by Wolfmoon Lady » Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:56 pm
BUMP AGAIN.<br><br>I wonder if folks here have thought about the bonding power of the annual 9/11 grief rituals.<br><br>In <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The Elementary Forms of Religious Life</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> (1912), sociologist Emile Durkheim conceptualized a phenomenon he called "piacular rites" - duty to the dead. These are observed phenomena which involve various kinds of wounding and self-mutilation rituals and are played out in front of entire communities as expressions of sorrow and mourning. In explaining how these rituals work, Durkheim spoke about the power of such rituals to galvanize a community toward its God. It's very difficult to criticize rituals that evoke a powerful sense of shared sorrow without seeming like a unfeeling, uncaring person. Yet, I've criticized the annual 9/11 rituals for that very reason - they reinforce the suffering and the communal need to demonize an unfeeling, evil enemy. To this audience, I don't need to state the obvious, that Bushco has thrived from the recurring shock and grief of 9/11 for 5 long years. Mitigating the power of that annual ritual is one key to unlocking the collective mind of America<br><br>Durkheim is always useful to help one make meaning. Whenever I get too confused, I go back to him and rethink what I'm seeing in terms of community rituals and how they function to reinforce bonds between people. It is enormously enlightening. In that spirit, I offer the the following paper. Author Mark Worrell uses Durkheim's concept of piacular rites to explain what he calls "paleoconservative ideology", or "Buchananism." If anyone's interested in reading it, here's the link and the abstract.<br><br>I've highlighted a certain segment at the end, on "enemy projection," that informs my hypothesis about the negative impact of 9/11 grief rituals:<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.sociology.org/content/vol004.003/buchanan.html" target="top"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Veil of Piacular Subjectivity: <br>Buchananism and the New World Order</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>Mark P. Worrell <br>Kansas City Art Institute <br>University of Kansas <br><br>Abstract<br>The structure and logic of paleoconservative ideology is critically interrogated by focusing on the economic, cultural, and political dimensions of Buchananism and locating the phenomenon within the context of post- Fordist globalization. Recurring patterns and themes are interpreted; conceptions of power are examined; significant contradictions are discussed; and an attempt is made to provide a plausible theorization of Buchananism by focusing on what Durkheim might call the "piacular" quality of this form of imagination. My aim here is to locate the "essence" of Buchananism as it is in itself and for us. Ultimately, I argue that Buchananism represents an authoritarian and ambivalent response to globalization rooted in an experience of transgressed boundaries. Buchananism, more than a simple attempt to eradicate the corrupted Other, represents a worldview that demands "self- wounding" and suffering of the faithful. I try and make a plausible case that, though Buchananism is a response to what it perceives as chaos and ambiguous; it wills the continuation of that experience as its animating force even as it calls for its eradication.<br><br>Excerpt: <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>2. Boundary Maintenance</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Buchananism suggests that regeneration, the "cleaning up of America," will best be achieved by, on the one hand, conferring authority to the strong hero and, on the other, identifying the things that foul our society and eradicating them. This is another hallmark of the authoritarian impulse. The need and demand for social renewal cultivates relations of symbiosis, dependency and demonology. As such, it is actually the will to alienation and ideology. But even as it says it wants to clean up America, Buchananism could not exist without the existence of corrupted boundaries and what it considers to be morally perverse others. To do away with the demon and to achieve social purity would be to ask Buchananism to sever its own head. This is another "secret" embodied in Buchananism and helps to illustrate its "aristocratic" quality. Demonized objects are not merely weak, disgusting, and perverse. In combination with this sense of perversity is a strong identification or admiration of the Other. These fiends are in possession of the few things Buchananism wants: solidarity, organization and power. Even though the image of the "Marxist" or "abortionist" is immoral does it not stride, like Zarathustra, across the social landscape as it defies and defiles traditional boundaries of conduct and morality? America's enemies are secretly acting in concert; they are pulling the strings and we are merely puppets being played like fools.<br><br>The link between classification and boundary maintenance with sadomasochism, the psychological starting point for authoritarianism, is therefore profound (Fromm 1941; Adorno et al 1950). A key in the Buchananist view of the world is the management of ambivalence and feelings of love and hatred. Both are idealized into discrete regions or compartments. Attempting to preserve a clearly delineated understanding of society and identity, Buchananism elaborates the Other as enemy, as something to be aggressively dealt with (Zerubavel 1991, p. 42; cf. Aho 1994). <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The production of enemies is dependent upon the energy-giving practices of the piacular rite. The "emotional state of the group" observes Durkheim, is the source of enemy projection. Just as "The dead man is not mourned because he is feared; he is feared because he is mourned" the enemy of Buchanan is not attacked because it is feared; it is feared because it is attacked (Durkheim [1912] 1995, pp. 404-5). It is this "energy-giving" aspect of Buchananism that must be further explored.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>[snippage]<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Concluding remarks (excerpt):</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Hence, while the ideas put forth by the extreme right are wrong, they are, as Durkheim would say, well founded. Their representations are grounded in reality, as they understand it. As Durkheim states, "The men who adhere to a collective representation verify it through their own experience. Thus it cannot be wholly inadequate to its object" ([1912] 1995, p. 439). Rather, the representations of the extreme right are not pure fictions but products of imaginative transfiguration (Durkheim [1912] 1995, p. 385). <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The extreme right will never be defeated by the collective laughter of liberals warming themselves by the fire of moral indignation. We must grasp the mentality of the right. To dismiss Buchananism would be to underestimate its intelligence and dimensionality and, likewise, to write Buchanan off as factually inaccurate would be to miss the point altogether</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (Woller 1999).<br><br>http://www.sociology.org/content/vol004.003/buchanan.htmlElectronic Journal of Sociology (1999) <p></p><i></i>