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HANS HASS AND ENERGETIC FUNCTIONALISM

Peter Nasselstein

 

Reich called his method of thinking at first "energetic functionalism," later "orgonomic functionalism" (see 12:8 [corrected according to the German original!]). That Reich with his "energetic-functionalistic" approach to research was not alone becomes evident in the "energon theory" of Hans Hass.

 

Introduction

The "energon theory" of the well-known diving pioneer and underwater researcher, zoologist, human-ethologist, and economist Prof.Dr. Hans Hass (born 1919) is presented in the light of Wilhelm Reich's orgonomy. It will be pointed out how these two theories may fertilize each other mutually. This is all the more an easy task because each represent the culmination point of the two strands of the "energetic" tradition in science.

At the same time Hass is a representative of "functionalism": he strives to think the way nature works. He tries to view the human world from the outside, i.e., free of acquired thought patterns, quite the way he once floated, like an UFO, over coral reefs and looked down on them (4:187f). In order to be able to follow him on this "expedition to ourselves" we must throw over board all of our past evaluations and look at ourselves in such a way, "as if we would be visitors from outer space, to whom the events on planet earth are unknown" (3:287). This view, in order to speak in Reich's words, from the "meadow" towards the "human stage" (12) automatically leads to a fundamental criticism of society in general and of child education in particular.

According to Hass, once the descent of humans from more primitive life-forms was proven, a "natural and neutral" reference system was present. Man's systems of concepts should be ordered like the family tree of organisms, too, where one developed out of the other one organically. One would miss all too easily that the usual terms do not reflect reality but are an arbitrary product of humans. This thinking, which is estranged from nature, is transferred by education and tradition from one brain to the next and makes us believe that these units of ideas mark the very "nature" of this world. We forget the fact that the terms, these "drawers," are mere tools of our spirit. They are just "additional organs," but this also implies the danger that "these servants become our masters, if these drawers are no longer subjected to our purposes but make our thoughts dependent on their templates." It is true that one cannot think without words one must, however, meet them with extreme distrust. But, fortunately, "the young developing brain (...) is still free and unhindered in this regard. It can examine any of these servants first, before it entrusts itself to it" (1:246f).

About his experiences, which he made over a quarter of a century with the presentation of his functionalistic theories, Hass marked in 1994 something which also could be said about orgonomic functionalism: it is all much too simple, and obviously too functional, in order to be taken seriously. He had presented his basic pattern, to be discussed in the 2. section, which is applicable and valid equally within all ranges of the development of life and for the evaluation of selection values and competitive power, "again and again in lectures, discussions, and seminars on economics. I cannot remember that serious objections were forwarded, ever. Rather I had the impression that this standard of valuation, whose components are, in fact, generally admitted and recognized, are regarded as too simple to create new insights. It seems to me that in management consultation particularly complex and confusing patterns are more popular and gain even more significance if they approach the borders of comprehensibility" (5:187).

 

 

1. Energetic Functionalism

From the very outset functionalism and energetics formed an inseparable whole. This becomes apparent in the formation of thermodynamics in the middle of the 19th century. Thermodynamics refrained from all theoretical model conceptions about the molecular and atomic structure of matter and, instead, was occupied with the observable relations between the different characteristics of materials. Accordingly it formulated abstract laws which described the transformation of the energy, i.e., the principal functioning of a process (cf. Orgone Energy Continuum and Atomic Structure). Thus thermodynamics had an approach rather similar to Reich's later research method of orgonomic functionalism, which likewise limits itself to directly palpable functioning and which, in contrast of what is usually the case, does not work with models (structure) but with diagrams of functioning.

The two fundamental functioning laws of caloric theory read: in a closed system the total energy is constant, i.e., energy can neither be produced nor destroyed but only converted (first thermodynamic law); and: in a closed system spontaneous processes are irreversible, i.e., all potentials equalize mutually (second thermodynamic law). Therefore, on the one hand, energy cannot be annihilated but with each transformation of this energy a certain quantity of usable energy is lost inevitably. The universe is threatened by "heat death," the equalisation of all differences of potential.

"Energetics" developed out of caloric theory as a comprehensive natural-philosophical way of thinking at the end of the 19th century. Its main representative was the founder of physical chemistry, Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932), who derived his "energetic imperative" ("Do not waste energy but use and improve it!") from the second thermodynamic law, which was to him the "fundamental phenomenon" of all processes. Humans must take in raw energy and convert it, with ever increasing efficiency, into usable energy which performs work. Ostwald regarded human tools as "means of transformation," with whose assistance humans extend their "energetic area" to ever increasing segments of the inorganic environment. By this constantly increased use of energy happiness is growing, which Ostwald defined as "the strongest free operation of energy." Resistance, which paralyses this freedom, has to be removed (10).

The energetic world view made possible a considerable simplification of thinking since, with its focus on energy and its transformation, all structures of life could be arranged in the same system of concepts. So an exchange between biologists, economists, and political scientists became possible and results in one area could be applied for the explanation of phenomena in a completely different area.

From an energetic point of view only the functioning of biological and economic forms, their energy balance, respectively their functioning in the energy balance, is of significance. At first sight, e.g., a plant and a business organisation have nothing in common, really. If one looks at it, however, abstractly from the point of view of their energy balance, i.e., not as material structures but as "structures of performance," they hardly differ basically.

In order to be able to follow this thinking one has to consider, against the usual biological viewpoint, that certain parts and procedures in a plant and a factory correspond, not because they are homologous (evolutionary related) or (structurally) similar but because they are, as Hass expresses it, "functionally related." The parts and processes correspond to each other if they serve the same complex of function, e.g., to protect against robbers. In this regard the pricks of a rose and the factory protection force of Boeing are "functionally related" (3:368).

Ostwald and Hass on the one side and Reich on the other side: one sees how close they are as representatives of "energetic functionalism." The only serious difference is Reich's discovery of the orgone energy. But also for Ostwald energy was no mere mathematical abstract but a tangible reality (10). And Hass writes: "What we call matter is completely composed of the same mysterious something which also is the basis of the most subtle processes, i.e., our processes of thinking and feeling" (2, 2. part:244). (Unfortunately Hass, as we will see in the 9. section of this essay, did not pursue this aspect of his theory further.)

In the context of his energon theory Hass describes how this "mysterious something" unfolds in the living of this planet. The phenomenon "life" constantly increases its spatial volume and its power to carry out work. It is a spreading process of energy concentration. A fact obviously contradicting the basic assumption of "heat death," from which energetics had proceeded. Here, Hass says, we are confronted with an irreducible basic characteristic of energy just as fundamental as the first and the second law of thermodynamics. It makes explainable the evolution of life: under certain conditions energy can accumulate, differentiate, and create potentials of more and more might. Hass goes as far as suggesting the formulation of a corresponding further basic law of thermodynamics: "The physicist - for whom organisms are outside of his 'authority' - may hardly be inclined to add such a basic law to the first two. But seen from the standpoint of the energon theory I consider this suggestion legitimate" (2, 2. part:257). This obviously corresponds to Reich's orgone energy, which functions against the second thermodynamic law, is "neg-entropic," i.e., develops potentials spontaneously ("orgonomic potential"). (Hass did not continue to follow this aspect of his theory, unfortunately!)

In this connection it is quite characteristic how the community of science reacted to the energon theory when Hass presented his theses for discussion in the early 1970s: "Some critics especially attacked my basic assumption that life is an energetic process. If this would be the case - the critics said - one would be confronted with a mysterious increase of energy, with a 'biological perpetual motion machine' - which simply does not exist. Another explanation, what 'life' is in the final analysis, how it develops, and which laws it obeys, the critics could not offer, however. The very nature of energy, i.e., what constitutes 'energy,' is likewise unknown - most sacred mystery in Goethe's sense" (6). - Or expressed "in other words": without orgone energy "energetic functionalism" lacks its very foundation.

 

 

2. Change of Function and Natural Selection

Hass regards organisms not primarily as material things but as energetic structures of performance, which he calls "energons," accordingly. They are the basic modules of the unfolding of life. Each energon represents an energy-accumulating potential. It possesses the ability to gather more free energy from the environment than it uses. It consists of the "naked" cell body and a "body of performance." These "bodies" can be identical as, for instance, with the multi-cellular organism mosquito, or the performance structure can partially consist of units which do not belong to the cell structure, e.g., the net of a spider.

This net is not only the work product of the spider but also, from the viewpoint of its energy balance, an indispensable organ just as, for instance, the claw with which the spider clasps its booty. And, if one looks at the issue from the viewpoint of evolution, the natural selection likewise does not only concern the cell body but the entire performance structure (cell body plus net).

