‘Every single one of us’

Apologies for the hiatus.  It was both unintended and longer-lasting than I’d have liked.  I’ve had a number of things of a personal/familial nature going on at the mo’ which have taken priority, but I felt the need to take a little time to get some thoughts out there into my favourite part of the ether- my little corner of the WordPress.

This morning I was once again inspired by the thoughts of Beth Byrnes, and the issues that she discussed in her erudite and thoughtful post almost led me to write something as a follow-up to some of the things I had to say in the comments section.

But I had already started working  on something- the latest in my ongoing examination of the ill-advised tendency we have to define evil as something external and non-human (or sourced in humans that are somehow labelled as other than we are)- and was loathe to divide my attention.

Then I realized that we are really talking about the same thing anyway.

The vilification of that-which-is-not-me.  Those we consciously decide to label and demonize.

I’ve been thinking about this guy a lot lately.

Boo!

To be honest, he’s never really far from my thoughts (seriously- check out the categories and tags over there to the right >>>>> he’s all over the place), but lately he seems to be popping up every which way I turn.

This has been a most interesting week.  I was Freshly Pressed (!)- that little thing I wrote about chaos/order– and as a result a whole lot of new folks have come by to visit.  Thank you new folks!  Welcome!  I passed 10000 views- which, while I didn’t set goals regarding viewership when I started sharing things on WordPress a little under a year ago, is pretty freakin’ cool.

I also hit 666 followers shortly after the Fresh Pressing occurred.  Even more lovely people- and a number of bots, I’m sure- have joined the ranks since then, but I was really inordinately excited to see who follower 666 might have been.  Unfortunately I missed the notification, so remain unable to identify colemining’s own personal antichrist.

Pure silliness.

That number is just so resonant with me- given all the apocalyptic literature I’ve spent much of my life hanging around- I can’t help but claim a pretty strong fascination with that number of that there ‘beast.’

When I first moved back to Toronto and commuted to Ottawa once a week to teach classes (crazy as that was), every time I passed the 666 kilometre marker (in either direction), I identified it out loud (‘the mile marker of the antichrist’- even though it properly measures kilometres not miles).  It was a way of marking the time and telling myself that I was almost at my destination or on my way back home, depending on which direction I was travelling.

I like the mythology surrounding the devil.  I like the apocalyptic literature that inspired the concept of the antichrist.  I also like the myths of all the other worldviews/religions/cultures that attempt to reconcile good gods and the presence of evil in the material world.  These are some of the richest and most interesting stories we’ve managed to come up with from the deepest mines of our creativity.  The motifs and the characters recur throughout our histories- literary and otherwise- because they are so interesting and complex.

I can honestly say that I love the devil/satan/Lucifer.  As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t believe in the/a devil, but his various iterations are among the most colourful, enduring and often-endearing literary characters out there.

Where would Western culture be without him?

Seriously.  Think about it.

No Divine Comedy.  Paradise Lost.  Faust/Doctor Faustus.  The Exorcist would never have (repeatedly) scared the CRAP out of me.  That opening line- Please allow me to introduce myself… I can’t imagine a world in which I’d never sung along to the brilliance of that song.  The list goes on…

He is us.  In all his (and sometimes, her) manifestations.  This is the thing.  THE thing.  All the versions of the devil that we have are representative of potential inside of us.  Us.  Humans.  Not some supernatural excuse for evil as a means of reconciling another supernatural being who is supposed to be GOOD.  And omniscient.  And omnipotent.

I find your theodicies unconvincing.

To say the least.

So I’m going to start a periodic conversation about our pal- call him (the) Satan, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, call him what you will (just don’t call him late for dinner).  I’m so very sick of this vilification of the other as we continue to externalize evil and abrogate our own- collective or individual- responsibility for the wrongs that are done and perpetuated against one another.  So very sick of it.

And since I am a cheerleader (Head cheerleader, it sometimes seems) for the need to examine the origins of our recurring motifs, the reasons why we think the way we do, and how we come up with the metaphors we come up with to shift the blame away from ourselves rather than face the internal propensity toward darkness we must continually and actively choose to turn from as we seek to live together peacefully on this ol’ globe of ours, there’ll be a whole lot of hanging with the devil ’round these parts in the next while.

I’ll be extending him ‘a little sympathy’.  Tastefully, of course.

Hope you’ll join me.  Let’s discuss.

‘Here come the world
With the look in its eye
Future uncertain but certainly slight
Look at the faces
Listen to the bells
It’s hard to believe we need a place called hell…

Every single one of us.’

