Ideology and belief lies in words. The words come from minds, many poisoned, some clear and quite perceptive. It takes a mix of these two diseases to inspire the masses.
This book contains many different views of man, society, good and evil. Six studies of man taking neither a good nor evil stance. From "Man Into Wolf" by Robert Eisler, which speaks on the lycanthropic nature of man to the closing "Essays in Genetics" by Sir Francis Galton, published in the early 1900's which takes the controversial view that men are not created equal and science has shown this since the beginning. This book does not want you take a side, it is not propaganda. It merely brings the questions and answers forth and asks you to make the conclusion.
Too often in society we respond to knee-jerk reactions with little reason why. It is in our nature, we don't question it. However, when something is presented that makes us think and question things on a deeper basis, we rebel against it and choose rather to accept that which is easier to comprehend. This book does not let you do that and so is precisely the type of book a soldier should read.
The first essay, "Man Into Wolf" by Robert Eisler questions the reasons why man has moved away from the natural and primal lycanthropic wolf nature to the more refined and sometimes contradictory non-wolfish one. What he means is that suppression of these desires and feelings are not natural and lead to a lessening of emotions and feelings. Man becomes less in-tuned with the world around him and detached from his natural environment to co-exist more cohesively with his artificial one. It is not a question of right vs. wrong, but natural to artificial.
This beast nature also extends to killing and wars. We hunt in controlled environments to give us the feeling of true hunting by our wolfish ancestors. We kill in large factory farm buildings that meat which in nature we would have stalked ourselves. While Eisler never promotes vegetarianism or ethical killing, (In fact, he seems quite opposed to either) It is up to the reader to infer what he wants from Eisler's words about "controlled blood sports" and big game hunting.
War however, is the matter that is most controversial. While it seems we all can agree that war serves a purpose and is necessary, most can not decide just what that purpose is and when it is necessitated. Eisler speaks of war as human nature's need to kill. The wolfish nature that drove our ancestors into battles until death. Our battles are with much deadlier weapons of course and til death could mean quite literally the death of all. Is there a place in the human nature for peace and happiness once all wars have ended? This is up to the reader to decide.
Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man is the Marquis deSade's entry into this book. A mere eight pages, it reads like an allegory. The question at hand is can a dying man be saved regardless of his past deeds in the final hour of his life? deSade, of course, was not a religious man and quite the opposite. A notorious figure in literal and real life history, his questions of morals and "good and evil" still confound many today, yet remains required reading for any following the left hand paths. This story could be seen as deSade looking back at his life in his final moments and doing one last thing to affect the morality of this world before he leaves from it.
The dying man tells the priest he has repented for his life of vice and immoralities, but not to the God of which the priest subscribes. The priest does not believe the man is serious and then goes on to ask him why he does not want to repent to his God. The play unfolds with a serious of questions and tests to the priest's faith as to just why this God must exist and how repenting for a life spent filled with pleasure and happiness, some at the expense of others, has any bearing on him. He also questions the afterlife and states that man will be tried for his injustices on this earth and not in the afterlife. He leaves the priest with questions he can not answer and a new look at his faith. This story reveals how even the most steadfast can be corrupted when questions are given that faith has no answers for. It begs us all to question what our beliefs are and just why we hold them so dear.
Man and Technics is the philosopher and scientist, Oswald Spengler's work on evolution of man and the science between man and nature. Spangler is never an easy read and is always more academically inclined. He takes science and psychology and uses them to justify his theories. Always reading more like a scientific journal than philosophical study, Man and Technics requires one to step back and process every line before going on. There is a place for notes at the end of each essay and this work makes use of that. Never an easy person to just draw a conclusion from his works, Spangler makes you think and investigate other works and ideas before coming back to his and understanding his theories. Versed well in botany, biology and the social sciences, it is hard to dismiss the evidence he presents. It is better the academic takes in all that is offered before settling on his own assumptions. After reading this piece, it is suggested the student read also "Decline of the West, " if he hasn't already.
Savitri Devi, presents the most controverisal work in this volume, "Rocks of the Sun." the controversy is only because of her deep love and open admiration for Adolf Hitler and National Socialism. Devi takes much of the politics out of this belief and goes into the esoteric core of national socialism as a religion of the blood and a faith of honour.
Rocks of the Sun speaks of Devi visiting the famed heathen altar to the Gods, the Exernsteine in October, 1953. The Exernsteine, at the foot of the Teutoburg Forest is a huge rock monolith that defies explanation and exhibits awe in many a heathen heart. When found by the Christian invaders of Charlemagne, it was destroyed and rebuilt and with Christian crosses and tributes to the Judeo-Christian god. Regardless, many agree that its origins like Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Aztec temples and Greek Pantheon, are pre-Christian.
Devi, so filled with zeal for the National Socialist faith and contempt for the defeat of Germany and the downfall of Hitler, writes with stars in her eyes of the eagle rising again and Germany reclaiming her people. The fact that the majority of Germans were not National Socialists and didn't support the war is of no consequence to her. Devi, tho born of French descent and adopting an Indian heritage, feels instantly a pilgrim at home as she walks the steps of the mighty Exernsteine. She dreams of Aryan conquests of the west and "der Tag der Rache" or the Day of Revenge as she sits on the rocks and takes in their energy. She meets a young Englishman and curses him for his tyranny to the German people while an older German speaks about the tyranny of National Socialism and she secretly curses him as well. As she ascends further up the rocks and sees runes inscribed and the point where the Irminsul, the Germanic representation of the power of all the gods, is said to show itself in the rays of the sun, this dreaming intensifies. She then joins the young Englishman and a tour guide. As the guide describes the Judeo-Christian markings and meanings of the rocks, she explains the heathen meanings to the Englishman and with great pride denounces the foreign invaders of "her land. "
Eventually she is alone again and falls asleep on an ancient coffin where she dreams of a new dawn and the final end to the falsehood she feels has been shown to her people. She wakes with even more resolve and salutes the rising sun.
