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On Pain by Ernst J?nger
Written and published in 1934, a year after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Ernst Juenger's On Pain is an astonishing essay that announces the rise of a new metaphysics of pain in a totalitarian age. One of the most controversial authors of twentieth-century Germany, Juenger rejects the liberal values of liberty, security, ease, and comfort, and seeks instead the measure of man in the capacity to withstand pain and sacrifice. Juenger heralds the rise of a breed of men who--equipped with an unmatched ability to treat themselves and others in a cold and detached way--become one with new, terrorizing machines of death and destruction in human-guided torpedoes and manned airborne missiles, and whose "peculiarly cruel way of seeing," resembling the insensitive lens of a camera, anticipates the horrors of World War II. With a preface by Russell A. Berman and an introduction by translator David C. Durst, this remarkable essay not only provides valuable insights into the cult of courage and death in Nazi Germany, but also throws light on the ideology of terrorism today.Early Praise for On Pain"With this superbly introduced and meticulously translated edition of On Pain, scholars will have access to a key Juenger text, which demonstrates his uncanny ability not only to analyze the ruptures and crises brought about by modernity in his day, but also to anticipate world-historical phenomena that critical social theory still grapples with in the twenty-first century."--Elliot Neaman, Professor of History, University of San Francisco, and author of A Dubious Ernst Juenger and the Politics of Literature after Nazism"Juenger represents a way of thinking about those things we fear the most....This excellent translation introduces readers to a work of primary importance that will open a new perspective on human experience to all who read it in this volume."--Marcus Bullock, Professor Emeritus of English, The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and author of The Violent Ernst Juenger's Visions and Revisions on the European Right"Until Telos Press's newly translated edition of Juenger's On Pain, there has been no clear-cut introduction to this, his vital critique of social liberalism and the culture of modernity, for scholars of literary, military, and intellectual history. Important yet contentious, On Pain offers a perfect entry point for readers unfamiliar with Juenger the political essayist, focusing upon such issues and ideas as torture and terror, horror and affliction."--John Armitage, Principal Lecturer of Media & Communication, Northumbria University, United Kingdom, and Founder and Co-Editor of Cultural Politics"In On Pain, Ernst Juenger shifts a code word of modern subjectivity, derived from Nietzsche and Baudelaire, into the realm of phenomenological objectivity. His 'pain' no longer emphasizes the liberal gesture of 'me, me,' but rather the affirmation of the anonymous condition of the soldier in modern war and the worker in industrial production.... Unique insight into the cruel phenomena of the twentieth century and pre-fascist impulses coalesce in a gaze both analytic and fantastic."--Karl Heinz Bohrer, Professor of Aesthetics and European Literature, University of Bielefeld
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
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About the author
Ernst Jünger
231 books922 followersErnst Jünger was a decorated German soldier and author who became famous for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel. The son of a successful businessman and chemist, Jünger rebelled against an affluent upbringing and sought adventure in the Wandervogel, before running away to briefly serve in the French Foreign Legion, an illegal act. Because he escaped prosecution in Germany due to his father's efforts, Junger was able to enlist on the outbreak of war. A fearless leader who admired bravery above all else, he enthusiastically participated in actions in which his units were sometimes virtually annihilated. During an ill-fated German offensive in 1918 Junger's WW1 career ended with the last and most serious of his many woundings, and he was awarded the Pour le Mérite, a rare decoration for one of his rank.
Junger served in World War II as captain in the German Army. Assigned to an administrative position in Paris, he socialized with prominent artists of the day such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau. His early time in France is described in his diary Gärten und Straßen (1942, Gardens and Streets). He was also in charge of executing younger German soldiers who had deserted. In his book Un Allemand à Paris , the writer Gerhard Heller states that he had been interested in learning how a person reacts to death under such circumstances and had a morbid fascination for the subject.
Jünger appears on the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler (July 20, 1944). He was clearly an inspiration to anti-Nazi conservatives in the German Army, and while in Paris he was close to the old, mostly Prussian, officers who carried out the assassination attempt against Hitler. He was only peripherally involved in the events however, and in the aftermath suffered only dismissal from the army in the summer of 1944, rather than execution.
In the aftermath of WW2 he was treated with some suspicion as a closet Nazi. By the latter stages of the Cold War his unorthodox writings about the impact of materialism in modern society were widely seen as conservative rather than radical nationalist, and his philosophical works came to be highly regarded in mainstream German circles. Junger ended his extremely long life as a honoured establishment figure, although critics continued to charge him with the glorification of war as a transcending experience.
Junger served in World War II as captain in the German Army. Assigned to an administrative position in Paris, he socialized with prominent artists of the day such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau. His early time in France is described in his diary Gärten und Straßen (1942, Gardens and Streets). He was also in charge of executing younger German soldiers who had deserted. In his book Un Allemand à Paris , the writer Gerhard Heller states that he had been interested in learning how a person reacts to death under such circumstances and had a morbid fascination for the subject.
Jünger appears on the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler (July 20, 1944). He was clearly an inspiration to anti-Nazi conservatives in the German Army, and while in Paris he was close to the old, mostly Prussian, officers who carried out the assassination attempt against Hitler. He was only peripherally involved in the events however, and in the aftermath suffered only dismissal from the army in the summer of 1944, rather than execution.
In the aftermath of WW2 he was treated with some suspicion as a closet Nazi. By the latter stages of the Cold War his unorthodox writings about the impact of materialism in modern society were widely seen as conservative rather than radical nationalist, and his philosophical works came to be highly regarded in mainstream German circles. Junger ended his extremely long life as a honoured establishment figure, although critics continued to charge him with the glorification of war as a transcending experience.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
January 31, 2020
On Pain opens with a reference to cooking a lobster and Japanese mother toughening up her child in case he needs to be a kamikaze pilot later in life. It is a work filled with historical references, deliberately shocking phraseology and forbidden thoughts. Pain transcends all values and heroic tales which end in happy endings are contrived delusions. Junger describes death, catastrophe and war with a sense of true delight since they provide an opportunity for courage and the development of Will. Reason cannot conquer pain only Will. Mindless progress attempts to alleviate pain but in the end acculturates weakness. The heroic is where the body is seen as an object and is used according to the will. It is the desire to overcome pain personally or in battle. The modern age of sensitivity gives the body primacy and hence lacks any true discipline or control. Pain transforms the physical look of the individual and the formations such as architecture they are expressed through, pain creates Nietzsche’s New Man, the Worker who becomes one with the technology he uses. Junger celebrates the machinery of war as an extension of the Worker and their role within the state. 'Technology is our uniform' is how Junger describes it. As we move towards the development of the New Man, the Worker, we evolve a second consciousness where we see our bodies as an object, disciplined, ready for sacrifice as required. Junger also discusses photography as a weapon since it depicts reality as it truly is and is cold and cruel. This is certainly a challenging work, of both historical and philosophical interest, which will stimulate the reader to consider the value of pain and the nature of sacrifice. Junger’s text is provocative yet poetic in expression, and reminds me of Nietzsche in its form of prose. Interesting whilst reading it, but for me it's unlikely to linger for too long afterwards.
March 17, 2019
Begins as a thought-provoking criticism of the goal of eradicating pain from society (See Brave New World or Wall-E), but then seems to jump off the cliff of reason and dive into support of the extreme opposite - a fascistic system where human beings are treated as objects of death. Is it obvious only with hindsight that there's a middle way? It's hard to imagine. My rating is mostly for the former part, as that's what will stay with me. The rest is historically interesting though, documenting an influential branch of extremist thought between the wars.
December 19, 2021
The animal is at one with its body. It does not think about its reactions, but simply reacts. It is, in a word, instinctual. Its instinct is to react to pain, to run away from it like an insect being hounded by a child.
Man, on the contrary, is not so beholden to pain. The natural Ubermensch of history can make their body an object, something to be looked down upon. They can achieve a certain self-consciousness, a separation of the thinking powers from bodily sensations which gives them the reins of the Platonic chariot over the unruly passions. To assert their rule over pain, they practice receiving it while pushing through: discipline. The true man looks at these disdainers of pain as the greatest. Whether their relation to pain as a distanced object is practiced through the ascetic or the heroic mode, these are the true examples of masculinity throughout history. The mastery of the senses, the final justice of having the reason in control of the base passions is the true goal of Man throughout history.
The masses look upon these words as mere play. They do not understand the struggle and strife it takes to make one's body an object. They are so driven by base instincts and unconscious drives that sculpting one's body or cutting out sugar seems to impossible to them. Their body, unlike the Ubermensch of history, is an idol for them. It matters so much to them that they become sensitive: unable to face the elements, constantly complaining, ever emotional. They do not have an afterlife, a Heaven, a Valhalla, so view the body as the be all and end all of existence. They ruminate, procrastinate, fornicate, and masturbate en masse. This destroys their honor and dignity and makes them an ignoble slave of the passions. The Sturm und Drang of existence has been denied, but to no good end.
But for the men with the natural fate of greatness, the God-given protectors of an ancient manly honor, the true natural aristocracy — for these men, the Absolute is the mastery over pain. This is the goal of every type of self-cultivation. Bildung is the attainment of culture, in other words of cultivating that which is innate to Man. Man is innately a master of Nature, a fierce, intellectually curious being. He must cut to the roots of Life, dissect its inner workings, and have a Faustian mastery of history, philosophy, and politics. This drive for intellectual mastery when coupled with the discipline — disdain of pain through habit and natural greatness — makes the best of men. Strive, strive for the Faustian heights! Unite dream and day — for pain will never go away.
Man, on the contrary, is not so beholden to pain. The natural Ubermensch of history can make their body an object, something to be looked down upon. They can achieve a certain self-consciousness, a separation of the thinking powers from bodily sensations which gives them the reins of the Platonic chariot over the unruly passions. To assert their rule over pain, they practice receiving it while pushing through: discipline. The true man looks at these disdainers of pain as the greatest. Whether their relation to pain as a distanced object is practiced through the ascetic or the heroic mode, these are the true examples of masculinity throughout history. The mastery of the senses, the final justice of having the reason in control of the base passions is the true goal of Man throughout history.
