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Ernst Junger - The Retreat Into The Forest
Ernst Junger - The Retreat Into The Forest
Washington library and scanned it into the computer this afternoon. My OCR
software is mediocre so please bear with the misspellings.
Thanks Richard for the tip!
Page #s (127-142) and headers from the journal occur every few paragraphs.
If anybody knows of any other essays published in any other English
periodicals please let me know. I don't speak German.
Earl Ryan
[-------------------------------------------Confluence, vol 3, #2, June 1954
-------------------------------------------- ]
127 EUROPEAN VIEWS
The Retreat Into the Forest
ERNST JUNGER
FEAR is one of the most characteristic phenomena of our age. Its appearance
is all the more perplexing, because it follows closely upon an era of
individual freedom in which even the misery which was still familiar to
Dickens had become almost unknown.
How did this reversal come about? Were one to choose a turning point, one
would find none more suitable than the day of the Titanic shipwreck. There
light and darkness clash; the hubris of progress is confronted by panic,
luxurious comfort by destruction, automatism by the catastrophe which
appears as a traffic accident.
Indeed, increasing automatism and anxiety are closely related. They appear
whenever man limits the scope of his decisions in order to ease his fate by
technological means. To be sure, these limitations result in a variety of
conveniences; but they are accompanied by an increasing loss of freedom.
The individual is no longer rooted in society as a tree in a forest, rather
he is comparable to the passenger in a rapidly moving vehicle whose name may
be "Titanic," but also "Leviathan." As long as the weather holds and the
outlook is pleasant, he will scarcely notice the curtailment of his freedom.
He may even be filled with optimism and with the consciousness of power
produced by the sense of speed. But all this changes when the fiery
volcanic islands and icebergs emerge on the horizon. Then not only will
technology claim a right to dominate fields other than the procurement of
comfort, but at the same time the lack of freedom will
JUNGER, Ernst; born 1895; Author; Works include In Stahlgewittern, ig2o, Der
Kampf als 1'nneres Erlebnis, 1922, Der Arbeite@-, 1932, Auf den
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129
altogether different from that at the beginning of the century. The old
security has disappeared, and we must adjust our thinking accordingly.
Questions press in on us ever more closely, ever more menacingly, and the
manner in which we answer becomes increasingly significant. And even
silence has become an answer. These are the dilemmas of the age, and there
is no escape from them.
Another characteristic of our period is the intertwining of significant
events with insignificant representatives. This is particularly remarkable
in our great men. They make the impression of figures which can be seen in
any number in the coffee-houses of Vienna or in provincial officers' clubs.
These are the men who cause millions to tremble, who shape the fate of
countless numbers. And yet they are the very men whom our time has selected
with unfailing tact, d we consider it under one of its aspects, that of a
tremendous wrecking enterprise. All these liquidations, rationalizations,
socializations, clectrifications and pulverizations require neither culture
nor character, both of which are a threat to the automatism. Wherever in
our period power is essential, it is attracted by the individual in whom the
insignificant is coupled with a strong will.
Such phenomena have occurred before in the history of mankind. They might
be counted among the atrocities which are rarely missing when great
transformations take place. More disquieting is the fact that cruelty
threatens to become not an accompaniment but an inseparable element of the
new power structures, and that the individual is exposed to it without any
possibility of defending himself. There are several reasons for this, above
all the fact that rational thinking is itself cruel and that this cruelty
then enters into the proc130
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these conditions human beings would rather submit to the most oppressive
burdens than to be counted among those who are "different." Seemingly
without effort the automatism succeeds in destroying the remnants of free
will, and persecution becomes ubiquitous like an all-pervasive element.
Escape may be possible for a favored few, but it usually leads to something
worse. Resistance only animates the Leviathan by giving him a welcome
pretext for repressive measures. In the face of such conditions only one
hope seems to remain, that the process may spend itself like a volcano
spends its fiery ashes.
