The Kwakiutl chief in our heads, or why the majority of--

[eridani]

--our representatives really endorsed premeditated mass murder in 2003.

Among the Kwakiutl it did not matter whether a relative had died in bed of disease, or by the hand of an enemy; in either case death was an affront to be wiped out by the death of another person. A chief's sister and her daughter had gone up to Victoria and because their boat had capsized they never came back. Immediately the tribe set up the war pole to announce their intention of wiping out the injury, and gathered a war party. They set out and found seven men and two children asleep and killed them. Then they felt good when they arrived at Sebaa in the evening.

---From Anthropology and the Abnormal, by Ruth Benedict

This creepy passage has been rolling around in the back of my brain ever since someone posted it in an on-line forum. My first reaction was “What planet is Ruth Benedict from, anyway?” This tendency to extract revenge regardless of whether or not one’s victims had anything to do with the original injury seems to me to be typical of people from many different cultures all over the world. My second reaction was that the reason that the Kwakiutl seem to be so unusual is their clear, pristine, straightforward in your face honesty about their baser motivations. Since our species is easily the biggest collection of bullshitters within 30,000 light years of galactic central point, the Kwakiutl differ from the basic human norm, which is plastering these base motives over with layer upon layer of nonsense about Freedom, Justice, the Will of God, Allah, Amaterasu, whoever.

Whether masked or barefaced, the spirit of the Kwakiutl chief lives in everybody’s head as part of our basic makeup, this notion that we are owed someone else’s pain whenever we are in pain. Mostly we hold him in check. Mostly, when he threatens to cut loose, Jimmy Buffet (who also lives in everybody’s head) righteously slaps him down with a rousing chorus of “But I think, (da, da, da, da da) hell it could be my fault.” Mostly, the worst that happens is hollering at family members when we lose our car keys, or insist for a few minutes or hours that since our day got off to a really crappy start, that our families, friends and coworkers should just have crappy days too. Mostly we have the good sense to be really embarrassed and apologetic at such outbursts.

But sometimes it gets worse. Sometimes, anything bad happening to us means that we are entitled to a pile of burned, bleeding broken bodies just to make us feel better, and it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference whether any of the victims had anything to do with the original bad event. Sometimes there is road rage that leaves dead bodies at the side of the freeway, or busloads of schoolchildren blown up, or planes flown into buildings. And since 9-11, this particular Kwakiutl chief has had full and complete control of US foreign policy, and Jimmy Buffett is nothing but a girlie-man who could never be a commander in chief.

The chief must always get his dead bodies, justice be damned. This is the sole basis of such actual popular support for the war that has existed. And that’s why so many members of our congressional delegation voted for the Iraq war—at least 30% of our fellow citizens want dead and maimed bodies to get even with the universe for 9-11, and they have about as many votes as we do and a superiour GOTV apparatus.

Their grandparents probably collected picture postcards of black people being burned alive at lynchings. http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html They no longer have that outlet, and these days, they get off on executions instead. The guilt or innocence of the people being executed is utterly beside the point.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_3_63/ai_101261133

Hearing a death row. inmate's appeal, Justice Laura Stith of the Missouri Supreme Court displayed exasperated incredulity when questioning Assistant State Attorney General Frank Jung. According to a February 24, 2003, New York Times article Stith said, "Are you suggesting that even if we find Mr. Armine actually innocent, he should be executed?" Jung replied, "That's correct, your honor." A second justice, Michael Wolff, recast the question to make sure he had heard Jung's reply correctly. He asked, if DNA evidence proved a convict's innocence, should the state nonetheless execute her or him if there was no procedural error at his trial? Again, Jung said yes.

They’ve changed the founder of the religion most of them nominally claim from a man who said “If a man would take your coat, give him your cloak also” to the world’s supreme champion blood-letter.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2005/12/what_the_left_b.html

"The best thing about the Left Behind books is the way the non-Christians get their guts pulled out by God."
-- 15-year old fundamentalist fan of the Left Behind series

Fetishizing of the End Times as a spectacular gore-fest visited upon on the unbelievers is nothing new. But the sheer number of people gleefully enjoying the spectacle of their own blackest magical thinking made manifest by mass media is new. Or at least the media aspect is new. It reinforces the major appeal of these beliefs, the appeal being (to restate the obvious) that they get to pass judgment on everyone who disagrees with them, and then watch God kick the living snot out of them. It doesn’t get any better than that.

We are talking about people who get the same thrill from torture or murder that the Kwakiutl got from killing nine sleeping people. It does no good to go all rational on them, explaining that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 or that torture generally produces worthless information. The Kwakiutl killed without the typically human justificatory bullshit, but our sociopathic neighbors conform to the more common human norm. They need their beliefs about WMD really existing and Saddam working hand in hand with bin Laden. That the victims of their bloodlust be comparatively helpless is absolutely essential. They would no more want to take on Saudi Arabia or Pakistan than the Kwakiutl would have attacked a fully awake and armed hunting party.

This “conservative” base is extremely well organized, and politicians vote for war and for the obliteration of the Bill of Rights in order to appease them. They don’t want to get rid of the Kwakiutl chief in their heads--he is their reason to get up in the morning. Is it possible for the rest of us and a large enough number of the other people in the world to get the spirit of the chief under permanent control, before endless rounds of “I got you last” played out by religious crackpots of various stripes destroy everyone on earth who remains capable of empathy and self-criticism? Stay tuned—we’ll find out one way or another in less geological time than you might think.

[xchrom]

1. you've hit on one of my concerns here --

the marriage of christian right and corporatism has demanded this new cult -- ''rambo jesus'', ''warrior jesus'', or whatever you want to call it.

and they've made it fit so nicely with nativism, nationalism and racism.

of course they NEED to do this -- they are on fire to change the world -- well, to change america anyway.

this warping of our stories -- this new way of saying ''might makes right'' props up their ultimate goal -- to remake everything in their image.

[Kutjara]

2. An excellent exposition of human nature...

...and the roots of a treatise on nationalism. Historically, when our bloodthirsty species hungered for revenge, we'd butcher 'nine sleeping people' or a neighboring village. Now, we've reified individuals into nations, so that we don't have to deal with the minutiae of who actually harmed us, we can just take revenge against the country they happen to inhabit. It still amazes me that people consider themselves die-hard Britons, Germans, French or Spanish, when these identities have been imposed upon them by usurpers, invaders and dictators. Until recently, America could at least say that it's identity was one it had chosen for itself. I'm not so sure that's a boast we can make anymore.

[mcscajun]

3. K&R

:kick:

[bhikkhu]

4. Excellent article. One common error of judgment we make...

is to view the victim as "good", or assume that because an injustice has occurred the one harmed must be good, as the perpetrator must be bad. This can be seen endlessly in wars between nations, and perpetuated in the storytelling that surrounds such incidents.

Ask, for instance (if we can remove any personal judgements), what Pearl Harbor signified. The narrative is that Japan committed an act of evil, and little else need be added. By inclination, the US, as victim, attains something of a noble goodness. Now, of course, if Japan had won the war the narrative would be Japanese and we would not be looking at Pearl Harbor but some less distinct action of the US which harmed Japan, or placed it in the role of victim. It is an interesting way to look at history, shedding some light on a probably innate human tendency.