REIFICATION

                With the military buildup of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan the winds of war swept over Europe and the Pacific Ocean.  All the signs were there, the armor, the arrogance and the propaganda.  But the Allies, the countries targeted by the Axis (Japan, Italy and Germany) kept getting caught with their pants down, over and over again. 

                Historians tell us President Franklyn Delano Roosevelt, FDR, knew that the US would eventually be dragged into the war but most of Congress and the American people, our fathers and grandfathers, demanded we stay neutral.  So in spite of cries of help from Poland, especially England, and Russia, FDR stayed neutral while surreptitiously funneling arms and ammunition to England and Russia in what was called, Lend-Lease.

                Japan’s sneak attack at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 brought the US into the war, big time.  The neutral criers were silenced and the US was unified like no other time in history.  Hitler, bolstered by Japan’s sneak attack, declared war.  All of America wanted revenge and the American people went to work in the factories and on the docks producing ships, tanks, canons, airplanes and bombs in unprecedented numbers.  Americans, who days before were determined to stay out of war were enlisting in the Army, Marines and Navy; they were buying war bonds, women replaced men in the factories and kids (I was one of them) scrounged the country side for scrap metal.

                Because of the attack on Pearl Harbor, heads had to roll.  Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Army Lt. General Walter Short were scapegoated.  Ten days prior to the December 7 attack Kimmel had been ordered by his superiors in Washington to “initiate defensive deployment of the fleet.”    He took this to mean defend against sabotage, that is why all the aircraft was bunched together.  And as you probably remember, all of Pearl Harbor’s fighters were destroyed on the ground.

                Historians have stayed up nights attempting to discern what really went on in the minds of FDR, Kimmel and others, contemplating whether the expected attack on Pearl Harbor could be thwarted?  Historians have pondered that with advance notice the battleships could have been deployed to meet and engage the approaching Japanese aircraft carrier fleet? But military historians argue that even if Kimmel had advance knowledge of the attack and had deployed the battleships, the battleship were no match with the much faster aircraft carriers and air attacks.  The battleships would have been sunk in deep water.  As it was, in the shallow water of Pearl Harbor six sunken ships were subsequently raised.

                The US had broken the Japanese code in an operation classified as “magic.”  Kimmel was not given access to magic intercepts.  However, even though the magic intercepts did not name Pearl Harbor, there was enough information to determine that an attack, somewhere, was imminent. 

                Winston Churchill had given the American people compelling information that it would be in America’s best interest to enter the war in behalf of England and that in doing so, Hitler could be stopped before he swarmed over all of Europe – then America.  But in the minds of Americans, they had mistakenly concocted a scenario that if they didn’t bother Hitler, he wouldn’t bother them.

                If you have been following this blog then you know that I am fascinated with human behavior and how the mind can convince the self to think and act in a wrongful way.  The World War II mistakes, not only of the US but Germany and Japan, are gargantuan because of the loss of life and land. 

                Consider the following:  The Pearl Harbor aircraft were caught bunched on the ground.  They were bunched up as a defense precaution against sabotage, but sitting ducks from the air.  Seven days later the planes at Clark Field in the Philippians were bunched up on the runaway and destroyed by a Japanese air assault.  There was no sneak attack, Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander, knew they were coming and knew what happened at Pearl Harbor.  MacArthur’s head didn’t roll, in fact, the debacle was not even made an issue as it was at Pearl Harbor. 

                What was MacArthur thinking?  He was reputed to be a brilliant military strategist. 

                Criticism is not my intent.  Attempting to understand how the mind works is my objective.  MacArthur didn’t become Supreme Commander by making mistakes.  It must be presumed that he thought bunching the planes on the runway was the right thing to do.

                Hind sight is easy.  Both Hitler and Japan underestimated the American will to fight. Hitler had England on her knees and essentially, was fighting a one front war with Russia.  Declaring war against the US made it a two front war.  Neither Japan, Germany or Italy consulted each other nor coordinated strategy – had they done so we might be speaking German today.   

                Newberg, D’Aquill and Rause in Why God Won’t Go Away, use the word reification, defining it as “- the ability to convert a concept into a concrete thing, or, more succinctly, to bestow upon something the quality of being real or true.”  “In the neurological definition, the term refers to the power of the mind to grant meaning and substance to its own perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs, and to regard them as meaningful.”

                The subtitle of Why God Won’t Go Away is Brain Science and the Biology of Belief.  The subject title dealing with reification is “How The Mind Makes The Self.”  These titles should clarify what I’m trying to convey, that the mind has the ability to make judgments and form ideas independent of facts and acting on the judgment or idea as if it were true.  The classic example in this case is the mind’s capability of thinking the soul is real.  The same phenomenon extends to belief in a god. 

                Reverse reification is “the will not to believe.”  (Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance) Wouk enlarged upon the statement:  “When the mind cannot grasp or face up to a horrible fact it turns away, as though refusing credence will conjure away the reality.”  What Wouk was exploiting in his historical novel is that a few German and Polish Jew’s refused to believe that Hitler really meant them any harm. 

                Reification and reverse reification are very apparent among religious, true believers.  The Catholic and Mormon contention is that their pope or prophet is the one and only mouthpiece of the God of the Bible.  Loyal followers believe in a resurrection, heaven and hell, and that their leader is infallible and can do no wrong.                  They believe in prayer and that God answers prayers - the mind selecting facts and events suggesting God’s intervention.  I’m not saying this is bad.  Omens, dreams, charms and amulets are part of the human condition.  Sometimes they seem to help but most of the time they don’t.  It’s whatever the mind can reificate.  And as for me, it help me to understand why people behave in such stupendous and stupid ways. 

                I hope you didn’t mind the peek into the past.  Unfortunately there are a lot of young Americans who don’t know who we fought in the Second World War.  Nor do they know how it has benefited the life they live now.  They say that history repeats itself, or at least we can learn from history.  In that regard Americans have been quick to forgive and forget.  We have made some mistakes in our thinking in the past.  My question now is, is history repeating itself?  Are we making some mistakes in our thinking about socialism and Islam?  Are we thinking objectively about such moral issues as  homosexuality, polygamy and pornography?  It seems to this old codger that the principles and practices that made the US great should be conserved and protected – not cast aside or demonized.