Nobodaddy - Part 2

Lest anyone misunderstand...my intentions here are rather simple and straightforward,  if somewhat experimental... and far (very far) from wanting to come across as impious or derogatory. The following is simply an attempt to unpack an experience that many of us have had and continue to have, which is quite existential, but not always gleeful or inspiring. I refer to it simply as "that existential feeling" (with emphasis on the word "feeling" as opposed to a "logical conclusion" based on "empirical evidence")  of being "alone among the elements," of having been cut off from any consistent form of divine protection, of being "abandoned" and "forsaken" -  made vulnerable to the [autonomous] forces of Nature. Or as Simone Weil would say (see prior post), made beholden to the "gravity" of blind necessity, prey to accidents and random disasters, fodder for "extremes of heat and cold" - as if we had expected some better deal...(yeah, I get it)...but yet we do expect a better deal. Like Job before us or the author of Ecclesiastes, or King Lear on the Heath, like William Blake (see prior post), Matthew Arnold, Alfred Lord Tennyson, even Charles Darwin, along with many prior poets and countless slaves, we've experienced that weird, awkward, one-way dialogue, that "Nobodaddy" moment, that strange "conversation" with the abyss.  We've undergone our angry interrogation/denunciation of the deus absconditus  -  the non-responsive agency, the absence-in-place-of-a-hoped-for presence, the void that we cling to like a person,  our ever-absent, silent interlocutor, who is not sitting above the clouds watching over us, is not keeping tabs on us, has no dealings with us,  no correspondence with us, cannot hear us, does not heed our cries, cannot intervene on our behalf or send signs and omens, or make amends for past injustices, neither wishes us well or ill, cannot remember us or compile facts about us, provides no response or condolence, is not cognizant or awake or sentient, offers us only ambiguous silence and a blank (invisible) stare from the great beyond. Granted it's hard to feel safe with someone like that not watching over you...although many millions of people nowadays feel relatively nonplussed by it all (or so they claim, or so I hear), but the good news for the rest of us who do agonize over these matters, as I believe we should, as I believe we must, in order to become worthy of calling ourselves truly religious-minded creatures,  is that by sweeping aside this idolatrous expectation - of a deity poised to step in and tamper with the outcome of every waking moment,  ready to prevent us from misteps, errors, failures, confusions, miseries and regrets, there on call to chase away the ghouls or else bind up our hurts, and give us unambiguous moral guidance and support every step of the way as we believe He should (!), one can (perhaps, just maybe, and with some degree of probability) make room for some far-off preliminary to a correspondence with the one true G __ d with whom a relationship of genuine concern (both ways) may actually be envisioned.

Nobodaddy - Part 1

Why art Thou silent and invisible

Father of jealousy

Why dost thou hide thyself in clouds 

From every searching Eye

Why darkness & obscurity 

In all thy words & laws 

That none dare eat the fruit but from 

The wily serpents jaws..." - 

 from "To Nobodaddy" by William Blake

"What is divinity if it can come

Only in silent shadows and in dreams?

Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,

In pungent fruit and bright green wings, or else

In any balm or beauty of the earth,

Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?" 

-  from "Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens

Klee's Angelus Novus

Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber

An Encounter with Simone Weil

"God causes this universe to exist, but he consents not to command it, although he has the power to do so. Instead he leaves two other forces to rule in his place. On the one hand there is the blind necessity attaching to matter, including the psychic matter of the soul, and on the other the autonomy essential to thinking persons.‟ - Simone Weil (from Waiting for God)

a theology for the modern world???

