Dear listmembers, Guenther has kindly allowed me to post his comments on the latest installment of my article on Ernst Juenger and Indian-Chinese titanism. I hope to continue as soon as possible with an installment on Chinese titanism. I think there is much to Guenther's views. Of course there is a positive side to progress, but we must accept that there are also inherent dangers in sectors like nuclear power, biotechnics, and in the developing computer technology. If we think about and prepare for the dangers we=20 are better equipped to deal with catastrophies that occur. Views are welcome. EJs writings are often a clue to our times and every time I open one of his books I find something new and fascinating. It is my opinion unfortunate that much of the discussion in later years on EJ is focusing in his short period as a 'radical=20 conservative' and often his postwar writings are forgotten. Let us keep the vitality of this fine list. For me personally it has given me very much. It has been an inspiration to continue to read and deepen the analysis of this great, perhaps the greatest, of 20th century German authors. Juengerian greetings Bertil Haggman "I have read your essay on titanism, indeed a correct=20 and fair presentation of EJ's views. The Sri Aurobindo=20 material was new to me; I can very well understand=20 that the late EJ looked with sympathy at a figure with=20 such intense spiritual aspirations.=20 At the same time I find myself still reluctant to join the=20 titanism discussion. I can accept titanism as you define=20 it, "as metaphor for powers that threaten the=20 earth and mankind". But the term implies also that modern=20 man in general, or at least the engineers or scientists or=20 believers in progress, must be labeled the titans. And at=20 this point I find the term similarly misleading as the metaphor of=20 the Schere in that book. The term titans, to my mind, does=20 not successfully carry the implications of the role of helpless=20 victims of higher forces that we are at least as much as we=20 may be titans. EJ used several times the image of the train=20 speeding towards the abyss for illustrating that aspect of=20 mankind being the victim of the forces of technology that=20 it unleashed but cannot control any more like the sorcerer's=20 apprentice. Titans on a train racing towards the final=20 catastrophe? To my mind, EJ's image of the titans lacks=20 this ironic or even pathetic ingredient. This is why I hesitate=20 to use it in my personal attempt to understand what is going=20 on in this modern world.=20 Just an example from modern economics. In times of Soziale=20 Marktwirtschaft and of the golden age of the Swedish welfare=20 state we had reasons to believe that the forces of economy=20 were finally under control. Brecht seemed to be right when even=20 at the time of the Great Depression in the name of socialism he=20 ridiculed and tried to unmask as ideology the fatalist view: Unverr=FCckbar =FCber uns=20 Stehen die Gesetze der Wirtschaft, unbekannte, Wiederkehren in furchtbaren Zyklen Katastrophen der Natur! However, at the turn of the millennium the millions around the=20 globe that are being thrown year by year into perpetual misery=20 by the new global capitalism will certainly refuse to be likened=20 to titans. For them the laws of economy must seem=20 indeed to be unverr=FCckbar, and to result inevitably in catastrophes=20 hardly different from those of nature. Even if Bill Gates believes=20 he is a titan he looks to me like a lucky shipwrecked one riding=20 the crest of a particularly high=20 wave rolling towards the maelstrom. "
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