The Nomadic Alternative – Page 259

child free from possessions, never gives it a toy (except, as I have said, miniatures of the things permitted by society as private property), and never allows it to treasure or hoard a thing. Nor does the child have need for things, for the mother is always there.

What are the mechanics and the timing of this traumatized attachment of things? If a true bond has been formed between the mother and her child, the age from fifteen to thirty months is a highly critical period. The latter will suffer a slight trauma of rejection if the mother gives birth again during this time. But this is nothing compared to the damage if she goes away altogether. An abandoned child protests violently and at first refuses and resents all attempts to console it. It hates its mother for leaving - and quite rightly.

It howls and howls. In the next stage of alienation, the child becomes listless, brooding and quiet. Externalized rage turns inwards to despair. Then as a third stage in the process, quite suddenly it brightens up. Detached apathy gives way to cheerful inquisitiveness and curiosity. It plays with other children and befriends almost everybody. Its guardians sigh with relief. The child has recovered from the absence of the mother.

In fact the mother has permanently damaged its character. The bond, once sealed, can never be broken. But it is now for ever twisted. Detached egotism sets in and a scenario is staged for the selfish pursuit of acquisition and dominance, with human alliances subservient to the self-centred will. To separate a child from its mother at or even before this vital age and place it in a collective nursery with other children, all similarly traumatized, has been the traditional practice of those political systems who wish to maintain their people on a perpetual war-footing. "We love Mao Tse-tung more than our own mother", small children chant in unison at mass rallies in China. 'Natural' attachment behaviour towards the mother is diverted (or perverted) towards contemporaries and this produces a brand of militant collective egotism, of which the Ancient Spartans and the Zulu military confraternities were not ignorant.