The spider would be condemned to death without its "additional organ" net, just as the mosquito without its natural organ sting. What constitutes an organ primarily depends on the function. Therefore the additional organ may consist of units which not only, like the spider net, are not connected with the energon firmly but, beyond that, are not even formed by the cell body. Once one has oneself accustomed with the functional way of looking at things, the step from the spider with its net to, say, "the commercial agent and his car" is only natural. In order to survive, both the spider and the commercial agent have to gain a surplus of energy. To achieve this goal both surround their cell body with additional organs, with whose assistance they catch their booty (respectively their "customers"). (Naturally an additional organ can also serve other purposes like protection, for instance, as we will see in the 6. section.)

The only really crucial difference between these two energons lies within the fact that the spider can build only one net "model" while the commercial agent, due to his mental abilities, is able to increase the performances of his body by the creation of any kind of additional organs. Hass calls such a changeable creature, which is no longer the marionette of its genes, "hypercell organism." All hypercell organisms (our commercial agent, for example) emerged from the human multi-cellular organism, which survives in the core of the hypercell organism. Hypercell organisms are just as subjected to natural selection as are multi-cellular organisms.(1)

With his research work, first as an underwater researcher who, e.g., observed the life in corral reefs, then as a ethologist and behaviourist, who looked at the world of people with the same view, Hass discovered that, without exception, all energons must furnish six basic performances independent of their structure (5). The first four serve the individual (i.e., the given uni-cellular organism, multi-cellular organism, or hypercell organism):

  1. Energy acquisition, since without energy, able to do work, any process would be impossible, anyway;
  2. acquisition of necessary materials for structure, growth, and reproduction;
  3. defence against adverse environmental effects, to which belongs also the protection from competitors who want to use the same sources of energy and materials; and
  4. use of favourable environmental factors, to which belongs also the use of the output of other energons.

    The two basic performances pending are in the service of other instances beyond the individual:

  5. Reproduction: it does not serve the continuance of the individual energon (it rather endangers it, mostly!) but only the survival of the given species of energons.
  6. Improvement of structure: it is responsible for the adjustment and evolutionary development of the energons and thus secures the unfolding of life itself.

This last basic performance does neither serve the individual, who has no advantage when its descendants are more efficient, nor the species - when new and better species develop. The improvement of structure only serves the "stream of unfolding."

Hass called this instance first "stream of life," which conveys, however, a wrong, "life-positive" association (7).(2) Alive are the energons only (or rather, as we will see in the 6. section, their "germ cells"), while the stream of unfolding is a blind, purely mechanical process, which spreads like a wild fire and lives on the "egotistical" exploitation and destruction of the living.(3)

With the six basic performances all energons (and likewise each of their components) must fulfil three criteria of efficiency in order to be able to exist in the struggle for survival of the individuals and species within the development stream:

  1. each vitally necessary performance has to occur as energy "economically" as possible;
  2. one must be able to rely on the quality of these performances, i.e., on a favourable relation between the efforts involved in the performance and the misses (Hass speaks of "precision" with which the organ involved in furnishing the performance fits its task); and
  3. it may be important how much time the respective performance takes.

With these three efficiency criteria in each case one has to differentiate between (1.) the two phases of assembly and functioning of the organs involved in furnishing the performance and in the latter the phases of (2.) actual functioning, (3.) rest, and (4.) conversion of function.

Together this results in twelve criteria with whose assistance one can seize the "selection value" of all energons and their structures. It is the unchangeable basic structure of the energetic phenomenon "life;" the value framework in which biological systems can be described exactly the same way as economic processes - and vice versa.

As we will see in the 7. section the autonomous life functions work in accordance with this framework of performance. Accordingly they have to adapt, according to Hass, to the environmental pressure of the requirements of performance as follows:

  1. extension of function: organs and tools can be used for different tasks;
  2. division of function: in order functions do not obstruct each other mutually they are distributed among the different organs and tools in the process ("division of labour");
  3. change of function: an organ or a tool which was originally developed for one working task is used for a fundamentally different working task;
  4. partnership of function: in symbiosis redundant costs are saved;
  5. fusion of functions: the fusion of similar functions, which is because of the cell structure nearly impossible for multi-cellular organisms, is part of the very nature of hypercell organisms; and
  6. bundling of functions: the fusion of different functions in a large organ (in this way, e.g., most machines came about).

 

 

3. The Two Phases of Evolution

In the first phase of evolution "germ cells" form two kinds of energons, whose fundamentally different blueprints are determined by their acquisition of energy: the passive plants, which live as "parasites of the sun," and the animals, which are all predatory (see the 5. section), and which are for their part parasites of the plants. With these two kinds of energons the prescriptions for the creation and the controlling of the performance structure are still concentrated in the genes. In the course of the development of man these two functions shifted more and more to the brain.(4) As mentioned previously, this shift made out of the multi-cellular organism man a new kind of organism with additional organs, which he could change and use as desired: humans became the centre of "hypercell organisms." With these hypercell organisms perfectly new "species" developed: commercial agents, bakers, programmers, pilots, roofers, etc.pp. Thus the world of economics proves to be a direct continuation of evolution.

Hass calls these "species" "workers." These new "animals" consist of a human plus his additional organs, including his specialized knowledge, which one might consider "immaterial" additional organs (material circuits in his brain). Each worker, who is successful on the market with new special performances, e.g., by producing shoes, founds a new "species," because other humans are motivated by his success to develop similar "professional entities," i.e., to become shoemakers in this case. The different "professional species" are subjected to natural (respectively artificial) selection just like the vegetable and animal energons before.

Both, the "natural species" and the "professional species," specialized in the course of development, opened new "biotopes" and opportunities of life, whereby better adapted species drove out less good adapted species or even brought them to extinction. The crucial difference between the two phases of evolution consists of the fact that in the world of workers an old function, namely, reproduction is performed by completely different structures. As already suggested now species do not reproduce by way of their genes, any longer, but by way of language and the written word, e.g., instructions for the production of shoes. In this way old structural restrictions (the slow course of mechanical mutation, selection, and sexual recombination) are overcome and, so to speak, "pleomorphism" becomes the rule, i.e., each individual human can become the origin of a perfectly different professional entity.

Beside the arbitrary changeability of the hypercell organism its relative indestructibility is a further evolutionary progress: the "death" of a hypercell organism, e.g., the bankruptcy of a shoemaker, spreads to its human "germ cell" in exceptional cases only. The largest progress, however, is represented by the additional (joint-) organ "money." Most of the enormous evolutionary success of the hypercell organism is based on this organ because by its assistance the hypercell organism, and thus its germ cell, with only one special performance, e.g., the production of shoes, can gain access to the products of all other special performances and can supplement its own performance structure with them. (In the 5. section we will discuss money more thoroughly.)

The fourth kind of energon (after plant, animal, and professional entity) is the hypercell organism of higher integration. Single-celled organisms develop (respectively developed) into multi-cellular organisms, which are organized according to the division of labour. A similar development occurs in the world of hypercell organisms: it comes to the formation of larger units organized according to common tasks, i.e., "business organisations." "Similar to the multi-cellular body where cells develop larger more efficient organs - for example fins, eyes, and bones consisting of many cells - likewise in the larger bodies of life, which are formed out of numerous hypercell organisms, there are 'departments' which are aligned to certain tasks. In business organisations, for instance, the management including its implementing organs, the production department, the sales department, and others are each formed by thousands of hypercell organisms" (5:142).

While in the centre of a professional entity always an individual human is located, business organisations are organized superindividually. Naturally there can be a "boss" but, in principle, he is replaceable like any other co-worker, too. In stark contrast to the independent working person humans in business organisations become exchangeable units. One compares, for instance, a master craftsman with an assembly-line worker.

With the business organisation the evolution freed itself finally from the load of "federal structures." Before, for example, each cell was loaded with the maintenance of its own power station, the mitochondria, while, by now, each individual professional entity, which became part of an business organisation, does not need its own electrical generator. With the occurrence of the business organisations every conceivable joining of functions became possible. They are therefore efficient like no energon before.

The business organisations represent the high point of evolution which never will be surpassed. They are the largest organisms at all and could theoretically take the extent of a galaxy. Despite this quantitatively unlimited growth, with them the energons achieved the qualitative highest point of development because a combination of business organisations would be, nevertheless, only a further business organisation.

For us, who work in such business organisations, it is practically impossible to recognize that they are organisms, indeed. For a single-celled organism, e.g., a white blood corpuscle (supposed it had consciousness) it would appear paradoxical, likewise, to regard the human, in which it lives and of which it is an integral component, an organism. We depend on our limited perspective view, which we can extend comprehensively only by way of energetic functionalism (i.e., with Hass' energon theory or with Reich's orgonometry). As will be shown in the 8. section this new functional, "orgonometric," in the true sense of the word "cosmic" view "from outer space" (cf. the Introduction) is the only possibility to sort ourselves out and to free us thereby from our chains.