But at this point a question arises, which is not at all theoretical, but an
inevitable concomitant of every contemporary existence whether there is not,
after all, another road that may be traveled, whether there do not exist
mountain passes which can be discovered only after a long ascent. New
conceptions of authority and great concentrations of power have arisen. In
order to resist them, we reTHE RETREAT INTO THE FOMT
131
lose their menace, but they will assume a positive significance. We shall
call this reorientation toward
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Being the retreat into the forest (Waldgang), and the man who carries it out
the wanderer in the forest (Waldganger). Similar to the term "worker"
(,4rbeiter), it signifies a scale of values. For it applies not only to a
variety of forms of activity, but also to various stages in the expression
of an underlying attitude. The term has its prehistory in an old Icelandic
custom. The ;retreat into the forest followed upon proscription. Through
it a man asserted his will to survive by virtue of his own strength. That
was held to be honorable, and it is still so today in spite of all
commonplaces to the contrary.
Wanderers in the forest (Waldganger) are all those who, isolated by great
upheavals, are confronted with ultimate annihilation. Since this could be
the fate of many, indeed, of all, another defining characteristic must be
added: the wanderer in the forest (Waldganger) is determined to offer
resistance. He is willing to enter into a struggle that may appear
hopeless. Hence he is distinguished by an immediate relationship to freedom
which expresses itself in the fact that he is prepared to oppose the
automatism and to reject its ethical conclusion of fatalism. If we look at
him in this fashion, we shall understand the role which the retreat into the
forest (Waldgang) plays not only in our thoughts but also in the realities
of our age. Everyone today is subject to coercion, and the attempts to
banish it are bold experiments upon which depends a destiny far greater than
the fate of those who dare to undertake them.
The retreat into the forest (Waldgang) is not to be understood
as a form of anarchism directed against the world of technology, although
this is a temptation, particularly for those who strive to regain a myth.
Undoubtedly, mythology will appear again. It is always present and arises
in a propitious hour like a treasure coming to the surface. But man does
not return to the realm of myth, he reencounters it when the age is out of
joint and in the magic circle of extreme danger. It is not a question
therefore of choosing the forest or the ship but of choosing both the forest
and the ship. The number of those who want to abandon the ship is growing,
and among them are clear heads and fine minds. But it amounts to a
disembarkation in mid-ocean. Hunger will follow, and
THE RETREAT INTO THE FOREST 133
cannibalism, and the sharks: in short, all the terrors that have been
reported from the raft of Medusa. Hence it is advisable under all
circumstances to stay aboard even at the danger of being blown up. This
objection is not directed against the poet who reveals - through his life as
well as through his work - the vast superiority of the artistic universe
over the world of technology. He helps man to rediscover himself: the poet
is a wanderer in the forest (Waldganger), for authorship is merely another
form of independence.
In general, we are not concerned with specific political and technological
configurations. Their fleeting images pass, but the menace remains or
returns with ever greater speed and with increased impact. The opponents
come to resemble one another to such an extent that it is easy to recognize
them as disguises of the very same power. Our task then is not to master
the external phenomena here or there, but to subdue the age. That requires
a sovereign will which, nowadays, is to be found less in heroic decisions
than in the man who has forsworn fear in his own heart. The immense
precautions of the state are directed against him and him alone, and yet
ultimately they are destined to bring about his triumph. When he realizes
this, he is liberated and dictatorships sink into dust. Therein lie the
untapped resources of our age and not only of ours. This is the theme of
all history and it defines history, setting it apart from the realm of the
demons and from mere zoological events. It is anticipated by myth and by
the great religions, and recurs forever. Again and again giants and titans
appear with the same seemingly overwhelming superiority, only to be felled
by the free man who need not always be a prince or a Heracles. The stone
from the sling of the shepherd, the banner raised by a maiden, and a
crossbow, have also been known to suffice.
III
At this point another question arises. To what extent is freedom desirable
in the first place? Can it serve a purpose within our present historical
situation? Is it not a distinctive merit of contemporary man - and a merit
easily underestimated - that he knows how to
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in a different guise and must be conquered anew. History in the true sense
can be made only by free men; it is the form given by the free to his
destiny. In this sense, man can act as a symbol; his sacrifice includes and
counts for the other members of the community. It cannot be our task, then,
to change the design of the universe. But palaces could be built upon it
and not only the ant-heaps anticipated by the utopias of our day.
Let us consider a further objection. Should we restrict ourselves to a
philosophy of catastrophe? Should we - and be it only in our spiritual
preoccupations - seek out the waters of extreme danger, the cataracts, the
maelstroms, the huge abysses?
