There has been considerable talk lately of the potential for violence arising from inflammatory rhetoric and advertising in the current presidential campaign. Efforts to associate Obama with terrorists and terrorism, violence against ACORN, and race-baiting have all been in the news in the last few days. And yet it is difficult to look at and consider these problems because we are in a political campaign. The shape of this kind of battle makes considered reflection difficult.
There are huge forces at work in our country today and they bring with them an increased need to pay attention. As Jung said:
The change of character brought about by the uprush of collective forces is amazing. A gentle and reasonable being can be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast. One is always inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing could explode in us if it had not been there. As a matter of fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a possible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach. It is certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd in a collective frenzy? There is not much difference between them because the madman and the mob are both moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces. *
* "Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. para.25