The masses look upon these words as mere play. They do not understand the struggle and strife it takes to make one's body an object. They are so driven by base instincts and unconscious drives that sculpting one's body or cutting out sugar seems to impossible to them. Their body, unlike the Ubermensch of history, is an idol for them. It matters so much to them that they become sensitive: unable to face the elements, constantly complaining, ever emotional. They do not have an afterlife, a Heaven, a Valhalla, so view the body as the be all and end all of existence. They ruminate, procrastinate, fornicate, and masturbate en masse. This destroys their honor and dignity and makes them an ignoble slave of the passions. The Sturm und Drang of existence has been denied, but to no good end.
But for the men with the natural fate of greatness, the God-given protectors of an ancient manly honor, the true natural aristocracy — for these men, the Absolute is the mastery over pain. This is the goal of every type of self-cultivation. Bildung is the attainment of culture, in other words of cultivating that which is innate to Man. Man is innately a master of Nature, a fierce, intellectually curious being. He must cut to the roots of Life, dissect its inner workings, and have a Faustian mastery of history, philosophy, and politics. This drive for intellectual mastery when coupled with the discipline — disdain of pain through habit and natural greatness — makes the best of men. Strive, strive for the Faustian heights! Unite dream and day — for pain will never go away.
January 3, 2016
A very strange, powerful essay from the 1930s, "On Pain" covers a lot of ground in a very few pages.
Junger starts off by a deep dive into psychology and embodiment, exploring how humans react to pain personally and socially. This lets him bring in an unusual range of sources, from his own WWI experience to philosophy and ethics to classical literature, medieval art, contemporary politics and science (remember, the whole piece is barely 47 pages).
Then "On Pain" twists into a Spengler-like analysis of its time, trying to suss out where civilization was headed. Being written in 1934, Junger's conclusion - that humanity was developing into cogs for giant, aggressive mechanisms of power and power, about to burst forth into epochal violence - was pretty solid, given what was about to unfold - i.e., WWII. Editor Russell Berman paraphrases Junger nicely: "the reduction of the personality through a thorough instrumentalization, a transformation of the formerly heroic warrior into a merely technical component" (xvi). Junger's essay's last few pages are nightmarish, sober, and accurate
That sense of humans being objectified (38ff) resonates with other writers of the time. I'm reminded of the Theodor Adorno of WWII and the Walter Benjamin of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (just two years later, 1936). "The amount of pain we can endure increases with the progressive objectification of life" (43) could fit into many of Minima Moralia's terrifying, dark meditations.
In pursuing objectification Junger is doing media criticism, with his main object being photography and its rising power (example: "a means to hunt down the individual as an opponent no longer capable of defending his ways", 40). I like the way he takes photography and film back to (an unnamed) Kleist by seeing parallels and lessons from "[t]he real of masks, marionettes, puppets, and mannequins" (43). This points forward, for me, to the great work of American horror writer Thomas Ligotti. "On Pain" gives us a deep insight into the use of propaganda in WWII - and, of course, in subsequent media regimes.
"On Pain" wears its Nietzschean influence clearly, which leads to some splendid aphorisms.
Telos has produced "On Pain" in a really lovely edition. The cover links Junger's WWI experience with photography very neatly. Translator David Durst offers an excellent introduction to Junger's work and the essay. Editor Russell Berman presents some characteristically unorthodox and provocative reflections, notably some reflections on present-day Islamism (xv) and, inevitably, postmodernism (xix).
Recommended. Obviously.
Junger starts off by a deep dive into psychology and embodiment, exploring how humans react to pain personally and socially. This lets him bring in an unusual range of sources, from his own WWI experience to philosophy and ethics to classical literature, medieval art, contemporary politics and science (remember, the whole piece is barely 47 pages).
Then "On Pain" twists into a Spengler-like analysis of its time, trying to suss out where civilization was headed. Being written in 1934, Junger's conclusion - that humanity was developing into cogs for giant, aggressive mechanisms of power and power, about to burst forth into epochal violence - was pretty solid, given what was about to unfold - i.e., WWII. Editor Russell Berman paraphrases Junger nicely: "the reduction of the personality through a thorough instrumentalization, a transformation of the formerly heroic warrior into a merely technical component" (xvi). Junger's essay's last few pages are nightmarish, sober, and accurate
That sense of humans being objectified (38ff) resonates with other writers of the time. I'm reminded of the Theodor Adorno of WWII and the Walter Benjamin of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (just two years later, 1936). "The amount of pain we can endure increases with the progressive objectification of life" (43) could fit into many of Minima Moralia's terrifying, dark meditations.
In pursuing objectification Junger is doing media criticism, with his main object being photography and its rising power (example: "a means to hunt down the individual as an opponent no longer capable of defending his ways", 40). I like the way he takes photography and film back to (an unnamed) Kleist by seeing parallels and lessons from "[t]he real of masks, marionettes, puppets, and mannequins" (43). This points forward, for me, to the great work of American horror writer Thomas Ligotti. "On Pain" gives us a deep insight into the use of propaganda in WWII - and, of course, in subsequent media regimes.
"On Pain" wears its Nietzschean influence clearly, which leads to some splendid aphorisms.
[L]ife strives incessantly to stay in contact with pain. Indeed, discipline means nothing other than this... (16)
Archaeology is actually a science dedicated to pain... (7)
Technology is our uniform. (31)
The masses have been left with only one liberty, the liberty to consent. (30)
Tell me your relation to pain, and I will tell you who you are! (1; emphases in original)
Telos has produced "On Pain" in a really lovely edition. The cover links Junger's WWI experience with photography very neatly. Translator David Durst offers an excellent introduction to Junger's work and the essay. Editor Russell Berman presents some characteristically unorthodox and provocative reflections, notably some reflections on present-day Islamism (xv) and, inevitably, postmodernism (xix).
Recommended. Obviously.
February 9, 2021
*chef kiss*
I personally disagreed with many points made by Junger, but gave 5 stars to remain objective. Can’t argue with the quality of the arguments he makes.
I personally disagreed with many points made by Junger, but gave 5 stars to remain objective. Can’t argue with the quality of the arguments he makes.
September 15, 2019
An excellent essay by Jünger, which remains very relevant today. Originally published 1934, between both World Wars, Jünger already reflects on the influences of technology on human lives, driving people more detached and indifferent to the pain of others.
Another concept that I found particularly interesting was the idea of a second consciousness, or the ability to see the human as an object. Both ideas can be perfectly summarized in the quote
We saw that man is able to resist the assault of pain to the degree that he is capable of self-detachment.
The major problem I had with this particular edition was the introduction by Russell A. Berman, an American teacher of German studies and Comparative Literature at the Stanford University. Basically, on the basis of this essay by Jünger, Berman compares Nazism with Islamism. I’d say it’s because of quotes such as
We also see the individual ever more clearly fall into a state where he can be sacrificed without a second thought.,
and because this edition was published in the aftermath of the attacks on World Trade Center and right in the middle of the war on Iraq (Operation Enduring Freedom). A bit of a stretch, though, since Bush also didn’t seem to have much of a problem sending so many American soldiers into Afghan ground who also fell on the battlefield, both dead or wounded. Anyway, I digress.
Finally, I’d say this essay would probably be a good pairing to read along with the writings by Hannah Arendt.
Another concept that I found particularly interesting was the idea of a second consciousness, or the ability to see the human as an object. Both ideas can be perfectly summarized in the quote
We saw that man is able to resist the assault of pain to the degree that he is capable of self-detachment.
The major problem I had with this particular edition was the introduction by Russell A. Berman, an American teacher of German studies and Comparative Literature at the Stanford University. Basically, on the basis of this essay by Jünger, Berman compares Nazism with Islamism. I’d say it’s because of quotes such as
We also see the individual ever more clearly fall into a state where he can be sacrificed without a second thought.,
and because this edition was published in the aftermath of the attacks on World Trade Center and right in the middle of the war on Iraq (Operation Enduring Freedom). A bit of a stretch, though, since Bush also didn’t seem to have much of a problem sending so many American soldiers into Afghan ground who also fell on the battlefield, both dead or wounded. Anyway, I digress.
Finally, I’d say this essay would probably be a good pairing to read along with the writings by Hannah Arendt.
March 29, 2012
On Pain is only like 40 pages long, the rest of this book is a godawful essay about the essay. Ernst is funny and he has a lot of dreams for the future of Germany, but a lot of it is typical authoritarian military dad thinking, pointless stuff that's been tried and has failed. Although it's always good to boost your will, Any g gordon liddy or fantasy wizard or just high achieving poor man will tell you that.
October 1, 2020
A fascinating essay on pain, sacrifice and discipline by the one and only Ernst Junger, by then a notorious far-right nationalist, though his position was closer to the National Bolsheviks than the Nazis (of whom he was also not very fond of).
While definitely conservative, the topics it touches on are also essential things for militants of any sort, and not just in the ways that Junger is right - but also in those where he is wrong. Per example, the notion that "the masses aren't disciplined like the soldiers", which is simply not true, for the communist movement always showed itself to be a tightly disciplined mass of workers organized like an amateur army.
Some choice quotes:
Predicting the Kamikaze and the Sonderkommando "Elbe":
"This assessment is significant to the extent that it contains a standard of judgment regarding the preparation for war. In order to make clear just how high the demands on preparedness have become, consider a practical example. Recently, a story circulated in the newspapers about a new torpedo that the Japanese navy is apparently developing. This weapon has an astounding feature. It is no longer guided mechanically but by a human device—to be precise, by a human being at the helm, who is locked into a tiny compartment and regarded as a technical component of the torpedo as well as its actual intelligence.
