Viewing the World Through the Smoke of Wars

Back to Freud Again
"One instance of an innate and ineradicable inequality of men is their tendency to fall into the two classes of leaders and followers. The latter constitute the vast majority; they stand in need of an authority which will make decisions and to which they for the most part offer an unqualified submission."

Sigmund Freud, Character and Culture, "Why War?" Macmillan, 1963.


"OK, Herr Doktor, that's pretty well understood. What's your point?"

Freud offers a solution to the problem of the true believer:
"This suggests that more care should be taken than hitherto to educate an upper stratum of men with independent minds, not open to intimidation and eager in the pursuit of truth, whose business it would be to give direction to the dependent masses."

"But, Herr Doktor, in the US, that kind of leader is subject to probable assassination."

Freud goes on:
"It goes without saying that the encroachments made by the executive power of the State and the prohibition laid by the Church upon freedom of thought are far from propitious for the production of a class of this kind. The ideal condition of things would of course be a community of men who had subordinated their instinctual life to the dictatorship of reason."

"Herr Doktor, perhaps true believers don't want to hear truths--maybe they prefer a fable to the truth. There is sometimes no salvation in the truth."

Freud continues:
"Nothing else could unite men so completely and so tenaciously, even if there were no emotional ties between them."

"Sounds good, Herr Doktor, but how realizable is it?"

Freud:
"But in all probability that is a Utopian expectation. No doubt the other indirect methods of preventing war are more practicable, though they promise no rapid success. An unpleasant picture comes to one's mind of mills that grind so slowly that people may starve before they get their flour."

Freud goes on to say that's the best he can do as an "unworldly theoretician."

There is more to this little essay. It's well worth consuming in a continuous present that may appear as soon as tomorrow. Who knows? The Shadow sure doesn't

c'estlaviewrangler
for The Daily Growler

The Daily Growler Sports in Review With Marvelous Marv Backbiter
I just turned off the Yankee-Toronto game. I couldn't take it. Joe Torre is killing me using these Double A bozo pitchers--minor leaguers and he's in a pennant race now whether he likes it or not. As a result of their regular pitching staff being totally unreliable and Joe's insisting on giving these minor leaguers major league tryouts, the Yankees have fallen from 12 up to being only 9.5 games up on Boston who also due to lousy pitching--except against the Yankees this round--are pretty close to getting beat out of second place by the Toronto Blue Jays if they aren't careful.

I have to trust Joe. He's the best damn manager going in baseball now. If he wins the American League championship this year he will pass Casey Stengel as winning the most pennants as a Yankee manager--and that includes some of the greatest managers ever, including Bill Dickey and old Joe McCarthy. I turn the radio back on. It's the bottom of the ninth, Toronto is at bat, the most sure bum of the Yankee relievers, Vallone, is pitching--he's just given up two straight hits. Gauss is coming up for the Blue Jays. Joe takes Vallone out and puts the cheesiest sorriest reliever on the Yanks in, this Dotel dude. The score: Yankees 7, Toronto 3. Jeter and A-Rod hit homeruns in the top of the 9th to put the Yanks on top by 4. An easy win, right?

So, here's Dotel. Facing Gauss with two on, one out--so what happens? You have three guesses and, of course, two don't count. Yep, you guessed it, the bat went BAM, and then thar she goes! A 3-run homerun. Holy Shit. See what I mean? Now, it's suddenly 7-6.

Mike Meyers comes in. He gets a pop-up out. Two away. Then boom! The ex-Red Sox bum gives up a single. Now the winning run is coming to the plate. Joe brings in another pitcher!

Hell, the Yankees have won the Eastern division. It's just this is an example of what us Yankees fans have gone through all year; it's hard for us to believe the Yankees at .601 are the best team in baseball. There are 11 games left, so there's no way Boston's gonna come from 9 and 1/2 games behind now--just no way; so we're in the playoffs--but the Yankee relievers--HOLY HELL what a scary bunch.

So here we go, bottom of the ninth, 2 outs, runner on first, winning run at the plate. Joe brings in this bum Vieres. Who? Yep, I don't even know how to spell his name.

Vieres pitches...BANG, it's a high fly ball to left field...Cabrera goes back, camps, catches it, and THE YANKEES WIN 7-6. I'm sweating like a dog. God, the playoffs are going to be holy hell, but dammit, I can just taste the Subway Series that's coming--Yankees and Mets. Wow, it's just too unbelieveable to be true.

Both New York teams, by the bye, are being built state-of-the-art new stadiums by the people of the City of New York, who in their generosity are giving away monies and concessions to the no-tax-paying owners; anything to these owner crooks, anything they want from these same schmoes who love baseball so much and expect the best baseball to reside right here in the Big Apple, now with both the Mets and the Yankees going into the final horserace, the slugfest that will take both NYC teams to the Series.

The Yankees and the Mets combined will play before nearly 8 million people at home this year. THAT, FOLKS, IS AN AMAZING STATISTIC! Think of that! That kind of team support and we still have to build these rich-boy assholes their stadiums and then give away all the concession rights and television rights and hell even ownership of these stadiums. It is the money side of baseball that is so crooked; that's the shame of baseball. Why not players from the cities they represent? Wouldn't that be fun? The Mets can clinch their division tonight. Go Mets.

marvelousmarvbackbiter
for The Daily Growler