Junger

“Since the War’s end, the denial of pain as a necessary 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.”   - 10

I chose this passage because I think it’s very relevant to our time.  Right before this passage, Junger talks about this cult of reason, that reason is leading us to a better world.  I liken it to this mentality that people have of “look, how far we’ve come!  Look how great everything is!” We point to our smartphones or our social media and claim that we’ve reached the highest point of humanity.  But at heart, the world is as barbaric as ever.  The idea of civilization is just a glossy sheen on an old product, perhaps one that is as worse as ever.  

And here is where the Junger passage is so important.  He says that since the end of World War I, the denial of pain - the truth - has become a necessary ingredient of living.  There is so much pain and so much brutality around us that the only way man doesn’t go crazy is by desensitizing himself to it.  He lists a variety of social malaises that we tend to ignore - squalid quarters for the unemployed.  It reminded me of when we see homeless people on the street in New York City.  These days, we barely even flinch, let alone give money to beggars because they’re everywhere.  I remember a friend visiting me from Sweden and she was so shocked at how many poor people we have here and her instinct was to give something; I barely noticed the beggars.  She, clearly, was not dehumanized as Junger would put it.  Her ability to fathom pain was not as well-attuned as mine at the moment.  

The world that Junger is describing is very relevant to our own.  Going back to my point, we have here in the US such amazing achievements:  technologies, skyscrapers, everything we could imagine.  We look at these things and think about how much we have achieved, that we’re the greatest country in the world.  But do these things truly matter?  Who are we as a society?  Beneath this so-called progress is much inequality, division, ignorance.  But we’ve been able to ignore these because I think the ability to stomach pain is highly prevalent in American society.