AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...

eference point for more work on the conflict.
To summarize the damage done: reductionism, operating
unopposed, embeds the conflict so solidly that disembedding it
becomes an almost herculean task./23/
World: If we now define the world as a community of nations
in addition to a community of states, in other words as an inter-
nation system in addition to an inter-state system, then the
effect of wars becomes even more clear. At the superficial level
nations share religion and language. At the deeper level they
share Chosenness, Glory and Trauma; the CGT-complex. Wars are
help define these kairos points. Contiguity around sacred places,
and continuity to pay homage to sacred dates, project the nation
into geography and history, as clearly seen by watching the names
of metro stations and squares in a country referring to itself as
la grande nation. Studies of national holidays and anthems, old
conflict symbols, also bring out this clearly. For the rest see
above for social polarization:
After the guns have become silent the war in the minds is
still there: the Dichotomy of nations into two camps, the
Manichean view of the camps as good-evil, friend-foe, as the
struggle between God and Satan on earth, the Armageddon battle as
the defining event; for short, the DMA-complex.
The pattern becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The DMA-
complex in the minds survives the end of the war. Any sign that
the enemy is still alive will trigger ready-made responses; in the
absence of such signs other enemies will be found to complete the
Gestalt formed by this type of cultural violence. The end of the
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