[lit-ideas] Re: CFP: PEACE REVIEW on the Psychological Interpretation of War

  • From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2004 10:01:32 -0500 (GMT-05:00)

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Yost <NYCEric@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Dec 8, 2004 12:48 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: CFP: PEACE REVIEW on the Psychological Interpretation 
of War

Andy wanted to know: What are some of the bases for the assertion that 
this is a silly thesis?
_____

Andy, I don't save posts, so I can't get too specific unless he spams 
again.

One of the things that struck me was the way he addressed the 
phenomenology of being a soldier without any recourse to what it 
actually feels like to be a soldier.

So instead of discussing what it means to fight in order to protect 
one's comrades, he brought in myth, the unconscious, social contracts, 
and repression of eros. These theoretical constructs can be fun but they 
  have nothing to do with what a soldier experiences.

Anyone who wants to describe X by using a bag of ideas without specific 
reference to X is a tad suspect I think. Maybe Judith remembers more of 
Koenigsburg's screed?



A.A. I don't know who Koenigsburg is except he did I think have a Ph.D. after 
his name.  The forum for which he was soliciting also had Rorty as a 
contributor, if I remember correctly.  Nevertheless, his question is very 
relevant and, importantly, has historically not been asked.  Rather it's always 
been the opposite, that war has been glorified in one form or another.  Wilfred 
Owen, Kurt Vonegut and a handful of others notwithstanding, and those always 
during war, there is very little literary or philosophical or pedagogical or 
any other opposition to war.  Not such a far fetched conclusion: people love 
war.  His is an amazing, heretofore unasked, question: why love something that 
is so pain filled and destructive?

Regarding a soldier's experience, soldiers basically do what they're told by 
society.  The fact that humanity has such poor conflict resolution skills given 
all the other intellectual and artistic achievements speaks to deep seated, 
veiled issues.  Asking the question that Koenigsburg is asking is critical, and 
it is both telling and disappointing that virtually no one has done it before 
him or is doing it now.


Andy Amago



Eric

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