The Denazification of MH (Martini Heidegger)

The Struggle with Being and the Philosophical Confrontation with the Ancient Greeks in Heidegger’s Originary Politics

by J. M. Magrini

I. Approaching Heidegger and the Film:

James T. Hong’s experimental documentary, The Denazification of MH is neither an apology for ’s involvement with National Socialism nor a condemnation of that involvement. Rather, the film is a critical philosophical confrontation (Auseinandersetzung) with Heidegger’s thought and the issue of his involvement with National Socialism. The film addresses the perennial concern as old as philosophy itself: the relationship between the philosopher’s life and his philosophy. While the film does not adopt a definitive position regarding Heidegger, Nazism, and the issue of personal responsibility, it does suggest an affirmative response to the question posed by both Levinas and Blanchot regarding the possibility of philosophizing after Auschwitz. Considering Heidegger’s influence on contemporary philosophy and literary studies, inspiring such films as The Denazification of MH and The Ister,[1] it appears as though it is not only possible, but necessary, to carefully and critically approach Heidegger in the effort to continue to philosophize in the wake of the most catastrophic event of the 20 th Century, the Holocaust. [2]

Scholars have employed a variety of methodologies for approaching this issue: (1) Reading Heidegger in a piecemeal fashion, selectively dismissing the texts of the 1930s (e.g., An Introduction to Metaphysics ), works deemed radically political in nature, motivated by the cause of National Socialism; (2) Reading Heidegger’s life and politics as inseparable from his philosophy, a philosophy which emerges directly from Heidegger’s involvement with National Socialism; (3) Reading Heidegger as an apolitical philosopher, or perhaps more accurately, as a philosopher whose work has no definitive relationship to National Socialism. This understanding of Heidegger’s philosophy is expressed by Julian Young, who liberates Heidegger’s thought from the stigma of Nazism, arguing that “one may accept some, or all, of this philosophy without fear of being committed to, or moved into proximity with, Fascism.

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The Ister

At the height of World War Two, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century delivered a series of lectures on a poem about the Danube river, by one of Germany's greatest poets.

The philosopher was Martin Heidegger, who in 1927 achieved worldwide fame with his magnum opus, Being and Time. Heidegger embraced the National Socialist 'revolution' in 1933, becoming rector of Freiburg University. His inaugural address culminated in 'Heil Hitler!'

After clashing with the Nazi bureaucracy, he resigned the rectorate in 1934. Nine years later, as the tide of the war was turning against Germany, Heidegger spent the summer semester lecturing on the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin. He focused on a poem about the Danube known as 'The Ister.'

Rather than an esoteric retreat into the world of poetry, Heidegger's lectures were a direct confrontation with the political, cultural and military chaos facing Germany and the world in 1942, a time the philosopher characterised in his lectures as "the stellar hour of our commencement." The poem in question began with the lines:

Now come fire!
Eager are we
To see the day

The film The Ister takes up some of the most challenging paths in Heidegger's thought, as we journey from the mouth of the Danube river in Romania to its source in the Black Forest. However controversial Heidegger continues to be, his thought remains alive in the work of some of the most remarkable thinkers and artists working today. Four of these conduct our voyage upstream along the Danube: Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy, Bernard Stiegler, and, finally, the filmmaker Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.

Winding through the shattered remains of the former Yugoslavia, through a Hungary busily restoring its national mythology, and through a Germany that is both the heart of the new Europe and the ghost of the old one, the Danube itself isthe question of the film.

By drawing the places and times of the river into a constellation with Heidegger's thought, the film invites the viewer to participate in some of the most provocative questions facing Europe and the world today. These questions - of home and place, culture and memory, of technology and ecology, of politics and war - beckon us now as they did Heidegger in 1942.

Here are some excerpts from the movie:

1.

2.

3.

Epilogue:

Derrida on American behaviour and its relation to cinema

The Battle of Algiers

Women as Weapons of War: Iraq, Sex, and the Media

by Kelly Oliver*

Ever since Eve tempted Adam with her apple, women have been regarded as a corrupting and destructive force. The very idea that women can be used as interrogation tools, as evidenced in the infamous Abu Ghraib torture photos, plays on age-old fears of women as sexually threatening weapons, and therefore the literal explosion of women onto the war scene should come as no surprise.

