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THE
SOCIAL
ENEMY
WITHIN
By Fintan Dunne
eIoNews.com
2nd November '01
General
Jack D. Ripper Commie Hater.
Kubrick's 1964 film: Dr. Strangelove
Ripper: "Its incredibly obvious isn't
it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids
without the knowledge of the individual. That's the way your hard-core
Commie works."
In
Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove, the
paranoia of General Ripper about foreign substance in his bodily fluids
seems uncannily prophetic.
Twenty years later scientist Robert Gallo confirmed Ripper's suspicions: a
foreign substance called HIV had indeed been introduced into our bodily
fluids- not by 'Commies' - but by 'Sex'.
General Ripper is torn between an external "Commie" enemy,
and a suspected internal enemy in his bodily fluids. Today we are
encouraged to face another looming enemy -this time it's Islam. Let's look
at some of the social psychology of all this.
TO BE or NOT TO BE
The primal motivation behind all paranoia is fear of death itself.
The inherent dualism of life presents contradictions between day and night,
left and right, male and female etc. Our psyche is most aware of the
dualism ME and NOT ME. Followed by: LIFE and NOT LIFE.
In human psychology we equate the dualism of ME and NOT ME with that
of LIFE and NOT LIFE.
If I need to assert ME, it probably comes at the expense of all that is NOT
ME -especially YOU! Existence is a life and death struggle.
Just watch two four year-olds grapple over a toy. "ME" says the
first child. "No...ME!" counters the second. All things being
equal they could battle eternally over that toy.
But the infant won't stay a 'dualist' (or duelist!)
forever. Soon the rough and tumble of the school playground will turn our
dualist into a pluralist. From the dualism of the 'one,' the child
progresses to the pluralism of the 'many.'
FROM PROJECTION
TO INTROJECTION
In fact, that movement to the 'many' is the process our world
society has been going through since the pluralist revolution of the
1960's.
The communications revolution which followed made us aware that 'Commies'
are just people too. We became increasingly aware of those who are 'NOT US'
and who think differently to 'US'.
This is how the 'social mind' grows up. Although composed of adult
members, the social mind is but an infant: nations
battle over territory like infants warring over toys. It is depressing to
realize that the collective mind lags so far behind the developmental
capacity of the individuals of which it is composed.
But eventually, the social mind- like the infant,
learns to communicate. Like a growing child, the 'Nation' or group becomes
more aware of the diverse world around it. This thrust has been mirrored by
the growth of the Internet.
However, this development deeply challenges the methods by which the
individual/group psyche copes with death fears. Before, the classic means
was to project all fears of the enemy (NOT US = DEATH) outwards onto other
groups. Now, because of growing awareness, these projections no longer work
so well. If we cannot 'dump' our death fears elsewhere- where will they go?
They go inwards. We have to adsorb the fears- introjecting
them rather than projecting. The group comes to realize that it is WE who
are our own worst enemies- not some OTHERS. Now the enemy is not
without: the enemy is within.
Furthermore, that blurring of the boundaries between ME and NOT ME me produces a psychological momentum which threatened
both group and individual psyches.
If interpersonal boundaries fall, where will we end up? Dancing naked as in
Woodstock?
Shock. Horror. We still need our psychological clothes and we hesitate to
shed them.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is quoted answering this question: "On
what day will the Kingdom
of Heaven
arrive?" With this answer: "On the day that you trample your
clothes into the ground." Deeply threatening to the puritan complex
that has reared it's head in the USA
before --during prohibition, McCarthyism, jogging and health crazes, etc..
THE ENEMY WITHIN
All the dynamics required for the regressive AIDS hysteria were in
place by 1984- a symbolically appropriate year: Big Brother represents all
the parental influences the social infant is attempting to outgrow.
The temptation to run back to Big Mommy or Big Daddy to avoid the
threatening world outside, was strong - perhaps
inevitable.
The AIDS hysteria erupted because:
1) The internalization of the 'enemy' was
satisfied by finding a threatening enemy within the individual body: The
HIV virus.
2) The internalization of the 'enemy' was
further satisfied by finding a threatening enemy within the group body: the
alleged carriers of the virus --homosexuals, drug users and 'naked' sexual
hedonists.
3) The hysteria relieved the pressures of the thrust towards
openness by encouraging isolation instead. An obsessive fear of
contamination is found in individual neurosis- now this erupted in the
group mind.
Interesting too that the AIDS theory was announced in the U.S.-
perhaps the most culturally introspective nation in the world. It is more
than a little coincidental that the initials "US"
form the word "US"
--the primal group.
And now the internalized AIDS enemy is being
supplemented with another Islamic enemy -as threatening as the previous
"commie" was perceived to be.
How do we become entrapped by this enemy hysteria? Surely a rational
media should should be
our best defense. And how did Science become the
tool of the regressive AIDS hysteria? Is not Science the defender of truth
against superstitious hysteria?