 

 

4. The Natural History of Work Democracy

According to Reich both the organism and the social "work democracy" each constitute "a natural co-operative of equivalent organs with different functions. If natural work democracy is biologically founded, we find it modelled after the harmonious co-operation among the organs" (12:117). Now, with the help of the energon theory, the obvious natural historical gap, which opens between the "organic co-operative" and the social co-operative, can be closed according to a "continuity of function."

Hass regards society no longer a co-operative of humans (who all belong to the same species) but a co-operative of hypercell organisms. Just as the organs of an organism are completely different from each other, also the hypercell organisms are differentiated into different species. Accordingly it makes no sense, at all, to look for "natural work democracy" in hordes of apes or primitive men, one finds it rather traced out in, e.g., corral reefs where the most different species live together.

Remember the symbiosis (or, in terms of the energon theory, the "function partnership") between hermit crabs and sea anemones. They make themselves mutual additional organs. For the hermit crab the sea anemone, which settles on its snail housing (a further additional organ of the hermit crab), is an organ of protection, while the hermit crab for the sea anemone is an organ of locomotion. Both profit from this "work-democratic relationship."

From a functional point of view exactly the same is present in economy: hypercell organisms (not humans!) make themselves mutual additional organs. Therefore, e.g., tanner and shoemaker have a work-democratic relationship. This applies all the more when the functional entwinement between the co-operative partners becomes closer and these two hypercell organisms find together, with others, in common business organisation (3:145). In other words: in work democracy each hypercell organism becomes a component of the performance structure of others.

"Function partnership" is thus the bridge which functionally connects the "natural co-operative of the organism" with the work democracy of society. In the worm convoluta this becomes clear in a plastic way. This worm can, contrary to its direct relatives, save the formation of an own kidney system because certain algae, which live in its body, eliminate the metabolic remnants for it (2, 1. part:44). Here, in the context of a symbiosis, a foreign organism takes on the task of a critical organ (the kidney). There is no much difference to a work democracy where hypercell organisms make one another to (additional) organs and in this way can live only (Reich speaks of "life-necessary work" [14]).

Co-operation of energons creates new energons of higher complexity and efficiency. The possibility of the energons to cooperate with other energons, i.e., the formation of a working association in which each part becomes the function carrier of the other one is, actually, the basis of the further evolution of the energons (3:145). This means nothing but that work democracy constitutes the basic nature of all living.

At the same time, however, the closely interlocked work-democratic integration contains an endangerment of this very work democracy. One may realize this by way of the transition from the independent single-celled organism to the firm formation of the multi-celled organism: on the one hand, completely according to Reich's concept of work democracy, each single-celled organism can regard the entire organism as its organ but, on the other hand, the single-celled organism turned into an exchangeable cog (a slave) in the total machine which became an end in itself.

In the transition from independent "freelance" professional entities to the firm formation of a business organisation pros and cons result but the latter matter more because, as indicated in the 3. section, the success (i.e., the very existence) of the business organisation is based on the overcoming of the "federal structure." So work democracy on the very high point of its natural history is most strongly endangered, because humans become just tools ("organs," "mere cogs in the machine," "wage slaves") in a totalitarian system.

This would lead directly to an anarchist communist manifesto if a further problem would not open up: the inner-species aggression - not between humans, but between hypercell organisms! It is about the competition within a species of working professionals. Two shoemakers, who have their business in direct proximity, as humans (i.e., as multi-cellular organisms) may or may not get well with one another but as representatives of the same professional species (i.e., as hypercell organisms) they are mortal enemies if the market (the "biotope," e.g., the quarter) only can nourish one shoemaker.(5) If we change from the level of the species to the level of the development stream the same applies to the replacement of old species by new, better adapted ones, for instance the displacement of the tanner by the manufacturer of imitation leather (a subject which comes up with Reich frequently).

In order to keep this "natural selection" within bearable bounds, there is the state as indispensable "community organ" of the working professionals which, e.g., ensures fair competition or just that the hypercell organisms do not fight (understandably) with force of arms for their sheer survival. In addition the state is, according to Hass, absolutely necessary because the additional organs of the hypercell organisms are not only not firmly connected with their performance structure but are particularly desirable for other hypercell organisms because they can integrate them into their own performance structure without problems. The state, sanctioning robbery, made the development of the hypercell organisms possible, thus.

All tasks, which the state seizes beyond its indispensable protective function, contain the danger that the state itself becomes a business organisation which limits the liberty of the working professionals: the state becomes a thief itself. That then is called, strangely enough, "welfare state" (see Political Irrationalism from an Orgonomic Point of View). Also military and police, which protect the liberty and security of the citizens (actually, however, of the hypercell organisms),(6) represent a danger in this regard because in an emergency situation they must be able to fall back on blind obedience which, in turn, individuals can take advantage of in order to make by putsch the state an additional organ of their own performance structure or of the performance structure of their group. Hass: "An association with a large community organ of protection over night is transformed into a big business organisation, where in an extreme case all 'shares' are concentrated in one hand" (5:169).

From this allegedly indissoluble dilemma only functional thinking can lead out, as already indicated in the 3. section, i.e., we must be constantly aware that the state and the law themselves, i.e., "the power of the state" (15:216), are nothing but additional organs, which are not at all "sacred" but are at one's disposal if they do not fulfil their rational function any longer. Max Stirner and his taking away the spell of these "most sacred goods" is to be mentioned here in particular. Stirner: "The idea of law is originally my idea, i.e., it has its origin in Me. If it sprang, however, from Me, is the 'word' out, then it became 'flesh,' a fixed idea. I cannot get it out of my mind any longer; wherever I turn the thought stands before Me. In such a way humans never again became masters of the thought 'law' which they themselves had created: the creature bolts. That is absolute law, passed by Me and separated from Me. We cannot consume it again because We worship it as the absolute, and it takes away Our power to create; the creature is more than the creator, it is 'per se'" (15:225f).

 

 

5. Work Democracy and Capitalism

The apologists of a capitalism, in which everything revolve around profit regardlessly, love to refer to the first phase of evolution. All animals are predators in their behaviour towards their energy source (plants or animals). They have anything on their mind but the advantage of their booty they, instead, look for weak points in order to "rob and murder." Grasses are ruthlessly pulled out by goats, blue whales are gutted alive by killer whales, etc.pp.

In order to facilitate this energy acquisition all animals, out of functional necessity, are led by impulses which within human society are branded, if we use Reich's term, as destructive "secondary drives":

  • Egoism: in energy acquisition solely one's own advantage counts. Any consideration for the prey would be counter productive.
  • Greed: the energy acquisition must take place as fast as possible in order to use every favourable opportunity, which perhaps does not return so fast, and, not least, in order to forestall the competitors.
  • Disfavour: full of distrust and envy one is fixed on the behaviour of the competitors in order to participate on their booty and, perhaps, even to steal it completely.

These animal instincts harmonized outstandingly with the life of the human hunters and collectors and also of the early field farmers and cattle breeders. Like a thief one looted the fruits and berries of the forest, picked insects from their hiding places, lured small game into mean traps, and organized cruel battues on large game. The field farmer and cattle breeder are even more brutal: forests are rooted out inconsiderately and whole animal species (for instance wolves) are exterminated, while other plants and animals are manipulated and exploited in the most insidious way.

Does this mean that in the second phase of evolution, i.e., in the "flora and fauna" of the "species of occupation," the same rules apply?

  • Egoism: "pulling the wool over the eyes" of the customer, inconsiderately.
  • Greed: for example palm something off on a customer who is in good moods, something which he does not want at all and which perhaps even harms him.
  • Disfavour: all throw themselves on that market segment which promises the largest and fastest profit while in other places enormous need gaps gape at frustrated customers.

By this list it becomes obvious immediately how counter productive such a procedure would be because in a society based on division of labour and the exchange of goods and services only that working person can have long term success who solves his own problem (increase of energy, raw materials, and know how), by taking care of the problems of others. If he does not do that and remains fixed solely on his short term profit (i.e., if he, quite "naturally," acts like a predator), without paying attention to the needs of the customer, he is kicked out of business and "starves to death."

"While for the predator it is without interest and relevance that his victim 'has fond memories of him,' the situation is completely different with acquisition by way of acts of exchange: here one act of acquisition affects the next act in a crucial way" (4:94). Therefore, in stark contrast to robbery, there are only winners with exchange. (In contradiction to the second thermodynamic law, by the way!) The fabric of mutual dependence, developing in this way, is work democracy.