From the female soldiers involved in Abu Ghraib to Palestinian women suicide bombers, women and their bodies have become powerful weapons in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In Women as Weapons of War, Kelly Oliver reveals how the media and the administration frequently use metaphors of weaponry to describe women and female sexuality and forge a deliberate link between notions of vulnerability and images of violence. Focusing specifically on the U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, Oliver analyzes contemporary discourse surrounding women, sex, and gender and the use of women to justify America's decision to go to war. For example, the administration's call to liberate "women of cover," suggesting a woman's right to bare arms is a sign of freedom and progress.

Oliver also considers what forms of cultural meaning, or lack of meaning, could cause both the guiltlessness demonstrated by female soldiers at Abu Ghraib and the profound commitment to death made by suicide bombers. She examines the pleasure taken in violence and the passion for death exhibited by these women and what kind of contexts created them. In conclusion, Oliver diagnoses our cultural fascination with sex, violence, and death and its relationship with live news coverage and embedded reporting, which naturalizes horrific events and stymies critical reflection. This process, she argues, further compromises the borders between fantasy and reality, fueling a kind of paranoid patriotism that results in extreme forms of violence.


Here is an excerpt


*Kelly Oliver is Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of over fifty articles and fifteen books, including The Colonization of Psychic Space: A Psychoanalytic Theory of Oppression; Noir Anxiety: Race, Sex, and Maternity in Film Noir; Witnessing: Beyond Recognition; Subjectivity Without Subjects: From Abject Fathers to Desiring Mothers; Family Values: Subjects Between Nature and Culture; Womanizing Nietzsche: Philosophy's Relation to "the Feminine"; and Reading Kristeva: Unraveling the Double-Bind. She is also the editor of The Portable Kristeva.

A Warrior's Religion- A new film about gang-violence in Punjabi community in Vancouver

“A WARRIOR’S RELIGION”: TIMELY FILM SHEDS LIGHT ON FALSE GLAMOUR OF GANGS BUT SPARKS DEBATE ON HOW SIKHISM MIGHT BE MISUNDERSTOOD


People are angry, frustrated and fed up with the brazen nature of gang violence which has jeopardized public safety, especially with the spate of violence that has occurred this week.

The number of youth who get sucked into the underworld of gangs has been disconcerting for Mani Amar, a young writer who decided to make a film about it. It took Mani close to three years to complete his film titled, “A Warrior’s Religion,” which will be released next month.

A few weeks ago, Mani came to Langara College so I could preview the film with him and at the time he said to me: “It had to be done. How many more people need to die? We are past the 130 mark of deaths in our community. The issue is not slowing down.” This piece aims to shed light on what led to making the film, the interviews with the high profile gangsters and questions about the title which might be considered controversial for some people.

I asked Mani what drove him to make the film and he said: “How readily we have accepted gang violence and how engrossed we are in it is what propelled me to do it. We are so relaxed about an issue that we should not be relaxed about at all.”

Mani described the film as a poetic documentary which does not state the premise blatantly. Instead it aims to arouse an emotional connection with its audience.

He noted: “This film propels someone more strongly into taking action than by dictating the message. One technique to drive people to act is for the audience to imagine that it is their son who is killed. In the film, I show a mother's tears (Eileen Mohan, the mother of the innocent victim Chris Mohan, 22, of Surrey, who was killed in gangland execution style in 2007 in Surrey) so the viewer can experience instant images of their own son.”

Another effective strategy to spark action is through interviews with previous gang members including that of high profile Indo-Canadian gangster Bal Buttar. Mani explained that he got to know Buttar when he volunteered at the medical facility where Buttar was staying. He also looked after him.

Mani said: “When I met Buttar, I laid it out on the table directly to him and said to Buttar, “I don't respect you. You have an opportunity in your life to show youth that this is what gang violence will bring you.” For whatever reason, Buttar accepted the challenge. In the end though, I reaffirmed that it's only death or jail to get out.” For Mani, what resonated most from the interviews was Buttar’s way of explaining karma: “You take blood. That blood gets taken from you.”

