| War as a sacrificial duty, though performing essentially destructive functions, has for men the significance of a destruction put into the service of the preservation of what they love.
Fanatic behavior, the idealization of the leader, the need to sacrifice oneself in
the name of an ideal, the giving and receiving of martyrdom, and the soldier's being both the sacrificer & the victim in the sacrificial rite.
What lies at the basis of this peculiar tendency of man to create certain values
in the name of which he feels he must sacrifice himself?
What is this absolute and unconditional something that would justify the establishment of a masochistic-sacrificial position? The masochistic-sacrificial position becomes a sort of supervalue because it is put into the service
of that absolute and unconditional something. Those who make war are not driven by a hate need, but by a love need. They
feel they must accept the need for self-sacrifice so that their love objects might live. Men see war as a duty toward their love object. What is at stake in war is not so much the safety of the individual as the safety of the collective love object. |