Zeitfragen

James Cumes

The Human Mirror

The Narcissistic Imperative
in Human Behaviour

The Rise and Fall of Empires

So, from our earliest days, we will be, consciously or otherwise, engaged in a search for - or will hope to chance upon - those things that we ourselves value highly. We will seek to avoid - or will, by chance, be repulsed by - those things that are unfamiliar to us or which , because we associate them with "bad" experiences, we value less. Maturity will consist, not in elimination of the self, but a more expert search for it. Maturity will consist, not in total, inward-looking self-obsession as in autism, but in seeking the self manifested in other, external objects.

That is what narcissism really is. Past definitions have led us astray. It is not the absorption of the self in an identification of other objects as being the self, but the seeking of the self through and as manifested by other objects. As we shall see, that was the true experience of Narcissus. He did not see his reflection as an image of himself. In falling in love with that image, he believed himself to be in love with another. He was distraught because, though the image approached and seemed to welcome him, it disappeared when he touched it. Having refused all other suitors, he now became obsessed, as a suitor himself, with an image identical with himself; but this image he saw as and believed to be another person.

If, as can reasonably be postulated, that is the true narcissism, is it a disease, a mental or spiritual aberration, a manifestation of immaturity or is it a natural and ineradicable part of man's personality, dominating our sexual lives, our mating instincts, our concepts of the society in which we want to live, our attitudes to race and our evolution to what we might - diversely - regard as higher forms? Does it, perhaps through the perfect cloning of the physical self, ultimately offer man the only or best chance he will ever have of immortality? - These are the matters we will now look at more closely.

After Hiroshima:
Observations Inside the US Cabinet

Two Axioms on the Proliferation of Atomic Science:
HENRY A. WALLACE to HARRY S. TRUMAN

Albert Wohlstetter`s (*) Perspective on Nuclear Energy

American Dreams and Albert Wohlstetter
Intellectual Roots of Neo-Conservative Thinking (SvZ)
Neocons: The men behind the curtain (BAS)

The EU-3 U-Turn towards Iran since November -
Nuclear Weapons Physicist Gordon Prather explains
How Condi scuttled EU-Iran Agreement /
More empty threats against Iran

Die Friedenspfeife auf dem Tisch

”...die Spannungen, die wir möglicherweise mit Iran wegen seiner ziemlich uneinsichtigen und sehr starren Haltung in der atomaren Frage bekommen,” so Bundeskanzler Schröder im Herbst letzten Jahres, können allem Anschein nach weder mit den Konzepten der Troika-Diplomatie noch dem Drohpotential der USA endgültig bereinigt werden. Hier wird eine andere, noch zu wenig durchdachte Orientierung in den Vordergrund gestellt: Objektive Garantien unter der Aufsicht und mit den Mitteln der schon vor dem Irak-Krieg bewährten Experten der Internationalen Atomenergieagentur - freilich eine Orientierung, von der sich die deutsche Politik seit mehr als 25 Jahren entfremdet hat.

Von Kaveh L. Afrasiabi

Doesn’t this mean that the Non-Proliferation Treaty is deader than a doornail? - A Memo on the Margin by Jude Wanniski

A Perfect Fit: Wolfowitz at the World Bank / A Memo on this margin from Jude Wanniski

A Message for Bob Herbert (NYT) from James Cumes
Roosevelt‘s Vision: How we got from there to here

Meet Uncle Sam - Without Clothes...
By Andre Gunder Frank, 06.01.05

Prologue to “The Multiple Abyss”
By James Cumes

Will Fallujah be Iraq‘s Bunker Hill?
By Henry C. K. Liu, April 28, 2004

Busharon: The Countdown
By Uri Avnery, 15.5.04

Die Welt nach dem Irak-Krieg
Wege aus der Krise - Wege zum „Neuen Atlantischen Bündnis“
Von Hans-Georg Wieck (*)

Roosevelt als Epoche

Zeitfrage Roosevelt - New Deal
oder nur ein neuer Dealer?

Auch eine Einführung zum Tagebuch von Henry A. Wallace 1945 „Into the Cold War“ / Von David Hartstein

Victory Over Want
and the Four Freedoms
By James Cumes

Three Philosophies
Vice President Henry A. Wallace
in "Century of the Common Man"(1943)

Peaceful Atomic Abundance
Excerpts from the Diary of Henry A. Wallace 1945
Into the Cold War