Howard Bloom has one of the world's most powerful minds. Apart from the fact that he did not flinch--and contributed numerous fruitful ideas of his own--when I presented the terrifying details of the First World War (which I've been studying for thirty years), he astonished me at 20:14 of the recording.

Howard did not know I was going to speak about the Russo-Japanese war. But at 20:14 he goes into a spontaneous (obviously unrehearsed), six-minute riff--on Japanese culture in the years preceding the war and on Russian culture in the years preceding the war. He goes on to describes the naval-battle that occurred between Japan and Russia (and its aftermath). 

With so many things on his mind, how was it possible that he had reserved a substantial space in his brain for the Russo-Japanese war? 

Richard A. Koenigsberg

Click the arrow below to listen to the podcast. “What compels a group of soldiers to willingly run into a barrage of automatic weapons during World War I? How did the kamikaze pilots come to believe their actions were warranted? Blood, sacrifice and so much more are discussed in this week with special guest Richard A. Koenigsberg.” If you have a problem hearing the audio contact MeiChan1@libraryofsocialscience.com But you shouldn't have a problem. Enjoy! Richard A. Koenigsberg is director of the Library of Social Science and author of:   Nations Have the Right to Kill  Hitler's Ideology Bloom is founder of THE HOWARD BLOOM INSTITUTE He is the author of: The Muhammad Code   Click the links above for information on how to purchase either of the books. For information on purchasing The Muhammad Code, click the link above

Koenigsberg reminded listeners that for the most part, soldiers involved in killing during World War I did not see their victims: they shot machine guns and artillery shells and did not have close encounters with the deaths they caused. Thus, soldiers were not motivated by visceral enjoyment of bloodshed.

Invoking Horace’s phrase, “It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country,” Koenigsberg suggested that sacrificial ideology is at the “core of Western civilization.” However, Koenigsberg he also described non-Western examples of this ideology, which indicates that the masochistic phenomenon he has identified may be a universal human propensity.

To support this hypothesis, Koenigsberg cited the ancient Aztec culture, for whom the goal of war was not only to win, but to acquire sacrificial victims. The Aztecs conducted “flowery wars”—rituals with equal numbers of troops on both side—to fulfill a perceived need for sacrificial victims to appease the gods.

This preoccupation with sacrifice was a contributing factor in Cortez’s triumph. The Aztecs were focused on procuring live sacrificial victims: transporting Spanish victims to the sacrificial block after they had captured them. The compulsion to sacrifice Spanish victims consumed their energy and time, distracting the Aztecs from the task of “winning.” Despite being hugely outnumbered Cortez, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, conquered the Aztec empire.

When societies wage war, there is usually something in the name of which people kill and die—the worship of a sacred object that justifies the enterprise. For Hitler it was Germany; for the Aztecs it was the Sun God; for George W. Bush it was freedom & democracy; for martyrs in the Middle East, it is Allah. Sacrifice is a bonding mechanism that validates the entity for which the sacrifice is made.

After the Vietnam War, the sacrificial mechanism in the United States deteriorated. Koenigsberg alluded to the “counter-sacrificial culture of the 1990s:" reluctance to sacrifice. George W. Bush tried to overcome this sensibility--persuading Americans to relearn how to die for a sacred ideal—in the Iraq War.

Koenigsberg explained how Japan’s 1905 victory in the Russo-Japanese War influenced European military strategists in World War I. They admired the Japanese soldiers’ spiritual willingness to give their lives. Japanese leaders explained to their soldiers that the goal of entering battle, was not necessarily to "win," but to have the honor of sacrificing their lives.

Willingness to die for the Emperor was ingrained; an absolute. The rallies Hitler conducted to generate a frenzy of nationalistic enthusiasm was not necessary in Japan.

Koenigsberg suggested that Westerners have the illusion that they are rational because they no longer die for religion. But we still have an object that we religiously worship (the country). Ernst Kantorowicz argued that martyrdom for the church transformed into martyrdom for the state.

Dougatz argued that civilization is a “mandate.” But Koenigsberg noted that so-called “civilization” can be the source of horrific carnage, as in World War I. Bloom wondered if there are other ways people can connect to each other and society if we abandon or transcend sacrifice as a bonding mechanism?