The idea behind this peculiar organic construction drives the logic of the technical world a small step forward by transforming man in an unprecedented way into one of its component parts. If one enlarges upon this thought, one soon realizes that it is no longer considered a curiosity once achieved on a larger social scale, i.e., when one disposes over a breed of resolute men obedient to authority. Manned planes can then be constructed as airborne missiles, which from great heights can dive down to strike with lethal accuracy the nerve centers of enemy resistance. The result is a breed of men that can be sent off to war as cannon fodder. This would no doubt be the most dreadful symbol of the right to sovereign rule imaginable. Here, all potential for good luck is eliminated with mathematical certainty, presupposing of course that one does not have an entirely different conception of luck. We confront this entirely different conception of luck, however, when we hear that General Nogi, one of the few figures of our times and a man worthy of being called a “hero,” received “with deep satisfaction” the news that his son had fallen in battle."
About the increasing restriction to academic services to the working class:
"We can assume that in the future this new assessment of the value of free inquiry as the pillar of liberal education will correspond to a comprehensive transformation in the organization of educational practices as a whole. We are now in an experimental stage. Nevertheless, we can predict with some certainty that education will become more limited and more focused, as can be observed wherever the training of man as a type rather than as an individual takes precedence. This is true for military academies as well as seminaries, where from the outset rigorous discipline governs the entire course of training. This is no less true for education in vocational professions and the crafts. By contrast, the model of individual growth is articulated in the Confessions, which gave rise to a wealth of novels of self-cultivation and development. 28 It still sounds strange that education is becoming specialized “again,” even though by all appearances we are already far along on this path. Until just recently everyone,at least in principle, had the chance to enter the highest levels of education. This is no longer the case today. We observe, for instance, that in many countries certain fields of study are now closed off to the younger generations from social strata assigned a lower level of reliability. The existence of numerus clausus, as applied to individual professions, institutions of higher education, or universities, is also indicative of a determination to cut off education right from the start to specific social classes, such as the academic proletariat, based on national interest. Of course, these are just isolated symptoms, but they nevertheless suggest that the free choice of a profession is no longer an unquestioned social arrangement."
About faces:
" In the liberal world, what one considered a “good” face was, properly speaking, the delicate face, nervous, pliant, changing, and open to the most diverse kinds of influences and impulses. By contrast, the disciplined face is resolute; it possesses clear direction, and it is single-minded, objective, and unyielding. One immediately notices by every kind of rigorous training how the imposition of firm and impersonal rules and regulations is reflected in the hardening of the face."
On the lumpen:
"The lumpenproletariat is beyond moral valuations and thus always and everywhere ready to seize the opportunity, i.e., with every disturbance of the social order, regardless of origin. The lumpenproletariat therefore functions beyond the more limited space of politics; instead, one must regard the lumpenproletariat as a kind of underground army reserve that the social order keeps on alert."
(Marx and Engels made the same point a multitude of times)
On the separation of the professional soldier from the masses:
"The increasing mobility of battle operations, which our technological age strives to achieve in the construction of new war machinery, promises not only a renewal of strategic operations but also heralds the rise of a more hardened and invulnerable type of soldier. The new logic broached earlier in connection to the principles of liberal education also impacts the soldier. In a world where warfare assumes the peculiar character of work, we can no longer speak of a people in arms in the traditional sense. Just as technology is superior to every imaginable deployment of human forces, so too do the teams operating this military technology presuppose a selection process different from universal military conscription. The short duration of military service typical for training the masses is no longer adequate to ensure the requisite mastery of weaponry and personal discipline. Only logically, then, we witness today how training now begins at an early age and is becoming specialized in many ways."
I will leave these quotes to the reader to think about it, but it is not hard to realize why, despite being far from Junger politically, a Marxist would find this interesting. Per example, the quote about faces: An interesting point because he is correct about liberalism (even leftist-liberal "theory" now is all proud about how it "takes elements from everything", turning theory into an eclectic mishmash of different methodologies) but though what Junger means is the old Prussian soldier, it is also true of the communist worker.
Look at old communist propaganda - actual communist propaganda, I don't refer to Stalinism here, of which Junger was a fan - and you will see that workers are always portrayed in that way: clear direction, single-minded, objective, unyielding, imposing firm and impersonal rules and regulations against the bourgeois "pig", foreign imperialist states, kings, peasants, etc. Discipline was always a weapon for workers to fight against their enemies.
Or about the professional soldier: he is right that it creates a distinct sort of soldier separated from the masses - the professional soldiers, rather than the "uniformed proletariat" of the Russian and German revolution, which were instrumental in the fight against the State.
Overall, just a very interesting essay - I cannot give it full score because, being Junger, it is also full of petit-bourgeoi pretensions, Nietzschean garbage, far-right aspiration, takes about the masses that are just wrong (inherited from the eternal cringelet known as Nietzsche, as well), etc, so it leads to some pseuding out. However, it is well worth a read.
While definitely conservative, the topics it touches on are also essential things for militants of any sort, and not just in the ways that Junger is right - but also in those where he is wrong. Per example, the notion that "the masses aren't disciplined like the soldiers", which is simply not true, for the communist movement always showed itself to be a tightly disciplined mass of workers organized like an amateur army.
Some choice quotes:
Predicting the Kamikaze and the Sonderkommando "Elbe":
"This assessment is significant to the extent that it contains a standard of judgment regarding the preparation for war. In order to make clear just how high the demands on preparedness have become, consider a practical example. Recently, a story circulated in the newspapers about a new torpedo that the Japanese navy is apparently developing. This weapon has an astounding feature. It is no longer guided mechanically but by a human device—to be precise, by a human being at the helm, who is locked into a tiny compartment and regarded as a technical component of the torpedo as well as its actual intelligence.
The idea behind this peculiar organic construction drives the logic of the technical world a small step forward by transforming man in an unprecedented way into one of its component parts. If one enlarges upon this thought, one soon realizes that it is no longer considered a curiosity once achieved on a larger social scale, i.e., when one disposes over a breed of resolute men obedient to authority. Manned planes can then be constructed as airborne missiles, which from great heights can dive down to strike with lethal accuracy the nerve centers of enemy resistance. The result is a breed of men that can be sent off to war as cannon fodder. This would no doubt be the most dreadful symbol of the right to sovereign rule imaginable. Here, all potential for good luck is eliminated with mathematical certainty, presupposing of course that one does not have an entirely different conception of luck. We confront this entirely different conception of luck, however, when we hear that General Nogi, one of the few figures of our times and a man worthy of being called a “hero,” received “with deep satisfaction” the news that his son had fallen in battle."
About the increasing restriction to academic services to the working class:
"We can assume that in the future this new assessment of the value of free inquiry as the pillar of liberal education will correspond to a comprehensive transformation in the organization of educational practices as a whole. We are now in an experimental stage. Nevertheless, we can predict with some certainty that education will become more limited and more focused, as can be observed wherever the training of man as a type rather than as an individual takes precedence. This is true for military academies as well as seminaries, where from the outset rigorous discipline governs the entire course of training. This is no less true for education in vocational professions and the crafts. By contrast, the model of individual growth is articulated in the Confessions, which gave rise to a wealth of novels of self-cultivation and development. 28 It still sounds strange that education is becoming specialized “again,” even though by all appearances we are already far along on this path. Until just recently everyone,at least in principle, had the chance to enter the highest levels of education. This is no longer the case today. We observe, for instance, that in many countries certain fields of study are now closed off to the younger generations from social strata assigned a lower level of reliability. The existence of numerus clausus, as applied to individual professions, institutions of higher education, or universities, is also indicative of a determination to cut off education right from the start to specific social classes, such as the academic proletariat, based on national interest. Of course, these are just isolated symptoms, but they nevertheless suggest that the free choice of a profession is no longer an unquestioned social arrangement."
About faces:
" In the liberal world, what one considered a “good” face was, properly speaking, the delicate face, nervous, pliant, changing, and open to the most diverse kinds of influences and impulses. By contrast, the disciplined face is resolute; it possesses clear direction, and it is single-minded, objective, and unyielding. One immediately notices by every kind of rigorous training how the imposition of firm and impersonal rules and regulations is reflected in the hardening of the face."
On the lumpen:
"The lumpenproletariat is beyond moral valuations and thus always and everywhere ready to seize the opportunity, i.e., with every disturbance of the social order, regardless of origin. The lumpenproletariat therefore functions beyond the more limited space of politics; instead, one must regard the lumpenproletariat as a kind of underground army reserve that the social order keeps on alert."
(Marx and Engels made the same point a multitude of times)
On the separation of the professional soldier from the masses:
"The increasing mobility of battle operations, which our technological age strives to achieve in the construction of new war machinery, promises not only a renewal of strategic operations but also heralds the rise of a more hardened and invulnerable type of soldier. The new logic broached earlier in connection to the principles of liberal education also impacts the soldier. In a world where warfare assumes the peculiar character of work, we can no longer speak of a people in arms in the traditional sense. Just as technology is superior to every imaginable deployment of human forces, so too do the teams operating this military technology presuppose a selection process different from universal military conscription. The short duration of military service typical for training the masses is no longer adequate to ensure the requisite mastery of weaponry and personal discipline. Only logically, then, we witness today how training now begins at an early age and is becoming specialized in many ways."
I will leave these quotes to the reader to think about it, but it is not hard to realize why, despite being far from Junger politically, a Marxist would find this interesting. Per example, the quote about faces: An interesting point because he is correct about liberalism (even leftist-liberal "theory" now is all proud about how it "takes elements from everything", turning theory into an eclectic mishmash of different methodologies) but though what Junger means is the old Prussian soldier, it is also true of the communist worker.
Look at old communist propaganda - actual communist propaganda, I don't refer to Stalinism here, of which Junger was a fan - and you will see that workers are always portrayed in that way: clear direction, single-minded, objective, unyielding, imposing firm and impersonal rules and regulations against the bourgeois "pig", foreign imperialist states, kings, peasants, etc. Discipline was always a weapon for workers to fight against their enemies.
