In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Though I've thought long about Greek philosophers, never before have I been so drawn to Democritus and Heraclitus, whom you may know as being represented as the laughing mask and the tragic mask of drama, portrayed most memorably in the Three Stooges opening credits when Shemp was the third Stooge (accompanied by the Swing-era speeded-up version of "Three Blind Mice" when the Stooges were already past their prime, early in their career). In other words, never before have I been so torn about whether to laugh or cry. The satirical view gets you over life's meaninglessness (Democritus, The Laughing Philosopher ca. BC 460-362), but in the end, if you truly embrace it, you end up either killing yourself or becoming Samuel Beckett. The other, the tragic, leaves you forever with the burden of care, sorrow, an imbalance of the humours, what the ancients described as Melancholia, which can drag you down just as quickly. The Jews sort of blended the two: you should never be too happy, which is why we dance with tears in our eyes, and contrariwise, that you should never be too sad, because life is short and we have everything to be thankful for and we should never forget what the dead mean to us, their sacrifice and purpose, even in purposelessness. Neither the Greeks' nor the Jews' philosophy helps me right now. All of them lead to a form of insanity, which is to say, a deranged state of mind, unconnected to reality. Reality is too much to bear, which is the main attraction of a consolatory philosophy or religion: these create a never-never land, where with enough fortitude and strength of spirit one is capable of dealing with any of life's injustices and phantom punches. This is fine if you belong to the ancient polis or a like-minded community of the traditionally persecuted, or if you believe in Heaven and Hell. It's not so good when you belong to a modern cosmopolis that operates in a permanent state of denial, comprised of disparate groups and enterprises competing selfishly and immorally and unethically with irreconcilable differences, whose goals are implicitly corrupt and in whose corridors of power the welfare of all is conducted in secret tribunal, among the moneyed and the privileged. The best laid plan of mice and men works out really well for the top 1 percent, and to hell with the future and the rest of us. I don't find this view in the philosophy of the Greeks, I don't find it in existentialism, I don't find it in organized religion but I find it everywhere in history and the ending is always the same. Someone once said that History may be nothing more than what a handful of harebrains have done in their rage and their wrath. Add to that Greed, Arrogance, and everything Freud ever wrote about Eros and Thanatos.
- Michael 6:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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