The Ever-Present Origin - Michael Goodnight - Editor

structures in their deficient phases, we find an indication of deficientmagic forms of manifestation in the tendency noted earlier towardcollectivization or mass-phenomena in the one instance, and isolation inthe other, whose antithetic tension threatens to tear apart our perspectivalworld.Collectivization and mass-phenomena, for that matter, may well benothing other than a reactivated magic clan-attunement in deficient form.Political parties are a compelling example, particularly the extreme onesdominated by the fanatically blind point-relatedness of the magical. Andisolation or individuation may well be nothing more than the reactivatedmagic point-like unity become deficient. While the beginnings ofindividuation and the clan formed a unity in the magic structure, they aretoday rationally torn asunder and, driven to extremes, have in theirdeficiency a destructive effect.Or, stated differently, we might say that the hyperobjectivation achievedby the ratio brings about isolation, whereas the hypersubjectivation - theoveremphasis of the Ego - leads to the limits of Ego-capacity where theego, reverting to its psychic conditionality rather than mastering thepsyche, is itself ruled and condemned by it: it is absorbed by theunconscious, by immoderation, by the mass.All remedies proposed to combat this danger turn out to be unsuitable.Political parties of "unity" or unified states attempt to regulate theproblems of isolation or collectivization, although they reveal their owndeficient character by their one-sided demands for power. The attempt ismade to improve the circumstances of deficient magic by means ofdeficient magic, an attempt, as it were, to drive out the devil by invokingBeelzebub.Let this one example suffice to show the basic point: wherever weencounter a predominance of insistent requests (and fanaticism is arequest blindly elevated to a demand which not only petitions butcompels); wherever we find a prevalence of the idea of unification inwhatever form - a doctrine of unity, the establishment of an association, ahuge organization, a one-party state and the like; wherever we encountera stress on the concept of obedience, as in an overemphasis an themilitary, or of belonging and belongings, as in the property claims ofcapitalistic trusts or family patriarchies; and in general wherever we meetup with overweening emotionalism as in mass assemblies, propaganda,slogans, and the like, we may conclude that we are dealing mainly withessentially deficient manifestations of magic.Their deficiency can be recognized by their very claim to exclusivity, as ifthey alone had validity or worth in contrast to the validity of otherstructures and forms of manifestation. Yet one may well ask what is to begained by our classification of these phenomena as being deficientlymagical. The answer is that because we know how they come to be, andrecognize their conditionality, we no longer have to face them unaided.53