>On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> kelley wrote:
>>
>> >does anyone psychoanalyze the masterminds of our war machine?
>>
>> I don't know, but someone should. Why not?
>>
>> Doug
>>
>
>Any psychoanalysis here is neither necessary nor sufficient as an
>analysis of the U. S. war machine. Any psychological processes
>(e.g., sublimination) that a Freudian might posit here can only
>have real social and material effects if there
>is a complex network of technology, political relations, and
>economic arrangements that exists above and beyond any one
>person's unconscious conflicts and wishes.
>
>I think it's a lot more productive to look at how social relations
>produce a society with a war machine and the kind of people who can
>"mastermind" the machine.
I don't see why these forms of analysis are competing or mutually exclusive.
Some people go along, some people dissent, some people don't care. Why? Some messages have broad public resonance and others don't. Why? At critical moments, popular opinion can change dramatically - why? I don't know really, but they seem like questions worth asking.
Doug