Freud stated
that sex and killing were the oldest and most powerful human desires. Within
sex there can be aggression as in sadomasochism. Yes, for survival, sex and
aggression play an important role. Moreover, aggression can be defined as
hostile or violent behavior or attitudes toward another, readiness to attack,
and to confront without provocation. Additionally, Murray, “Explorations in
Personality” called aggression a need. His definition: To overcome opposition
forcefully, to fight. To revenge. An
injury, to attack injure or kill another. To oppose forcefully or punish
another. This essay pertains to the primitive “thinking” of savages.
To begin,
let’s refer to the study of anthropology, missionaries, sociologists and others
as to early origins of aggression and killing. Fraser’s “Taboo and the Perils of the Soul”
provides insight into these primitive and savage cultures around the globe. One
definition of savage: a brutal or vicious person. Primitive: relating to, or
preserving the character of an early stage in the evolutionary or historical
development of something. The following description of taboo and treatment of
killing enemies is not at all consistent with describing these peoples as savage.
Primitive, in some ways.
Numerous
places of study ,such as, but not limited to the island of Timor, the people of
Paloo, the Gallas of East Africa etc.
ruthless cruelty was not directed toward their enemies .Killing a man was
governed by a number of observances which were taboo. For our purposes, taboo
is about a sense of something unapproachable and is generally expressed in
terms of prohibitions and restrictions. “ For instance, when bringing back the
head of the vanquished foe, the leader of the expedition is submitted to
restrictions such as sacrifices that are offered to appease the souls of the
man whose heads had been taken. These people think that some misfortune would
befall the victor were such an offering omitted. The ceremony consisted of a
dance accompanied by a song which the death of the slain man is lamented and
his forgiveness is entreated-“be not angry” they say “because your head is here
with us, had we been less lucky, our heads might now have been exposed in your
village. We have offered the sacrifice to appease you. Your spirit may now rest
and leave us in peace. Why were you our enemy? Would it not have been better
that we should remain friends? Then your blood would not have been split and
your head would not have been cut off.”
Another
example of attitudes toward enemies, changing, after their death, into guardians,
friends and benefactors was exemplified by bringing home a head from a
successful headhunting exposition. “For months after its arrival that head is
treated with the greatest consideration and addressed with all names of endearment
of which their language is capable. The most daintily marshals of food are
thrust into its mouth, delicacies of all kinds and even cigars. The head is
repeatedly implored to hate its former friends and to love its new host since
it has now become one of them. It would be a great mistake to suppose that
these observances which strike us so horrible are performed without any
intention of ridicule. Even in North America, when a Choctaw kills the enemy
they go into mourning with certain severe restrictions. They mourned over their
dead and they will mourn for their foe just as if he were a friend.”
It’s
obviously apparent that these non-industrialized people employ animism (human
qualities), magic, superstition, and the omnipotence or great power of their thoughts
(ideas become more important in that they dominate and block out, distort
external reality). These people, with their spirits, were benevolent and
malignant. They attributed, in animism, as being able to cause natural events.
They believed that animals, plants and all of the inanimate objects in the
world were animated and powerful. They believed human individuals were
inhabited by similar spirits such as souls which live in human beings and can
have their habitations and even migrate to other human beings. These were
vehicles of mental activities and were to a certain extent independent –dualistic
in their bodies. The system of animism, spirits and souls were considered
independent. In essence, the souls of animals, plants and objects were
constructed on the basis of human characteristics. Thus, the problem of death,
a natural occurrence, was prolonged. They believed in immortality. In other
words, animism likely provided a basis or ground floor for traditional religion.
Halloween – honoring the saints, praying for the recently departed souls who
have not yet reached heaven - ghosts, goblins, skeletons-trick or treat? Death
is scary. More about that later.
The 10
Commandments provided the attempt to thwart and prohibit the desire for
aggression and killing. For example, the Commandments: I am the Lord thy God,
thou shall not have strange gods before me; thou shall not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain; honor thy father and thy mother; thou shall not kill;
thou shall not commit adultery; and thou shall not steal morally pertain and
counter hate, aggression, exploitation, disrespect and domination. On one hand
we are not supposed to kill, but Sampson and David are heroes as they overcame
great and significant odds. Protestants at war with Catholics for over 20 years
with unparalleled killing; Crusades, called Christian, going to the “holy” land
to kill Muslims are just a few examples of
contradiction, irrationality, hate and death. Both Moses and Jesus did not, in
any way, pursue aggression, death and destruction toward others. However, with
religion we have soul, immortality, sin and other examples of the supernatural
and magical thinking. And these ideas came first from savages!
The idea of
God, the son of God and he died for your sins are examples of a belief in magic.
If you’re good, you go to heaven and if you’re bad you go to hell. If you pray,
you can control the reality or fragility of nature within human existence.
Sports provide examples of magical thinking. What is supposed to happen when
followers from different teams pray to the same God? How is waving a white, or
blue piece of material, in unison, supposed to result in a touchdown? How is
yelling “Go Team Go” supposed to result in some magical act on the field?
Often, the opposing coach calls a timeout just before the kicker attempts a
field goal. The timeout is supposed to make the kicker miss the field goal. At
the recent NBA finals, the opposing fans started counting when Giannis was
about to attempt a free-throw. Their counting, out loud .That action was
supposed to make him miss his shot.
Henry VIII,
Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas Moore and many others believed in the power of their
thoughts and in fact even died for their beliefs. After Henry cut off their
heads, he displayed them how? I forgot, the king can’t be a savage. His
thinking is supreme, just ask God. Unfortunately, having a belief with
consensus, willing to die for the thought or being king or God like doesn’t
mean that it’s the truth, logical, or insightful. Thoughts and beliefs can
express the primitive, the uneducated, paranoid, hate, lies and sickness.
