The world state

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The world state. Organism and Organization is an essay by Ernst Jünger published in 1960 . It first appeared in the anthology Where we stand today , edited by H. Walter Bähr, and takes the title of the volume as its starting point. Jünger emphasizes that one “stands” less than one is in motion. This movement is accelerating and leading to a world state. With Der Waldgang , Über die Linie , Der Gordische Knot and An der Zeitmauer, the world state belongs to a series of essays in which Jünger dealt with the political situation of his time in the 1950s.

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US Air Force aircraft cockade
Red Star

When asked “where are we today?”, Jünger answers that one “stands” less than one is in motion. And this in an accelerando, a constant acceleration. Therefore, large still images of important people have become problematic. The human being, also and especially in the highest position, becomes accidental, becomes interchangeable (all works 7 p. 487f).

The state is also affected by this acceleration, it attracts ever greater resources, becomes expensive for the individual and for peoples, the state becomes enormous (p. 491). At the moment there are only two absolutely sovereign states (that was the USA and the Soviet Union in 1960 ). Jünger considers these two to be very similar: In the meantime, one must not be confused by the polemics and their excesses : if you take an unbiased view, you will be amazed at the great and growing uniformity that is spreading across the countries (p. 492). Both states had the same slogans, peace, freedom and democracy and also the same symbol, the star. That this is sometimes red, sometimes white, is more like a flicker than a real difference.

Jünger uses a larger digression on the animal kingdom. There is something accidental about the distribution of state formation. In addition to state-forming species, there are close relatives that live individually. Certain insects achieve perfection, in which the state formation also changes the biological status (p. 513). This is the case with termite soldiers and the ants workers , who are mutilated females. In the case of mammals and birds, on the other hand, there is resistance to state formation through brood care , because it is carried out individually and not collectively (p. 507). As a result , among other things, the organization of the state is in tension with the organism of its members.

Jünger distinguishes three political characters. On the one hand the anarchist, by which he understands an anarch instead of the usual term of an anarchist , as he developed it in the essay Der Waldgang and later in the novel Eumeswil . This rejects the state and falls back on prehistoric and "pre-mythical" conditions. But if he tries to put his ideas into practice, he fails. This explains the fatal similarity between the great utopias of society and the way in which life in beehives and barracks is organized down to the smallest impulse (p. 523). Second, the conservatives, who want to keep the organization in a certain state (p. 523). Finally the revolutionary, who necessarily triumphs over both (p. 524).

How a transition to a world state could take place is not explained in the essay. One should not hope for much from conferences, plans, contracts . Jünger only claims generally: A world movement is obviously looking for the center (p. 498f). Towards the end it says: The planetary order has already been completed in terms of both type and configuration. All that is missing is their recognition, their declaration (p. 525).

According to Jünger, the world state will achieve a new quality because it is no longer one of many, but unique. Among other things, he therefore does not need an army. Jünger puts the conclusion as a possibility: Then the human organism could emerge purer than what is actually human, freed from the constraints of organization (p. 526).

reception

Steffen Martus recommends not reading the “world state” as a program of the United Nations . The conception must be perceived in its full breadth, thus also in its problematic and radical nature . It boils down to Jünger's concept of the “anarchist” or forest walker as coming types of people.

Helmut Kiesel sees this essay merely as a repetition and expansion of the theses that Jünger had already expounded in his previous essays such as The Gordian Knot (1953) and An der Zeitmauer (1959). Kiesel generally writes of Jünger's essays from the 1950s that they are less apodictic than those of the early 1930s, such as Der Arbeiter . Not everything is asserted more than beyond doubt, some things appear questionable or several possibilities are shown.

literature

expenditure

  • The world state , in: Where are we today . Anthology, edited by H. Walter Bähr, Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1960.
  • The world state . Organism and organization. Klett, Stuttgart 1960
  • Der Waldgang , in: Complete Works. Volume 7. Essays I , pp. 481-526, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-608-93477-4

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steffen Martus, Ernst Jünger. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2001, p. 201, ISBN 3-476-10333-1
  2. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, Ernst Jünger. Die Biographie , Siedler, Munich 2007, p. 607, ISBN 3-886-80852-1
  3. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, Ernst Jünger. Die Biographie , Siedler, Munich 2007, p. 599, ISBN 3-886-80852-1

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