Or about the professional soldier: he is right that it creates a distinct sort of soldier separated from the masses - the professional soldiers, rather than the "uniformed proletariat" of the Russian and German revolution, which were instrumental in the fight against the State.
Overall, just a very interesting essay - I cannot give it full score because, being Junger, it is also full of petit-bourgeoi pretensions, Nietzschean garbage, far-right aspiration, takes about the masses that are just wrong (inherited from the eternal cringelet known as Nietzsche, as well), etc, so it leads to some pseuding out. However, it is well worth a read.
September 7, 2014
ارنست یونگر از آن دسته متفکران تاثیرگذار در آلمان ولی عمدتاً ناشناخته در ایران است. شناخته شده ترین اثرش «عبور از خط» است که ابتدا توسط مرحوم آل احمد و در نشریه «سخن» ترجمه و چاپ شده.
یونگر مثل برخی دیگر از متفکران آلمانی - که به پیروی از نیچه به ارزش های بورژوازی آلمان پس از جنگ اول جهانی تاخته اند- بدنامی حمایت از نازیسم را به جان خرید. هرچند او هم مثل هایدگر خیلی زود با حزب نازی به درگیری رسید و حتی مورد حمله آنها قرار گرفت.
با این حال «درباره درد» جستاری است فلسفی-اجتماعی که به باور خیلی ها، جزو آن دسته از .تولیدات فکری محسوب می شود که جامعه آلمان را از چاله بورژوازی به چاه نازیسم سوق داد
درباره درد صرفاً یک سند تاریخی نیست برای آنانی که مایل اند بدانند چطور از دل جمهوری دموکراتیک وایمار، هیولایی به نام هیتلر به قدرت رسید، بلکه به نوعی ترجمان روزگار معاصر ماست. امروز نیز بشریت دچار همان کابوس هایی است که یونگر از آن سخن می گوید و چه بسیارند سیاستمدارانی که در عمل به راهی می روند که هیتلر رفته!
اگر می خواهیم تاریخ تکرار نشود، بایداز هم اکنون دست به کار شد. شاید مطالعه درباره درد از جمله این کارها باشد
یونگر مثل برخی دیگر از متفکران آلمانی - که به پیروی از نیچه به ارزش های بورژوازی آلمان پس از جنگ اول جهانی تاخته اند- بدنامی حمایت از نازیسم را به جان خرید. هرچند او هم مثل هایدگر خیلی زود با حزب نازی به درگیری رسید و حتی مورد حمله آنها قرار گرفت.
با این حال «درباره درد» جستاری است فلسفی-اجتماعی که به باور خیلی ها، جزو آن دسته از .تولیدات فکری محسوب می شود که جامعه آلمان را از چاله بورژوازی به چاه نازیسم سوق داد
درباره درد صرفاً یک سند تاریخی نیست برای آنانی که مایل اند بدانند چطور از دل جمهوری دموکراتیک وایمار، هیولایی به نام هیتلر به قدرت رسید، بلکه به نوعی ترجمان روزگار معاصر ماست. امروز نیز بشریت دچار همان کابوس هایی است که یونگر از آن سخن می گوید و چه بسیارند سیاستمدارانی که در عمل به راهی می روند که هیتلر رفته!
اگر می خواهیم تاریخ تکرار نشود، بایداز هم اکنون دست به کار شد. شاید مطالعه درباره درد از جمله این کارها باشد
August 17, 2020
His feeling for literary style veils the shallow puddle of ideas in this essay. The core idea is that seeing yourself as an object is an efficient way to deal with pain, which is inevitable. The (for Jünger) foolish liberal humanist desperately and vainly tries to evade pain, but of course this is impossible, since pain is a certainty in biological life. Technology helps modern man by allowing him to become a worker and to be thus a part of a technological object, sticking it to pain. Of course, Heidegger went over the same theme in "The question concerning technology" in a much more profound way. For Jünger technology (and the rise of fascist orders with it) and the embrace of pain are not inherently problematic, but things with the positive potential of turning one's life into a secure zone. The one truth in this essay might be that discipline, as a way of dealing with pain, is on a personal level not a political level however, a valuable thing.
April 13, 2020
Interesting because contemporary
It’s interesting to read what Germans were reading just before Nazis got in power. The sentiments that brought Hitler to power were not all blind hatred towards Jews and mesmerized stupidity at the sound of the Fürer’s voice. Mixed with those, and perhaps even more dominant was the same “malaise of modernity,” the same suspicion towards technology, and the same boredom at the promise of a Liberal Utopia promised by Socialism. In short, they were very much like us.
It’s interesting to read what Germans were reading just before Nazis got in power. The sentiments that brought Hitler to power were not all blind hatred towards Jews and mesmerized stupidity at the sound of the Fürer’s voice. Mixed with those, and perhaps even more dominant was the same “malaise of modernity,” the same suspicion towards technology, and the same boredom at the promise of a Liberal Utopia promised by Socialism. In short, they were very much like us.
November 23, 2023
Brief essay about pain. Junger was a German soldier in WW1, and he was part of the German "Conservative Revolution" or conservative Germans who didn't support the Nazis. Kinda strange background, but I heard he was a big fan of Nietzsche, so I gave it a shot.
Pain is something that the modern world tries (and fails) to eliminate. To Junger, pain is an essential part of life, and people/society can be judged by how they handle it. Some great writing, especially towards the start, and Junger's pro-war, pro-pain stance is unconventional and kinda psycho. Great buildup to exam season.
Quotes
“These years display a strange mix of barbarity and humanity; they resemble an archipelago where an isle of vegetarians exists right next to an island of cannibals. An extreme pacifism side by side with an enormous intensification of war preparations, luxurious prisons next to squalid quarters for the unemployed, the abolition of capital punishment by day whilst the Whites and the Reds cut each other’s throats by night—all this is thoroughly fairytale-like and reflects a sordid world in which the semblance of security is preserved in a string of hotel foyers.”
“The artificial check on the elementary forces might be able to prevent violent clashes and to ward off shadows, but it cannot stop the dispersed light with which pain permeates life. The vessel, sealed off from pain’s full flow, is filled drop by drop. Boredom is nothing other than the dissolution of pain in time.”
"Courage means to let oneself be nailed to the cross for one’s cause. Courage means, in the last moment of life, to still show allegiance to the thought for which one stood and fell. To the devil with the times that want to take from us courage and men"
Pain is something that the modern world tries (and fails) to eliminate. To Junger, pain is an essential part of life, and people/society can be judged by how they handle it. Some great writing, especially towards the start, and Junger's pro-war, pro-pain stance is unconventional and kinda psycho. Great buildup to exam season.
Quotes
“These years display a strange mix of barbarity and humanity; they resemble an archipelago where an isle of vegetarians exists right next to an island of cannibals. An extreme pacifism side by side with an enormous intensification of war preparations, luxurious prisons next to squalid quarters for the unemployed, the abolition of capital punishment by day whilst the Whites and the Reds cut each other’s throats by night—all this is thoroughly fairytale-like and reflects a sordid world in which the semblance of security is preserved in a string of hotel foyers.”
“The artificial check on the elementary forces might be able to prevent violent clashes and to ward off shadows, but it cannot stop the dispersed light with which pain permeates life. The vessel, sealed off from pain’s full flow, is filled drop by drop. Boredom is nothing other than the dissolution of pain in time.”
"Courage means to let oneself be nailed to the cross for one’s cause. Courage means, in the last moment of life, to still show allegiance to the thought for which one stood and fell. To the devil with the times that want to take from us courage and men"
August 5, 2023
Dos anos 30, logo após a subida de Adolf Hitler ao poder "On Pain" é um ensaio que, na minha perspectiva, além de extremamente confuso e difuso, não está muito bem conseguido.
Simplesmente porque Ernst Jünger, um dos meus autores alemães preferidos, termina o livro sem me conseguir levar a lado nenhum! Aliás, fiquei sem perceber o porquê do ensaio se chamar "On Pain" já que pouco ou nada trata acerca do sofrimento.
Fala-se da tecnologia como sendo o nosso uniforme, da fotografia como uma espécie de demónio (o que pode estar relacionado com o contexto em que escreve - o da emergência em força da propaganda) e critica-se amplamente a burguesia.
"On Pain" é acima de tudo uma crítica à burguesia da República de Weimar, plena de referências Friedrich Nietzsche - aspecto que muito apreciei -, mas não é muito mais do que isso...
Simplesmente porque Ernst Jünger, um dos meus autores alemães preferidos, termina o livro sem me conseguir levar a lado nenhum! Aliás, fiquei sem perceber o porquê do ensaio se chamar "On Pain" já que pouco ou nada trata acerca do sofrimento.
Fala-se da tecnologia como sendo o nosso uniforme, da fotografia como uma espécie de demónio (o que pode estar relacionado com o contexto em que escreve - o da emergência em força da propaganda) e critica-se amplamente a burguesia.
"On Pain" é acima de tudo uma crítica à burguesia da República de Weimar, plena de referências Friedrich Nietzsche - aspecto que muito apreciei -, mas não é muito mais do que isso...
April 18, 2022
A short essay defending the existence of physical and psychological pain as a constructive component in the creation of an improved mankind. In a typical counter-revolutionary fashion (Spengler, Schmidt) Jünger criticizes modern, bourgeois, overly sensitive comfort life while insisting on the self-detachment of one's body to resist pain and eventually create a new "breed" of heroic/soldier type. His praise of warlike behavior and fascination with the destructive aspect of technology reminded me of the "Manifesto of Futurism" by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Finally, I was fascinated by the sheer amount of authors mentioned by Jünger, ranging from Christian forefathers to anarchists.
September 5, 2021
Ernst Junger is the true Modern Age's Skald, and this essay shows it. He reveals to you a the type of man you have to be to survive when the world around you is at peak acceleration, with all its ugliness and limpness.
The gears of war have broken off the machine and are now tumbling downhill! There is no use trying to dodge out of the way. You must brace for impact! Maybe your scars can impress a woman.