‘You probably think this (song) is about you…’

So many great words come from Greek origins.

Hubris.  That’s a really good one.

We tend to associate it with pride and arrogance- with the suggestion that neither are remotely warranted.  In ancient Greece acting against the laws regulating hubris could get you brought up on serious charges.  Why?  Because such violations persecuted someone else.  They were more than the act of displaying (illegitimate) overestimations of one’s own competence, accomplishments or capabilities in manner that is completely disconnected from reality.  Hubristic acts messed with the freedoms and honour of others.

In a society in which the concepts of honour and shame were a presiding reality, a person’s honour was tied up in all things- identity, familial connections, business transactions.  Every aspect of life was connected with the maintenance of the honour that was afforded by one’s station in life (however highfalutin or lowly that status may have been).  Likewise, shame (usually associated with the women in the family) was tied into the fabric of societal interaction.  To interfere with this balance was to create societal discord- not something that the authorities were all that enthusiastic about.

Hubris, in ancient Greece, was a crime perpetuated by humans against other humans.  The gods were not accused of hubris, and did not punish those who were guilty of the extremity of arrogance and sense of entitlement.  They left it up to us humans to figure out the penalties for that particular crime ourselves.

Whether or not one believes in any sort of divine justice or theodicy (I don’t, for the record), hubris is a transgression that must be handled by us.  And it must be done immediately in order to prevent further damage.  Although we may not live in a society in which the dynamics of honour and shame are a ruling focus, it’s past time we took steps to restore some honour to the offices of our political leaders who have shamed us all in their unwillingness to accept responsibility for their actions.  Or inaction, as the case may be.  We should no longer have to be ashamed of the actions of another- even if that shame is hardly the point.  There are far more serious things at play here than being the continuing source for late night talk show jokers (as apt and clever as they may be).

I’ve read a number of editorials lately that talk about Toronto and its transformation from a town in which the ‘old, white elite’ looked to maintain the status quo while sitting in their urban enclosures (our affluent downtown neighbourhoods), as they always have done, into a truly amalgamated mega-city that offers all things to all people.  This has been the perception– both at home and on the international stage.  There is tension between the city and the suburbs, for sure.

This guy was duly elected as a reactionary response to some of these things.  Even though it was the WRONG thing to do, I get that there were those who thought his claims and promises were the right thing for the city.  I also get that there is (currently) no apparatus in our system of municipal government that permits the removal- against his will- of someone who was elected to the post.

Therefore, short of higher intervention (from the provincial government- not a deity), it is up to the person in question to truly accept responsibility for his actions and words and step down.

That isn’t looking like it will happen.

He says he’s going to continue doing the job he was elected to do.  He loves his job.  Good for him.  We should all be so lucky to have a job that we love.  I don’t- yet I get up every day and go in and do the best I can to fulfill my responsibilities so the bills get paid.

In his case, what’s not to love?  Rolling into work at noon, leaving meetings to coach a football team (although he doesn’t do that any more- at the request of said team), having a grand old time at public events, travelling to exotic locales (if Chicago and Austin may be deemed as such) as the city’s representative, being able to blow off major city events (Pride for e.g.) to head to the family cottage, having a staff that seems willing to put up with never ending demands that have little (if anything) to do with his actual role as Chief Magistrate, spouting off ad nauseam on a weekly radio show (although that has also stopped), throwing expensive barbeques that allow his ‘Nation’ to feed his narcissistic personality… and all this, while pulling down something like $170K/year.

Narcissist.  There’s another great word, again, inherited from the Greeks.  Its root, the Greek word ναρκη (narke) meaning ‘sleep’ or ‘numbness’, is also the root of the word narcotic (coincidence?  I think not).  Narcissus, the mythological character who is the poster child for this particular pathology, was self-fixated to such an extent that it led his own destruction.

Is any of this sounding familiar?  I’m certainly no psychologist, but that Oracle of All Information (the Wikipedia) defines narcissistic personality disorder as ‘a personality disorder in which one is excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity.’

I’m sick of thinking about these things.  Yet I realize that fatigue of this nature is what allows people in power- especially those who are abusing that power- to remain where they are.  While one might feel as though there is no point in continuing to talk about things like vulgarity, consorting with criminals, criminal behaviours, extreme lapses in judgement, bullying of employees, misuse of common funds (just pulling random examples from no particular source)… it is part of our responsibility as vigilant citizens of this world to do so.

