http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/shadow-projection-the-fuel-of-war/
SHADOW PROJECTION: THE FUEL OF WAR
Speaking about World War I, Jung could just as well been commenting on our current war when he said, “The psychological concomitants of the present war- above all the incredible brutalization of public opinion, the mutual slanderings, the unprecedented fury of destruction, the monstrous flood of lies, and man’s incapacity to call a halt to the bloody demon- are uniquely fitted to force upon the attention of every thinking person the problem of the chaotic unconscious which slumbers uneasily beneath the ordered world of consciousness. The war has pitilessly revealed to civilized man that he is still a barbarian, and has at the same time shown what an iron scourge lies in store for him if ever again he should be tempted to make his neighbor responsible for his own evil qualities.”
Jung was illumining the root cause of war itself, which is to be found in the unconscious psyche of humanity. Jung was pointing out the underlying psychological lesson of war, which is that to project the shadow, our darker half, outside of ourselves, is an “inner” act which always results in incredible destruction in the “outer” world.
Shadow projection is itself the unmediated expression, revelation and playing out of the shadow. Shadow projection, the process in which we “demonize” our enemies, entrancing ourselves into believing that “they” are inhumane monsters who need to be destroyed, is the underlying psychological process which, when collectively mobilized, is the high-octane fuel which feeds the human activity of war.
Commenting on the human act of projection, Jung said, “Properly understood, projection is not a voluntary happening; it is something that approaches the conscious mind from “outside,” a kind of sheen on the object, while all the time the subject remains unaware that he himself is the source of light which causes the cat’s eye of the projection to shine.” When we shadow project, we hypnotize ourselves into relating to our own shadow as if it is outside of ourselves. Jung talked about “…the overweening pretensions of the human shadow, which we so gladly project on our fellow man in order to visit our own sins upon him with apparent justification.”
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