Zealots, Zedniks and the Zeitgeist: who’s to blame?

We say “never again” and yet wars continue. The Ukraine War may be most shocking to the West, as we watch cities not so different from our own get flattened by invaders hell-bent on domination, but it is not the first destructive war since WW2… why does this keep happening? Who is to blame?

The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung foresaw the death and destruction that World War 2 would bring fairly early, in 1936, and in 1946 he wrote an essay about the causes of the madness that gripped Germany. He blamed Hitler — yes — but not only Hitler:

“When I saw him with my own eyes, he suggested a psychotic scarecrow (with a broomstick for an outstretched arm) … the German people would never have been taken in and carried away so completely if this figure had not been a reflected image of the collective German hysteria.”

He called this hysteria the “zeitgeist”, the spirit of the time. Hitler’s persona fit the archetype of the mad war-god Wotan, and lit hellfire in German’s souls.

Now we once again observe a nation gripped by hysteria — the Russian Federation. Embodied in the Z movement, the “zedniks” have often been compared with the fascists of Nazi Germany. They display a similar fervor, irrationality, aversion to facts, clinging to one insane idea after another (American biolabs in Ukraine… America plotting an invasion… When it took 18 months of war for us to provide even the most rudimentary aircraft to Ukraine?). And once again, a mediocre, even hysterical leader is somehow elevated to demi-god status. The very reason Putin was promoted by the oligarchs is he met a deep Russian hero archetype — Stierlitz, the NKVD (early KGB) spy, the most beloved figure of the 20th century… Once again, a madman fits, like a glove, onto a nation.

Who could have stopped these wars? Putin could have stopped his war, and perhaps Hitler could have, too, but from what we know about these two, such a suggestion seems laughable. Hitler and Putin are no moral giants. They are not capable of making tough decisions which run contrary to the spirit of the times. They are only endowed with a certain cunning which enables them to identify embody the archetype — but they have no capacity to reflect on the destruction they cause — and even if they once did, it is certainly erased by the glare of the spotlight.

We don’t have to look far to find the zeitgeist and the zealots at work. Nor should we — we should always seek out the evil that lurk close by.

I remember the run-up to the Iraq War it like it was yesterday. A river of people marching through the streets of New York, marching against the march to war. I remember seeing Amy Goodman from DemocracyNow! at the march, and I remember a feeling of hopelessness, as if the war had already begun and all this was futile: such was my certainty that the majority were either under the spell of the zeitgeist or hiding away.

The country was in no mood to march. The march was not actually sanctioned by New York City; some arrests were made. As usual in these cases, there are enough people to march, not enough to turn the tide. The people at the march knew what they were doing, and were correct in their observations, for example:

“Iraq is ruled by an oppressive but secular dictatorship,” said Mary Harron of Brooklyn. “Saddam Hussein has done many horrible things, and it’s a shame we didn’t overthrow him back in 1991. But this war will only push more people into the hands of the Islamic fundamentalists.”

If only the President and his advisors could think so clearly! Unfortunately, they were not talented people, they were merely Jung’s scarecrows, arms outstretched, their madness meeting collective hysteria.

A little over a month later the United States attacked Iraq, unleashing a hell in the Middle East the consequences of which are felt to this day. A large fraction of Americans supported the invasion. Respected leaders like Colin Powell went along with the obvious lies, because to them playing their role was more important than following their own reason. Toby Keith anthems lit up radio stations across America:

You got to saddle up your boys, you got to draw a hard line / When the gun smoke settles, we’ll sing a victory tune / And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon…

Of course, not everyone went along with this — the Dixie Chicks rebelled, and for a time were ostracized, and it took them until 2006 to get it together and find redemption in the masterful “The Long Way” album. That same year Republicans got trounced in the midterm elections, and by 2008 it seemed nearly impossible for them to regain power, such was the public discontent with the war. Obama’s Hope message fell like mana from the sky and soothed our wounds, calmed the nation, for a time, even though the damage was done, and we did not turn over the criminals to the International Criminal Court.

So, who’s to blame? The madman or the people who raise the madman up to a cult figure? The archetype? Karma (the ghosts of the past), the unhealed wounds into which the poison of the archetype seeps? Who knows. But the cure for this is known. The cure is humanity.

Think of the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings. Of all nations, they are most resistant to the evil of the One Ring, resistant because they do not desire power. They desire only to have good food, good friends, good work and good rest. They have no gaping wounds of insecurity into which the poison can seep in. So let’s be like the hobbits — tell stories, build family trees and gazebos, spend time with friends and family. Go to church. Pray — or play video games — whatever you like. This is especially important if someone you know falls under the spell. Be their friend, and perhaps they will heal.

Then, when the next madman comes (or isn’t he here already? I am pretty sure he is, I bet you can name one, or even several) no one will listen.

And, before I leave this, think of one more person — of Gandalf, friend of the hobbits. If you are a wizard (or writer, artist, scientist, Bodhisattva, YouTuber, whatever we call wizards nowadays) be a friend to the hobbits. Sit down with them. Smoke some pipe weed. Do not stay in your lonely ivory (or black, looking at you, Saruman the White) tower. Work the ancient knowledge that you possess — work it and grow it — for the benefit of all hobbits, for it has no deeper purpose but this.