In this article, we continue exploring the insights of Dr. Carl Jung about the nature of the State, the dangers of government, and the role of religion as found in his book The Undiscovered Self. Last week, we explored Dr. Jung’s explanation of the power of religion to defy the authority of the government and how religious conviction empowers the believer to resist intellectual, moral, and political domination by the government. In this article we will build on these insights by studying what Dr. Jung says happens when the State does replace faith in the role of individuals and becomes the determiner of what is good, moral, and just.
“The State has taken the place of God; that is why, seen from this angle, the socialist dictatorships are religions and State slavery is a form of worship. But the religious function cannot be dislocated and falsified in this way without giving rise to secret doubts, which are immediately repressed so as to avoid conflict with the prevailing trend towards mass-mindedness. The result, as always in such cases, is overcompensation in the form of fanaticism, which in its turn is used as a weapon for stamping out the least flicker of opposition. Free opinion is stifled and moral decision ruthlessly suppressed, on the plea that the end justifies the means, even the vilest. The policy of the State is exalted to a creed, the leader or party boss becomes a demigod beyond good and evil, and his votaries are honored as heroes, martyrs, apostles, missionaries. There is only one truth and beside it no other. It is sacrosanct and above criticism. Anyone who thinks differently is a heretic, who, as we know from history, is threatened with all manner of unpleasant things. Only the party boss, who holds the political power in his hands, can interpret the State doctrine authentically, and he does so just as suits him.”
The Undiscovered Self, pg. 17
Here Dr. Jung gives an excellent comprehensive explanation of how the State is essentially religious in nature and function. A society that abandons the worship of God or the Gods and becomes secularized, only ends up worshipping the Government. I would only add that the State is the worst aspects of religion all consolidated into one system. Its adherents are zealous fanatics, and the mere questioning of its dogmas will earn you vicious attacks from all sides. Whereas most religions will allow you to leave in peace, every form of the State will cage and/or kill you for your apostasy, which it labels “treason.”
The State is a totalizing faith, a totalitarian faith, in that it dictates every aspect of human life and any rebelling against it is libel to be met with violence and even death. It demands the utmost obedience to the edicts of its leaders no matter how immoral, scurrilous, dehumanizing, or stupid. Just consider how crossing the road at any place other than where it gives you permission to cross can result in hundreds of dollars in fines ($500 is a huge fine when your average paycheck is between $900-$1000), jail time if you cannot pay, even imprisonment or death if you resist.
Further, the Cult of the State allows for no private interpretation of its dogmas (laws). If you try and argue that the law is wrong or their interpretation corrupt, they will still rob you (fine you), kidnap you (arrest you), cage you (imprison you), and kill you if you don’t submit. Only those who are members of its exalted positions can interpret its edicts even though they are men like any other. But they are not just ordinary men, according to the Cult of the State because their position gives them power and apparently the wisdom, to manage the lives of hundreds of millions, whereas normal men barely have the wisdom to manage their own lives and certainly no others.
The State also has its own religious rituals. But whereas the rituals of religion empower the individual, the rituals of the State destroy the individual. As Dr. Jung explains:
“The performance of a ‘magical’ action gives the person concerned a feeling of security which is absolutely essential for carrying out a decision, because a decision is inevitably somewhat one-sided and is therefore rightly felt to be a risk. Even a dictator thinks it necessary not only to accompany his acts of State with threats but to stage them with all manner of solemnities. Brass bands, flags, banners, parades and monster demonstrations are no different in principle from ecclesiastical processions, cannonades and fireworks to scare off demons.
Only, the suggestive parade of State power engenders a collective feeling of security which, unlike religious demonstrations, gives the individual no protection against his inner demonism. Hence he will cling all the more to the power of the State, i.e., to the mass, thus delivering himself up to it psychically as well as morally and putting the finishing touch to his social depotentiation. The State, like the Church, demands enthusiasm, self-sacrifice and love, and if religion requires or presupposes the ‘fear of God,’ then the dictator State takes good care to provide the necessary terror.”
The Undiscovered Self, pg. 17 (paragraphization added)
The Cult of the State is the most tyrannical, oppressive, and destructive religion of all. Its pledges, anthems, parades, and holidays are all designed to degrade the individual, to make him feel joy and fulfillment as he is subsumed into the indiscriminate whole as a member of the nation, as an “American,” or a “Frenchman,” as an “Algerian,” as a Cambodian,” etc. The doctrines of the Cult of the State demand sacrifice, human sacrifice through law enforcement and war as well as subservience and obedience. Those who refuse to make the proper offerings will have their lives destroyed and everything taken from them as they are fined, imprisoned, and killed for their disobedience. The fear of this will keep the recalcitrant in line while the rest obey out of adoration. The goal is the very destruction of the individual.
Source: https://thelatterdayliberator.com/why-the-governments-of-men-are-the-enemies-of-god/ for TheLiberator.us