The 'sanctification' of unaccustomed activity is still the best method of getting a man out of the rut of everyday habit and conditioning him for the required state of work.  To take an example: the transformation of a petty office clerk into the responsible leader of a death-dealing bomber squadron is probably one of the most radical psychic transformations that can be demanded of modern man.  This metamorphosis of the normal peace-loving citizen into a fighter is, even today, only possible with the help of symbols.  Such a transformation of personality is achieved by invoking the symbols of God, King, Fatherland, Freedom, the 'most sacred good of the nation,' and by dedicatory acts steeped in symbolism, with the added assistance of all the elements in religion and art best calculated to stir the individual.  Only in this way is it psychologically possible to divert psychic energy from the 'natural channel' of peaceable private life into the 'unaccustomed activity' of slaughter.

• mechanicalness
• personality
• symbols
• war
• god
• religion
• death
• freedom
• life
• conditioning
• peace
• work
• art
• energy
• habit
• activity
• transformation