(Juno Receiving the Head of Argos {Creator:Jacopo Amigoni} 1730 – 1732)
I recently made a post about Machiavelli and quoted some folks who said that he was sort of pissed that Christianity made us into a bunch of wankers. When I say wankers, what I mean is people who feel like we should “turn the other cheek,” and feel really guilty when we don’t turn it. Which, mostly, we don’t. And when we do we usually talk a bunch of pooey about it a few hours later when we feel safe again.
So Machiavelli said that he longed for the days when the gods were courageous, brave, and a bit wild/unpredictable. In those days it was laudable to be strong and powerful. When Christianity took hold (or at least the post Nicean Council Christianity) people were rewarded for dumbing it down a bit. Don’t rock the quinquireme and you’ll get your just rewards in the afterlife…has a nice ring to it. And it really helps to keep the status quo smoothly producing ample aureus, which also have a nice (golden) ring to them t00.
Anyway, I’ve started feeling a little bit irritated at Christianity. We’re supposed to live in a free country, a land in which folks can practice whatever religion they want to without persecution. We have a melting pot of new ideas, star charts, methods, beebops, beliefs, visions, characters, mojos, and cosmologies. We got it all.
And what is it that keeps us from recognizing our own greatness and power? Guilt and fear. The Christian gifts that just keep on giving.
Once I was going to Blockbuster to pick up a movie to numb my mind from a day of delivering joy to 5th graders. As I drove down the middle of my own lane looking for a parking spot, a youngster began to pull out of his parking spot in front of me. I swerved at the last minute seeing him out of the corner of my eye, averting a wreck. I was about to smile and wave at him, because he obviously hadn’t seen me, otherwise he wouldn’t have pulled out in front of me, the lady with the right-of-way. It was a pleasant spring eve, and our windows were down and just prior to the smile n’ wave, the youngster sneered at me through his open window and snarled “you could look where you’re going” before he drove off. I was dumbfounded.
He was wrong! He was wrong! my mind shouted…and yet he made it appear as if I was wrong! I couldn’t believe it. I was really, really angry. So I followed him.
Now even as I write this, I’m a little ashamed, because even though I went to a “non-denominational” and “metaphysical” church (read: woo woo…sorry mom), I grew up in the United States of America, and here in the United States of America, we XX citizens are definitely NOT supposed to follow people in their cars when they almost hit us. And we are definitely not supposed to pull up to them after they’ve stopped and yell at them and call them “dickwads” in front of their friends. It says so in the Bible. But the boy did say he was sorry. And that was all that I wanted.
Despite the briefest of glimmers of ashamed-ness at the possibility of reader judgement…it felt good. It even felt good to write it in this blog. But the apocalyptic Jesus wouldn’t be happy with me. He would tap his other cheek knowingly and I would bow my head in contrition, knowing that I’d done wrong.
But guess what…Hera would’ve probably been fine with it (she actually tied a woman’s legs together to keep the woman from giving birth to Heracles, Hera’s hated stepson). Machiavelli would’ve been fine with it too.
I’m disgruntled that we have, as a nation, been traumatized with guilt mongering for profit. We are taught that our feelings are wrong and that we should feel bad for feeling them, but we aren’t given a healthy alternative (unless we’re brave enough and patient enough and wealthy enough to find a good counselor). I’m upset that (quasi)-Christian ideology has attempted to ruin our ability to think our own thoughts. Even if you’re not a Christian, it’s woven into the very fibers of our Constitution, our court system, our social networks, our schools, and our government. You can’t escape it.
I will sum up with the two quotes that inspired today’s rant:
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. ~Jesus in The (pre-Nicean Council) Gospel of Thomas
A little revenge is more human than no revenge at all. ~Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra (certainly no Jesus, but an interesting quote nonetheless).
I’d like my gruntle back, please.
Justified anger…yes! And you don’t have to feel guilty for having it, right? Hm…I’m remembering the Wiccan mantra: as long as you don’t hurt anybody else or yourself (or something along those lines…) I guess that’s where the morality comes in. I think, though, as long as one feels guilty for feeling something (whatever it might be) it might be difficult to let it go. What you resist persists, so the saying goes.
So feel angry, as long as you are on the moral high ground! By jove…it still doesn’t sound quite right.
I don’t think you make Christ justice, he emptied the temple rather violently, so justified anger is allowed.
By the way, the Greek had something they called ‘Hybris’, and I think Machiavelli had forgotten that.
Kind Regards,
Kim
Sounds like we have somehow added an eleventh commandment: Thou shalt feel guilty about all the above (even if you commit them only in your thoughts). And yet, there’s something nefarious about this guilt thing. Somehow, there are a lot of people running this place today who don’t seem to have caught it….at least the part of it that is somehow related to having (or not having) a sense of morality and concern for others.