Posted on 02/11/2003 8:57:29 AM PST by tictoc
Driven by fear of failure, strengthened by fundamentalist religious delusion: George Bush is obsessed with conducting an even better war than his father, according to psychoanalyst and theologian Eugen Drewermann. In his interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Germany's most controversial critic of the church takes apart the US president's psyche.
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Drewermann: His rhetoric betrays his attempts to win over the public to his ideas of how to exercise power, in particular the monumental possibilities of a crusade against evil.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What are the consequences of separating mankind into Good and Evil?
Drewermann: Such a bipolar view of history is extraordinarily dangerous, and psychologically practically blind. The myths of Persian dualism are used to justify absolute unscrupulousness. Doesn't he realize that everything he calls evil has long since been incorporated into his own actions?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you really intend to equate Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush?
Drewermann: If, like Bush, you fight terrorism, you only multiply misery. Americans should set an example of effective disarmament for the world, and they should use the vast sums of money that they are investing in war to fight the causes of war. The United States has just reduced its spending to reduce poverty in the world to 1.7 billion dollars. That is less than what they spend on the military in two days.
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Drewermann: He who reads the New Testament to mandate a preventive war, and he who uses the sermon on the mount to legitimize gratuitously killing hundreds of thousands, either has not understood Christianity or is running away from it by leaps and bounds. You cannot have corpses littering your path if you want to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: If that is so, why is Bush using religious language?
Drewermann: It is being done in order to win the votes from America's Bible Belt. They are religious and hold the balance of power. It has become commonplace for presidents to affect an aura of having been chosen by G-d. This is related to the portrayal of the U.S. as "G-d's own country". People there live in the delusion that they, as a magnificent nation, were specially appointed by G-d to direct the course of world events.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Does this explain the intolerance of the American administration for the German stance in the Iraq conflict?
Drewermann: Bush transfers the religious claim of totality to goals having to do with power politics, geostrategy, and economics. That explains his stance: You are with us or against us. It also explains the incredible hubris with which Bush refuses to shake hands with a chancellor who does not respond like a dog to his every beck and call. One can only be frightened at such a chauvinistic, pseudo-religious claim to total beatitude.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is Bush alone responsible for this stance of the U.S. administration?
Drewermann: In a certain sense Bush is a victim of a mental attitude that runs extraordinarily deep among Protestants, the political right, and fundamentalists with a Christian background. Moreover, he has surrounded himself with cabinet ministers dating back to his father's Gulf war. [...]
SPIEGEL ONLINE: If indeed fundamentalist positions fall on fertile ground with Bush, what is his psychological makeup?
Drewermann: From a psychoanalytical point of view we can assume that the basis religious attitude follows the internalized values of the parents. [...]
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you really telling us that Bush's policy on Iraq is a synthesis of a "father complex" and religious fundamentalism?
Drewermann: The religious component may be connected with the termination of his alcoholism problem
[...]
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is there any hope that the president can free himself of this psychological mess?
Drewermann: You would have to talk to the potential opponent -- Iraq -- and together look for ways out of the crisis. The Europeans are trying to do that. However, Bush feels that he alone possesses wisdom and power, and he defies the world. He is a well-trained puppet of the Pentagon and the oil industry.
[...] SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you see any difference in the fact that the U.S. has a democratic constution, while Iraq is ruled by a dictator?
Drewermann: This difference is becoming ever more irrelevant. In the U.S. you can buy power. The result is that now Bush has to pay homage to the interests of the arms industry and oil industry, who financed him. In the United States there is no democracy, only a plutocracy (plutocracy: rule of the richest - tictoc). Campaigns are a content-free propaganda show. A large part of the American electorate does not even vote in presidential elections.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah mother's breast blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah father figure blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPIEGEL ONLINE:Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah psychotic blah blah blah blah blah blah blah berzerk blah blah blah blah blah. However, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Freud?
Drewermann: Blah. {Laughs}
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah. Indeed, blah blah Freud blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah childhood trauma blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Blah blah blah blah?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah, psychoanalysis blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah................blah blah blah blah blah blah blah..........and furthermore, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!!!!!!!
Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, father and son, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPIEGEL ONLINE:Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah medication?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah. Nevertheless, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPIEGEL ONLINE:Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah blah blah! Blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah:
1) Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah;
2) Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah;
3) Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah? Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah? Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!!!!!!!!!!!
SPIEGEL ONLINE:Blah?
Drewermann: Blah!
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?
Drewermann: Blah blah blah bipolar disorder!!!
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Blah, blah
If you think like this psychoanalyst, you must believe that Hitler did not multiply misery. My vote is still for Bush.
At last - a translation that perfectly captures all the valuable content of this interview. Two thumbs way up for the good doctor... ;)
We are going to disarm. We have to. There is no other choice.
We disarmed Afghanistan. We're about to disarm Iraq. North Korea may be next. Yep, America, helping make the world a safer place by taking sharp objects from people who can't handle them safely.
Not that we'd disarm ourselves. Anyone who advocates that forgets what kind of neighborhood we live in.
Drewermann: You would have to talk to the potential opponent -- Iraq -- and together look for ways out of the crisis. The Europeans are trying to do that. However, Bush feels that he alone possesses wisdom and power, and he defies the world. He is a well-trained puppet of the Pentagon and the oil industry.
I was able to read up to about this point before my brain, in a desperate act of self preservation, disconnected itself, curled my body up into a ball, and rolled it onto the floor to get it away from the computer screen.
I'm usually a strong advocate of 'know your enemy' but in this case, I'll just chalk them up as 'totally nuts' and let it go at that.
Drewermann: You would have to talk to the potential opponent -- Iraq -- and together look for ways out of the crisis. The Europeans are trying to do that. However, Bush feels that he alone possesses wisdom and power, and he defies the world. He is a well-trained puppet of the Pentagon and the oil industry.
There are people that believe this rubbish. LOL! Free himself indeed, like you did Drewermann, with a 2 liter jug of LSD?
If Time or Newsweek were to do an interview with Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore or some such loon, do you think 61% of their readers would agree that their rantings are Profound and Correct, and only 5% would vote for Entirely False and Dangerous?
Granted, online polls are not scientific (a representative poll of the general population would break down differently). But I live here, folks. I have met many -- too many -- people who sincerely believe that Drewermann, or younger versions of him, are Profound and Correct thinkers.
Argue with them, appeal to their reason and sense of what is right? I try... But it's like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". You look them in the eye, and there is a frightening sense of "nobody home"... you have met a brainwashed person.
The French, in some respects, are worse. Their unparalleled cynicism enables them to switch positions at the drop of a hat. Anything's fair, as long as it benefits the greater glory of la France. But at least they're pragmatic enough to switch horses when they no longer see a chance of getting ahead.
The Germans, on the other hand, sincerely believe they are morally upright, and that their history of Nazism obligates -- nay, entitles -- them to hold court over U.S. "imperialism".
(See Henryk M. Broder's article "Your wonderful capacity to endlös conflicts" and the ensuing FreeRepublic discussion for more background.)
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