Thoughts On The Rough Beast

 

It seems each day brings with it some new freakish incident, threat or claim in these sad times.  I doubt even Suetonius, who wrote of the peculiarities of the Julio-Claudian emperors, could imagine some of the grotesqueries being perpetrated and paraded in front of us by our ubiquitous media.  Whether it's merely ridiculous, like requiring public servants to wear outsized shoes, or actively fostering fear and chaos, those in power seem to be determined either to commit outrages or slavishly support them.

W. B. Yeats believed that the First World War overturned our civilization and deprived us of the traditions and morals on which it was founded, presaging an apocalypse of some kind or another.  So, he wondered what Rough Beast would be born of it.  The 20th century was full of beasts, and so Yeats was right to expect them.  But no Second Coming was forthcoming, as was the case with the many Second Comings which have been predicted by the self-righteous over the centuries.

Could Yeats have imagined a Rough Beast that was destructive of civilized values but merely vulgar, rude, scatterbrained, blustering, ignorant, self-centered as a spoiled child, albeit cunning in a shabby way?  I doubt it.  Yeats was a great poet and evoked beauty and described evil, but in a superlative sense.  I'm not sure he would have believed an apocalypse might be caused by crude, malicious but otherwise unremarkable people put in charge of forces capable of wrecking havoc on the world.

We had to wait for someone like Orwell to tell us that the beasts to be feared most are those who are not great in any sense, are unworthy, even contemptible, but are raised by the corruption of our society to the highest places and are tolerated and even encouraged by those who are part of the corruption.

It's difficult to think, like Yeats, that the current Rough Beasts have beliefs contrary to those which form the bases of Western civilization.  In fact they value what has always been of the greatest importance in the West; money and its relentless acquisition.  Money, of course, is power, which has also been desired.  And they also rely on hypocrisy and purported adherence to so-called Judeo-Christian morals, at least in public, another characteristic of our civilization. 

The Rough Beast no longer slouches towards Bethlehem, but marches against it, and lays siege to it. 

The Frantic Quest For Significance

 

I think that it must be maddening to some people to realize that they are tiny creatures living among billions of other tiny creatures on a tiny planet in a tiny solar system among billions of other solar systems in a galaxy among billions of other galaxies in the vastness of the universe which, for all we know, is one of many other universes.

This is unquestionably the case, however.  And because of this, it's difficult to believe that any of us is of any significance in what's called "the grand scheme of things."  In fact, it's absurd for any of us to feel anything but insignificant.

This creates problems for those of us who feel we're important or special in any sense.  From this perspective, self-love and self-regard become laughable.  The self-important become objects of ridicule.  Those who admire others because they think them important are even more pathetic.

There are different ways a person may react to the realization that we're remarkably small participants in the universe. Some might despair, unable to accept the reality of what Warren Zevon called "the vast indifference of heaven."  Some may disregard it, and believe that they're the chosen of a god who created an enormous cosmos all for the sake of miniature beings on a miniscule planet, the equivalent of a grain of sand in an endless desert.

Some may revere the universe and accept their place in it, something that's plainly beyond their control, and strive to be a Stoic Sage. 

And some might be so angered by the thought of their insignificance, and so convinced of their importance that they use what power they have to demonstrate their greatness and grandeur.  They seek some way to prove it, to themselves more than others. This means they destroy the world and make their mark on it, usually through violence, the accumulation of wealth and building showy, grandiose monuments that others cannot help but see.  

They're the maniacs,  narcissists, gluttons and hoarders that plague us, hoping that somehow their short lives will be remembered if not extended due to their fame. They see devastation as the path to immortality.

The ancient Assyrian kings are good examples of this kind of mania.  They had their scribes write of their prowess in conquering cities and killing all their inhabitants in gruesome detail, so they wouldn't be forgotten.  

Is it possible we're seeing this mad quest for significance playing out now?

Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas. Certain Biblical phrases are apt descriptions of the human condition and are impressive, especially when expressed in Latin.

The Pernicious Doctrine Of Repentance

I've wondered from time to time whether and to what extent the success of Christianity can be attributed to the doctrine of repentance--that is, the fact that it provides that sins may be forgiven.  I don't know of any religion or cult prevalent at the time Christianity began to spread which made a similar, equivalent claim in describing its benefits.

The popular mystery cults which existed at the time promised salvation, but not because you could, through them, obtain God's or the gods' forgiveness for the wrongs you committed if you became a convert and asked to be absolved.  Instead, salvation was forthcoming if you were properly initiated into the mysteries of the god and obtained thereby the knowledge required to be united with the deity.

Of course, merely asking for absolution isn't sufficient in itself to assure a sinner is forgiven.  The sinner must be sincerely sorry for the sins committed. The sinner must feel genuine remorse. 

In addition, the sinner must turn away from the way of sin and towards God.  Some Christian sects actually require proof of the sinner's change of heart in the form of good deeds and by doing what's required by scripture.

Thus is forgiveness attained, and responsibility and punishment avoided. Years of misdeeds are forgotten, and are no longer of any account.

This strikes me as unjust. I think that in most if not all cases someone who fears punishment, particularly eternal punishment, and believes it forthcoming for one reason or another, will certainly sincerely regret that he/she/they murdered, cheated, stole, etc. and genuinely wish the various wrongs committed had never taken place.  There's little possibility that someone believing in and facing Hell will simply pretend to remorse, thinking God will be fooled by a display of sadness.

