A most unholy time

[I suggest this be played if you want to proceed reading this entry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh31j6L95Ok]

The brighter our technology illuminates the skyline, the higher our skyscrapers point at Heaven, the gloomier we seem to sink, the darker our condition seems to turn. Reason has unlocked the secrets of the demiurge, with which we twist nature at our will. But it is the outer nature that we think we command, not our inner being. Reason thought back some centuries ago that we could control ourselves as much as we control other selves. All vanity. Pure and shallow vanity. The truth is that after so much effort trying to conceive of a model with which we could control our inner nature by reason, we had to yield to technology. It is the second prize, because not being able to determine ourselves, we decided to determine outer nature as our revenge. But we have been deluded by our pride. The nature we thought we were commanding is returning for pay back, even if it's just for the pleasure of ridiculing our aggrandized self-esteem.

But now that we are well ahead in this monstrous world of ours, this deformed Earth we have created, and that we seem to recreate every year more uglier, it is not spurious to turn back and think of what we have lost. I heard once the argument that nuclear weapons secured world peace, at least between nuclear powers, the most dangerous of actors. But if that is true, then that will be the last peace of our times, before the next war clean all our chronometers. What we have gained in peace for our bodies to enjoy a worldly life has cost us the incalculable loss of the peace of our spirits. It has cost our lives in the Spirit itself. Like Faust, we have sold our souls to the Devil. And for what? Some generations of awesome technology and that's all. All vanity.

I have received from colleges of mine the unfortunate contempt when I use the Pope as a reliable reference. What we have lost is so big, so incalculable, that the so called tolerance and liberal secularism clouds our vision in its entirety. The contempt felt for the Pope Benedict XVI, a most knowledgeable and illustrated man, not only in theology, but in philosophy and literature, science and history, making him one of the most potent intellectuals of our time, is regarded with the lowest and most shameful contempt by people of reputed education. Uttering his name, even before any argument is made, is enough for some to just simply drop out of the conversation. What is going on? Have we gone totally mad? I find myself with people that ignores completely the beautiful, enlightening, love-driven and tolerant teachings of Benedict XVI, and take him for absolutely the opposite of what he is and what he says! It is a startling, even depressing condition.

There is only one thing that I can think of that makes contemporary and educated sons of Catholicism block their minds to his words and ideas. They just simply don't want to hear, it doesn't matter what he says. This denial, this absolute contempt from what he has to say is worrisome. Really worrisome. It shows intolerance, hatred, but worse of all, it shows fear. Fear of what? Of being remembered of what they want to forget: that we have been living unchristian lives; and we know, deep in our souls, that it's wrong. Modern minds are terribly afraid of what is sacred, because there is an intuitive knowledge that we are living the most unholy of existences. And this goes for all of us! Me included! But the petite bourgeoisie ethos of a life of private enjoyment depends on ignoring these facts. Certain people are so afraid of guilt, of remorse, that they rather live in denial, constructing the most sophisticated and comprehensive doctrines of society and liberty for the sole purpose of clouding the Spirit in us. God is no longer welcome. He is a nuisance to our modern ways. We want to banish Him. Maybe as a revenge against Him for banishing us from the Garden of Eden? What is the modern myth of the Revolution if not a kind of low revenge to the One that died for our salvation? We want to cast disbelief in the story of Christ, because his sacrifice makes us feel uneasy and ashamed. Ashamed of us not answering his love back. Modern individualism is the ideological device to deny, temporarily forget, the love that He deserved back from us. I think this is among the reasons why educated people today prefer to turn deaf ears when the name of the Pope is uttered, even though he is a publicly acknowledged man of wisdom and piety. His piety is painful; it's so demanding that we rather ignore, and move on. Fear and vanity.

To close, I just want to quote the words of the Pope himself, who is remembering us the vanity as well as the futility of a world of economic wealth when there is no love.

