideration that prophets have changed world history more profoundly than even the greatest generals, and that they are still at it. (1) I failed to locate this reference in the searchable edition of Shakespeare's complete works on the Web (www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare) Die Schere #35: Notes The uneasiness felt by the visionary was explained in #33 by the change from measurable time to Schicksalszeit. Here a more complex reaction is considered. His uneasiness causes the Vorschauer to deny the true nature of his experience. Instead, he tries to persuade himself that it was merely a dream what he had seen. However, as the real event proves which confirms his vision, his cannot have been an ordinary dream. It must have been transmitted from "out there", cannot have risen from his own unconscious. Surprisingly, the second paragraph of #35 starts out on a topic seemingly so different that it deserved to be put in an aphorism of its own. To be sure, EJ sticks to the topic of second sight, but here he reverts to the related phenomenon of prophecy which he skirted as early as in #13. We have to keep in mind that the book DIE SCHERE is not put together according to one simple blueprint. There are indeed longer passages which develop an idea in a linear progressive fashion. There are others, however, which return to points already passed and look at them from a different angle and add new aspects. Passages like the latter ones give the reader the impression that the author leads him in circles round a complex idea and makes him discover ever new facets. The first sentence of the second paragraph is to my mind an instance of EJ's acerbity leading the reader astray. It is a very general statement (the relationship between individual and society would look different if more people had the gift of second sight) which requires elaboration badly. But elaboration and thus elucidation is never supplied. The next sentence, referring back to #13, would equally need elaboration for a reader not too well versed in EJ's writings and ideas. Here the idea is put forward that prophets have changed history more profoundly than other Great Men and that they are still doing so. This statement might make more sense if you take into consideration that for EJ the greatest prophet in modern times was Nietzsche, that Nietzsche's predictions of the dawn of nihilism influenced profoundly our view of the modern world, and that EJs own philosophy is largely a continuation of some of Nietzsche's central ideas. Still, such sweeping generalities detract, in my opinion, from the value this book could have for readers who would like to learn from EJ and who do not yet know his writing too intimately. Günter Rebing
