Enzensberger on terrorists' self-sacrifice.
October 26, 2001 1:34 PM   Subscribe

Enzensberger on terrorists' self-sacrifice. "Labels such as left or right, nation or sect, religion or liberation all lead to exactly the same patterns of behavior, and their only common denominator is paranoia." Here's another article dealing with the use of one's death.
posted by mmarcos (5 comments total)
 
Individuals' desiring to immolate themselves wouldn't be so much of a problem if they weren't so often bent on taking others with them. Those who wish to die should do the right thing: act only on their own behalf, and try not to leave a mess.

Though on an individual level, do you think that a lack of otherwise socially acceptable outlets for purely destructive behavior contributes to this? Do you think that activities primarily portrayed in the realm of science fiction (ie. Sheckley's "10th Victim" or the movie "Rollerball") could serve as an effective release for these impulses? Would the members of warrior cultures, double X chromosome types, "natural born killers" and similar persons be better served (and their respective environments better protected) by the institution of some sort that would allow the impulses to be exercised? Sometimes I think that modern societies forget that there is a natural human impulse toward aggression, both individual and collective, a heritage of predatory past, and we might do well to address it.
posted by UncleFes at 1:52 PM on October 26, 2001


Though on an individual level, do you think that a lack of otherwise socially acceptable outlets for purely destructive behavior contributes to this?

No. We already have rugby, as well as many other contact sports. The problem is not "aggressive impulses" per se, but a value system and/or a psychology that condones, or even encourages, inflicting violence on others. "Collateral damage", "all Americans are targets", "an eye for an eye", etc.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a natural human impulse toward aggression". I mean, there are acts of violence calculated to gain something at someone else's expense (theft, conquest), but those acts are generally calculated, not impulsive. "Natural" seems to imply "universal" or "normal", and I don't think aggressive impulses are either - most people don't feel a desire to hurt others unless they feel wronged or threatened.

In fact, I believe that people tend to recoil from the sight of other people's suffering. It caused problems in the early days of the Holocaust, when it was all firing squads and mass graves, because the soldiers assigned to the task got completely demoralized. Eventually, the higher-ups hit upon gas chambers and cremation as a way to distance the troops from the actual corpses. As reported by William Shirer in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, if I recall correctly.
posted by skoosh at 11:58 PM on October 26, 2001


Skoosh: by aggression I don't necessarily mean violence, but just perhaps vigorous competitiveness, or the capacity for violence.

"Natural" seems to imply "universal" or "normal", and I don't think aggressive impulses are either - most people don't feel a desire to hurt others unless they feel wronged or threatened.

I disagree. I think we retain vestigal predatory impulses from our ape heritage. Now, there is a lot of variation as to how much and how well controlled, but I believe that everyone has the capacity and the talent for high aggressiveness, if not outright violence. The vast majority channel it elsewhere - boardroom swash, pumping iron, the contact sports you mention.
posted by UncleFes at 11:13 AM on October 29, 2001


Which ape ancestors are you talking about? Of our closest relatives, the Gorillas and Orang Utans are widely considered to be highly peaceful creatures, I thought. Chimpanzees can be vicious (that monkey hunt in the old David Attenborough programme springs to mind), but that viciousness is more of an expression of their intellect (their development) rather than "predatory impulses".

Don't know about gibbons, though.
posted by Grangousier at 12:06 PM on October 29, 2001


Far as I know, chimps are our closest genetic relatives, and in the field they are dangerous mofos, so far as I know. Orangs are even more so, I believe. Gorillas, I don't know.

What I meant was, humans have purely destructive impulses; those impulses are likely connected to human aggression, which is natural to humans and would seem to stem from our collective history as territorial, predatory animals. Perhaps the situations seen recently and in the articles linked above are badly channelled natural aggressions.

We all contain violence; to deny it only serves to pressurize it; but to admit that we are born with incisors - predatory animals, with instincts toward all that entails, however dimly remembered - and to give those impulse venue might serve to curtail the deathwish that seem to so often manifest.

Of course, that's all pocket psychology - what do you think causes the impulse toward self-destruction? It seems to common to chalk up to mere perversity.
posted by UncleFes at 8:46 PM on October 29, 2001


« Older The Apple G5 SPHERE!   |   Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments