========================================================= IDEOLOGIES OF WAR AND TERROR, Vol. XXXIX, April 2007 ========================================================= History and Sacrificial Death Richard A. Koenigsberg CONTENTS I. WHAT WAS IN IT FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN? II. THE PLEASURE OF KILLING ONE'S OWN PEOPLE III. HITLER'S SACRIFICE OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE IV. RATIONALITY VS. IRRATIONALITY V. WARFARE AS BLOOD SACRIFICE VI. HONORABLE DEATH VII. HISTORY AND DEATH --------------------------------------------------------------- Read the entire paper at: http://www.ideologiesofwar.com/new/ --------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpts from the Paper The mechanism of sacrifice lies at the heart of ideological systems regardless of cultural context. Lives are forfeited and blood spilled-in order to validate the ideology. Ideologies become real to the extent that human beings fight and die in their name. Surely we imagine--if so many people have killed and died in the name an ideology--there must be something to it. It is difficult to imagine that all of the sound and fury signifies nothing. Sheikh Abdullah Azzam was an Islamic revolutionary whose thought exerted a significant influence upon Bin Laden. His essay, "Martyrs: The Building Blocks of Nations," articulates the relationship between ideology, slaughter and history. "History," Azzam writes, does not write its lines "except with blood." Glory does not build its lofty edifice "except with skulls." Honor and respect cannot be established except on a "foundation of cripples and corpses." "History" happens when a group produces death and destruction in the name of its ideology. Hitler, Stalin and Mao are remembered--not because of their contributions to civilization--but by virtue of the vast number of people they killed. As Azzam puts it, the "glory" of an ideology or belief system builds upon an "edifice of skulls." The honor or respect according to an idea or ideal its preeminence in history--grows out of a foundation of "cripples and corpses." --------------------------------------------------------------- Read the entire paper at: http://www.ideologiesofwar.com/new/ --------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpts from the Paper "Significance" is conferred upon a leader and his ideology based on the number of people killed in the ideology's name. This is why historians are keen to document the "number of people that died" in a war, battle, genocidal episode, or act of terror. Historians establish the importance of an event by "counting skulls." History is the record of sacrificial dying that occurred in relationship to ideologies that seek to transform the world. Hitler, Stalin and Mao established their places in history based on the prodigious number of people who died as a result of their political acts. Their reputations are built upon a foundation of "cripples and corpses." If history as Saddam Hussein put it is a record of "sacrifices made in blood," then men like Hitler, Stalin and Mao are the greatest history--makers--because they caused the greatest amount of blood to be shed. People who strive to make history seek to have their actions recorded by journalists and historians. Events most likely to be recorded are ones that result in the deaths of large numbers of people. Political leaders generate episodes of mass-murder in order to be remembered for the havoc that they have wrought-in the name of ideologies they hope will transform the world. --------------------------------------------------------------- Read the entire paper at: http://www.ideologiesofwar.com/new/ --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html