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OML Archives-
Subject: Re: Reich, paranoia & conspiracy - Mon, 22 Jan 1996
09:36:05 -0500
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 09:36:05 -0500
From: "Shawn P. Wilbur" <swilbur@bgsuvax.bgsu.edu>
Subject: Re: Reich, paranoia & conspiracy
To: orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Sender: owner-orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
First of all, thanks to Jim Martin for a couple of wonderful posts...
I have been thinking about Reich and "conspiracy theories" lately, in the
context of standards of scientific and philosophical rigor. It seems to
me that one of the reasons we might resist bringing conspiracy - the
conspiracies Reich himself spoke of, or those we might believe were aimed
at him - into the picture is that "conspiracy theory" brings to mind a
certain fast and loose form of argument which may have a certain sort of
consistency, but lacks depth - or a style of argumentation that moves too
quickly for the details to be verified. (I've been tracking some of the
elements of the "New World Order"/black helicopter/gun control/
concentration camp mythology that has currency among the various militia/
populist groups, and finding that in a data-rich environment
verifiable "truth" gets pretty illusive...)
Anyway, there is already a "problem" in Reich's work which might make us
wary of the association - the "too-muchness of orgonomy" that Reich talks
about in the opening pages of _Ether, God and Devil_. Reich was
recognized as a rapid and mobile thinker. As a one-time "crazy
Bergsonian" he must have labored under some concern about the effects of
that speed. At the same time, he seems to have been very rigorous about
not claiming too much for this too-rapid work. The harshness of the end
of his career is perhaps the result of an enforced "rashness" - as
outside pressures forced him to prematurely come to terms with all that
he had at play in his work and life. Also, it seems clear that from the
beginning Reich was juggling potentially conflicting ideas in his work.
The list of influences (again in _Ether, God and Devil_) is stunning for
the number of internal conflicts it suggests. To have been a serious
materialist on the model of Engels (particularly the late,
"natural-scientific" Engels) and to have taken seriously the work of
Bergson and Semon (and those together) would have at least involved
bucking strong currents in contemporary opinion - very strong in the
marxist environment, which seems to have molded Reich's style in many
ways.
These conflicts are in many ways what drew me back and more deeply into
Reich's work. For me, the later work hovers between the bravest sort of
scientific/philosophical work and a delusional system. Reich was clear
enoug, i suppose, that it would be up to others to sort things out...
-shawn
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