On Pain
I am reading a book by Ernst Jünger, the WWI era German writer and survivor of trench warfare. Jünger’s claim to fame is his book based upon his daily journals written while fighting in the trenches entitled Storm of Steel. His book On Pain was written and published in 1934. Jünger is an excellent writer, a keen observer, with an analytical mind.
Here are a few excerpts that I find stimulating:
The secret of modern sensitivity is that it corresponds to a world in which the body is itself the highest value. This observation explains why modern sensitivity relates to pain as a power to be avoided at all cost, because here pain confronts the body not as an outpost but as the main force and essential core of life. p. 17
The assault on individual liberty inevitably involves an assault on liberal education. This becomes apparent when we are forced to deny the right to free inquiry. Free inquiry is impossible wherever its essential purpose is preparation for war, because like a blind man, free inquiry opens all doors arbitrarily. Yet today the only door to unlock is the one to power. p 20
In photographic images that, taken in flight at high altitudes, capture the sight of massive deployments of troops, one sees in the depths below orderly squares and human columns, magical figures whose innermost meaning is directed to the exorcism of pain. p. 23
The growing objectification of our life appears most distinctly in technology, this great mirror, which is sealed off in a unique way from the grip of pain. Technology is our uniform. p. 31
