The Undiscovered Self

Jung on the state and religion:

“All mass movements, as one might expect, slip with the greatest ease down an inclined plane made up of large numbers.  Where the many are, there is security; what the many believe must of course be true; what the  many want must be worth striving for, and necessary, and therefore good.  In the clamour of the many resides the power to snatch wish-fulfillments by force; sweetest of all, however, is that gentle and painless slipping back into the kingdom of childhood, into the paradise of parental care, into happy-go-luckiness and irresponsibility.  All the thinking and looking after are done from the top; to all questions there is an answer, and for all needs the necessary provision is made.  The infantile dream-state of the mass man is so unrealistic that he never things to ask who is paying for this paradise.  The balancing of accounts is left to a higher political or social authority, which welcomes the task, for its power is thereby increased; and the more power it has, the weaker and more helpless the individual becomes”.

Tags:
jung, individuation, belief, self