The gears of war have broken off the machine and are now tumbling downhill! There is no use trying to dodge out of the way. You must brace for impact! Maybe your scars can impress a woman.
July 7, 2018
"Show me your relation to pain and I'll show you who you are..."
Junger brings an interesting 19th century/ early 20th century perspective on humanity. He asserts that as man enters a techno-nihilistic age pain remains the only certainty of reality and that our obsession to escape it only detaches us from ever really knowing ourselves.
Junger brings an interesting 19th century/ early 20th century perspective on humanity. He asserts that as man enters a techno-nihilistic age pain remains the only certainty of reality and that our obsession to escape it only detaches us from ever really knowing ourselves.
October 25, 2016
Excellent diagnosis of our modern bourgeois milieu.
April 29, 2018
Some of the views on nihilism are outdated but an interesting and very relevant work on the cruel objectification of photography and its relation to detachment from individuality.
July 25, 2021
Junger's account of the hardships of war in the German army in World War I.
January 14, 2021
Im too young for this , i will try reading it again in 4 to 5 years , maybe then my opinion changes
January 9, 2023
Pain reminds you that you are alive. Similarly, the jabs, diversions, suggestions and ideas of this short book remind our minds that an essay can be a gymnasium. I don't buy everything the author is selling, however, the fact that he reminds us of the quacks, con-artists, and scammers interested in promoting fear in Defoe's Plague Year published in 1722, show us we have learned precisely nothing.
Montaigne said that it is good to 'rub and polish our brain against that of others.' This short essay is a cleansing agent.
Montaigne said that it is good to 'rub and polish our brain against that of others.' This short essay is a cleansing agent.
September 18, 2018
En este libro Ernst Jünger se sumerge en la filosofía y la importancia del dolor en la vida explorando la reacción del ser humano en el ámbito social y personal, Jünger recurre a recursos filosóficos y literarios, sin omitir sus experiencias vividas como soldado en la Primera Guerra Mundial.
April 7, 2022
“War! War, what is it good for? Absolutely… something?”
November 27, 2024
“We […] possess exceptional images of how life is surrounded and engulfed by pain in the impressive paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, Brueghel, and Cranach, whose significance we begin to appreciate again today and which only a short time ago were considered absurd inventions. These paintings are more modern than one believes, and it is not by accident that technical skill plays such a significant role in them. Many of Bosch’s paintings, with their nocturnal conflagrations and infernal flues, resemble industrial landscapes in full operation, and Cranach’s Great Inferno, on display in Berlin, contains a complete array of technical instruments. One of the often recurring motifs is a rolling canopy, with a large, shining knife jutting out of the opening. The sight of such devices evokes a special kind of horror; they are symbols of a mechanically disguised assault that is colder and more rapacious than any other.”
—
“The seeds of destruction are indifferent to whether they destroy the mind of a numskull or a genius. The scurrilous, yet significant, verse of Shakespeare speaks to this sentiment: ‘Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.’”
—
“Archeology is actually a science dedicated to pain; in the layers of the earth, it uncovers empire after empire, of which we no longer even know the names. The mourning that takes hold of us at such sites is extraordinary, and it is perhaps in no account of the world portrayed more vividly than in the powerful and mysterious tale about the City of Brass. In this desolate city surrounded by deserts, the Emir Musa reads the words on a tablet made of iron of China: ‘For I possessed four thousand bay horses in a stable; and I married a thousand damsels, of the daughters of Kings, high-bosomed virgins, like moons; and I was blessed with a thousand children, like stern lions; and I lived a thousand years, happy in mind and heart; and I amassed riches such as the Kings of the regions of the earth were unable to procure, and I imagined that my enjoyments would continue without failure. But I was not aware when there alighted among us the terminator of delights and the separator of companions, the desolator of abodes and the ravager of inhabited mansions, the destroyer of the great and the small and the infants and the children and the mothers. We had resided in this palace in security until the event decreed by the Lord of all creatures, the Lord of the heavens and the Lord of the earths, befell us.’”
—
“In sensing the uncertainty and vulnerability of life as a whole, man increasingly needs to turn his sights to a space removed from the unlimited rule and prevailing power of pain.”
—
“The biased belief that reason can conquer pain loses its allure. […] Since the War’s end, the denial of pain as a necessary facet of life has experienced a late revival. These years display a strange mix of barbarity and humanity; they resemble an archipelago where an isle of vegetarians exists right next to an island of cannibals. An extreme pacifism side by side with an enormous intensification of war preparations, luxurious prisons next to squalid quarters for the unemployed, the abolition of capital punishment by day whilst the Whites and the Reds cut each other’s throats by night—all this is thoroughly fairytale-like and reflects a sordid world in which the semblance of security is preserved in a string of hotel foyers.”
—
“At the sight of this state of widespread comfort, one is prompted to ask immediately where the burden is borne. As a rule one will not have to go far to uncover the pain. Indeed, even the individual is not fully free from pain in this joyful state of security. The artificial check on the elementary forces might be able to prevent violent clashes and to ward off shadows, but it cannot stop the dispersed light with which pain permeates life. The vessel, sealed off from pain’s full flow, is filled drop by drop.”
—
“Pain confronts us in an even more terrifying way wherever it reaches the sources of procreation. Here, all significant life-forces are in a state of suffocation—the heights of rank and the depths of pain stand in immediate relation to one another. Here, every kind of complacency is suspicious, for under the sway of abstract ideas no one can be content who maintains a relation to the essential things of life. It therefore comes as no surprise that in these times, genius, i.e., maintaining the highest vigor, is taken to be a form of madness, just as giving birth is portrayed as a sickness or the soldier is no longer distinguished from the butcher.”
—
“Whoever considers torture a medieval institution will soon learn a different lesson when he delves into the Ecce Homo, Baudelaire’s correspondence, or one of the other terrifying documents handed down to us in such great numbers. In a world full of inferior values, every order of greatness is dragged through the dirt, and the most extreme sphere of suffering, which the dim-witted can venture to see, is symbolized by Caspar Hauser and Dreyfus.”
—
“The spirit’s betrayal of the law of existence is reflected most incisively in the pain of individuals of stature.”
—
“When one considers pain’s penetration into the realm of procreation, one cannot forget the assault on the unborn, which typifies the simultaneously weak and bestial character of the Last Man. To be sure, a mind incapable of differentiating between war and murder or crime and disease will definitely select in territorial struggles the safest and most pitiful method of killing.”
—
“There are apparently attitudes that enable man to become detached from the realms of life where pain reigns as absolute master. This detachment emerges wherever man is able to treat the space through which he experiences pain, i.e., the body, as an object. Of course, this presupposes a command center, which regards the body as a distant outpost that can be deployed and sacrificed in battle. Henceforth, all measures are designed to master pain, not to avoid it.”
—
"The heroic and cultic world presents an entirely different relation to pain than does the world of sensitivity. While in the latter, as we saw, it is a matter of marginalizing pain and sheltering life from it, in the former the point is to integrate pain and organize life in such a way that one is always armed against it. Here, too, pain plays a significant, but no doubt opposite, role. This is because life strives incessantly to stay in contact with pain."
—
“Indeed, discipline means nothing other than this, whether it is of the priestly-ascetic kind directed toward abnegation or of the warlike-heroic kind directed toward hardening oneself like steel. In both cases, it is a matter of maintaining complete control over life, so that at any hour of the day it can serve a higher calling. The central question concerning the rank of present values can be answered by determining to what extent the body can be treated as an object.”
—
“The secret of modern sensitivity is that it corresponds to a world in which the body is itself the highest value. This observation explains why modern sensitivity relates to pain as a power to be avoided at all cost, because here pain confronts the body not as an outpost but as the main force and essential core of life.”
—
“In the liberal world, what one considered a ‘good’ face was, properly speaking, the delicate face—nervous, pliant, changing, and open to the most diverse kinds of influences and impulses. By contrast, the disciplined face is resolute; it possesses clear direction, and it is single-minded, objective, and unyielding. One immediately notices by every kind of rigorous training how the imposition of firm and impersonal rules and regulations is reflected in the hardening of the face.”
—
“The source of the infernal and crippling vapors is concealed here, which are released to the surface during times of social upheaval; indeed, this marks the depth of such upheavals, the history of which has yet to be written. The brief number of days during which the masses eliminated their opponents fills the cities with clamor, but there follow other, more dangerous situations where silence reigns. Pain now demands payback on its outstanding debt.”
—
“The partisan is surely a figure of the elementary but not of the heroic world. His downfall lacks a tragic quality; it transpires in a zone where one indeed maintains a dull, passive relation to pain and its secrets, but where nevertheless one is unable to rise above pain.”
—
“We have before us one of those cases where man accepts his downfall as fate. His ultimate concern is no longer to try to avoid this fate, but to ensure that it takes place with a flag held high. In survivors’ accounts, one repeatedly comes across a remarkable attitude that leads one to believe that in the decisive moments death is simply not seen. This is especially true wherever in the zone of annihilation man’s focus remains squarely on utilizing weaponry. Only he who feels secure in immediate proximity to death finds himself in the highest state of security.”
—
“Detachment is even clearer in the transmission of images—through broadcast of photographs in a second space less accessible to sensitivity. This is most evident where we confront our own reflection, whether by watching our movements on film or hearing our voice as if it belonged to a stranger.”
—
“The amount of pain we can endure increases with the progressive objectification of life. It almost seems as if man seeks to create a space where pain can be regarded as an illusion, but in a radically new way.”
—
“In the world of the worker, ritual is replaced by a precise technical process, which lacks as much in morality as it does in chivalry. Yet the ethos of these processes—and the very fact that pain can be endured to a higher degree points to such an ethos—remains unknown to the present day”
—
“The secret design of artificial sense organs reveals spaces in which catastrophe plays a central role. In such spaces, the dispatch of commands must be more dependable, systematic, and secure. We are approaching the point where a news report, public warning, or imminent threat needs to reach us within minutes. Special forms of discipline are hidden behind the entertaining aspect of communications technologies, such as radio and film. With all likelihood, the broader public will become more aware of this, as listening, especially to public radio, becomes an obligation.”