Why our world is not work democratic in this sense but, instead, the market place is still like predators vs. prey where the stronger "cannibalistically" pounces on the weaker? Hass tries to explain this with the "pycho-split" (4). The psycho-split is a "disturbance in behaviour control" which overtook our ancestors approximately 10,000 years ago when, with the production of additional organs by specialists, egoism, greed, and disfavour became counter productive (not morally "bad"!) in the behaviour towards the energy source.

If we would deal with orgastically potent humans that would have been the beginning of work democracy. Orgastic potency lowers the drive demands on the ego and frees the head for economically rational acting. And actually there was, contrary to Hass' construction, such a thing like a "primal work democracy" (Reich) as DeMeo demonstrated in his Saharasia theory (8). But with the "invasion of compulsory morality" 6,000 years ago, i.e., with global propagation of "saharasia," progressing until today, the animal instincts, described above, i.e., the "secondary drives" (about this only apparent contradiction see The Orgonogenetic Basic Law) became acute and since then they determined our economic life (whether in slave holder society, feudalism, or capitalism).

Hass quotes F.A. Lange (who had such a tremendous influence on Reich's thinking): the commercial experiences of all times would had "pointed out incontestably that the individual can achieve material prosperity by inconsiderate pursuit of his own interests only" (4:150). Reich knew this commercial world from his own experience and it is only understandable that nauseated he turned to Marxism, which wanted to set an end to this nightmare. But Lange, Marx, and their successors reasoned "ahistorically," contrary to their own demands. Certainly they referred to natural history, laid open by Darwin, but they recognized neither the continuity of evolution from the multi-cellular organisms to the hypercell organisms, nor the crucial break which is a concomitant of the new "exchange-fair" energy acquisition of the hypercell organisms.

As absurd as it may sound: if one wants to be successful on a long-term basis the entire commercial adjustment has to be shaped not by egoism and greed but by obligingness and "sympathy," i.e., openness for the needs and feelings of the person opposite. More or less like an orgone therapist the supplier has to empathize with his customers. He "must move with his own brain, as it were, into the brains of strangers and consider which needs, desires, and conceptions are present there; which aversions, fears, and problems affect the decisions there" (4:160).

This strategy, which is the only one promising profit, is particularly torpedoed by greed for money. Unconsciously the customer means food for the supplier (he can make a living on him) if the latter is determined by secondary drives, i.e., is greedy and inconsiderate. The customer releases, as with a conditioned reflex, the old predatory instincts. It is even worse because, naturally, it is all not about the customer per se but his money - and money, which is associated with all goods of this world, is an absolutely irresistible "supernormal key stimulus".(7)

We are here confronted with a classical self-blockade because "in order to be successful in money making it is crucial not to think of this acquisition but of the problems and interests of those who have a demand for one's performances. As much as possible we should concentrate on this - while the money succeeds in that we do not do this" (4:123f). In his illusion to pursue his own interests the "narrow-minded egoist" (15:82), possessed by a passion, trips himself up.

In a work-democratic society the customer should determine the supply but, instead, out of pure money greed inappropriate products and services are forced upon him. Instead of being already ahead some steps of the development of the desires and needs of the customer, the supplier foists foreign desires and needs by manipulation. The management consultant Wolfgang Mewes clarifies what this means, concretely, when he presents the remarkable fact that "in German economy since 1900 the functions (tasks) specialized in the relationship 1 to 10,000 the applicants, however, in the relationship 1 to 100, at most. As a consequence trade, industry, and society suffer a hidden need of infinitely many new special abilities, which only then become conscious to them, however, when such a new special ability is offered, i.e., when it is made conscious, thus" (4:172).(8)

The psycho split prevents not only a profitable relationship between suppliers and customers, but also undermines the symbiosis (see the 4. section) between employers and employees. In working life the desires and needs of the productive core of the firm, i.e., of the individual co-worker, should be the focus of attention (completely in the long-term egoistic self-interest of the entrepreneur), instead humans are treated like arbitrary means of production, in this way the "living productive power" is suffocated. Hass writes about this: "The more enterprises become a whole, satisfying all parts, the more successfully becomes their performance. It is of central importance that the employer does not regard the employees as a means of production - and the employee the employer not as a milking cow" (4:284).(9)

This is not about moral appeals but about the best strategy to (long-term, perfectly egoistic) profit maximisation - which can take place in the second half of the evolution only mutually for mutual profit. That concerns not only the "class warfare" of the Marxists, and other red fascists, but extends even to world politics. Here it is considered natural that the states concentrate on their own advantages inconsiderately when striving for a positive commercial balance sheet. Far more rational, i.e., really in accordance with their own interests, however, would be to serve the advantage of the other one. In this connection Hass refers to the Marshall Plan and the foreign aid of some countries, "which they did not pursue as bare alms gift or selfish market creation" (4:127f).

From a strictly evolutionary point of view, class warfare and imperialism are obsolete. They are neither necessary, unavoidable, "natural," nor even effective, productive, or profitable in any way! Exactly like orgonomy also energon theory means the definite end to all red and black fascist ideologies.

 

 

6. The Alienation of the Living

According to Reich life is pulsation of free orgone energy in a material membrane of "frozen orgone energy" (12:51). Apart from humans and other animals considered as means of production, mentioned in the 5.section, it is, however, a fact that of the additional organs of hypercell organisms nothing pulsates. Consider, for instance, the car of the commercial agent or an administration building of IBM. But it is immediately understandable that without these artificial organs the core of the hypercell organisms (the human being with the occupation "commercial agent" respectively the co-workers of IBM) could not pulsate at all on a long-term basis.

All non-pulsating structures which surround us, i.e., additional organs such as clothes, houses, cars, etc., even if they are inorganically rigid, finally serve nothing but the protection of our organismic pulsation. (They should serve it, at any rate!) It would occur to nobody not to consider skin scales, hair, toenails, or fingernails as parts of the pulsating organism. Also the snail housing does not pulsate but, nevertheless, certainly belongs to the snail organism inseparably. Why not also the same snail shell with the hermit crab where it serves the same purpose? The same way one must regard facilities like houses and central heating, machines like cars, refrigerators, and turning lathes, and business enterprises like Boeing, Shell, or General Motors.

Both with the snail, which outwardly appears inorganic, and with a hypercell organism it is the assembling and steering cell body in the centre which constitutes "life." As dead as the single-celled organism (a spore for instance), the multi-cellular organism, or the hypercell organism may appear outwardly: they all developed out of a violently pulsating germ cell.(10) Reich speaks of the current "amoeba in the multi-cellular organism" (13:126) which constitutes the vegetative core of the multi-cellular organism. If this "amoeba" dies, as, for instance, in the cancerous shrinking biopathy, the multi-cellular organism disintegrates, too. Likewise the professional entity dies if its germ cell, the human being, does not give life to it anymore. That can be transferred even to business organisations which infallibly go to pieces if the respective "germ cell" commits drastic management errors or the living exchange between the co-workers is interrupted.(11)

To the question what actually constitutes "live," a second complex of problems belongs: What caused the human being to deaden himself, to armour, "to degenerate into a machine-like state?" All additional organs, all "machines," of the human being serve the protection of organismic pulsation but, unfortunately, the dead additional organs affected their germ cell, i.e., the living protoplasm of the human being and transformed it after their image. According to Hass the basic principle of the human unfolding of power in the second part of the evolution consists in "that the function performance separated from the body, while the control - partially, at least - remains with the brain" (1:119). At the same time this goes hand in hand with "impotence" because man must struggle constantly that the control of his additional organs does not slip out of his hands and they win power over their master, i.e., that supporters of the germ cell do not become suppressers. Hass, as we will see in the 7. section, because of his concept of life naturally cannot tell why man shall not be assimilated by his (material and "immaterial") artificial organs and why children shall grow up freely.

