CG JUNG - Countryside Anarchist

LECTURE 2
thing to do with the symbol in question. Perhaps it is a condition that
could be expressed by the allegory of an abdomen—as if we were in an
abdomen. And to be in an abdomen would mean most probably that we
were in the mother, in a condition of development or beginning. That
point of view would throw a peculiar light on our symbolism. It would
convey the idea that our actual existence, this world, is a sort of womb;
we are mere beginnings, less than embryos; we are just germs that have
still to become, like an egg in the womb. Of course, this is simply a commentary,
showing how the Hindu would look upon our world as it is—he
perhaps understands his conscious world as being merely a nursery.
Now, that is a piece of philosophy. As you see, it is an analogy with
Christian philosophy according to which this actual personal existence is
only transitory. We are not meant to stay in this condition; we are
planted on this earth for the purpose of becoming better and better, and
when we die we shall become angels. In the Islamic world there is very
much the same idea. I remember talking to an Arab in the tombs of the
Caliphs in Cairo. I was admiring a tomb that was made in a wonderful
style, really a very beautiful thing. He noticed my admiration and said:
You Europeans are funny people. To admire this house is what we
do, that is what we believe. You believe in dollars and automobiles
and railways. But which is wiser, to build a house for a short time
or for a long time? If you know that you will be in a place only for
a few years, and that you will later stay in another place for fifty
years, will you build your house for those few years, or for the fifty
years?
I said, sure enough, “For the fifty years.” And he said: “That is what we
do—we build our houses for eternity, where we shall stay the longest.” 1
That is the point of view of many peoples, whether they are Hindus or
Christians or Mohammedans. According to their idea mÖlvdhvra is a
transitory thing, the sprouting condition in which things begin. Of
course, that is very much in opposition to what people of today believe.
We read our papers, we look into the political and economic world, believing
this to be the definite thing, as if all depended on what we were
going to do about the currency, the general economic conditions, and
so on. We are all quite crazy about it, as if it were particularly right to be
concerned with it. But those other people are countless; we are few in
number compared with the people who have an entirely different point
1 Jung was in Cairo in 1926, and his account of his trip is found in MDR, 282–304,
where this anecdote doesn’t appear.
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