—
“Today, we again are able to bear the sight of death with greater indifference, since we no longer feel at home in our body as we did before. It no longer accords with our style to stop a flying show or a car race simply because of a deadly accident. Such accidents lie not outside but inside the zone of a new kind of security.”
—
“The spirit that has emerged among us over the past century is indubitably cruel. It leaves its trace on the human condition; it dispenses with the soft spots and hardens the points of resistance. We find ourselves in a situation where we are still capable of grasping what is lost; we can still sense the destruction of values and how the world is becoming more shallow and superficial. New generations are growing up far removed from all our inherited traditions, and it is an amazing feeling to see these children, many of whom will live to experience the year 2000. By then, the last remnants of the modern, i.e., Copernican, age will most likely have disappeared.”
—
“Today, we see the valleys and plains full of armies, military deployments, and exercises. We see states more hostile and ready for war than ever before, looking everywhere to expand their power and marshalling military forces and arsenals of weaponry, and their essential aim is no longer in doubt. We also see the individual ever more clearly fall into a state where he can be sacrificed without a second thought. The question thus arises whether we are witnessing the opening act of the spectacle to come, in which life appears as the will to power, and nothing else?”
—
“The seeds of destruction are indifferent to whether they destroy the mind of a numskull or a genius. The scurrilous, yet significant, verse of Shakespeare speaks to this sentiment: ‘Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.’”
—
“Archeology is actually a science dedicated to pain; in the layers of the earth, it uncovers empire after empire, of which we no longer even know the names. The mourning that takes hold of us at such sites is extraordinary, and it is perhaps in no account of the world portrayed more vividly than in the powerful and mysterious tale about the City of Brass. In this desolate city surrounded by deserts, the Emir Musa reads the words on a tablet made of iron of China: ‘For I possessed four thousand bay horses in a stable; and I married a thousand damsels, of the daughters of Kings, high-bosomed virgins, like moons; and I was blessed with a thousand children, like stern lions; and I lived a thousand years, happy in mind and heart; and I amassed riches such as the Kings of the regions of the earth were unable to procure, and I imagined that my enjoyments would continue without failure. But I was not aware when there alighted among us the terminator of delights and the separator of companions, the desolator of abodes and the ravager of inhabited mansions, the destroyer of the great and the small and the infants and the children and the mothers. We had resided in this palace in security until the event decreed by the Lord of all creatures, the Lord of the heavens and the Lord of the earths, befell us.’”
—
“In sensing the uncertainty and vulnerability of life as a whole, man increasingly needs to turn his sights to a space removed from the unlimited rule and prevailing power of pain.”
—
“The biased belief that reason can conquer pain loses its allure. […] Since the War’s end, the denial of pain as a necessary facet of life has experienced a late revival. These years display a strange mix of barbarity and humanity; they resemble an archipelago where an isle of vegetarians exists right next to an island of cannibals. An extreme pacifism side by side with an enormous intensification of war preparations, luxurious prisons next to squalid quarters for the unemployed, the abolition of capital punishment by day whilst the Whites and the Reds cut each other’s throats by night—all this is thoroughly fairytale-like and reflects a sordid world in which the semblance of security is preserved in a string of hotel foyers.”
—
“At the sight of this state of widespread comfort, one is prompted to ask immediately where the burden is borne. As a rule one will not have to go far to uncover the pain. Indeed, even the individual is not fully free from pain in this joyful state of security. The artificial check on the elementary forces might be able to prevent violent clashes and to ward off shadows, but it cannot stop the dispersed light with which pain permeates life. The vessel, sealed off from pain’s full flow, is filled drop by drop.”
—
“Pain confronts us in an even more terrifying way wherever it reaches the sources of procreation. Here, all significant life-forces are in a state of suffocation—the heights of rank and the depths of pain stand in immediate relation to one another. Here, every kind of complacency is suspicious, for under the sway of abstract ideas no one can be content who maintains a relation to the essential things of life. It therefore comes as no surprise that in these times, genius, i.e., maintaining the highest vigor, is taken to be a form of madness, just as giving birth is portrayed as a sickness or the soldier is no longer distinguished from the butcher.”
—
“Whoever considers torture a medieval institution will soon learn a different lesson when he delves into the Ecce Homo, Baudelaire’s correspondence, or one of the other terrifying documents handed down to us in such great numbers. In a world full of inferior values, every order of greatness is dragged through the dirt, and the most extreme sphere of suffering, which the dim-witted can venture to see, is symbolized by Caspar Hauser and Dreyfus.”
—
“The spirit’s betrayal of the law of existence is reflected most incisively in the pain of individuals of stature.”
—
“When one considers pain’s penetration into the realm of procreation, one cannot forget the assault on the unborn, which typifies the simultaneously weak and bestial character of the Last Man. To be sure, a mind incapable of differentiating between war and murder or crime and disease will definitely select in territorial struggles the safest and most pitiful method of killing.”
—
“There are apparently attitudes that enable man to become detached from the realms of life where pain reigns as absolute master. This detachment emerges wherever man is able to treat the space through which he experiences pain, i.e., the body, as an object. Of course, this presupposes a command center, which regards the body as a distant outpost that can be deployed and sacrificed in battle. Henceforth, all measures are designed to master pain, not to avoid it.”
—
"The heroic and cultic world presents an entirely different relation to pain than does the world of sensitivity. While in the latter, as we saw, it is a matter of marginalizing pain and sheltering life from it, in the former the point is to integrate pain and organize life in such a way that one is always armed against it. Here, too, pain plays a significant, but no doubt opposite, role. This is because life strives incessantly to stay in contact with pain."
—
“Indeed, discipline means nothing other than this, whether it is of the priestly-ascetic kind directed toward abnegation or of the warlike-heroic kind directed toward hardening oneself like steel. In both cases, it is a matter of maintaining complete control over life, so that at any hour of the day it can serve a higher calling. The central question concerning the rank of present values can be answered by determining to what extent the body can be treated as an object.”
—
“The secret of modern sensitivity is that it corresponds to a world in which the body is itself the highest value. This observation explains why modern sensitivity relates to pain as a power to be avoided at all cost, because here pain confronts the body not as an outpost but as the main force and essential core of life.”
—
“In the liberal world, what one considered a ‘good’ face was, properly speaking, the delicate face—nervous, pliant, changing, and open to the most diverse kinds of influences and impulses. By contrast, the disciplined face is resolute; it possesses clear direction, and it is single-minded, objective, and unyielding. One immediately notices by every kind of rigorous training how the imposition of firm and impersonal rules and regulations is reflected in the hardening of the face.”
—
“The source of the infernal and crippling vapors is concealed here, which are released to the surface during times of social upheaval; indeed, this marks the depth of such upheavals, the history of which has yet to be written. The brief number of days during which the masses eliminated their opponents fills the cities with clamor, but there follow other, more dangerous situations where silence reigns. Pain now demands payback on its outstanding debt.”
—
“The partisan is surely a figure of the elementary but not of the heroic world. His downfall lacks a tragic quality; it transpires in a zone where one indeed maintains a dull, passive relation to pain and its secrets, but where nevertheless one is unable to rise above pain.”
—
“We have before us one of those cases where man accepts his downfall as fate. His ultimate concern is no longer to try to avoid this fate, but to ensure that it takes place with a flag held high. In survivors’ accounts, one repeatedly comes across a remarkable attitude that leads one to believe that in the decisive moments death is simply not seen. This is especially true wherever in the zone of annihilation man’s focus remains squarely on utilizing weaponry. Only he who feels secure in immediate proximity to death finds himself in the highest state of security.”
—
“Detachment is even clearer in the transmission of images—through broadcast of photographs in a second space less accessible to sensitivity. This is most evident where we confront our own reflection, whether by watching our movements on film or hearing our voice as if it belonged to a stranger.”
—
“The amount of pain we can endure increases with the progressive objectification of life. It almost seems as if man seeks to create a space where pain can be regarded as an illusion, but in a radically new way.”
—
“In the world of the worker, ritual is replaced by a precise technical process, which lacks as much in morality as it does in chivalry. Yet the ethos of these processes—and the very fact that pain can be endured to a higher degree points to such an ethos—remains unknown to the present day”
—
“The secret design of artificial sense organs reveals spaces in which catastrophe plays a central role. In such spaces, the dispatch of commands must be more dependable, systematic, and secure. We are approaching the point where a news report, public warning, or imminent threat needs to reach us within minutes. Special forms of discipline are hidden behind the entertaining aspect of communications technologies, such as radio and film. With all likelihood, the broader public will become more aware of this, as listening, especially to public radio, becomes an obligation.”
—
“Today, we again are able to bear the sight of death with greater indifference, since we no longer feel at home in our body as we did before. It no longer accords with our style to stop a flying show or a car race simply because of a deadly accident. Such accidents lie not outside but inside the zone of a new kind of security.”
—
“The spirit that has emerged among us over the past century is indubitably cruel. It leaves its trace on the human condition; it dispenses with the soft spots and hardens the points of resistance. We find ourselves in a situation where we are still capable of grasping what is lost; we can still sense the destruction of values and how the world is becoming more shallow and superficial. New generations are growing up far removed from all our inherited traditions, and it is an amazing feeling to see these children, many of whom will live to experience the year 2000. By then, the last remnants of the modern, i.e., Copernican, age will most likely have disappeared.”
—
“Today, we see the valleys and plains full of armies, military deployments, and exercises. We see states more hostile and ready for war than ever before, looking everywhere to expand their power and marshalling military forces and arsenals of weaponry, and their essential aim is no longer in doubt. We also see the individual ever more clearly fall into a state where he can be sacrificed without a second thought. The question thus arises whether we are witnessing the opening act of the spectacle to come, in which life appears as the will to power, and nothing else?”