According to Reich the servant could work its way up to the position of the master because armoured man, nauseated by his secondary drives, no longer wanted to be a pulsating, sexual animal and therefore identified himself with the allegedly perfect machine, i.e., with his additional, artificial organs. But Reich may speak for himself: "Man's life is dichotomized: One part of his life is determined by biologic laws (sexual gratification, consumption of food, relatedness to nature); the other part of his life is determined by the machine civilisation (mechanical ideas about his own organisation, his superior position in the animal kingdom, his racial or class attitude toward other human groups, valuations about ownership and non-ownership, science, religion, etc.). His being an animal and his not being an animal, biologic roots on the one hand and technical development on the other hand, cleave man's life and thought. All the notions man has developed about himself are consistently derived from the machine that he has created. The construction of machines and the use of machines have imbued man with the belief that he is progressing and developing himself to something 'higher,' in and through the machine. (...) In this way the product of mechanistic technology became the extension of man himself. In fact, machines do constitute a tremendous extension of man's biologic organisation. They make him capable of mastering nature to a far greater degree than his hands alone had enabled him. They give him mastery over time and space. Thus, the machine became a part of man himself, a loved and highly esteemed part. He dreams about how these machines make his life easier and will give him a great capacity for enjoyment. The enjoyment of life with the help of the machine has always been his dream. And in reality? The machine became, is, and will continue to be his most dangerous destroyer, if he does not differentiate himself from it" (14:334f).(12)

Today everyone can observe this process directly in connection with the computer (or "cybersex"). An additional organ, which serves the free pulsation of the cell plasma (originally the computer was developed for military use, i.e., the protection of the pulsatory function), becomes an end in itself which shapes our children after its image and transforms them into mental cripples. Just to observe the juvenile computer zombies in the computer corner of a department store is quite instructive in this regard. It comes to changes in the mental, emotional, and even physical functioning and the human being transforms into a robot. A creature which (as one sees in science fiction movies) is in every regard better than the human animal. A creature which is not vulnerable, does not pulsate, and, above all, has no genital organs.

 

 

7. The Living Under "Performance Pressure"

In the orgonomic usage the term "function" is inseparably connected with the bifurcative unfolding (see the symbol of orgonomic functionalism). Take, for instance, the human organism which developed out of one egg cell by constant division (due to the orgasm function) and currently functions further on this basis. "Function" means the activity of a part, e.g., the heart, in relationship to the whole, the organism in its entirety. Because this interaction of part and whole developed ontogenetically (and also phylogenetically - see the Introduction) exclusively and entirely from bifurcation, one cannot describe this interaction other than "bifurcative," i.e., functionally ("orgonometrically").

With the cosmic life energy "orgone" Reich discovered the fact that without exception everything, also everything outside of the living organism in "dead" nature, is governed by functional = "bifurcative" laws and therefore has to be described orgonometrically. This, however, abrogates neither the difference between the living and the dead (which follow different functioning laws [13]) nor between the functional and the mechanical (the mechanical develops out of the functional and can oppose, influence, "bend," divert, and control it [12]).

If Hass would have taken the term "germ cell" literally (a term of central importance to the energon theory) he would have perhaps likewise arrived at functional, "bifurcative" formulations but, instead, in his work all differences between the functional and the mechanical blur. He limits the term "function" to organisms (respectively energons) but then robs it of its, literally, "living content," by defining it by referring to "the performance needed," which is forced upon the organism by the environment as a task. Therefore the terms "function" and "performance" become basically exchangeable with Hass, although formally he uses them correctly, of course (see the 2. section).

In this way two entirely different levels are blended with one another which correspond more or less to the contrast, outlined by Reich, of internal (primary) drive and the character, moulded by the outside. Hass blurs the "contrast of ego and external world;" that "basic conflict" whose investigation led Reich (one could say "coming from Stirner") into biophysics (13). Although, as we will see in the 8. section, also Hass, almost in a "Stirnerian" fashion, finally takes the side of the "ego" against the "super ego," but because of his concept of function, which is fixed on performance and thus makes it conceptionally impossible for him to grasp the "basic conflict," the biophysical founding, necessary for this "anti-super-ego" positioning, remains inaccessible to him.

One can fix the conflict between the organic unfolding of the functions and the environment best in terms of the relationship between sexuality and propagation. Sexuality is based on the discharge function and can be traced back to the cell division of single-celled organisms. It is the expansive, pleasurable vital function per se, i.e., what constitutes "life" (13). Natural selection, however, can evaluate exclusively the purely mechanical success of reproduction. In the final result the basic function of the orgasm, which is not directly connected with the success of reproduction, was distorted and suppressed (cf. The Orgonogenetic Basic Law). Mechanistic biologists, including Hass, are caught in these one-sided, performance-fixed, and almost "patriarchal" (i.e., reproduction is honoured while sexuality is blocked) perspective of the development stream. Thus, with a remarkable exception which is discussed in the 8. section, sexuality plays no role in the energon theory, at all! Reich, however, placed himself "outside," was thus able to grasp both halves of the unfolding of life, and thought really functionally, i.e., in agreement with the autonomous development of the functions.(13)

One-sidedly Hass reduces all life phenomena to "control causality" in which the "linkage between cause and effect is turned into its opposite" (3:88). An organ is a "key" with which the energy source (the "lock") is unlocked (causality), it is, however, according to Hass' definition of the function from the performance, the "lock" which determines form and functioning of the organ suitable for its exploitation (control). For instance, if the energy source of a group of plants changes by being overshadowed by other plants, the small-leaved plants become extinct while the descendants of those plants, which had coincidentally larger leaves and were accordingly more efficient, will shape the new population of plants. In the final result this looks as if only the new "lock" (a decreased sun exposure), stepping on the plan, would determine those already long existing "key" (larger sheets), nevertheless. This control causality had made, in the course of millions of years, single-celled organisms out of molecules, controlled their merger to multi-cellular organisms and determined their further development - this control causality is thus responsible for all what look like the product of the "bifurcative," functional development described above. Therefore, according to Hass, all "vitalistic" and "life-energetic" concepts in biology are obsolete!

What, however, hides functionally behind control causality we have already seen in the 5. section in another example of how the energy source determines the energons: "the demand determines the supply," i.e., the energy source selects among various available functions, which already unfolded bifurcatively perfectly independent ("outside of Hass' field of vision," as it were) of any performances demanded, due to their own functioning laws. And just as in the economy the offer has to be manifold and flexible, in order to be able to satisfy the constantly changing needs, also in the first phase of evolution the unimpaired rich development of the living functions is a condition to fulfil the new performance which is later asked for coincidentally.

With control causality it is the same as with the paradox of a secondary energy (described in the 1. section), which follows the second thermodynamic law and, nevertheless, is the basis of the neg-entropic phenomenon life. As the energon, which depends on an energy-accumulating process, remains unexplainable without the neg-entropic orgone energy, i.e., the orgonomic potential which is working against the second thermodynamic law, and which provides the necessary energy potential, - also "control causality" can only function if the "material," with which it is able to work, is literally brought to it. Without these two conditions alive neg-entropic energons cannot emerge out of a dead mechanical and entropic world.

Hass himself comes quite close to this thought, when he answers the old joke question: "Which was there first - hen or egg?" by pointing to the hen. From an energon-theoretical point of view reproduction is nothing but a special kind of regeneration. Therefore at the beginning of this chain should have been structures which actively could built up an energy potential and steadily gain further surplus of free energy (2, 2. part:89). But the question actually how these first energons came into the world he can answer only with the empty formula "coincidence" (see 3:173).

Reich, however, proved experimentally that at the beginning of this chain there is a process in which individual parts begin to function as a whole not by "coincidence," which perfects itself by cybernetic feedback ever further, but in spontaneous generation in an lawful manner primordial functions (superimposition, orgonomic potential, pulsation, etc.) become effective; functions, which in the further development of operational mode (the "animal impulse," which differentiates the living organism from the chemically identical dead body) and structure (the orgonome form) become obvious in the vegetable and animal energons (12) - and then are subjected to the pressure of natural selection.

Accordingly Hass with his control causality can explain convincingly, how species change in nature occurred by natural selection, but he does not explain the astonishing morphologic constancy of the organisms which Reich described. Why, one has to ask, nearly all vegetable and animal performance structures are so astonishing similar morphologically. Reich explained these laws of form in Cosmic Superimposition (12). But according to Hass' theory, in which evolution is determined exclusively by the efficiency of the performances furnished, nature should be populated by oddly and ugly formed monsters, as our machinery are characterized by shapes which do not follow any laws of form but performance criteria entirely.

Reich discovered that common functioning principle (CFP) which gives living structures their unmistakable identity and individuality, while Hass revealed with the development stream that instance, which makes out of life structures bare performance structures without an own identity, mere "machines." The break between the two phases of the evolution, which Hass only grasped vaguely, one can describe as follows: In the first phase of the evolution new organs formed really "organically" by function extensions and function changes of old organs. So, e.g., the wings of birds could develop only from the front extremities of quadrupeds. The natural selection had to work with a quasi flexible material, which had an autonomous independent existence. In the second phase of evolution this "plastic continuity of function" is missing. Here the wings of aeroplanes develop out of nothing, as it were. They are "products of the brain," literally. In this way man could separate himself from the functional bases. The only criterion, which still counts, is the performance, while organic connections no longer play any role and are even considered an obstruction. This machine-like thinking spread to biology (see the 6. section) and unfortunately also infected the energon theory and robs it of a major part of its potential.

The evidence points to the fact that with man the development of the energons separated completely from their foundation in the cosmic orgone energy and runs amok "control causally," as it were: the performance-fixed development stream emancipated itself from all functional restrictions. Therefore only a returning to the roots of the additional organs in the cosmic orgone energy, i.e., an adapted, "orgonomic" technology, will secure humans a future worth living.