This is an objection not to be underestimated. Much is to be said for the
judicious man who maps out the safe itineraries with the firm will to
persevere in his course. It is a problem which can assume practical
aspects, as in the case of armaments. Armaments are deTHE RETREAT INTO THE FOREST
135
simple human beings who did not submit to the power of hatred and fear or to
the automatism of slogans. They resisted
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137
against the age, and, indeed, not against this age only, but against every
age whose basic motivation is fear. It is in the nature of things that
education today aims at the very opposite. Never before have such strange
notions concerning the teaching of history existed. All these systems are
designed to cut off the influx of metaphysics, to domesticate and to drill
the spirits for the benefit of the collective. Even when the Leviathan is
obliged to rely upon courage, as on the battlefield, it will attempt to keep
the fighting man in place with a
second and stronger menace. In such states one depends on the police.
We touch here the core of modern suffering, the great emptiness, which
Nietzsche called the growth of the desert. The desert is growing; this is
the spectacle of civilization with its draining relationships. In this
landscape we yearn for sustenance: "The desert is growing; woe to him who
contains deserts within himself." It will be well if the churches create
oases. It will be better still if man is not satisfied even with that. The
church can give us assistance, but not existence. The decision will take
place within man; no one can spare him his travails.
The great loneliness of the individual belongs to the characteristics of the
age. He is surrounded and imprisoned by anxiety which closes in upon him
like approaching walls. Anxiety becomes tangible in the prisons, in
slavery, and in the battles of modern war. These experiences fill the
thoughts, the soliloquies, perhaps even the diaries in years when a man may
not even trust his closest neighbor. Yet the proximity of saving powers is
also felt. The terrors are alarms, symptoms of ever more insistent
questions which are being put to man. No one can spare him the answer.
The desert is growing; the faded, infertile spheres are multiplying. The
fields which gave life purpose are disappearing; so are the gardens from
which one can take nourishment without suspicion, the sheds which have
familiar tools. The laws have become dubious, the weapons double-edged.
Woe to him who harbors deserts; who does not contain, be it only in one
cell, the substance which ever again guarantees fertility.
138 ELTROPEAN VIEWS
IV
It is frightening how concepts and objects often change their appearance
over night, and produce wholly unexpected results. That is a symptom of
anarchy. Let us consider, for instance, freedom and the rights of the
individual in relation to authority. These are determined by the
constitution. Again and again, and, unfortunately, for some time to come,
we will have to expect the violation of these rights by the state, by a
party which has seized the state, by a foreign invader, or by a combination
of these forces. It may be said that the masses, at least in our country,
are in a state where they scarcely perceive the violation of the
Constitution any longer. It seems that they are far more concerned with
football games than with their own basic rights. Once this consciousness is
lost, it cannot be restored artificially.
The violation of a law can assume a legal varnish; for example, when a
ruling party prevails upon a majority to change the constitution. The
majority can be right and yet commit wrong, a contradiction that the
simple-minded cannot grasp. Even at plebiscites it is often difficult to
decide where the law ends and violence begins. These encroachments can
gradually gain in strength until they assume the character of pure
atrocities. Those who witnessed these actions, accompanied by the applause
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realization is of much greater value than the attempt to reintroduce old and
obsolete values with the pretense that they might still be effective. Our
eyes reject Gothic ornaments in the world of machinery; in the moral realm a
similar law obtains.
When all institutions have become dubious or even infamous, when you hear
prayers being offered not for the persecuted but for the persecutors, then
the ethical responsibility shifts to the individual, or rather to the
individual who is still unbroken, the wanderer in the forest (Waldganger).
It is a hard decision which he must make that he will reserve the right of
independent judgment whatever the cause for which his approval or
participation is solicited. It will require a considerable sacrifice, but
it will also lead to an immediate gain in sovereignty. As matters stand,
this gain will be felt as such only by very few. Yet the power of sovereign
rule can come only from those who have preserved the awareness of the primal
scales of value, only from the men who cannot be induced to renounce
humanity by any superiority of force.
The great experience of the forest consists of the encounter with the Ego,
with the self, with the inviolate core and essence that sustains the
temporal and individual appearance. This encounter, so decisive for the
conquest of health and for the victory over fear, is also supreme in its
moral value. It leads to the primal basis of all social intercourse, to the
man whose example defines individuality. In this sphere we will encounter
not only community but also identity. This is the symbolic meaning of the
embrace: the Ego recognizes itself in the other human being in the saying,
"This is you." The
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