He seems completely and pathologically unaware that the right thing to do is to step down and get the help he needs.  Or not.  Whatever personal stuff he is dealing with is absolutely within his province to either address or let fester.  But he does NOT get to force the rest of us to continue in this spiralling fall with him.  By all accounts and actions thus far demonstrated, he is incapable of understanding that this is not about HIM.  It is about what is best for this city he claims to love.  It is about the needs of all of us who call Toronto home.  Regardless of what he wants.

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need

And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, “We’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t we’re gonna blow a 50-amp fuse”

Sing it, Mick.

It’s the Principle of the Thing…

I have a friend who is in a pretty significant state-of-life quandary at the moment (and who, if I am diligent in my constant haranguing, will start a blog all her own one day) .  She is extremely well-educated and experienced in a number of different areas, but, like me and a number of others I could name, is cursed with under-employment as a result of the economic downturn.  Which remains a real and present issue here in Canada, despite what the Harper government might want us to believe.

As I have mentioned before, under-employment can be soul-sucking in and of itself.  When you spend most of your waking life in the same place, with the same people, it would be ideal if said job was both challenging and in an environment that promotes learning and professional development of some kind.  This is not remotely the situation for my friend.

To describe her work atmosphere as ‘toxic’ is to massively understate the case.  As an educated, worldly and open-minded individual, she has been exposed to all kinds of different people from all kinds of different backgrounds, and views such exposure as a means of understanding her fellow human beings.

Not so her immediate supervisor.  That person is, in a word, a bigot.  And that person’s prejudices run the gamut of race, religion and sexual orientation.  Views which that person is not afraid to vocalize.  Pretty much all the time.  In a place of business.

Think Archie Bunker, but without the charm and redeeming qualities.

Although my friend has repeatedly attempted to inform her superior that the voicing of such views- not to mention the views themselves- is inappropriate in a business environment and something that makes her increasingly uncomfortable, her requests have gone unheeded over the years.  The opinions have, if anything, become more frequently expressed- in an attempt to goad my friend into defending her perspective on why her ‘superior’s’ attitudes are incorrect.  Not out of any attempt at self-improvement or interest in changing those views- but because it has become a form of bear-baiting that the boss seems to find amusing.

My friend very much feels that she is completely without recourse at the moment.  She has examined the anti-harassment rules and regulations for the Province (not to mention those for the company where she works- which she helped to draft), and has contacted someone at the Human Rights Commission, only to be told that the degree of her complaint is not great enough to warrant action or likely to achieve vindication in any real form.

Have I mentioned that she can’t just quit this job?

Despite regularly applying for positions (in this, as in other things she has my complete sympathy AND empathy) she seems to be falling through the cracks of ‘over-qualification’ for some of the positions she is looking at as a means of progressing in her chosen career direction, and being viewed as ‘not experienced enough’ for more senior positions, since much (but certainly not all) of her writing, editing and research experience stems from her work in the academic realm.  She has maximized her networks, seen career counsellors, HR people, life coaches and attempted to exploit any sort of nepotism that might be in the offing.

Nada.

Yet she keeps at it.

She is, by nature and by upbringing, someone who is inclined to see the best in people- ALL people- and to give them the benefit of the doubt whenever possible.  She has attempted to speak with her boss and to provide some insights as to why the comments that are made are inappropriate and just plain wrong, only to be labeled a ‘bleeding heart’ and ‘left-wing socialist.’  Which are, to the boss, faaaaaar more offensive descriptors than the other epithets that are thrown around on a regular basis.

Any number of people have suggested that she ‘just quit’- since the atmosphere is so patently toxic and because the job is just that- a job– without any potential for advancement or acknowledgement of the good work that she does.

But she can’t.

No matter how against her principles it is to work for a bigot and remain silent (to a degree, anyway) when offensive, ill-informed and inflammatory rhetoric is spewed on a regular basis, she needs the paycheque.  There are loans to repay- related to her educational expenses and as a result of a bad divorce that left her holding the bag on some joint credit accounts- and a roof to keep over her head.  As utility rates continue to rise…

She is between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  The Devil and the deep blue sea.  On the horns of a dilemma.

Between Scylla and Charybdis.

There’s the mythological reference.  They have been sorely lacking lately, I realize.  Kind of lost the plot of the blog for a bit there.  But here I am, back in the saddle again with more mythic sea monsters in tow.  Sea monsters are fun.

See?  Fun!

According to Homer (not Simpson), Odysseus had to choose which of the dangers was the lesser in order to continue his journey.  Scylla was described a rock shoal/six-headed monster and Charbydis as a deadly whirlpool, located on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Siciliy and the Italian mainland.  Idiomatically, they have become synonymous with choosing between the lesser of two evils in order to move on through the turbulent waters of life.

