“The more a nation isolates itself, the blinder it becomes to its own faults and shortcomings, and the more it will tend to project its fears, repugnance, and atavisms onto neighbouring nations. Only through regular contact with other peoples can a nation recognize its own shortcomings and flaws. Until people learn to know and appreciate foreign customs, they will harbour prejudices created by their own national shadow. Jokes about neighbouring peoples and racist nicknames are clear signs of projections of the national shadow.
In times of war, the collective shadow cast on “the enemy” is maintained and exacerbated by the media. Everything that is considered detestable and reprehensible at home is relentlessly sought out in the adversary. During the Second World War, the German people had every imaginable flaw. During the Cold War that followed, it was the Russians’ turn to be judged harshly. Black people have long been the target of projection by white people. Jews have similarly been the preferred victims of the collective shadow of several other peoples. Minorities, foreigners, and great minds always disturb others with their differences and originality. They are exposed to becoming scapegoats, bearers of all the malicious tendencies of the national shadow.
Are nations therefore condemned, as such, to constantly create enemies or scapegoats and to burden them with their collective shadow? Is it permissible to dream that one day all nations will look at each other in all truthfulness and that each will tame its shadow instead of projecting it onto another nation in an attempt to destroy it?
Click on the link for more articles on human behaviour or geopolitics on my blog.