August 1, 2018
Ernst Junger plunges into the philosophy of life and the significance of pain to life
July 10, 2020
What a strange, disturbing piece this was. What follows is a series of impressions, since I readily admit I couldn't follow Jünger's argument all the way through. I think this is because his way of thinking is so thoroughly alien to my own.
Jünger seems to reject materialism and embrace pain and death out of "mere" contempt for the current, liberal-individualist, "bourgeois" order. His contention is that pain is an unescapable fact of life that needs to be not only accepted but mastered. (I'm reminded here of Col. Kurtz' instruction "you must make a friend of horror".) Jünger's claim seems to be that liberal democracies attempt to avoid pain, which is not only impossible, but weakens them, strips them of the mental armour against pain, and leads them to absolute materialism, a monotheistic apotheosis of the bodily, while rendering them unable to control that bodily element so deified. And so to an "animality" in a purely negative sense of the term.
But Jünger sees a way out: in technology. This is where it gets unnerving. On Pain seems to me to be a proto-transhumanist manifesto for a grand "soulless" future, where man has overcome individuality and subjectivity with the help of technology. This is the polar opposite of the usual pitch we're given about the wonders of technological progress. I can see something similar in Ortega y Gasset's criticism of "mass society", in both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and in Christopher Hitchens' claim that the biggest threat to freedom of speech is no longer the government but the public (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_2n2...). Honestly: do you see social media etc. leading to greater or lesser individuality?
Living in increasingly cramped conditions in the megapolis' of the very-near-future, the value of a human life will suffer drastic inflation. Relationships are increasingly mediated, experienced through digital interfaces. Education is fragmentary and specialized to the extreme. What does a single life matter among the tens of millions killed in the second World War? If something speaks to the reality of this development, it's the countless mass shootings and terrorist attacks we witness. The targets of political terror are no longer the individuals in charge, but the faceless mass on the streets, concert halls and school hallways.
On Pain is a sprawling essay and in many ways overwhelming, but provocative in the best sense of the word. I don't recall the last time I've read something so unsettling, which is why I immediately re-read it and will probably do so again sometime in the future. The essays by the publisher and the translator were informative, though I did feel they might've been a bit straightforward in some of their interpretations.
Jünger seems to reject materialism and embrace pain and death out of "mere" contempt for the current, liberal-individualist, "bourgeois" order. His contention is that pain is an unescapable fact of life that needs to be not only accepted but mastered. (I'm reminded here of Col. Kurtz' instruction "you must make a friend of horror".) Jünger's claim seems to be that liberal democracies attempt to avoid pain, which is not only impossible, but weakens them, strips them of the mental armour against pain, and leads them to absolute materialism, a monotheistic apotheosis of the bodily, while rendering them unable to control that bodily element so deified. And so to an "animality" in a purely negative sense of the term.
But Jünger sees a way out: in technology. This is where it gets unnerving. On Pain seems to me to be a proto-transhumanist manifesto for a grand "soulless" future, where man has overcome individuality and subjectivity with the help of technology. This is the polar opposite of the usual pitch we're given about the wonders of technological progress. I can see something similar in Ortega y Gasset's criticism of "mass society", in both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and in Christopher Hitchens' claim that the biggest threat to freedom of speech is no longer the government but the public (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_2n2...). Honestly: do you see social media etc. leading to greater or lesser individuality?
Living in increasingly cramped conditions in the megapolis' of the very-near-future, the value of a human life will suffer drastic inflation. Relationships are increasingly mediated, experienced through digital interfaces. Education is fragmentary and specialized to the extreme. What does a single life matter among the tens of millions killed in the second World War? If something speaks to the reality of this development, it's the countless mass shootings and terrorist attacks we witness. The targets of political terror are no longer the individuals in charge, but the faceless mass on the streets, concert halls and school hallways.
On Pain is a sprawling essay and in many ways overwhelming, but provocative in the best sense of the word. I don't recall the last time I've read something so unsettling, which is why I immediately re-read it and will probably do so again sometime in the future. The essays by the publisher and the translator were informative, though I did feel they might've been a bit straightforward in some of their interpretations.
January 7, 2022
Clippings
The idea behind this peculiar organic construction drives the logic of the technical world a small step forward by transforming man in an unprecedented way into one of its component parts. If one enlarges upon this thought, one soon realizes that it is no longer considered a curiosity once achieved on a larger social scale, i.e., when one disposes over a breed of resolute men obedient to authority. Manned planes can then be constructed as airborne missiles, which from great heights can dive down to strike with lethal accuracy the nerve centers of enemy resistance. The result is a breed of men that can be sent off to war as cannon fodder. This would no doubt be the most dreadful symbol of the right to sovereign rule imaginable.
Battle of Lepanto, where the Turkish fleet organized itself for attack in the form of a crescent and the Christian fleet in the form of a cross
Architecture reconnects with battleplans: like structures to withstand air attack; and urban architecture reveals clear traits of prep for defense, like squared stone, iron-barred windows and steel-plated vaults of banks. If one were granted a wish, of a dream of happiness and life without pain, no image other than ‘One Million’ is evoked.
The enormous superiority of the smallest security force over the largest multitude. A 3-man machine gun fires in the air and 5000 protestors disperse without anyone even injured. In the face of the armored police wagon that drove straight through amassed protestors, the masses found themselves in a purely moral position: they booed and jeered.
The masses are moved morally: must be convinced the opponent is evil. The lumpenproletariat is beyond morals, ready to seize opportunity regardless of origin of social discontent. The reserve army that the social order keeps on alert.
The French have long been superior to us in dealing with the masses because they are more accustomed to the world of abstract ideas; nonetheless, they also had to pay a price early on for this lesson
the masses have been left with only one liberty, the liberty to consent. Parliaments and plebiscites are being transformed ever more clearly into acts of acclamation, whose manufacture replaces the free formation of public opinion. But this manufacture of consent signifies nothing other than the transformation of the masses from a moral agent into an object.
A clash of naval ships is distinguished by its unprecedented clarity. We can recall in our minds the course of naval battles right down to the minute and individual shells fired. Moreover, one sees neither the sailor, as he is invisible in a way more significant than purely physical, nor a mass of soldiers; instead, one sees the naval fleet or ship. We have before us one of those cases where man accepts his downfall as fate. His ultimate concern is no longer to try to avoid this fate, but to ensure that it takes place with a flag held high. In survivors’ accounts, one repeatedly comes across a remarkable attitude that leads one to believe that in the decisive moments death is simply not seen. This is especially true wherever in the zone of annihilation man’s focus remains squarely on utilizing weaponry. Only he who feels secure in immediate proximity to death finds himself in the highest state of security.
the rise of a more hardened and invulnerable type of soldier. The new logic broached earlier in connection to the principles of liberal education also impacts the soldier. In a world where warfare assumes the peculiar character of work, we can no longer speak of a people in arms in the traditional sense. Just as technology is superior to every imaginable deployment of human forces, so too do the teams operating this military technology presuppose a selection process different from universal military conscription.
If one were to characterize with a single word the type of human being taking shape today, one might say that one of its most salient features lies in its possession of a “second” consciousness. This second and colder consciousness reveals itself in the ever-increasing ability to see oneself as an object
The World War was the first great event recorded in this way, and since then there is no important event that the artificial eye fails to capture. The aim is to expose spaces otherwise inaccessible to the human eye. It has a telescopic quality; one can tell that the event photographed is seen by an insensitive and invulnerable eye. It records the bullet in mid-flight just as easily as it captures a man at the moment an explosion tears him apart
Photography, then, is an expression of our peculiarly cruel way of seeing. Ultimately, it is a kind of evil eye, a type of magical possession. One senses this very clearly in places where a different cultic substance is still active. The moment a city like Mecca can be photographed, it falls into the colonial sphere.
the event itself is completely subordinate to its “broadcast”; it thereby turns to a great degree into an object. We have grown accustomed to political trials, parliamentary meetings, and contests whose real purpose is to be the object of international broadcast. The event is bound neither to a particularspace nor to a particular time, because it can be shown anywhere and as often as one likes. These are the signs of an immense detachment, and the question arises whether this second consciousness we now see so tirelessly at work will be given a core set of values able to provide a deeper justification to the growing petrification of life
The secret design of artificial sense organs reveals spaces in which catastrophe plays a central role. In such spaces, the dispatch of commands must be more dependable, systematic, and secure. We are approaching the point where a news report, public warning, or imminent threat needs to reach us within minutes. Special forms of discipline are hidden behind the entertaining aspect of communications technologies, such as radio and film. With all likelihood, the broader public will become more aware of this, as listening, especially to public radio, becomes an obligation.
Today, we again are able to bear the sight of death with greater indifference, since we no longer feel at home in our body as we did before. It no longer accords with our style to stop a flying show or a car race simply because of a deadly accident. Such accidents lie not outside but inside the zone of a new kind of security.
In such a situation, pain remains the only measure promising a certainty of insights. Wherever values can no longer hold their ground, the movement toward pain endures as an astonishing sign of the times; it betrays the negative mark of a metaphysical structure. The practical consequence of this observation for the individual is, despite everything, the necessity to commit oneself to the preparation for war— regardless of whether he sees in it the preparatory stage of ruin or believes he sees on the hills covered with weather-worn crosses and wasted palaces the storm preceding the establishment of new orders of command.
The idea behind this peculiar organic construction drives the logic of the technical world a small step forward by transforming man in an unprecedented way into one of its component parts. If one enlarges upon this thought, one soon realizes that it is no longer considered a curiosity once achieved on a larger social scale, i.e., when one disposes over a breed of resolute men obedient to authority. Manned planes can then be constructed as airborne missiles, which from great heights can dive down to strike with lethal accuracy the nerve centers of enemy resistance. The result is a breed of men that can be sent off to war as cannon fodder. This would no doubt be the most dreadful symbol of the right to sovereign rule imaginable.
