A Cruel Nation, just as predicted

         

This quote appeared as a post on the Jungian Facebook page of which I'm a member. As I looked at it, I soon found myself pondering its validity. One of the other members, Sam Eliasen, wrote a comment which I thought was particularly good. Sam wrote, "We have to eat so taking life is our daily fare. Knowing this our intelligent ancestors were grateful to animals and plants. Modern commerce uber alles though runs over any ancient niceties and creates a purely utilitarian relationship to life. Gratitude is basic to wisdom." (i)

While I don't disagree with Mr. Eliasen, the first line is not totally accurate. We are omnivores, like bears , raccoons, dogs and fox, so we don't need to kill to eat. I'm a vegetarian by choice. Nevertheless, he is absolutely right about our intelligent ancestors. Even some modern western hunters thank the animal for sustaining the hunter's family with its life. Some I know learned it from their fathers. Others picked it up from Native Americans. Not that the prey had any choice, but the act is a spiritual one of thanksgiving, gratitude and compassion.
I believe that Carl Jung would see it as a necessary act in the suppression of the shadow archetype. Jung's theory of the shadow archetype boils down to our perception of ourselves, that forms our identity, naturally giving rise to qualities within ourselves that are totally opposite. We must suppress the shadow archetypes, and sometimes that is difficult. I am a pacifist. Yes, I know, I was in the Army. That was a conscious calculated risk that I would be able to serve my time without ever having to aim a weapon at another human and pull the trigger. I gambled and won. In my seventy-four years there have only been two times that I have actually struck a person in anger. I can't imagine myself being able to hurt or kill another, nevertheless I know that there have been countless times that I have been so angry that I wished that I could. That is suppression of the shadow archetype. Now flip that around. If my self-identity was that of a fighter or killer, what is it that I suppress? I would suppress my compassion, sympathy and pity.
By making violence and killing an acceptable part of our corporate identity we suppress compassion and sympathy as Tolstoy claims in this quote. Tolstoy is right. We do suppress our spiritual nature, and compassion toward life. I think it is obvious that we have done this on both a corporate and individual level. Which came first is the famous chicken or egg question. I do believe that our social systems encourage us to suppress any compassion, empathy and love for others.
In the 2000 movie, "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle", (ii) there are numerous pokes at our social systems for their heartless and cruel nature, just as there were in the original cartoon which ran from 1959 to 1964. (iii) An important character in the movie is Karen Sympathy who was trying to succeed as an FBI agent but she really had too much humanity and compassion. Struggling with her inner child filled with compassion, empathy and love, she was sent to foil Fearless Leader's plan to become President of the United States. To maintain her position in society; in her case dominated by the government social system; she had to identify with the hard-nosed, uncaring agent while suppressing her real self which would, in that case, be her shadow archetype. In the end she succeeds in her mission, not because she was the heartless, tough FBI agent but because of her compassion. The movie was a flop. I agree, the plot wasn't particularly good but the critiques criticized the humor. That actually struck me funny, because the humor hammered a heartless, social system driven culture and society. It nailed us. In the 1960s the show was likewise criticized for exposing "the establishment"; a good 60s term for social systems. It held a mirror up to us that we just don't like. Our social systems have us so confused about who we really are that we don't know ourselves from our shadow archetypes.
Tolstoy sees compassion, empathy, and pity as the product of our spirituality. I could be wrong, but I think Jung, Nietzsche and several others would agree. I think they would also agree that, as a society (communally) we have become cruel at the insistence of the social systems that benefit from our suppression of compassion and humanity. As a result we are a cruel nation, just as Tolstoy predicts.

FOOTNOTES:
(i) I'd like to give both the person who posted the quote and Sam Eliasen credit, but the group is set up so that is impossible. Sorry.



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