From: "Orion Anderson" <libraryofsocialscience-AT-earthlink.net> To: <nietzsche-AT-driftline.org> Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:32:31 -0400 Cc: Subject: [Nietzsche] Violence as Destruction of Doubt Just Published: TOLERATING DIFFERENCE AND COPING WITH THE INFIDEL David P. Levine The critical, and therefore negative, quality of the doubting self appears to us as an attack on our faith, which can alone keep us whole. When the unfaithful self is projected onto external objects, the aggression we attribute to it becomes their aggression directed at us, their desire to destroy our faith. We must now mobilize aggression to protect ourselves against the infidel, notwithstanding the fact that the threat he poses is the threat of connection with our own split off and disavowed faithless selves. Since the infidel's rejection of the good object is also our own, the aggression we attribute to him is also our own aggression projected outside and experienced as a threat to us. The critical, and therefore negative, quality of our doubting self appears to us as an attack on our faith. We must now mobilize aggression to protect ourselves against the infidel, whose threat to us is the threat of connection with split off and disavowed parts of our selves. That is, the aggression mobilized against the infidel is deployed for the purpose of maintaining separation from our own doubt. _____ JOIN THE LISTSERV Ideologies externalize and articulate shared fantasies, structuring our experience and perception of reality. What are the nature of those desires, conflicts and anxieties that give rise to ideologies of war and terror? Why is the historical record a narrative of collective violence; of destruction and self-destruction? What would it mean to become conscious of the fantasies and desires that generate ideologies of war, genocide and terror? It is possible to awaken from the nightmare of history? Listserv on IDEOLOGIES OF WAR AND TERROR: JOIN 460 MEMBERS WHO ALREADY HAVE SIGNED ON To participate, send an e-mail to: <mailto:oanderson-AT-ideologiesofwar.com> oanderson-AT-ideologiesofwar.com _____ The complete paper by Professor David Levine is available as an on-line publication. To read: "Tolerating Difference and Coping With the Infidel" PLEASE <http://ideologiesofwar.com/papers/> CLICK HERE or visit: <http://ideologiesofwar.com/papers/> http://ideologiesofwar.com/papers/ _____ TOLERATING DIFFERENCE AND COPING WITH THE INFIDEL The alien, both internal and external, is the self that refuses to know what must be true. In ourselves, it is the part of us that refuses to believe, and that therefore has no faith. Refusing to believe is, however, the starting point for thinking, since so long as we continue to believe we have no need for thinking, which begins where belief ends. Thus, the alien part of ourselves, our internal infidel, is the part that thinks. The internal good object is the faithful self. And just as we wish for an external object that is wholly good, we seek an identification of our selves with the internal good object; we wish to be the faithful self. In other words, we wish to be pure in our faith in, and obedience to, the good object. To do this, we must get rid of the internal bad object, which means to rid ourselves of doubt. We accomplish this goal by projecting the internal infidel onto a convenient container in the external world, which is the unbeliever. We then attempt to make that object good by the strategy of conversion; or we exile it from our homeland; or, we attempt to control it, for example by enslavement. This is the effort to dispel doubt and destroy the internal infidel. E-mail: <mailto:oanderson-AT-ideologiesofwar.com> oanderson-AT-ideologiesofwar.com Web: <http://ideologiesofwar.com/> http://ideologiesofwar.com/ _______________________________________________ List address: nietzsche-AT-driftline.org Admin interface: http://lists.driftline.org/listinfo.cgi/nietzsche-driftline.org
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