Sting used his previous life as a school teacher to imbue his lyrics with all kinds of literary allusions- and Synchronicity has more than a few (as I mentioned here).  Wrapped Around Your Finger uses the mythological idiom as a metaphor for a dangerous relationship- one that is imbalanced in its division of power.  Although the person that he is singing about- the one he has come to learn from- is not, exactly, Faustian in providence (‘Mephistopheles is not your name’) he feels trapped and disempowered by the relationship.

Until the lessons are learned and the tables are turned once the ‘Devil and the deep blue sea’ are behind him.

Principles are necessary.  Without principles, based in our upbringing and cultural context, we descend into anarchy.  Greed and cronyism run rampant and overshadow the good works that some among us are attempting to accomplish as we try to demonstrate that there is something worth salvaging in this material-driven society of ours.

According to the Wikipedia, principles ‘represent a set of values that orient and rule the conduct of a concrete society. The law establishes an obligation in the individual’s conscience that belongs to the cultural field in which such values are accepted. It supposes the liberty of the individual as cause, that acts without external coercion, through a process of socialization.’

Unfortunately, principles are often expensive– especially at times when our elected leaders are content to maintain their own interests above those of the people who elected them.  Times when any job is thought to be a good job.  When people are told that to ‘rock the boat’ is irresponsible and dangerous.  When people have to work multiple, low-paying jobs to make ends meet, meaning that the time they have in which to explore the underpinnings of principles is lessened to a distressing degree.

In addition to the stress associated with the constant job search and day-to-day dealings with the toxicity of her co-worker, my friend also feels a deeply fundamental guilt and as if she is somehow complicit in the bigotry that surrounds her 45 hours a week.

But her choices- and resources- are few.

The fields of Eden
Are full of trash
And if we beg and we borrow and steal
We’ll never get it back
People are hungry
They crowd around
And the city gets bigger as the country comes begging to town
We’re stuck between a rock
And a hard place
Between a rock and a hard place
This talk of freedom
And human rights
Means bullying and private wars and chucking all the dust into our eyes
And peasant people
Poorer than dirt
Who are caught in the crossfire with nothing to lose but their shirts
Stuck between a rock
And a hard place

Tomorrow our Governor General will deliver the Speech from the Throne on behalf of the federal Conservatives (our federal leaders are finally deigning to get the hell back to work- my sympathy to those of you in the US who are still waiting for that to happen.  The prorogation of Parliament might have been a heavily politicized pain in the ass, but at least it didn’t shut down everything).  My friend and I will both be listening intently to see what the Conservatives have to say about the jobs they have created under their Action Plan.

I don’t believe that the situation has improved- overall- as much as they continue to claim.  Not according to my own experience and the experience of friends.  I know too many people who remain in jobs that violate their principles and damage their psyches on a daily basis- at least five days a week.  The Wall Street Journal doesn’t seem terribly optimistic either…

And yet THESE guys have well-paying jobs that actually affect the lives of millions of people.

I’ve been studying humanity for the entirety of my adult life, but some days I just reallyreally don’t get people.

At all.

This seems to be one of those days.

At least I have some great people keeping me company.

Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

P.S.  STILL needing convincing that sea serpents are cool?  Check THIS out.  Synchronicity… or something.

Have Some Courtesy

This blog achieved its 666th hit the other day.

The Devil has been on my mind lately.

Admittedly this is not a new thing.

I saw This is the End a couple of weeks ago- an entertaining (if silly and juvenile) little film sending up celebrities playing ‘fictional’ versions of themselves as the Apocalypse arrives.  Definitely a boy movie (as opposed to a chick flick), with all is scatology and penis jokes, but Hermione kicked some major ass and the reunion in Heaven was pretty hilarious, so overall it was a fun couple of hours.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Once I got past the repeated reference to the Book of RevelationS (ONE revelation- not many.  Pedantic I realize, but I accept and celebrate my nitpicky nature), I had to laugh at the myriad ways in which Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg played with the apocalyptic mythology.

Franco losing his opportunity to be saved- as his self-sacrifice is cancelled out by his final act of douchebaggery- and ending up devoured by his now-cannibalistic former friend was pretty amusing.

And heaven turned out to be a pretty cool place.  Even if the Backstreet Boys showed up.

There were demons- and an extremely large and well-endowed- devil-type guy who, um, possesses Jonah Hill and wreaks havoc within the survivors’ sanctuary, driving them out into the chaos.

