Carl Jung on America and Russia.
[Carl Jung on America and Russia.]
Evans: In your dealings with Professor Toynbee, have you gotten rather interested in his ideas of history?
Jung: Ah, yes, particularly his ideas about the life cycles of civilizations, and the way that they are ruled by archetypal forms. Toynbee has seen what I mean by historical functions of archetypal developments.
That is a mighty important determinant of human behavior, and can span centuries or thousands of years. It expresses itself in symbols, sometimes symbols that you would never think of at all.
For instance, as you know, Russia, the Soviet Republic, had that symbol of the red star.
Now it is a five-rayed red star. America has the five- rayed white star. They are enemies; they can’t come together.
In the Middle Ages for at least 2000 years the red and white were the couple; they were ultimately destined to marry each other.
Now America is a sort of matriarchy, inasmuch as most of the money is in the hands of women, and Russia is the land of the little father; it’s a patriarchy. So the two are mother and father.
To use the terminology of the Middle Ages, they are the white woman, the “femina alba,” and the red slave, the “servius rubeus.” The two lovers have quarreled with each other. ~Carl Jung; Conversations with C.G. Jung.
