"Silence Equals Death" is a slogan of the gay rights movement. In conjunction with this we see the Pink Triangle. The triangle was the symbol homosexuals wore for identification under the Third Reich. Along with Jews, those with birth defects, Jehovah’s Witnesses, communist, and traitors to the State or Hitler, gays were an officially recognized category targeted for camps and death. If one were not silent, homosexuality equaled death under National Socialist rule.
The era proceeding Nazi Germany was the Weimar Republic. In history the name of the ‘Weimar Republic’ is synonymous with decadence. Perhaps you have scene the movie Cabaret. While clever songs regale decadence and social satire, public displays of sexuality provide the constant backdrop. Sexual decadence and homosexual behavior were visible, not closeted, when Hitler rose to power. Silence did not lead to death in this historical example. It is widely recognized that the backlash against public sexual decadence was a toehold upon which Hitler built his NAZI edifice.
If we consider the wisdom of Plato, the constant play between the Apollonian and the Dmonysian in Greek myth or the writings of the NAZI collaborator psychologist Carl Jung, we know that political life swings like a pendulum. When society becomes too constricted it swings back the other way and vice versa. As in managing a Keynesian economic model, you want to forestall extremes to avoid ricocheting extremes. Extreme loudness, public display, as well as the extreme silence imposed by totalitarianism have lead to persecution and death.
This is not to say that the historical oscillation being described has any merit. It is not to claim that in an ideal world public decadence would or would not be celebrated. But this culturist query is arguing that refusing to speak of trends for fear of bad feelings nor ignorance of historical forces will help us consciously guide our destiny and stay clear of the shoals. Basic knowledge helps us. It teaches that moderation leads to moderation. Neither sexual repression nor excessive public sexuality makes for stability. It is time for the sloganeers to recognize that the ‘silence equals death’ equation is false and potentially dangerous.
10 comments:
Jung was a Nazi collaborator? I studied Jung in at least three classes in HS and college and never heard of such a thing.
Amazing. But I did learn about the brain drain from Germany to the US because of Hitler's rise.
Good grief.
Very interesting post, by the way!
Ro
Ro,
I never heard that before either. I didn't hear anything about Carl Jung collaborating with the Nazis, than again I don't know much about Carl Jung, other than that he was a psychologist. Still, if true its could be important now.
Culturist John,
Could you site your source on Jung collaborating with the Nazis?
Zombies and mind-viruses. Does this remind you of a real-world scenario? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8206280.stm
Hey all,
Wikipedia debates this issue. He edited the journal of a psychotherapy journal. In 1933 it published pro Nazi statements. He recanted in 1934. But he stayed with the Journal, in Germany, publishing until 1939. At best he did not resist. He said he did it to help the fledgling science.
But think about this . . . Jung, as you all know, deals in mythic archetypes ,the irrational and the subconscious. The swastika and Hitler embodied these. His celebration of the collective unconscious during while Hitler did mass rallies does not bode well for him.
Culturist John,
I would not imagine that it would.
Yeah, I'm not sure about Jung being a Nazi collaborator. I always thought that he was sort of an anti-Nazi. He believed in the collective unconscious but he also eschewed group-think phenomena. He was arguably an apologist for it, in any event.
Anyhow, that was a great article. Silence leads to backwardness, literally. The Islamic culture is a very closed one in which shame is the main currency. Because of the severe repression there tends to be far more deviant behavior, which is then, obviously, projected onto the enemy. For instance, they say that the West exploits women and children, while they force all their women into prostitution and rent out their kids as sex toys for rich people. Their hatred of us is ultimately a hatred of themselves, and it all goes back to silence. I also know that in Islam confessing to a crime that one gets away with is regarded as worse than the commission of the crime. And it's a death-cult. So silence certainly does lead to death.
Jdamn,
Interesting comment about Islamic hypocrisy and openness.
I am not sure what the definition of collaborator is. But promulgating philosophy that could easily be construed as bolstering NAZI philosophy from 33 to 39 is not resistance! Your term 'apologist' may be more correct.
My article is somewhat troubling in reference to the gay killings in Iraq. If I get around to it, I'm going to blog about that.
Thanks all, John
The extreme opposite of 'silence=death' just occurred to me, which is the cornerstone of modern psychology: talk about your problems and they will magically disappear. I don't buy, but it's better than repression.
Having read a lot of Jung in my lifetime, I do not think he was a Nazi-apologist, or an anti-Semite.
But, what do I know?
Just stating my opinion.
Similarity in paradigms does not equal agreement in specifics.
The mythic sense of Jung's writings was, indeed, an attempt to coalesce various mental forces into one actionable physical force (as an explanation), but that is not the equivalent of insisting upon monolithic/totalitarian behavior.
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