Animism,
magical thinking, and omnipotence of thought is the attempt to employ
“thinking” by narcissists to not only protect inner anxiety, conflict and
insecurity but additionally to “exert power over “or to control the unpredictability
and dangerousness in the reality of living. In omnipotence of thought, this
level of “thinking” is characterized by structural conditions within a person’s
mind (the projection of emotional impulses) into the external world. Thus commonly,
this form of ”thinking “is characterized by the following - assumptions: a
distortion of factual information; employment of illogical and non-rational
connections; creation of falsifications, instead of facts; invention of
fabrications in an attempt to bring mental relief from an unchangeable and
rigid emotional position {Trump won, election was stolen}. Not surprisingly,
spirits, demons, and a dualistic soul is the strategy of the mind’s attempt to
bring mental relief from the emotional mental conflicts. Note, the absence of
intellectual, rational, objective or scientific thinking. Related, to the
primitive form of “thinking,” do not forget the interpersonal behavior that
accompanies this deficit. With aggression, hate and scapegoating, the following
is found: appeasing, making amends, propitiating, robbing of power, subduing,
incurring favor, manipulating, exploiting and even killing. It is not
surprising that omnipotence of thought can also be found with a diagnosis
pertaining to obsessive-compulsive, paranoid, delusional {conspiracies} and phobic
disorders.
Let’s turn to politics for a moment. Mitch is
the head Republican in the Senate. He controls how the Republicans vote. His
stance, since January, can be described as anal retentive or withholding. He is
against legislative support for the majority. His stance has been “no.” Yes, he
was one of 11 Republicans that voted to keep the government operating until
December. That debt was primarily established by Donald’s tax reduction for the
wealthy. Trickle-down economics is an example of magical thinking. The majority
of people are not entitled but the private sector of: coal, gas, farming,
pharmaceuticals and powerful others are entitled to government benefits. By the
way, Kentucky received approximately 9.7 billion in federal-aid which is about
38.5% of that state’s general revenues. Sounds like entitlement to me.
Our mores,
tradition, customs, in many ways, are savage. Yes, we wiped out the Indians. Who
are the savages? Our Pentagon requested
$715 billion for the defense budget in 2022. We have the best killing machine
military in the world. We even use artificial intelligence to kill. We are good at waging war and killing and
employ many slogans, magic and omnipotence of thought for justifications. Killing
our own is called “friendly fire.” There
is nothing friendly about killing it’s a savage act. What about “collateral damage?” Collateral is
defined as additional but subordinate, secondary. Depicting others as subordinate and secondary
is savage as well. Let’s kill them there
is supposed to accomplish what? Let’s get rid of the Saddam; wipe out Iraq;
wage war in Afghanistan so we can accomplish what?
A small arms
survey stated that US citizens account for 393 million or about 46% of the
world’s total of civilian arms fire. This amounts to 120.5 firearms for every
100 residents. Could there be a relationship of guns and death? Figures from
the U.S. Census for disease control and prevention show a total of more than
38,300 deaths from guns in 2019. More than 23,900 were suicides. We’ve had more
than 711,000 deaths from Covid-19. Many of these deaths are the result of the
omnipotence of thought -I’m healthy, I’m young, I’m strong, I believe in
Donald, I can take bleach, ivermectin, I don’t have to wear a mask, I am going to pray etc. Omnipotence of
thought is a primitive animism belief compared to believing in science, wearing
a mask and getting vaccinated. For these Covid-19 dead, their fragile internal
thought and emotional system dominated the external, scientific and perceptual
world of reality.
Aggression
and killing remains a most powerful human desire. Not surprisingly there’s been
much research around frustration, conflict and stress as it relates to
aggression. Briefly, frustration is an emotional state arising as a natural
course in life’s events. With aggression, we find typically anger and attack.
1. The intensity of the aggression is
related to the strength of the instigation (stolen election) 2. The degree of
frustrated response for an unsuccessful goal attainment (Trump lost) 3. Inverse
function of anticipated punishment or threat of punishment -omnipotent thought (Trump
and capitol police are on our side). 4. Degree of insecurity coupled with
underlying anxiety.
Aggression
can be directed toward the frustrating agent, against another person or self.
Often the aggression is displaced anger {father or some other authority figure}
on a scapegoat. It’s so easy not to take responsibility or admit self as being
the cause of one’s problems. Therefore, find another to blame. Minorities and
parents are often blamed for the misfortune of others. If one typically uses
verbal aggression that becomes the habitual mode of action. Related, if one
anticipates minimal aggressiveness in return, that results in aggressive
reaction like in the capitol riot on the sixth and attacking a place of worship
or some other vulnerable venue.
In summary,
the United States has too many savages. In 2020, hate crime data submitted by
law enforcement agencies totaled 15,136. Of this number, almost 62% were race
or ethnicity related. The FBI stated that hate crimes reached its highest level
12 years. Not a good sign. With the Republican response to Covid 19, economic,
social and political stress and conflict levels or aggression have been
exacerbated in the milieu per hate and scapegoating. Animism, magical thinking,
omnipotence of thought continue and remain at primitive levels. Just listen to
Fox news, social media and hate radio. Sorry Ellis and Beck, Cognitive therapy,
the challenging of irrational modes of thinking appear to be in a losing
battle. Lies, conscpiriousy, and paranoia run rampant. Too many remain
emotional, thinking savages and God can’t help them.
Reference
Freud, Sigmund,
Totem and Taboo .W.W. Norton and Company
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