Lastly, I asked about the title: “A Warrior’s Religion.” The film makes reference to the Sikh religion which is clearly manifest with diverse images ranging from Sikh temples, scenes from a Vaisakhi parade, to well known martyrs, and a powerful image of the Khanda (one of the most important symbols of Sikhism) in flames with bullet holes in the background.

Mani explained: “ I chose the title for a couple of reasons. One issue is that these guys (those who died in gang-related activity) come from a warrior background.” Secondly, whether you like it or not, Sikhism was based on the warrior principles from our tenth Guru and forward.”

I asked Mani why this warrior image is linked to gangs and he said: “A lot of people think of being in gangs as being the equivalent of being a warrior, a warrior gangster.” Mani added: “Across the globe, Sikhs have always been defenders of the oppressed and the violence they use is as a very last resort, when defending a cause.”

In the film there are pictures of Sikh martyrs and I asked him what purpose they served in the film. He explained: “I want to show that being a warrior does not necessarily mean being a gangster or murderer. I showed these images of killed or beaten Sikhs defending the Sikh religion. Thirdly, like it or not, the majority of gang-related violent deaths in the last 19 years in B.C. in the South Asian community are directly linked to people of Sikh background.”

However, the images of the Khanda in the film might spark controversy among some Sikhs. Once at a Langara forum on gangs, there were heated reactions by some members in the community towards a panelist who displayed the Khanda on a slide in his anti-gang presentation. Langara student Gurpreet Singh Ghag who also saw the presentation was one of the people who took offence to the display of the Khanda and shared his views with me this week.

He said: “The reason why some gangsters use the Khanda symbol is because it looks cool. It is attractive for youth with the two swords and the image of weapons which is warrior-like. But these guys are the ones who turned their back on their religion. It should be used as a symbol of the Sikh religion not as a symbol of gangs.”

Ghag was especially concerned about what people from other communities with little knowledge about Sikhism might think when they see the symbol associated with gangs.

He said: “It’s the perception, that’s the issue for me.”

Ghag, who wears a turban and a necklace with a Khanda symbol, held the pendant in his hand and said: “The Khanda should represent a warrior of peace and a warrior of brotherhood, it’s a religious symbol which is precious to me.”

One academic who is well read in Sikhism pointed out that a common perception among Sikhs as to why the use of the Khanda in this context might be problematic is that in “Sikh Scripture you cannot find many quotes that define Sikhism as inherently violent and through Sikh history, Sikhs have fought only for the oppressed and the underprivileged; so this perpetuates a misunderstanding that the very practice and belief of Sikhism is something to be avoided and potentially harmful.”

Indeed, perceptions on the use of the Khanda are varied.

In closing, the problem of gangs is multifaceted and must be tackled on multidimensional levels. One strategy is to educate and raise awareness about the false glamour of gangs. For some, the film might be valued as part of the fix to this complex social ill with its clear message that gang life comes with a very high price.

As Mani said: “We have a problem and that is what I wanted to shed light on. Our world represents a Humpty Dumpty image, so my question is: Who is going to put it back together again? The message to you is: We have to.”

We are all stakeholders including government and unless there is more fervent action the line-up of funerals will continue unabated.



The movie’s premier screenings are March 18 and 19 at the Bell Performing Arts Centre, Surrey.


By Indira Prahst

Instructor of Race and Ethnic Relations, Department of Sociology, Langara College, Vancouver


www.warriorsreligion.com

Rhythmic Silence

Yesterday, I. sent this poem to me. It is by Khalil Gibran.
Gibran is the one author who initiated me into the world of literature. When I was a school boy, every Sunday morning I would read his translated work in Ajit newspaper. I can still remember those sunny winter days, when my imagination took flight at the wings of Gibran's tender words.

I am taking the delight to share it with you all:

And then a scholar said, Speak of talking.
And he answered, saying: You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.
And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed
unfold its wings but cannot fly.

There are those among you who seek the talkative thorough fear of
being alone.
The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.
And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.
And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.
In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.