The Devil, once again, getting a bad rap.

All this externalization- of good and evil- is becoming increasingly bothersome to me.

Last night we had a bit of a flood sitch here in TO.

Nothing like Calgary and southern Alberta, and definitely not a tragedy of the scale of what happened on the weekend in Lac-Mégantic, QC, but there was some biblical imagery happening all over this City (snakes on the stranded GO train?  Apparently so) as we dealt with various inconveniences- from flooded basements, to power outages and live wires brought down by tree limbs.

Subway stations looked like swimming pools (if you’re partial to swimming in icky brown water) and cars ended up submerged up to their roofs on the Lakeshore.  Live wires were dragged down by wind or the sheer weight of the rain and the City got darker and darker.

Some real craziness.

I was lucky.  Got caught in the initial downpour and was soaked before walking a block (by the time I made it home- 10 minutes later- it was as if I’d gone for a swim fully dressed) and lost power for a little over 12 hours, but the house is intact and remained cool enough through the night that it was never uncomfortable.

Very lucky.

As I sat in the dark all night, alternately reading (another great book- remind me to tell you about it sometime) by flashlight and trying to sleep with the flashing lights from the Hydro trucks and the sound of chainsaws cutting up the tree that took out our power lines, I got to thinking again about the eschaton, and the role of the devil in the mythological cycles about the end of all things.

The line of thought continued into daylight hours as the blame game began playing out on the various news sources around town and across the country:  Did the infrastructure hold up as well as it should have?  Did the TTC/City/Mayor (such as he is) act as quickly and in the way that best addressed the situation as it unfolded?  Are we ready for another hit, should it (perhaps) come tonight or tomorrow as (possibly) forecast?

We have been taught- by our myths and by our basic natures- that there is always someone else to blame when terrible things happen.  When we don’t want to take responsibility for our own actions, or when the source of the issue is either invisible or something closely held and personally or socially/culturally valuable, we invent external sources to blame.

I briefly talked about this phenomenon here, discussing how the concept developed in Israelite mythology and introducing the character Azazel- an early incarnation of the Biblical Big Baddie who eventually came to incarnate evil itself.

There may be some detractors who will dismiss/condemn/vilify me as a ‘devil worshiper’, but I’ve really had enough of this idea that we can/should look outside of ourselves for the source of our problems.  It bugs me big biggest time.

I don’t believe in the devil- any more than I believe in his opposite- so the idea that I would worship something I know was created by humanity to let itself off the hook… Uh, no.

Assigning some poor supernatural devil such ascendency and such a huge role in the workings of the world is the flip side of the complete resignation of our own power that leads to concepts like ‘god’s plan’ as explanation for occurrences that happen because of the actions/inaction of ourselves or other human beings?  Especially when it requires accepting that the ‘god’ in all this allows and encourages said supernatural devil in his workings against ‘god’s children’?

How does any of that make anything like sense?

I’m not going to get into the whole free will/god’s plan conundrum/contradiction in terms.  At least not today.

But I AM going to reiterate what I started to address when talking about those poor ol’ goats who came to represent the totality of the sins of the people, and the animated character in an entertaining show that was much too short-lived as a result of (relatively) contemporary hysteria about mythological embodiments of pure evil.

Way past time to leave the devil (and god(s) for that matter) out of it and look for our human culpability in the things that happen in our world- be they actions that cause climate change and increased rainfall and storm conditions, poorly planned cities built on flood plains, human error/lack of regulations leading to cataclysmic train derailments and explosions or the kindness of neighbours working together to clean up after the floods have receded, the workers providing blankets for those rescued from submerged commuter trains, the family members and friends who come together to tell stories of remembrance of those still missing in what used to be the centre of a small Eastern Townships community…

Let’s take responsibility- for the good and the bad- and own up to the fact that WE are the ones who are affecting the workings of the world.  We can appreciate the Devil- and his antecedents/coevals/contemporaries- for the great stories and themes he has added to our mythologies without censuring him for every bad thing- whether little or larger than life- that happens in our lives.

‘Have some sympathy and some taste.  Use all your well-learned politesse…’

Leave the Devil alone.

At least until we really have a closer look at him- and the ways in which a character who provides learning and ‘technology’ to humanity became Public Enemy Number 1.  How Prometheus/Azazel/Lucifer/the satan became the Lord of the Flies/the dragon/serpent/Beelzebub etc. for disobeying the will of another supernatural being and helping humanity in its progress and evolution.

He’s actually a pretty cool archetype- just maybe not the one you’re thinking he is…