ernst jünger in cyberspace

mailing list archive - Re: SV: [ejlist] Venice Biennale

-- [ From: e-ensign * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --

richard_al@csi.com wrote:

>Unfortunately I'm not the richard of Wilflingen.

Well, I'm the Richard of Wilflingen. 

>The serbian people who contest with a target on them are imho >objective
jungerians.

To me they're fools. They lack not only an understanding of the highly
complex political and military situation, which to some extent is
understandable because they're fed by a state-controlled propaganda
machinery. What's more important: they behave in a way that is diametrically
opposed to everything Juenger wrote about war, civil war and the role of the
individual therein.    

For example, on June 14th, 1942 Juenger wrote (albeit in a different context
): 

>>Das sind Naturen, die noch nicht wissen, dass die Zeiten der Diskussion
vorueber sind. Auch setzen sie beim Gegner Sinn fuer Humor voraus. So
gleichen sie Kindern, die Faehnchen schwingend in Gewaessern, in denen
Haifische schwimmen, baden gehen. Sie machen sich kenntlicher.<<

No "anarch" would ever stand on a bridge to voice his protest in public.
When you say ...

>I 'd like to underline the bring of the EJ works in this affair.

... then we should perhaps sort out first which works are the most relevant
in our context. Are we talking about the Ernst Juenger of the 1920s - a
nationalist fanatic, who - as John has pointed out - turned the cult of the
nation into some sort of ersatz religion? The chauvinistic hardliners in
Serbia would surely prefer the Juenger of this period. Or do we turn to the
Juenger of later decades, who wrote books like "Der Weltstaat"?

>>I should mention, that I also wrote a book with the title The World State.
There are things in there that the Greens would also have to approve of, for
example that in a world state the borders would fall away, but the familiar
local surroundings would remain, would bloom.<<  (Juenger in a 1982
interview with Der Spiegel)

In 1993, in his Venice Biennale essay "Gestaltwandel," Juenger  affirmed
once more the emerging world state (which, at least in its initial phases,
cannot be but dominated by America and the West in general). In a passage of
"Gestaltwandel" he commented specifically on the changing role of the
military: 

>>Not even the world state will succeed in abolishing violence, which is a
part of creation. War will take the form of a policing operation, on a
smaller or larger scale. Since the state will have a monopoly on nuclear
weapons, insurrection will be pointless, but terrorism will increase.<<

However, Juenger was in no way an Atlanticist. But he always accepted
existing facts and powers and after the outbreak of WWII 
he became highly sceptical of all overt forms of "resistance," especially if
they were motivated by pure nationalism.

>In spite of the fact my grand-father, an officer in the Royale (french
>navy) took place in the help and saving of the serbian army in >Corfou in
WW1, I 'd like to underline the bring of the EJ works in >this affair.

That's one of the main problems in this whole affair: that some people
prefer to live either in 1389 or 1914, but not in 1999. 

>What would we say if, for one reason or another , Corsican people >where
forced to be concentrated in the Elbe Island, and then an >orwellian
organisation decided to bombard the Concord Place, the >Pont Neuf, some
bridges in Lyon (many bridges in this two-river >town) ... 

What would we say? I would say that you miss the point. If there's an
>>orwellian organisation<< here, it's located in Belgrade. 

>The medias tell us and them a cartoonist story, a comic strip with a >very
dangerous wolf on one hand, and a lot of miserable and gentle >people on the
other. 

The situation is of course more complicated. It is, for instance, highly
problematic that German fighter planes are participating in the raids on
Belgrade. But let's face it: Milosevic, Arkan et al. have pushed their luck
too far this time. And now they - and with them unfortunately the whole
people of Serbia - are paying the price. Not only for Kosovo, but for having
fooled the West in Bosnia as well. 

Regards,
RBR 


Markup © John King, 2008. Web archive generated Tue, 21st August 2007.