"What hinders this humane and loving gaze towards our brothers and sisters? Often it is the possession of material riches and a sense of sufficiency, but it can also be the tendency to put our own interests and problems above all else. We should never be incapable of “showing mercy” towards those who suffer. Our hearts should never be so wrapped up in our affairs and problems that they fail to hear the cry of the poor. Humbleness of heart and the personal experience of suffering can awaken within us a sense of compassion and empathy" Benedict XVI, 3 November 2011.

Who can deny the goodness of this? According to certain economic doctrines, charity is unprofitable. And it is true. It must be unprofitable to be real charity! There is no love in profit, but self-centered egoism. And that cannot be truly Christian. That is why the most unchristian force of our day is capitalism. The love for material wealth has taken our minds, hiding the Spirit of goodness, making us evil. For every spit of economic wealth created in our current world, it becomes a bit more evil, soulless, cruel, and ultimately inhuman. That some people celebrate it is a matter of concern. For some pleasant years of material wealth, we are all casting our souls down to Hell.

The source of Pope Benedict's words is: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111103_lent-2012_en.html

Today

One of the methods to understand decline is to focus on aesthetics. Aesthetics is contrary to technique. Every civilization uses technique to fulfill aesthetics. But aesthetics exists in the work, especially in the master work. But what is a master work? The full realization of the prime symbol of a civilization in a particular work of a particular mastermind.

Today we live in an era of technique, because the prime symbols of our civilization have already been fulfilled. The work is the technique itself. Nothing transcends the technique. There is no work after it. That is why our art today is consumed, but not felt. It is not even art at all, it is a commodity. Even Nobel prizes are consumed commodities. Art requires universal transcendence, in the same way that Euripides transcends till today, in a way that it also transcends commodification. However the Roman Coliseum was consumed, and there it lies in ruins. So our stadiums, our gigantic museums and government palaces will lie in ruins. Why? Because there is nothing else to do but to expand the technique. And the technique is self-destructive. Our technique has reached nuclear capacities after all. Just finish drawing the graph. Do the math.

The technique is banal. The banality of technique. We as individuals, by virtue of our individual rights, are mere products of modern technique. Technique ourselves! Professionals! Qualified labor! Human bodies turned into commodities! Vacations? Commodified festivities! What is it that you cannot see? Progress is the fancy name of decline. Development is the elegant but mediocre synonym of mass consumption. It's pathetic. Aren't you happy about it? We should be happy! That's what our individual rights are after all: commodified individual guarantees so that we become functional members of the capitalist form of production. Do you really think that there is an inherent care for our individuality? We function better in the system with that protected individuality of ours. If we are not functional we are thrown into unemployment. It's that simple; that banal. Homo economicus is the non plus ultra of the banality of our modern existence.

But there is nothing wrong with this. There is absolutely nothing wrong. What is inevitable cannot be wrong. Otherwise the world would be pure wrongness, and that only leads to suicide. No we don't have to commit suicide because of the mediocrity of our times. Rather we have to die tragically. Of course those that see die tragically; nostalgically. Those that don't see die banally. The world of fairness and justice and of individual rights has its virtues. Everything goes. God, the True God that died in the cross is dead. But dead where? In our hearts. He doesn't speak to us anymore as modern men. Our banality prevents it. God doesn't speak to banal beings like us, products of technique, commodified biological bodies. We have reached the point of even consuming the Holy Scriptures! Of producing and distributing them en masse!

No, there is nothing wrong with decline. Decline is liberal; at least for now. Decline summed up with capitalism can become something more monstrous than the banality of the mediocrity of liberalism. It can become totalitarianism. It has already shown its face! But its not dead. It's far from dead. The only thing remaining is that Caesar's laurels crown the man commanding from the White House. That Nero signs the presidential orders and vetoes the congressional legislation. He will become the legislator! And this we can't avoid.

I wonder who will be the Christians of our age. Who will be those from which the new civilizations will be born, hundreds of years from now, after all our fancy technology and wonders of engineering lied wasted by our own nuclear bombs. We only have to crown the Caesar. That, then, will be all.