It's also likely that a sinner facing damnation

will eagerly do all that can be done to establish his/her/their faith and demonstrate a desire to do good in whatever future remains.  There's nothing special or significant about believing Christians sincerely regretting their sins in such circumstances. It's almost certain, therefore, that all will be absolved.

 

It's an attractive prospect for sinners.

My point is that granting forgiveness for past sins or wrongs merely because it's requested minimizes the responsibility of the sinners and wrongdoers, and the significance of the misdeeds themselves, no matter how sincere the request may be,  Nor should forgiveness be granted merely because those that did wrong want to do good in the future, for the same reason.

The doctrine of repentance therefore gives those who do wrong to others, harm others, or are cruel and unjust, the hope if not the assurance that all will be forgiven as long as they appropriately seek forgiveness sometime in the future.  You may be as bad as you like now, as long as you become good.

Augustine wrote that he asked God to help him be pure, "but not yet."  The doctrine of repentance in effect allows that we should be good, but need not be good "yet."  If we're good eventually, we may be evil now.

"What Power Has Law Where Only Money Rules?"

 

I've mentioned Gaius Petronius Arbiter a/k/a Titus Petronius Niger, author of The Satyricon, Suffect Counsel of Rome, courtier of Nero, on more than one occasion in this blog.  He's mentioned by Tacitus and others, so there's credible evidence he existed.  He appears as a character in the novel Quo Vadis, which formed the basis for a movie of the same name.

He was known as the "arbiter of elegance" in Nero's court and a voluptuary, but also was competent and vigorous in performing his public duties.  He eventually fell afoul of the Emperor, like Seneca, and took his own life in a most remarkable way, slowly bleeding to death by opening his veins but stopping the flow of blood using tourniquets to prolong his life while enjoying conversation and banter with friends and writing a description of Nero's misdeeds which he sealed and had delivered to the Emperor after his death.

I qoute him in the title of this post.  It's a perceptive statement by a fascinating man intimately familiar with the rich and powerful oligarchs of a great empire ruled by a meglomaniac.

The ancient Romans had a high regard for law.  They generated a vast amount of written law through the centuries.  Much of current European law derives from that of Rome.  A knowledge of law was considered essential to a successful career, and many prominent citizens acted as advocates (such as Cicero).

The Roman respect for law wasn't limited to written laws.  Romans also revered the mos maiorum, the unwritten code of the customs and traditions they considered peculiarly Roman, such as duty, respect and discipline, which governed the conduct of their ancestors.

When Petronius wondered whether the law had any power where money ruled (implying that it did not), he was therefore maintaining that money had profoundly corrupted and undermined Roman society; had in fact perverted it.  The power of money had changed what it meant to be Roman.

It's become a cliche that the United States is failing and falling as the Roman Empire did and for similar reasons. Like all clichés, it's too simple, but there are similarities.  The U.S. was founded in large part by lawyers.  The Constitution is a legal document--essentially a set of laws.  The rule of law was essential to its creation and forms the basis for its continuance.

It's rapidly devolving, however, because plutocrats have usurped the administration of the government and have no respect for the law to the extent that it serves to thwart their power and influence and the realization of their desires.

The Supreme Court has assured that the nation's government can be bought by sanctioning its purchase as a Constitutional right, and narrowing the definition of bribery, in effect holding that politicians may be paid in return for their services except in rare circumstances.

So we may well ask Petronius' question now, 2000 years after he posed it, and come to the same conclusion he did.

The Age of the Pimp

 

A pimp isn't merely a person who obtains or manages customers for prostitutes.  A pimp can be a procurer of most anything or anyone that will satisfy the desires of those seeking their gratification.  A pimp is a panderer, a fixer, a facilitator.  Those skilled in identifying desires and arranging the satisfaction of them are the most able pimps.  Those whose customers are wealthy are the most successful.

We've been witnesses to the career of a demigod, perhaps even a god, of pimps.  There's nothing in his history which indicates he had extraordinary physical or mental talents, and yet he became extraordinarily successful in making money for himself and others and catering to the wishes and lusts of the rich,  powerful and famous.

His remarkable life seems to serve as irrefutable evidence that it is who you know, not what you know, that's important.  But perhaps that's not entirely true, as it's what he knew about those he knew that enhanced his life in an unusual and disturbing way, and may have led to his death as well as the exploitation of many innocents.

He was assisted in that exploitation by a host of notables from all over our long suffering planet. Their numbers are legion. They include heroes of all political persuasions, united in depravity.

What was it that made him King of the Pimps? The times I think.  Plutocrats believe that money buys anything and anyone.  Perhaps he believed he was a plutocrat along with his many friends.  But he misjudged his place.  Subject to the same desires, his usefulness ended as he indulged them himself without including his customers in indulgence, and so became vulnerable individually, unable to implicate his clients in the same misdeeds he was caught in.  Also, perhaps, his accusers didn't fear him as much as they feared those he enabled.

We're in the Age of the Pimp because the very wealthy need pimps to serve them.  They're not interested in people of substance or worth. They have all they need and more.  What they want isn't what they have already.

They want what they don't have, which is innocence.  They lost it long ago.  They understand they can no longer possess it, so they seek to corrupt those who do.  They want to take the innocence of others.  In that way, they assure that their corruption extends to us all.  We become a part of it.