 

 

8. The Free Unfolding of the Living and the Individual

According to Reich sexuality serves the periodic balancing of the charge surplus of orgonotic systems. With the single-celled organism this takes place via cell division and with the multi-cellular organism via orgastic convulsion which provides easement and thus pleasure (13). In contrast to this, Hass is completely fixed on the criterion of energy acquisition. For him the animal is primarily "an intestine reproducing" (2, 1. part:83).

With the hypercell organisms, however, Hass encountered, besides the performance structure, which serves the acquisition of energy, an additional "luxury structure," which sole function is energy discharge for gaining pleasure. How should Hass in the context of his theory explain that a major part of the energy, gained by the professional entity, is, from the evolutionary point of view, senselessly blown for the pleasure gain of its human germ cell? In particular this makes no sense because, in stark contrast to the animal realm, this pleasure gain has nothing to do with the production of new energons. Hass found finally that the luxury structure could maintain itself in evolution because it creates the need from which other hypercell organisms live. This mechanism is completely new in evolution.

This difference between the energy acquisition of the energons in the first and the second phase of evolution was described in the 5. section. From an orgonomic point of view - and this shows again that the two theories complement each other mutually - it turns out that there is basically no break (key word "psycho split") in the continuity of evolution because the formation of the luxury structure of hypercell organisms is striking proof for the functional identity of plants and animals on the one hand and the professional entity and business organisations on the other hand. If orgonomy is correct, all energons must be primarily sexual organisms without exception. This applies even more, by far, to the working person with his luxury structure than to plants and animals, because all "luxury" can be attributed more or less directly to striving for sexual fulfilment (see Economics and Sex-economy). In addition, in the centre of the second phase of evolution is, thus, something (the function of the orgasm and orgastic potency, or orgastic impotence) which the energon theory cannot grasp with its concepts.

According to Hass in this phase of evolution the entire life on this planet is threatened by the overwhelming strength of the development stream, which is massing together and organising ever more matter. Apparently nothing can keep the working persons and business organisations, in their "narrow-minded egoism," from transforming this planet into a moon scattered with their waste products. The whole seems like a biopathic process of overcharging based on orgastic impotence.

This is made clear by the following passage by Hass which illustrates, as it were, the "orgastic impotence" of the development stream: "The larger and more powerfull the process of life becomes, the smaller man becomes, more and more a mere particle of its over-powerful currents. In the inside of man the drives whirl, push each other, obstruct each other, while the intellect searches for a firm standpoint, as best as it can. Over all of this, however, flows, completely inconsiderate, the unfolding of the energons. The engine runs as long as the germ cell man acts and strives. Meanwhile this blind energetic process did not give rise, yet, to a mechanics to restrain itself, i.e., not to go to rack and ruin, in the end, of its own power and of its own volume" (3:285f). - One cannot describe the nature of the orgastic impotence better, hardly!

The pursuit of luxury stimulates the life development more and more: due to their obsession all want more and ever more - until the entire planet is made a mess of and becomes uninhabitable. Here we have the same contrast as in sexuality: a satisfied or rather satisfyable sexuality, which keeps the head clear for highest cultural interests and performances, faces a promiscuous, addiction-like, "pornographic" sexuality, which makes up the entire purpose in life and has therefore to be maintained even at a ripe old age by way of Viagra, in order to cover up the inner emptiness. Exactly the same we have in the luxury structure: quality and high culture versus quantity and "entertainment industry."

Hass expresses the hope that the purely quantitative growth of the development stream is parried and defused by a qualitative growth, a cultural evolution. Man shall emancipate himself of the past development of the energons, which was solely fixed on "performance." However, since Hass himself is fixed in a biological thinking biased by an orientation on performance, he does not know to which "instance" he actually shall address his appeal. This, the instance, which opposes the instance of the development stream, is the orgasm function, i.e., the whole of the organismic, autonomously unfolding vital functions. Only against an orgonomic backdrop Hass' analysis would lead to more than just a further helpless admonishment to man to behave "reasonable," please.

According to Hass it is the interest of the development stream, growing uncontrolled rampantly, that the individual becomes a willing energy source for the working persons and business organisations by consuming unrestrained and as much as possible, working like a fool to afford these consumer goods: he shall lead a life which contradicts his own interests, shall have no own opinion, if possible, and shall adapt the customs of his environment. The development of "life," which lives off the destruction of the living, wants that humans become uncritical "couch potatoes" lost in consumption, who have the illusion to be "egoists" but in reality serve the egoism of the instance "life development" entirely: humans, who behave exactly the same like plants and animals which sacrifice themselves for reproduction and even for evolution. Just watch the advertisement on TV which more and more openly fuels narrow-minded egoism, unrestrained greed, and underhanded envy, making it socially acceptable.

Hass, by contrast, demands, in Stirner's sense, a human being whose alignment is to keep himself free from direct or indirect influencing. Hass' actual matter of concern is to free the individual from the "super ego."(14)

As already indicated in the Introduction here he comes quite close to Reich's concepts of the "children of the future" and the "genital character," e.g., when he writes: "If man want to develop further he must not consider the child an [additional] organ of the parents or of the community - but as a separate self in formation one has to respect. (...) Each educating generation should muster the courage to promote a really free development - even at the risk that this is then directed against their own convictions" (1:245, emphases added).

On, what he calls, "de-manipulation" of man he writes: "A particularly dangerous instrument of influencing is the utilisation of imprinting - because it is effective at a time when humans are not ready for defence, yet. In this (....) model [of "de-manipulation"], therefore, importance is attached to that no valuations (particularly ethical ones) are inoculated to the child, by which his later own ability of evaluation is limited. Many community opinions traditionally passed on have a likewise imprinting-like character. Therefore in this model all valuations, also the most 'natural' ones, are examined" (2, 2. part: 277f).

This model of the future "is thus carried by a type of person who is characterized by purposeful egoism free of hypocrisy. His main concern consists of unfolding individually within the bounds of possibility and of keeping himself free from influencing, neither direct (by force) nor indirect (by stirring up of desires). Again his flag says 'liberty' but perhaps for the first time completely rightly, however. To be master in his own house is his central striving. It boils down to free the ego from all units which serve alien purposes - so that each actual service to alien purposes is quite freely chosen. The final goal is a 'free will' as much as possible" (2, 2. part:279).

According to Hass, "drawing the logical conclusion," this emancipation of humans from the development stream could even promote this development stream: on the one hand it prevents its maximum expansion "on the other hand, however, it guarantees that this blind physical process does not destroy itself at the end" (3:153). Automatically one must think of the last chapter of Reich's Cosmic Superimposition about the relationship between the "cosmic energy flow" and human thinking, which emerged from it and resumes it (12). In connection with the emancipation of the individual from the development stream this relationship presents itself as follows:

As indicated in the 7. section the mass-free cosmic orgone energy ("the functional") produces its own material restrictions ("the mechanical") in a kind of "self alienation." In terms of the energon theory that corresponds to the contrast between the interest of the "germ cell" and the interest of the development stream - a "stream" which would not exist without the germ cells, at all. The living germ is able "to consume again this creature it has created," to cancel its own self alienation (see the Stirner quote at the end of the 4. section) and thus to convert the dead, mechanical development stream into a true life stream (see the 2. section), if he becomes himself, if he becomes "an egoist in agreement with himself" (see 12:286), i.e., becomes "owner of himself" in Stirner's sense.

We speak here of self alienation and its cancellation in both the cosmic orgone energy and the germ cell. These two complexes belong together because within both areas the "bifurcative" development of the natural process can be traced back to the one, last, and therefore "only" common functioning principle (CFP) of nature. According to whether this "tracing back" takes the "objective functional logic of orgone energy" or the "subjective functional logical reasoning on the basis of orgonotic self-perception" (see 12:285) as starting point, one designates this one CFP in the centre of the world either as objective "cosmic orgone energy ocean" or as subjective "unique one," depending on which way one arrived at the CFP.(15)

One could argue that Stirner resists all attempts to make out of the qualifiable "unique one" a fixed "principle" (16:150f). But, first of all, orgonometry is a method which functions beyond words (see the Introduction) and, anyway, the term "common functioning principle" reflects only the execution of a reasoning which retraces the functional development, i.e., we can think only in "principles" we are, however, aware that there is something behind the CFP, to which words only point but which they cannot really grasp; and secondly, Stirner himself speaks in the same paragraph of the "development of the unique one." This for each "unique one," each "germ cell," in each case, "completely unique development" is from the structural point of view necessarily identical to the general functional "bifurcative" development of nature. The "unique" identity of each development depends on its CFP. This functional uniqueness is threatened by the mechanical development stream. The "unique one" "insurrects" against this.