Revolt of the Masses - Ortega Y Gasset

"Civilization is before all, the will to live in common. A man is uncivilized, barbarian in the degree in which he does not take others into account. Barbarism is the tendency to disassociation. Accordingly, all barbarous epochs have been times of human scattering, of the pullulation [sprouting up] of tiny groups, separate from and hostile to one another. " - Ortega Y Gasset

"Also-Ran"

The philosopher Hegel - following in the wake of Hobbes/Rousseau I should add - is famous for giving us the "master-slave" dialectic - a  theoretical "description" of how people in subordinate social roles gradually gain "recognition" and/or clout over the course of many toilsome centuries. To make a long story short, the slave's inherent work-ethic and burgeoning self-awareness gradually (as in very very slowly) win out over the master's complacency, lethargy and arrogance. The master learns (albeit reluctantly and usually at the end of his rule) that he's no greater than the slave, having depended on him/her (for services, for applause) all along; the slave, having already affirmed the master's full merit as a  human being, acting under compulsion, no doubt, yet still buying into the master's ideology,  learns to value his or her own worth, becomes the master's equal in the face of a mortality that each must fall victim to - so much so that the master (or ruling elite) can no longer maintain credibility with the masses he wants to subjugate. This is not the be-all-and-end-all of what Hegel has to say on the matter - and does not solve the problem entirely - precisely because when society as a whole finally comes around to recognizing the basic worth of every individual and the absolute wisdom (there's no going back...) of "equality under law," questions inevitably arise as to how to explain or justify the persistence of any remaining social inequities - the most important of which (for Hegel at least) would be disparities in social status. (In other words, the rhetoric gets perfected, old prejudices cannot show their face in public, but people continue to operate within the old pattern of things, leading to a ghostly hierarchy of sorts.) But this rift between rhetoric (equality) and reality (hierarchy) while signaling more subtle forms of exclusion, also ushers in new complaints and  demands.  The challenge for  modern "legislators' - both office-holders and opinion-makers - becomes that of promoting a system wherein everyone shall be sufficiently recognized (whatever that means) for their specific merits and contributions - to the common good, even if formal differences in wealth, education, power remain and (if we're being really honest here) can never be fully eradicated ... which brings me to the problem of the "also-ran" or modern-day "cubicle dweller" for lack of a better term. Theoretically, this person knows and feels that he or she is the equal of anyone else,* the standard-bearer and "judge" for what counts as "worth-while." Without this "average reasonable person's" tastes and opinions, presumably, the whole system would not be what it is. But the judge does not always receive affirmation for being one "participant" among many others, who nevertheless makes up the conglomerate of public opinion; the judge no doubt feels slighted that other, more "successful types"  (in whatever field) are busy reaping perks and prizes! The judge is out there, shopping, browsing, selecting, approving, buying, opining, posting, blogging, going online for some semblance of affirmation... And yet... even with a "celebrity-conscious" culture that prides itself on handing out numerous awards to an endless stream of talents and behaviors, it is on one level not surprising yet (rhetorically) somewhat shocking that millions still feel left out of the equation. These multitudes (myself, ourselves) have no recourse but to live vicariously through casting our votes ("I like this, I like that," "I shop here, I prefer brand X....") through judging (en masse), choosing among, deciding upon beverages, commodities, travel locales, fly-by-night media stars and otherwise bearing the burden of anonymity in the shadow of THAT constant stream of publicity out there, whispering incessantly ("Look who's more successful than you...").  Strange that the more outlets there are for acclaim or recognition on a local level, the more upsetting it becomes not to garner any sort of official status from said accomplishment in whatever field! (You may have done it, but that was in Pittsburgh. You may have won the title, but that was LAST season.)  Thus, for readers of Hegel, it's hard not to scratch our heads and wonder at what has happened apres le deluge with everyone technically pronounced free and equal so many years ago.  The rhetoric by itself - that  hyper-abundance of cultural self-awareness that is here to stay- was supposed to usher in some sort of golden age... right (?) ....a feeling of equity, a classless society with minimal hangups, yet having emerged from the epochs of slavery, into this era of middle class ascendancy, do people in general feel that much more affirmed for their labors? I wonder...

*= I admit I'm getting a lot of this from The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega Y Gasset