Out of Weakness

I'm amazed to be the first one reviewing this exceptional work. It has considerably clarified my views on militarism-pacifism and power relations between individual and group. Not only the author's ability to synthesise knolwedge of diverse fields (politics & national security, culture & history, psychology, religion...) but his lucid thinking and fluent use of language really bring matters home. Sometimes I asked myself whether "Out of Weakness..." is a professional academic account of extremely complex and controversial issues or a poetic parable much to the like of Indian chieftains' famous orations. Obviously it is both - something that one does not come across very often - as it reflects the synchronization of head and heart (thinking and feeling) in it's best. The latter in a sense being the subject matter of the whole book - how anxiety and rage is produced and regulated in (inter)societal context, how it is supressed and what are the compensatory mechanisms of this supression (narcissism and paranoia); and how the latter bring about and breed on war. And last but not least, how this self-perpetuating situation might be overcome. If this topic is of serious interest, you can't be disappointed in a more recent work by James DeMeo, "Saharasia".