Concretely one can visualize the cancellation of self alienation by insurrection, i.e., the transformation of the development stream into a life stream, in analogy to the transformation of a "dead society" into Stirner's "alive association of egoists" (see 15:342). This transformation occurs when no longer only the suppressers but also the suppressed ones realize their egoism, i.e., "the law" is no longer holy to them. Accordingly the development stream would transform into a "life stream" when the individual germ cells of the hypercell organisms would value their own egoism and thus the living more highly than the egoism of the development stream. Equating the development stream with the "dead society" on the one hand (in this connection think of the holy instance "mankind" - see the 3. footnote) and the "life stream" with the "alive association" on the other hand is far more than a mere analogy, indeed. It is the actual core of the contrast between capitalism and work democracy described in the 5. section (see in addition also Political Irrationalism from an Orgonomic Point of View).

 

 

9. Drive Theory and Energon Theory

From thermodynamics, discussed in the 1. section, a second scientific tradition arose: Freud's "libido" was likewise an indestructible energy which must not be wasted, but had to be "sublimated" (for more details see The Orgonogenetic Basic Law).(16)

Also ethology, which can be traced back to Darwin, is part of that energetic tradition although it never came to a concept formation which would correspond to the "libido" of psychoanalysis. Before its approach was replaced by socio-biology, which is purely "genetically" oriented and speaks, instead of drives, of complicatedly interlocked "motivating factors" or "incentives" (4:309), classical ethologists, to whose tradition Hass belongs, added a third factor between sensory impression and motor "expression": the drive (2, 2. part:164). These drives live a life of their own. "If they are active the animal looks only for the key stimulus at which its impulse behaviour aims. If the impulse is abreacted the animal does not pay attention to such key stimuli any more - and other impulses control its behaviour" (2, 2. part:164f). One could also, according to Hass, observe that if an animal does not meet for a longer time a certain combination of stimuli it becomes jerky and looks actively for it. If in this search it does not encounter the key stimuli, which cause the normal impulse behaviour to pass, it can finally happen that "the excitation jumps over into other channels." Hass continues: "The animal executes then its hereditary co-ordination as it were in a 'vacuum' - or another hereditary co-ordination passes not at all belonging to this instinct behaviour. The animal 'abreacts its impulse, thus'" (2, 2. part:164).

The impossibility to follow an impulse or carry out an intention leads, thus Hass, to "accumulated excitation" which, as Hass expresses himself, might be followed by the "emergency valve" of sparking-over movements such as scratching, poking one's nose, using a toothpick, but also smoking and drinking (1: plate 14). In this connection he mentions the English philosopher Herbert Spencer who already in 1863 pointed out that energy, "which is restrained in its discharge, can run in any other direction" so that, e.g., "substitute laughter" occurs (1:144). Hass mentions the name of his teacher Konrad Lorenz who compared the process of increasing excitation with a liquid, "in a container which gradually rises more highly to the point where it overruns." Also the ethologists Nikolas Tinbergen and Erich von Holst spoke about an internal "damming up" of action-specific energy which would then overflow finally (1:46).

In the 30's Tinbergen explained sparking-over movements by an "energy surplus," which "does not find an outlet and therefore does spark over to another nerve tract" (1:52). This is particularly interesting in connection with copulation. Tinbergen: "With many species the, no matter how strongly, excited male cannot copulate as long as the female withholds from him the releasing signal which initiates the act. For instance, the stickleback male does not get rid of its sperm before the female spawns in the nest. Her appearance excites him to the extreme. However, if she does not give an answer to his zigzag dance, - females not yet on heat often do not follow -, the male then turns to nest fanning, often with the most strength possible and unusually long. The perseverance and amplitude of sparking-over fanning is a reliable measure of the strength of the sexual drive. That is certainly the reason for the frequency of sparking-over actions during mating. Thus, courting drake always preen their feathers, birds of paradise and jay sharpen their bill. Silvery gulls and other species of birds feed their partners during courting, probably in an over jump throughout" (17:99f).

In summary Hass explains that impulses can hardly be changed. Even humans can control them only limited. As first Freud found with humans and then Lorenz with animals, impulses not let out look for other channels of expression. "For instance, Lorenz observed that a starling kept in a room 'hallucinated,' as it were, by flying into the empty air where he performed movements of snatching and catching although both he was well fed and no insects were in the room. His hunger was satisfied but the innate movement impulses to catch flying insects were not abreacted and got out in 'neutral movements' (...) Freud held the opinion, which is probably right, that with some humans, who cannot realize their sex impulse, the internal excitation can 'sublimate' into artistic activity. Also in this case an instinct activates a behaviour which is quite differently aligned" (4:44f).

Hass cannot indicate what kind of energy is actually dammed up, redirected, and "sublimated" in instinctual life. If he could have closed this gap there would hardly be a difference between energon theory and orgonomy. In the end the difference exists because Hass, as described in the 7. section, could not grasp the "basic conflict" between impulse and external world adequately.

 

 

Summary

Besides Reich also Hass is a representative of "energetic functionalism." Specific to his approach is the elaboration of the energetic-functionalistic performance framework, with whose assistance one can describe both biological and economic processes uniformly. From an energon-theoretical point of view the human world is just another "flora and fauna" populated by "hypercell organisms," which continues, without a break, the worlds of the uni- and multi-cellular organisms.

Hass' approach makes possible a comprehensive natural-historical founding of Reich's concept of "work democracy." Going back to evolution-theoretical considerations and by means of an analysis of the energy economy of society it is possible to finally free orgonomy from its Marxist "anti-capitalistic" inheritance. At the same time Stirner's concepts of a "genuine egoism" and of "insurrection" against heteronomy can be grasped more concretely, i.e., be placed into a larger natural-historical framework by way of Hass' theory of the "development stream." In particular this applies to (suggested by orgonometry) equating "germ cell" and "unique one." Within this framework the energon theory taps for orgonomy a more differentiated concept of what "life" and "nature" are.

Under certain conditions energy can concentrate to alive whole units ("energons"). In order this process of accumulation can continue in a life-hostile and constantly changing environment the energons must reproduce themselves and develop further (the development stream) whereby the environment forces upon the energons strict efficiency criteria (natural selection) which turns the living into bare "performance structures." Only the energy acquisition of the hypercell organisms (energons made up of man plus his machines) releases life from these chains. This energy acquisition is perfectly new in evolution because it is not based on robbery but on exchange and, connected with it, the formation of the "luxury structure", which sole function is the discharge of energy for the gain of pleasure.

At the same time the development stream grows monstrously with the development of the hypercell organisms, which are no longer subject to the structural restrictions of the first phase of evolution. Whether this process collapses by its own dynamics, depends solely on the drive economy (orgastic potency) of humans, i.e., the "germ cells" which give life to the hypercell organisms in the first place. In the end the question arises whether man by means of his "immaterial" and material "additional organs" (orgonometry and CORE technology - in contrast to mechanistic thinking and to the dead machine) can make the world more alive - release the orgasm function of its past structural restrictions completely - or whether he becomes himself an additional organ of the development stream, i.e., a heteronomic "consumer" (who imagines to consume but is "consumed," actually) and finally to a dead machine without an identity.

Unfortunately Hass' thinking is biased by the perspective of this "performance-fixed" development stream and thus loses touch with the organic, "bifurcative" development of the living - the functional basis of the emancipation from the performance pressure of the development stream. This gap becomes also evident by the fact that with the drive theory of ethology Hass had all conditions for a functional penetration of the problems at hand but could hardly use them. If he could have taken this path, energon theory and orgonomy would fit into one another smoothly.

