Dear Colleague,
In preparation for my next round of lectures, videos,
podcasts and radio broadcasts, I'm publishing what has gone before.
For ideas to become real, they need to be embraced and assimilated by others.
 I'm grateful to Howard Blood and Chad Dougatz for this wonderful conversation.
Best regards,
Richard K.
TO LISTEN TO THIS EXCITING DISCUSSION, PLEASE
SIMPLY CLICK THE ARROW DIRECTLY BELOW.

I"It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country:"

The Sacrificial Meaning of Warfare

Richard Koenigsberg on the radio with Howard Bloom & Chad Dougatz
Click the arrow below to listen to the podcast.
“What compels a group of soldiers to willingly run into a barrage of automatic weapons during World War I? How did the kamikaze pilots come to believe their actions were warranted? Blood, sacrifice and so much more are discussed in this week with special guest Richard A. Koenigsberg.”
 


Richard A. Koenigsberg is director of the Library of Social Science and author of:
 
Nations Have the Right to Kill

 Hitler's Ideology

Bloom is founder of

THE HOWARD BLOOM INSTITUTE

He is the author of:

The Muhammad Code
 
Click the links above for information on how to purchase either of the books. For information on purchasing The Muhammad Code,
click the link above
Responding to Bloom’s suggestion that violence is a bonding mechanism because killing is exhilarating and addictive, Koenigsberg suggested that humankind values war primarily as an opportunity to sacrifice for something greater than oneself. The violence of warfare is masochistic. There is an object--a sacred object--to which human beings are willing to submit--making violence meaningful and moral.

Koenigsberg reminded listeners that for the most part, soldiers involved in killing during World War I did not see their victims: they shot machine guns and artillery shells and did not have close encounters with the deaths they caused. Soldiers were not motivated by visceral enjoyment of bloodshed.

Invoking Horace’s phrase, “It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country,” Koenigsberg suggested that sacrificial ideology is at the “core of Western civilization.” 

When societies wage war, there is usually something in the name of which people kill and die—the worship of a sacred object that justifies the enterprise.

For Hitler it was Germany; for the Aztecs it was the Sun God; for George W. Bush it was freedom & democracy; for martyrs in the Middle East, it is Allah. Sacrifice is a bonding mechanism that validates the entity for which the sacrifice is made.

Koenigsberg explained how Japan’s 1905 victory in the Russo-Japanese War influenced European military strategists in World War I. They admired the Japanese soldiers’ spiritual willingness to give their lives. Japanese leaders explained to their soldiers that the goal of entering battle, was not necessarily to "win," but to have the honor of sacrificing their lives. Willingness to die for the Emperor was ingrained; an absolute. The rallies Hitler conducted to generate a frenzy of nationalistic enthusiasm was not necessary in Japan.

Koenigsberg suggested that Westerners have the illusion that they are rational because they no longer die for religion. But we still have an object that we religiously worship: the nation.