She leaves this holy place and dreams of a new time where National Socialism can be seen as more than a political belief, but a faith unifying the politics of life with the faith of life. She feels power and the honour of the men who died defending these "rocks of the sun." She ends with a passage from Mein Kampf, about the glory of those who fight for their ideas and resist the ways of the new world. It is a fight that was never won for Devi, but that she fought for until her death.
The fifth work comes from Gustave LeBon, entitled, "The Psychology of the Crowd." This piece is comprised of five chapters and after Spengler is the most academic of the writings.
In many counter and subcultures, a "lone wolf" archetype is the most usual for the member. When one is popular, well-liked or accepted, needing to find a "niche" or environment that offers support is usually not needed. Not to say all members of subcultures are outcasts or loners, but the majority do fit that description. LeBon brings up the points that as one feels part of a crowd, they do actions that they would not normally do if isolated. He brings up the point that many of the great historical events would not have been possible were it not for crowds. The French Revolution being the best example. He argues that had historians looked into the psychology involved in crowds, they would have had a better understanding of the reasons for the events leading up to this great upheaval.
He also gives the suggestion that once one joins a crowd, his own characterisitcs disappear in favor of those of the crowds. This could lead one to believe that heroic or criminal actions that have resulted, are from the absorption of the crowd ethos. This is a point LeBon comes back to many times in his work.
Another issue at hand is the religious crowd. He states that, "crowds do not reason, they accept or reject ideas as a whole, that they tolerate neither discussion nor contradiction, and that the suggestions brought to bear on them invade the entire field of their understanding and tend at once to transform themselves into acts. We have shown that crowds suitably influenced are ready to sacrifice themselves for the ideal with which they have been inspired." This also can be seen in the acts of the church and its members when viewed as a whole. An individual may do something "for the good of the church" they normally would not do. This piece was published in 1895 but the sentiments can be felt when viewed to the pro-life religious right extremists, black Muslim adherents, and most recently the Westboro Baptist Church and the lunacy they inspire. No more does the idea of to just what extent, does the power of a crowd hold over an individual, show itself than here. From the invading Christians on pagan shores to the Crusades, the power of the church as a whole, is inarguable.
LeBon takes the middle of his work to describe the different characteristics that make up the crowd. Ideas are not the only thing that influences a crowd, genetic and racial factors also can be of influence. Two of these types of crowds are heterogeneous cowds, those based on race or like ideals and homogeneous, those based on sects, castes and classes. LeBon believes that the stronger the unifying force in a race, the less influence that race will have to the crowd mentality.
The fourth part of his piece deals with the criminal crowds. That crowds act under influence has already been established. Here, we are proposed that the criminal acts in a crowd should not be looked at as a whole. To do that would dismiss each individual of the criminality he has taken on himself in the name of the crowd. LeBon gives historical examples of massacres and revolts as the work of crowds. It is not known who gives the order to carry out such acts, so there is no way to place blame. In this idea, barbaric acts can be carried out with no one's "head on a plate" to account for them. He also speaks of criminal juries and how many injustices have been carried out in the name of justice due to the influence of crowds.
His final works deal with electorate and parliamentary crowds. Both of these can seen in the idea of politics in general. When running for election, an individual stands on his beliefs and characteristics alone, once elected, he takes on those of the crowd. He brings up the point that as we vote, we vote for ideas that our elected officials have brought to us, but when shown individually, no one is really sure just what those ideas are. The political system is the best example of crowd psychology. We are not individuals, but a state or nation and as such, inherit the ideals of that entity.
Parliamentary crowds comprise the last section and show an example of a heterogeneous crowd. In parliament, it is believed that the a "large gathering of men is much more capable than a small number coming to a wise and independent decision on a given subject." Depending on the country, all parliaments are different, but have the same characteristic, that of a crowd. He feels that in parliament all ideals are watered down by the crowd until they are dissolved into a digestible state. A sad belief, but one rooted in reality, nonetheless. To sum up his essay, LeBon states, " to pass in pursuit of an ideal from barbarous to the civilized state, and then, when this idea has lost it's virtue, to decline and die, such is the cycle of the life of a people."
The last piece in this book is by Sir Francis Galton, the infamous "Essays in Eugenics." Eugenics defined by Webster is "a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed." Of course the most notorious example of this in history is Adolf Hitler and the Nazi idea of the Ubermensch or "superman," but there has been examples of eugenics as a science as far back as the early 1900's though some would argue all civilizations have experimented with this science. In the 1930's, the U.S. did great amounts of eugenic research. Galton's work is a scientific study. It is no easy read and not one from which assumptions can be made. It is also not one tha'st easy to sum up. Like Spengler, he is a scientist writing not from a philosophical view, and like Spengler must be read to properly digest.
Overall, the Iron Youth Reader is something to be read with an open mind and clear perception. It is not filled with rhetoric to sway your opinion or prose to sweeten your thoughts. This is a book to be taken in and applied as one sees fit.