Battle of Lepanto, where the Turkish fleet organized itself for attack in the form of a crescent and the Christian fleet in the form of a cross
Architecture reconnects with battleplans: like structures to withstand air attack; and urban architecture reveals clear traits of prep for defense, like squared stone, iron-barred windows and steel-plated vaults of banks. If one were granted a wish, of a dream of happiness and life without pain, no image other than ‘One Million’ is evoked.
The enormous superiority of the smallest security force over the largest multitude. A 3-man machine gun fires in the air and 5000 protestors disperse without anyone even injured. In the face of the armored police wagon that drove straight through amassed protestors, the masses found themselves in a purely moral position: they booed and jeered.
The masses are moved morally: must be convinced the opponent is evil. The lumpenproletariat is beyond morals, ready to seize opportunity regardless of origin of social discontent. The reserve army that the social order keeps on alert.
The French have long been superior to us in dealing with the masses because they are more accustomed to the world of abstract ideas; nonetheless, they also had to pay a price early on for this lesson
the masses have been left with only one liberty, the liberty to consent. Parliaments and plebiscites are being transformed ever more clearly into acts of acclamation, whose manufacture replaces the free formation of public opinion. But this manufacture of consent signifies nothing other than the transformation of the masses from a moral agent into an object.
A clash of naval ships is distinguished by its unprecedented clarity. We can recall in our minds the course of naval battles right down to the minute and individual shells fired. Moreover, one sees neither the sailor, as he is invisible in a way more significant than purely physical, nor a mass of soldiers; instead, one sees the naval fleet or ship. We have before us one of those cases where man accepts his downfall as fate. His ultimate concern is no longer to try to avoid this fate, but to ensure that it takes place with a flag held high. In survivors’ accounts, one repeatedly comes across a remarkable attitude that leads one to believe that in the decisive moments death is simply not seen. This is especially true wherever in the zone of annihilation man’s focus remains squarely on utilizing weaponry. Only he who feels secure in immediate proximity to death finds himself in the highest state of security.
the rise of a more hardened and invulnerable type of soldier. The new logic broached earlier in connection to the principles of liberal education also impacts the soldier. In a world where warfare assumes the peculiar character of work, we can no longer speak of a people in arms in the traditional sense. Just as technology is superior to every imaginable deployment of human forces, so too do the teams operating this military technology presuppose a selection process different from universal military conscription.
If one were to characterize with a single word the type of human being taking shape today, one might say that one of its most salient features lies in its possession of a “second” consciousness. This second and colder consciousness reveals itself in the ever-increasing ability to see oneself as an object
The World War was the first great event recorded in this way, and since then there is no important event that the artificial eye fails to capture. The aim is to expose spaces otherwise inaccessible to the human eye. It has a telescopic quality; one can tell that the event photographed is seen by an insensitive and invulnerable eye. It records the bullet in mid-flight just as easily as it captures a man at the moment an explosion tears him apart
Photography, then, is an expression of our peculiarly cruel way of seeing. Ultimately, it is a kind of evil eye, a type of magical possession. One senses this very clearly in places where a different cultic substance is still active. The moment a city like Mecca can be photographed, it falls into the colonial sphere.
the event itself is completely subordinate to its “broadcast”; it thereby turns to a great degree into an object. We have grown accustomed to political trials, parliamentary meetings, and contests whose real purpose is to be the object of international broadcast. The event is bound neither to a particularspace nor to a particular time, because it can be shown anywhere and as often as one likes. These are the signs of an immense detachment, and the question arises whether this second consciousness we now see so tirelessly at work will be given a core set of values able to provide a deeper justification to the growing petrification of life
The secret design of artificial sense organs reveals spaces in which catastrophe plays a central role. In such spaces, the dispatch of commands must be more dependable, systematic, and secure. We are approaching the point where a news report, public warning, or imminent threat needs to reach us within minutes. Special forms of discipline are hidden behind the entertaining aspect of communications technologies, such as radio and film. With all likelihood, the broader public will become more aware of this, as listening, especially to public radio, becomes an obligation.
Today, we again are able to bear the sight of death with greater indifference, since we no longer feel at home in our body as we did before. It no longer accords with our style to stop a flying show or a car race simply because of a deadly accident. Such accidents lie not outside but inside the zone of a new kind of security.
In such a situation, pain remains the only measure promising a certainty of insights. Wherever values can no longer hold their ground, the movement toward pain endures as an astonishing sign of the times; it betrays the negative mark of a metaphysical structure. The practical consequence of this observation for the individual is, despite everything, the necessity to commit oneself to the preparation for war— regardless of whether he sees in it the preparatory stage of ruin or believes he sees on the hills covered with weather-worn crosses and wasted palaces the storm preceding the establishment of new orders of command.
June 5, 2016
This essay is preceded by an intro and foreword almost as long as the text itself, but the reader shouldn't let the work's brevity deter them from reading it. "On Pain," is a brilliant meditation on how we as a species are willing accomplices in our own dehumanization,via the technological tools we create and avail ourselves of daily. Nothing escapes Junger's ken, from the mass media, to tanks, to photographic cameras.
This work, though written more than half a century ago, remains prescient and relevant in its themes. The language is not too dense or obfuscatory, but every sentence and paragraph yields new meaning and dimensions upon repeat readings.
"On Pain" is part of a triptych of works that Junger wrote on characters/archetypes he saw emerging as human products of the increasingly complicated and nihilistic world we inhabit. The other works are "Die Arbeiter" (about "the worker" type) and "The Forest Passage" (about "the Anarch," a man who maintains his autonomy over his own mind and soul, regardless of the external pressures exerted on him or the power of the regime in whose shadow he suffers).
This is the better of the two between "On Pain" and "The Forest Passage" (I have yet to read "The Worker"), even though Junger offers a prescriptive way forward in "The Forest Passage," while merely offering an ominous catalog in this shorter, but better work. The future Junger depicts and the present he delineates are both dark (Junger is something of a fatalist, though he and some of his biographers would deny it), and there is something inexorable in the process he describes (thanks to Moore's Law of Exponential Growth), which means that things are even worse now than when Junger saw the storm coming on the horizon. But whether we are collectively doomed or not by the decisions we've made collectively, Junger's insight on display in this work have to be read to be believed. And then probably reread. Highest recommendation.
This work, though written more than half a century ago, remains prescient and relevant in its themes. The language is not too dense or obfuscatory, but every sentence and paragraph yields new meaning and dimensions upon repeat readings.
"On Pain" is part of a triptych of works that Junger wrote on characters/archetypes he saw emerging as human products of the increasingly complicated and nihilistic world we inhabit. The other works are "Die Arbeiter" (about "the worker" type) and "The Forest Passage" (about "the Anarch," a man who maintains his autonomy over his own mind and soul, regardless of the external pressures exerted on him or the power of the regime in whose shadow he suffers).
This is the better of the two between "On Pain" and "The Forest Passage" (I have yet to read "The Worker"), even though Junger offers a prescriptive way forward in "The Forest Passage," while merely offering an ominous catalog in this shorter, but better work. The future Junger depicts and the present he delineates are both dark (Junger is something of a fatalist, though he and some of his biographers would deny it), and there is something inexorable in the process he describes (thanks to Moore's Law of Exponential Growth), which means that things are even worse now than when Junger saw the storm coming on the horizon. But whether we are collectively doomed or not by the decisions we've made collectively, Junger's insight on display in this work have to be read to be believed. And then probably reread. Highest recommendation.
May 13, 2021
After reading Mr. Junger's Eumeswil, The Peace, and fragments from "Glass bees", I approached this book desiring to acknowledge a combatant's point of view on the notion of pain, resilience, hardening and maturation. I was not disappointed. Although I haven't witnessed a war, I underwent mental torment in psychoses, and several years ago I decided to confront it and rise above the pain it inflicted. It paid off, as I am much more disciplined, stern, and focused than ever before and it took me years to get there. Relation to pain is like thanatology - death and pain is hidden, we merely engage in spectator's sport. Although one may blame the pain-triumphant on the experiences of war, it is merely an inevitable warning from a more experienced man. I observe character-less (ethosless) faces of men and women everyday in the streets of Warsaw, they are a cry for a future tragedy. They melted into a mass a long time ago, I observe other European physiognomies like Europeans see Asians - they are similar in their bureacratic-technocratic dullness. Yet, yet, when a face strikes me with gesture, raw beauty, character and robust experience written all over it - a rare view - I attempt to drink its thoughts, suspended between the object and the subject in an unwritten recognition. That is how a woman I onced loved was - raw, wild, heroic, and embracing my pain in silence, proud of my overcoming, silently appraising my forging.
May 24, 2019
A brief, gross flash of clear reactionary thought. Interesting in how the intelligent reactionary sees things very clearly vis-a-vis the worker (objectification, alienation, and subjection). Junger can see it all, he just gives it a positive valuation. I did the same thing back when I was the heel in school. The amazing thing is that a soldier who served in WWI could have written this.
You can almost see the germ of accelerationism being born. Within the soldier is the new worker, the person able to look beyond pain, the person who can begin to see themselves as an object uncomplainingly. Someone riding the crest of the wave destroying traditional structures, becoming as malleable as our evolving tech.
An interesting companion piece to folks interested in Schmittian thought. I would skip the Telos Press intro and just read the translator's intro, which is really interesting and free of useless editorials, thoroughly situating the book in Junger's other writings as well as German conservative thought during the rise of National Socialism. Or just read the translator's intro and skip the whole book. That'd be good too.
You can almost see the germ of accelerationism being born. Within the soldier is the new worker, the person able to look beyond pain, the person who can begin to see themselves as an object uncomplainingly. Someone riding the crest of the wave destroying traditional structures, becoming as malleable as our evolving tech.
An interesting companion piece to folks interested in Schmittian thought. I would skip the Telos Press intro and just read the translator's intro, which is really interesting and free of useless editorials, thoroughly situating the book in Junger's other writings as well as German conservative thought during the rise of National Socialism. Or just read the translator's intro and skip the whole book. That'd be good too.
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