Paranoid Fantasy & Enemy Creation
Papers Accepted for Publication

Peter
Bloom

Fighting the "Real" Enemy: Fantasizing the Liberal "Final Solution"

This paper argues that all enemies, whether or not they constitute an actual threat, reflect an illusionary identity connected to a cultural fantasy. Collective paranoia, Bloom suggests, can be witnessed in the desire of Nazis to destroy Jews, as well as in the contemporary desire of liberals to destroy enemies of democracy such as Islamic terrorists. According to Bloom, despite normative differences, each ideology relies on a fantasy characterized by the need to ‘eradicate’ its adversaries.

Geoffrey
Cocks

The Body Politic: Hitler, Paranoia, and "the Jew" in Modern Germany

Geoffrey Cocks shows that the well-being of self, body and mind constituted a fundamental concern within the Nazi system of medical surveillance. Physicians embraced the ideal of preserving the ‘eternal’ body of the nation, given their inability to preserve the mortal body of individuals. Within this framework, Jews were constructed as a biological threat to the German body—and needed to be extinguished.

Panayiotis
Demopoulos

Götterdämmerung: Suicide Music and the National Self as Enemy

This paper offers a psychological interpretation of the meaning of music in the last days of the Third Reich. Analyzing the repertoire of Nazi concerts, Demopoulos suggests that music created an atmosphere of contagious seduction and air of cynicism and resignation. From this it became evident, Demopoulos contends, that the repertoire chosen symbolized a funeral march for the entire nation.

Tracie
Provost

This article looks at the Dolchstoss legend, which contended that the strong German Army in World War I was stabbed in the back by the civilian government, leading to Germany’s defeat by the Allies. Provost argues that this legend continued to live and influence German politics in the aftermath of World War I. The legend was used to vilify individuals and the civilian government, and to build up a perception of the German army as heroic and undefeated—undermining the fledgling Weimar democracy.

Mikkel
Thorup

Total Enemies: Understanding "The Total Enemy" through Schmitt, Arendt, Foucault, and Agamben

This article explores the idea that totalitarianism introduced a new process of enemy creation: the ‘total enemy’ whose status was derived from being rather than action. Addressing theories of Schmitt, Arendt and Foucault, the author shows that the new enemy was conceived as a global criminal acting against the interests of the entire world. In this model, the enemy is conceptualized as a profound biological and psychological threat, requiring extinction.

Michael
Vlahos

America is a Religion: Our High-Church National Politics

This article suggests that American national politics resembles an organized religion. Contrary to secular narratives about their identity, Vlahos contends, American national values are sacred to many Americans. He interprets the contemporary political landscape in the US, with its stark divisions between Republicans and Democrats, in light of this religious paradigm. Vlahos suggests that American political discourse revolves around notions of ‘us’ versus ‘them’—in which the political other is construed as the enemy.

Michael
Vlahos

Counterterrorism, American Exceptionalism, and Retributive Justice

This essay traces the historical antecedents of American civil religion, examining how “terrorism” increasingly has been construed as an existential threat to American civil-religious identity. The author argues that contemporary counterterrorism policy represents a radically new and troubling brand of “exceptionalism.” The belief that this country is uniquely “set apart” for the greater good of humanity has morphed into a dark paradigm where purging terrorists means continually flaying “the sea in which they swim”—as the poisonous source of threat to the pure American body.

Bradley
Young

The Symbolic Dimensions of Torture in the War on Terror

This article explores the symbolic meaning of torturing detained suspects in the War on Terror. Going beyond notions of law, morality and the efficient extraction of reliable intelligence, Young argues that torture feeds, condenses and displaces public anxieties by projecting them onto the terrorist enemy. These projections, the author contends, constitute the symbolic value of torture.