Re: Does EJ advocated a World Government?

[Gerd Groenewold <venator@win.bright.net>]

Hello Juenger list people,

I don't often post to this list, but heck, I better add something before
I become a complete list parasite...

Olaf Schroeter wrote:
> 
> Hello there Carlos, and everybody else,
> 
> > I must admit this is my second disappointment with Juenger.
> > The first one was his support of the Greens (and all of that
> > New Age bullshit). Maybe a by-product
> > of his old age.
> >
> > Carlos Mancini
> 
> I'm not at all sure how to phrase this properly: I'm not out to offend
> anyone and I certainly don't want to start a flame war.
> 
> But: I certainly think that you have no right to be disappointed by
> Juenger because he doesn't voice your exact opinions. That Juenger
> never has supported the Greens in any way, only had come to a few
> of the same conclusions, is beside the point.
> 
> Juenger will never be the figurehead for any one political thought or
> movement or whatever. People have tried to make him into just that
> (Hitler and Goebbels among them) but he never ever went for it.
> 
> What makes Juenger so fascinating is the very bandwidth (if that's
> the right word) of his thoughts. There are parts in his Werke that I
> (who if anything would consider himself "left of the middle"
> whatever that means) could never accept as part of my thinking
> (Kampf als Inneres Erlebnis for example) but which I consider an
> essential part of the whole Juenger. Parts of "Strahlungen" (the pieces
> about the death of his son among many) are the exact opposite,
> without contradicting himself. Juenger's Werk should never be read
> as the Gospel, it simply isn't meant that way and it won't work (as
> you, Carlos, have just found out). That doesn't diminish his rank as a
> writer, thinker and, foremost, human being in the slightest.
> 

Thank you for saying this so well.  

A while back someone posted a quote from Juenger to this list where he
stated the he was neither left nor right, and certainly not in the
middle.  This is to say, he was not (at least in the latter part of his
life) political.  To attempt to box Juenger into any part of the
political spectrum is a mistake.  Indeed, in _The Details of Time_ I
seem to remember him saying something to the effect of that he would
rather be a map than merely a sign pointing the way.

I, personally, find very little in Juenger's work that I can truly say I
disagree with when I look at it in its historical context and when I
look to see what he is saying beneath the surface.  When he talks about
a world state, to go to our example here, he is not, in fact, talking
about the UN as it exists.  When he talks about his affinities for
certain parts of the ideas of the Greens, this is not to say he would be
doing handstands in front of his house in joy now that Germany has a
ruling Social-Democrat/Green coalition.  In fact, I seriously doubt he
would be happy with things as they stand, at least not any happier than
he was with things as they stood before.  But then, he was not a
political pundit, nor a politician.  In attempting to limit him to these
things, we are missing quite a bit of what actually makes Juenger worth
reading.

> So, and this goes out to Bertil, it is better (to my opinion) that Juenger
> shouldn't feature at Weimar (he doesn't have any connections to the
> city that I would be aware of anyway, and as for the Republik,
> well...), because which Juenger, so to speak, would it be. I think that
> Juenger is (thankfully) still a long way from being Goetheized.
> 

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the purpose of a European cultural
capitol, but while Juenger is certainly not immediately associated with
Weimar, it is quite wrong not to see him as a European cultural figure. 
Indeed, it goes without saying he is even a German cultural figure.  As
far as his connections to the Republik, I don't see how that would
necessarily say anything about whether he should be there, after all, I
was lead to believe that the days of art in service to the state were
ended...well, maybe not, but we can pretend ignorance, can't we?  As to
which Juenger, I guess I see there being only one, one who evolved in
life quite a bit and who shared in the inconsistancies that any human
will exhibit, but still only one Ernst Juenger.  Although I would be
lying not to admit that I am one of those people who should be seen more
as a "fan" (for dire want of a better word) than an unbiased scholar of
Juenger, or even as much of a scholar at all, even I believe that it is
doing a misservice to try to whitewash his life, leaving out the
controversial or ugly parts.  There is a great deal about Juenger that
goes against the grain of conventional wisdom, political correctness,
etc. as well as against the grain of the ideologies of those who would
typically be on the other side of the fence.  The value I find in
Juenger comes from this wide "bandwidth," as you have said.  Now, I
don't know, maybe this whole European Cultural Capitol thing is BS, in
which case I would suspect that at best if Juenger is included he will
be chopped up, and it would be better were he not there, but if it is
anything like what its name should indicate, then he surely does belong
there, if there is any possibility of doing him some kind of justice.

> So, again, I don't want to offend anyone, but don't blame Juenger for
> not sharing your opinions, share his, wherever you feel that he's right
> and don't, if you think you know better.
> 
> Greetings from a siberian Berlin
> 
> have nice Sundays the world over
> 
> Olaf

Having a pretty good Sunday in a Wisconsin where it seems more like late
September than late November.

GERD