The Balance or Scales That Weigh the Heart: Anubis and Thoth
I have been thinking a good deal lately about the imbalance between Science-for-Profit and Science-for-Well-Being. It has seemed that there is a great gap between the two.
It immediately reminds me of Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein, wherein the young scientist expends so much energy, so many long nights and so many long weeks and months of work to create a living being, only to discover that the presence of mind and the ethics and the commitment to caring for such a creation is quite beyond his puny ability. He furthermore realizes that his creation, left to run its life on its own, creates liabilities for which its creator cannot pay nor remunerate.
The book was a story of Life out of Balance: it was too much focused on one goal to the exclusion of any others whose inclusion may have exerted a restraining and ameliorating influence, perhaps saving the principals of the story from the disasters to which they fell prey.
Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus as Mary Shelley called him, brought the fire of Life from heaven to mankind, and his story is one of Irony: an trail of anticipating one thing, only to become victim to a sudden reversal.
Perhaps the first story in western literature containing irony comes from Hesiod, who flourished around 750 BC. As described in his Works and Days, when Zeus learned that Prometheus had stolen fire and given it to mankind, Zeus roared with laughter. 31 He laughed, not because mankind was going to do something funny with fire, but because he saw the irony of the situation. Prometheus had given mankind fire to keep us from dwindling into nonexistence, but Zeus knew the trail of misery it would cause. Thus, Prometheus’ act was ironic. This has become a metaphor for all scientific achievement, because scientific “advances” frequently cause new problems, and sometimes these problems become larger than those the advances solved. Also note that this anecdote tells us something about character. Zeus understood the implications of Prometheus’ act while Prometheus didn’t. More about this below.( http://www.novelsmithingblog.com/?p=156 , Irony – Part I – How it can save your novel.)
Irony swings the pendulum far back to the other side of affairs; it is deep within the Pride which conceals within its pompous display the genesis of its own fall and eventual discomfiture. It swings far back in an attempt to restore the balance by creating a state of being where things may indeed average out over the long term.
Many of the precepts of the Religious Geniuses has been attempts to restore the balance which had been lost in human affairs in their time: Blessed are the Meek, for indeed by the time it was uttered the world was witness to the success of Roman Pride. An Irony: from being meek to inheriting the land!
Alms, care for widows and orphans, a moral obligation towards the poor; all of these are attempts by all the geniuses of religion to restore the balance of a world where wealth has become concentrated with the few and where politics and economics follow a path of unrestrained self-aggrandizement.
The religious geniuses attempt to restore the balance to life, because they know that God and Nature will do it regardless of what men desire. The tower of Babylon always falls. The dam of Marib always collapses in the Flood of Arim.
In our own time, we have witnessed the people in charge frightened by the spectacle of the imbalances of our society has brought about, from asset bubbles destroying financial systems to nuclear power plants in distress. This continued Imbalance in our lives, our ignoring the advice of the ancient Greek sage μηδέν άγαν - "nothing in excess" - continues to leave us open to disasters for which we have made no provision for and for which we have weak remedy.
Our entire way of life is now devoted to a Capitalism of Excess, which is a fit description of the consumerism rampant in the world. It is difficult to unlearn a way of life. Therefore, I fear that it will be stripped from us in a series of disasters, natural and man-made, preparing the way for the future of an Economy of Balance.
We know how difficult it is for mankind to change from unbalance to balance. It has been our history forever to be single-minded and rapacious and greedy: those of us who are not greedy are intolerant, those of us who are not intolerant are hateful, those of us who are not hateful seek to school themselves in the ways of wars... the list is endless.
God is the ability to believe in change. God is the ability to change. The leap of faith is the leap to new lives and restored balance, wherein we may live in concert and in harmony with our fellow man and with our environment without invoking the Ironic end to our arrogance.
God gives us Balance and removes the ironic reversal from frantic wealth to unbearable poverty. Balance removes the sources of our suffering that stem from our own actions. Although we now see things in a glass darkly, we shall see straight and in person and in the light.
It is not a matter of belief; it is a matter of changing ourselves before the pendulum swings again.
Frankenstein has nothing to do with "playing at being God".
For Prometheus - the hero that stole the fire from Olympus - to be balanced, it is necessary in my discussion here that he had a back-up plan B - in case of trouble - that would have been at least as audacious as the originally planned theft.
If that is impossible, and it sounds pretty far-fetched, then let your plan be less over-the-top; let it be less spectacular so that any possible reversal be less spectacular. Cease playing the Game of Boom & Bust. There is nothing in Life that requires that the inept philosophy of our modern Capitalism is a divine plan for the world.
Restore balance. Live life more in balance with our surroundings, a simple life.... but not too simple.
For - in the fullness of Time - what is simple will be subject to ironic reversal and shall be thrust unwittingly unto an uneasy throne, and becoming prey to the blandishments of power. Always maintain balance and never become infatuated with that face you see every morning in the darkling mirror.
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2 comments:
Perhaps God can give one person balance, but can God give a whole nation balance? People are so diverse in their beliefs and in their values, and even their belief in what constitutes "balance" in anything, that it is hard to cordon an entire society into a particular way of life. If we were all of the same mind, like shoals of fish or ants, it might be easier.
Sure, society has come along way, especially in abolishing and condemning racism, but...well...a "balance" is something entirely more complex with no clear"moral values" to be laid down, no real point of reference from which to work off. Slavery and racism both had a point of reference to work off...more so than striking a balance.
Ben
Shoals of fish is a great image: swarming, both in a good sense - seeing the silvery flanks of large schools of fish swimming in harmony - or in a bad sense - reminding me of "Shoah" or the Holocaust and crowds going sometimes mutely to their doom.
So you point out some real problems.
You point out further problems when you mention racism. A friends and I were talking about Detroit last night, and everything came down to an intransigent refusal to deal with the corrosion of the soul that is racism. There are numerous problems that beset the city, but if people let their souls be corrupted by hatred, there is no hope.
And that is pretty much what happened.
However, God does not give gifts like this, even to just one person. If we invite Him to our party, He'd bow out. No one can give us balance other than ourselves, just as no one can abolish racism if we ourselves enshrine in our hearts like some furtive and evil idol.
And I agree there are no clear moral values involved here, for emphasis on "moral values" or "family values" or "the ten commandments" or whatever will, in a nation given to being unbalanced, lead to a dangerous overemphasis on those very Values and make them oppressive and inimical to human life.
(In my mind a good example is the Second Amendment. It is not a "moral value" but it is a value, and people tend to treat values in a similar manner.
The unusual emphasis on the Second Amendment led to an incredible orgy of gun and ammo accumulation over the last three years, leading us to a point where we are today: over 2,000 people shot since Rep Giffords was shot in Arizona... and a very high rate of law enforcement officers being shot.
The point here is and unbalanced people will take Values and manipulate them in their unbalanced way, and they create desert where there used to be farmland and forest.)
Thank you for the comment.
I gain a good deal from being forced to express myself at greater length and depth.
And these are important issues that I think we will be forced to deal with as weighty issues of survival, not just some Sunday morning meditation.
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