Blood Brotherhoods

. In every case the psychology of the brotherhoods removes them further and further from the original cause and they descend into the archetypal tragedy of patricide, fratricide and incest. To protect himself from challenge from younger males the dominant male must deal fiercely with any dissension. Jerrold Post says this of terrorist groups: “The wise leader, sensing the building tension, will plan an action so that the group’s members can reaffirm their identity and discharge their aggressive energy. Better to have the group attack the outside enemy, no matter how high the risk, than turn on itself – and him”.[xix] As the decline continues the group starts to turn on its own members and demand even greater obedience. Michael Wieviorka has argued that extreme violence is a sign of the collapse of the original cause. He argues that “Indeed, it has become counter-productive” and it “bears little relation to the expectation and experience of the people in whose name it is carried out”.[xx] As the group descends further it begins to turn inwards. In normal development the individual turns to the archetype of the bride, to the idea of civilisation[xxi]. In the brotherhoods this is turned inwards to a powerful ritual of male bonding. Juergensmeyer quotes the revealing words of the Sikh martyrs, Sukha and Jinda. “Sukha and Jinda were said to have stated in their final address that they imagined the hangman’s rope ‘as the embrace of a lover’, and they ‘longed for death as for the marital bed’. Their own ‘dripping blood’ would be the ‘outcome of this union’ and they hoped it would ‘fertilize the fields of Khalistan’.[xxii] This last quote provides an interesting reference to the purpose of sacrifice in the matriarchal matrix. However, this should not surprise us if we remember that religions often contain remnants of earlier developmental stages. We need only remember that the Sikh cause also conforms to the psychological process of the brotherhoods. I would also like to remind the reader of the earlier quote regarding the singing of wedding songs at martyr’s funerals. What this points to is the simple appropriation and inversion of the final developmental phase of the patriarchal matrix, civilis as symbolised by the wedding of the male and female principles. What of women? How do they fare in the world of the brotherhoods? Unfortunately not well at all. As the brotherhoods turn in on themselves they turn against women. The women of the brotherhoods do not become equal members; they become servants. In extreme cases they are reduced to being breeders of even more sacrificial sons. Amongst societies caught in currents of Islamic extremism it is a high honour for a woman to give birth to a martyr. The tragedy however, does not end there. The brotherhoods further dehumanise woman and their greatest crime in that of rape. As the cults of the Terrible Father descend into darkness the good sons become archetypal bad sons