IRRATIONAL RATIONALITY
When General Ripper first came up with his "foreign
substances" theory he immediately felt it was "incredibly
obvious." This feeling of an idea so perfectly answering all questions
is a hallmark of psychotic delusion.
The paranoiac feels deep relief that at last he understands why his life is
a mess: Martians posing as humans have been thwarting him all along! This
explains everything!
The same delusional dynamic drove the assertion by the 'discoverer'
of HIV, Robert Gallo and the scientists who followed in his footsteps.
There were of course many other possible hypotheses to explain the
circumstances of the diseases that were affecting gay men in the early eighties.
Dissenting scientists have struggled to find acceptance for these
alternative ideas. But alternative explanations lack the emotional impetus
that has hypnotized both the scientific establishment and the public. The
'virus' theory satisfies psychological needs and wins out.
Blanket scientific objectivity is a myth. The God of Logic is
subject to personal bias and the whims of the infantile social mind. Every
scientist is first a social animal --to an extent determined by his or her
own psychological maturity. Science is also pragmatically governed by
economic factors that are in turn driven essentially by social dynamics.
In any event, scientific medicine traditionally sees treatment as a war
waged on the battleground of the patient's body. David Ho advised launching
a preemptive strike against the virus. Much of
our 'rational' medicine is merely militaristic nonsense.
The same "hit 'em early- hit 'em hard" theory was favored by hawks among the Cold War military and is
also prominent in our response to the Islamic "threat".
CYCLES OF FEAR
There is some light at the end of the tunnel. First, just like any
child, the social infant must eventually grow up. That is inevitable and
evolutionary. Second, there is a cyclic pattern to these regressive social
movements.
The 'Roaring Twenties' were followed by economic depression and
eventually war in the 1930's. The subsequent 'baby boom' led to the
spiritual Sixties- only to founder in the materialistic Eighties and
Nineties.
The prison population in the US has
risen dramatically- abortion statistics rose too (the opposite of a baby
boom). All were indications of a war against the enemy within. The tensions
of the approaching millennium accentuated this drift.
But once through the millennial barrier, a thousand years of future offers
another upswing, even though a coherent vision about that future has yet to
emerge. And right now the fear dynamic still holds.
However, some 'social infants' are determined to scrap the parental
power of government, medical and scientific institutions. This goal is even
embraced by some enlightened thinkers within governments themselves -not
just by a few fringe anarchists. Some of us are keen to embrace the
challenges of growing up.
Copyright © 2001 Fintan Dunne. eIoNews.com.
Reproduce entirely and non-commercially only
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Dr. Strangelove
Or:
How
I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb,
( the virus and the hordes of Islam.)
1964
General Jack D. Ripper
Commie Hater.
In Stanley Kubrick's
1964 film: Dr. Strangelove
Ripper:
"Its incredibly obvious isn't it?"
"A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without
the knowledge of the individual. That's the way your hard-core Commie
works"
Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen, tell me, tell
me, Jack. When did you first...become...well, develop this theory?
Ripper: Well, I, uh... I... I... first became aware of it, Mandrake,
during the physical act of love.
Mandrake: Hmm.
Ripper: Yes, a uh, a profound sense of
fatigue...a feeling of emptiness followed.
Luckily I... I was able to interpret these feelings correctly.
Loss of essence.
Mandrake: Hmm.
Ripper: I can assure you that it has not recurred, Mandrake.
Women uh...women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I do not
avoid women, Mandrake.
Mandrake: No.
Ripper: But I... I do deny them my essence.
SCENE
2
General Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of
water?
Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have.
Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
Mandrake: Well, I -- I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.
Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not
without good reason.
Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can't quite
see what you're getting at, Jack.
Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water.
Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth's
surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?
Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!
Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to
replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake: Yes.
(he begins to chuckle nervously)
Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Mandrake: Yes. (more laughter)
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only
distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation.
Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I -- I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously
conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
Mandrake: Do I look all rancid and clotted? You look at me, Jack.
Eh?
Look, eh?
And I drink a lot of water, you know. I'm what you might call a water man,
Jack - that's what I am.
And I can swear to you, my boy, swear to you, that there's nothing wrong
with my bodily fluids.
Not a thing, Jackie.
1984
"When it comes to infections, we don't accept a little bit of positive
blood cultures. Infectious disease has taught us for years-
you treat it early and you treat it at the outset with everything you've
got"
Dr. David Ho,
Virus Hunter
"Hit 'em Hard" AIDS strategist, in 1996
2001
 "We are going to disrupt these people through preemptive attack ... at selected points and times they
will be killed suddenly, in significant numbers, and without warning. ...
We will find their money and freeze it. We will arrest their front agents.
If we can find out how they eat, or play or receive rewards, or where they
sleep -- we will go there and kill them by surprise."
Former Clinton
administration drug czar, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, in a letter
on terrorists to a cadet.
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