FROM ANDREW "THE HAMMER" HAMMER
The summaries or epigrams that we have published  during the past year are the result of a series of full-length papers that Dr. Richard Koenigsberg has published during the past twenty-five years. The Newsletter entries may be viewed as conclusions or "Final Solutions" on the nature and meaning of war, genocide and terrorism.

In the next several Newsletter we will publish a selection of Koenigsberg's papers, some published originally in journals, others presented at scholarly conferences. Below are summaries of the first six of these. Please CLICK THROUGH THE LINKS to read the full papers or presentations.

By reading these papers and presentations, you will begin to become familiar with the body of work from which Koenigsberg's LAW OF SACRIFICE has emerged.

Best regards,

Andrew C. Hammer: July 20, 2023. 4:30PM
  1. As the Soldier Dies, so the Nation Comes Alive: The phrase, “The individual must die so that the nation might live” reifies nation-states, treating nations as objects that substantially exist;  as entities in their own right separate from the human beings that constitute them.”
     
  2. Awakening from the Nightmare of History: A psychological approach to the study of society identifies the sources and meanings of its cultural formations. For any ideology or institution, I pose the question: “Why does it exist?” Understanding an element of culture requires discovering or uncovering the psychic function it provides or performs for human beings.  An ideology or institution comes into being—is embraced and perpetuated—insofar as it does something (psychologically) for members of this society.
     
  3. Aztec Warriors/Western Soldiers: The Body Politic Feeds Upon Human Bodies: Just as the Aztec warrior was expected to feed his body and blood to the sun god, so Western soldiers during the First World War were required to feed their bodies and blood to gods called nation-states. In each case, warfare was undertaken and perpetuated under the assumption that the “lives” of these cultural objects—conceived as omnipotent—were more significant than the lives of human beings. Germany, France and Great Britain were fed with the bodies and blood of soldiers—sacrificial victims—in order to keep these entities alive.

    “The individual must die so that the nation might live” is a phrase that has been uttered throughout the history of warfare. What does this mean? The First World War enacted this proposition: the nation was imagined to come alive insofar as individuals were fed with the bodies and blood of soldiers.
     
  4. Buddhist Practice as a Methodology for the Analysis of Political Ideology:: Buddhism is a psychological practice revolving around the “non-attachment,” proposing a method allowing the self to develop distance from culture and societal entities. This methodology is applicable to the study of political ideologies. Buddhist practice cultivates a psychic distance or separateness from cultural ideals and values. Buddhist practice nurtures and expands a part of the self that is separate from culture and ideologies. The purpose is to develop a psychic place or space that has not been colonized by the symbolic order.
     
  5. Civilization and Sacrificial Death: The evidence shows that Hitler waged war—not only to kill “enemies,” but also to sacrifice the German people. His ideology was an ideology of death. There is barely a single sentence in Mein Kampf about “conquest,” although most historians, without evidence, assume this was his objective. This is the way it looked. Hitler’s passion, however, was to sacrifice his own people to the German nation, “obedience unto death;” then to kill Jews who, he believed, were characterized by their unwillingness to sacrifice their lives for Germany—or any other country. The Holocaust mirrored the sacrificial performance of war. If German soldiers were required to die, Jews would not be exempt. They too had to forfeit their lives for Germany.
     
  6. Death to the Non-Believers: Political Violence as Terrorism: The phrase “Death to the non-believers” conveys the central meaning of collective forms of violence. Members of one group seek to dominate or kill members of another group that do not bow down to the sacred object worshipped by one’s own group. Political violence—warfare, genocide and terrorism—is intended to compel belief: force members of another group to submit to the sacred object to which members of one’s own group have submitted.