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3-30-03
THE
LITTLE NAZI
Sometimes I write on
things I put in my journal years ago. Today's topic comes from today's
reading about Iraqi War events and some old thoughts from Morton Kelsey.
Both sides are getting nasty in the Iraqi War. The Iraqis are reported
to have cut out a man's tongue and let him bleed to death. Tony Blair
says they've executed 5 British POWs. We're bombing indiscriminately and
the hospitals are full of wounded and dying civilians.
War brings out the worst in people. As Kelsey says, "Scratch the
surface of a human being and the demons of hate and revenge, avarice and
bestiality and sheer destructiveness break forth and are usually
performed by men and women who never before had done such things."
The evolutionists would say it's a hangover from primordial man where
survival was a daily challenge. Theologians will say it's a hangover
from the first sin in the garden of Eden. Freud said it was repressed
hostile frustrations breaking through from the unconscious.
Frankly, I don't know. Maybe it's a little of all the above. The
important thing to realize is there's a Little Nazi in each of us and
the thing to do is to work on our self-awareness. Only through a high
level of self-awareness can we see him and begin working to transform
the little rat.
Our choices in dealing with Little Nazi are denial, repression or
transformation. To deny his existence is to give him power to break
forth at any time with no control. Strangely, that which we deny in the
realities of our emotional nature becomes the most dangerous. It's like
Inspector Clouseau's Chinaman who leaps out of the closet with a karate
chop and breaks up all the furniture in the house trying to brutalize
him. You can deny the Chinaman in your closet but you invite having your
skull split open unexpectedly.
Repression has a similar problem. That which is repressed will come back
to the surface in destructive behavior, like a ping-pong ball
pushed to the bottom of a bucket. The deeper you push it, the more
powerfully it will surface.
Transformation is possible. The first step in transformation of the
Little Nazi is self-awareness itself. To become aware of hate, revenge,
and all the destructive emotions is to partially disable them. This
awareness must then be followed up with a spiritual practice.
A good spiritual practice is one that works for you. Meditation, prayer,
spiritual reading and group activity with seekers of truth and a higher
reality is essential.
Without self-awareness, the Little Nazi will be free to leap forth and
turn you into a monster at any time.
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