 

 

Literature

  1. Hass, H.: Expedition zu uns selbst. Das Geheimnis menschlichen Verhaltens, NATURPHILOSOPHISCHE SCHRIFTEN, Bd. 4, München 1987 (first edition 1968 under the title Wir Menschen)
  2. Hass, H.: Das verborgene Gemeinsame. Energon-Theorie I und II, NATURPHILOSOPHISCHE SCHRIFTEN, Bde. 2 und 3, München 1987 (first edition 1970 under the title Energon)
  3. Hass, H., H. Lange-Prollius: Die Schöpfung geht weiter. Neue Wege des Denkens, Stuttgart 1978
  4. Hass, H.: Der Hai im Management. Instinkte steuern und kontrollieren, München 1988
  5. Hass, H.: Die Hyperzeller. Das neue Menschenbild der Evolution, Hamburg 1994
  6. Jung, M.: "Expedition zu uns selbst," Hans Hass. Ein Leben lang auf Expedition, Stuttgart 1994, S. 249-284
  7. Hantschk, A., M. Jung: Rahmenbedingungen der Lebensentfaltung. Die energontheorie des Hans Hass und ihre Stellung in den Wissenschaften, Solingen 1996

    one can download the above texts [and translations of some] from the net: www.hans-hass.de

  8. DeMeo, J.: Saharasia, Greensprings, Oregon, 1998
  9. Freud, S.: Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse, STUDIENAUSGABE Bd. 9, Frankfurt 1974
  10. Ostwald, G.: Wilhelm Ostwald, Stuttgart 1953
  11. Reich, W.: The Discovery of the Orgone: The Function of the Orgasm, New York 1961
  12. Reich, W.: Ether, God and Devil/Cosmic Superimposition, New York 1973
  13. Reich, W.: The Bioelectric Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety, New York 1982
  14. Reich, W.: The Mass Psychology of Fascism, New York 1995
  15. Stirner, M.: Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, Stuttgart 1981
  16. Stirner, M.: Parerga, Kritiken, Repliken, Nürnberg 1986
  17. Tinbergen, N.: Instinktlehre, Berlin 1979

 

 

Footnotes

(1) To be subsumed under the actual "natural selection," which proceeds according to purely mechanical laws, is also "artificial selection," which takes conscious calculation into consideration.

(2) In what respect also the term "unfolding" (or "development") does not fit this instance becomes clear in the 7. section. With "unfolding" one thinks of an organic, functional process, while Hass' "development stream" is fundamentally different: more similar to war (keyword "natural selection") than to building up.

(3) The development stream is an instance which "expropriates" the individual in Stirner's sense. An instance which pursues its own egoistic interests. About it the same can be said what Stirner wrote about the instance "mankind": "What about mankind whose concerns we shall make ours? Are its concerns that of another and serves mankind higher concerns? No, mankind sees only to itself, mankind wants only to promote mankind, mankind is its own concern. So that it develops, it lets peoples and individuals sweat away themselves in its service, and if they have carried out, what mankind needs, they are, out of gratitude, thrown onto the manure heap of history. Are not the concerns of mankind - purely egoistic concerns?" (15:4).

(4) It has to be emphasized that for Hass, completely in accordance with the argumentation of Reich (12:123-125), neither genome nor brain constitute the indispensable life constituting core of the organism. The energon theory leads, according to Hass, to the conclusion, "that also each controlling structure (...) is a mere function carrier like all other structures, not centre and master, at all, but only servant, too. The real 'master' is and remains always the structure aligned to energy acquisition. This can furnish - at least in some cases - its performance also without a central control" (2, 2. part:32).

(5) The only possibility of escaping the conflict is specialisation. For example one shoemaker may specialize in lady shoes and blasting accessoires, the other one in gentleman shoes and working clothes. (We will return to this point in the 5. section.)

(6) Since we identify ourselves with other humans, i.e., have "com-passion," we behave "morally" by nature, i.e., are concerned that our fellow men remain physically intact (14:314). (Who does not act like this is no human!) Concerning their additional organs we lack these instincts, however. Therefore the state must implement ownership laws vigorously. Accordingly in German criminal law property offences are more strictly sanctioned than physical injury. At the introduction of the German civil code of law it was expected, rightly, that the citizen, being no more a helpless child after all, can protect life and health (his natural organs) by himself, but for the protection of his property (his additional organs) he needs the state. Contactless, i.e., "leftist," reformers of criminal law want to eliminate this alleged unfairness, e.g., shoplifting shall be declared a minor offence. The very same people, however, almost flip if the most understandable thing of the world is concerned: the inalienable right of each citizen to carry a weapon in order to protect his physical soundness.

(7) This is probably the deeper reason for the change described in Economics and Sex-economy from the quantitatively fixed gold money to the inflation money, which volume increases constantly.

(8) On the supply side the functions unfold in an organic way. Some are then called up by the demand side as performances. What this "giving" on the one side and "receiving" on the other side means will become clearer in the 7. section.

(9) Employees and parasites can be functionally identical almost. Just think of the proverbial "official," who lives in a kind of socialist paradise. He is an extremely reduced human, only the caricature of a human. Accordingly animal species regress whenever they become parasites. With employees and parasites the acquisition act is no more coupled to the acquisition result. They "work" for flat wages. When they "have arrived at their goal, the body of the host, food - i.e., energy and materials - flows to them in an even stream" (2, 1. part:116).

(10) "The comparison between man and germ cell, used here so often, has only functional validity. The germ cells create the multi-cell body by ongoing divisions: thus in the long run they are identical to the body. On the other hand in case of the human extensions the 'germ cell' remains an individual - i.e., it does not enter the structure which it is creating. It remains an individual - even if its individuality is limited in the context of the structures formed in such a way. Seen from the function the comparison is justifiable, however: Both the germ cell as well as man form life structures of a higher level of integration" (2, 1. part:72).

(11) Here we have the junction between the energon theory and Martin Goldberg's "orgonomic organisational therapy" described in Economics and Sex-economy. After Goldberg the character of the founder of a firm is passed to the "organisational character" of his enterprise. In the language of energon theory the human germ cell impressed its nature upon the hypercell organism it formed.

(12) This statement corresponds to what Stirner says about the immaterial "additional organs," i.e., the world of words and ideas (see the Introduction): "As you are different from the philosopher, singer, and speaker, indeed, you are different no less from the spirit and feel quite well that you are something more than spirit. However, like the thinking ego in its enthusiasm of thinking looses its mind easily, the enthusiasm of spirit also seized you and you long now with all might to become spirit completely, to become one with the spirit. The spirit is your ideal, the unequalled, the beyond: spirit is your - god, 'God is spirit.' You are a zealot against everything that is not spirit, and therefore you rail against yourself, who does not get rid of a remainder of non-spirit. Instead of saying: 'I am more than spirit,' you say with contrition: 'I am less than spirit, and spirit, pure spirit, or the spirit, being nothing but spirit, which I can only think, am however not it, and because I am not it, it is another, exists as another, whom I call 'God'" (15:33).

(13) According to the spirit of balance one could counter that, the other way round, Reich had seen one-sidedly only the autonomous development of the functions, which lets appear his concept of nature strangely "idyllic." There is actually this tendency with Reich, for instance when he polemicize against the ideological abuse of the Darwinist concept of the "struggle for survival": "In the animal kingdom there are no wars within the same species" (14:318). (A statement, which from its tendency and even literally taken is simply wrong!) "Darwin's proof" (!) of descent was "revolutionary," while there were "reactionary" elements in "Darwin's hypothesis" (!) of natural selection (14:77). (Which, as suggested above, is correct in its tendency!) On the other hand another remark on the topic by Reich is almost like a concise summary of this section: "Darwin's theory of natural selection, also, corresponded to the reasonable expectation that, although life is governed by certain fundamental laws, there is, nevertheless, ample room for the influence of environmental factors" (11:11).

(14) The term "super ego" appears (as far as I know) in Hass' works only once: in his discussion on the origin of the "ego" in the function of co-ordination and its increasing centralisation in the process of evolution. In the second phase of evolution, according to Hass, some of these co-ordinating functions leave the centre of the nervous system and shift to additional organs, controlling structures, in which the "general opinion," personal convictions, and interests of individuals and, not least, the "tradition" come to fruition (see the Introduction). In this manner a kind of, as it were, collective "ego" is formed, or, as Hass calls it, "super ego." The fact that this "super ego" quite agrees with the psychoanalytical term "super ego" becomes obvious, when Hass continues: "Similar to the ego of the individual also this 'ego' is prone to regard itself the centre, the most important unit, around which everything else groups [see the 4. Footnote]. In this way a very complex structure not rarely becomes the actual 'spirit,' the actual 'soul' of these energons - and then not rarely governs those who have created it" (2, 2. part:47f).

(15) If one follows the remarks by Reich in Ether, God and Devil this would correspond to the objective "ether" and the subjective "God." For Stirner "God" is the "imagined unique one." ("Exactly this has secured religion its duration that it had the unique one, at least, in thoughts, or as hollow phrase, that it envisioned it in heaven" [16:155].) Accordingly the ether is, as it were, the orgone which "cannot be proved" (see 12:41).

(16) In connection with the energon theory it is particularly remarkable that "libido-theoretical" trains of thought were not at all alien to Freud and Reich which, while not corresponding exactly to those of Hass, nevertheless, are quite similar to them, at least. For example Freud, following Wilfred Trotter's theory of the "herd impulse," argued that "herd mentality" is not only an analogy but, as it were, a continuation of multi-cellness, "a further expression of the inclination, issuing from the libido, of all organisms of the same kind to unite to ever more comprehensive units" (9:119).

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May 22, 2007

 

 


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