Artwork © Richard Spisak

 

Chapter 5

Immediately after reading Rousseau’s “Discourse on Inequality” some years ago, I felt antipathy toward the work, not because it had introduced facts or plausible theories leading to contrary conclusions, upsetting paradigms in the process, which it did, but for the writer’s truculent nature which prompted him to brazenly flout the social contract theory, which is such a cornerstone for understanding the inception of government in restraining our more savage, instinctual, and reflexive responses. The fact that his hubris in doing so was simply to make a name for himself seemed all the more odious in my perceptions. But just as Aristotle, in presumably considering Plato’s Theory of Forms and politics, says that we must speak the truth even if it is antithetical to the conclusions of our friends, perhaps Rousseau thought something similar in rejecting Hobbes and his assertions. At any rate, it occurred to me that it is quite possible that in such a complex world, the society that saves us under the yoke of governmental restraints might render its own distinct power of corruption. Ideally, when we came out of the state of nature and banded together to save ourselves from hunger and privation, the development of the bridge of language should have been the means for conveying truth to insular minds the way it should today, but we no doubt lied to each other then as we do now. What Rousseau does not consider is that such lies are often to ourselves instead of to others and are, more times than not, a saving grace.

Democracy

Thomas Paine in “The Age of Reason” shows how amazingly inquisitive and perspicacious intellectuals of the 18th century could be with very rational and well-thought-out conclusions on various subjects, including, in the case of Paine, alien life. A century and a half earlier, less fully reasoned positions on this particular subject espoused by the Catholic monk Bruno were in part what led to his execution. So Thomas Paine’s ideas were definitely articulate and courageous. But with respect to the democratic ideals espoused first by John Locke in the “Second Treatise on Government” and promulgated by Paine and other advocates of democracy, they seem more like elated, impassioned rhetoric meant to seduce intellectuals and the masses alike than sober assessments that are thought of as the hallmark of the Enlightenment.

It is really hard to understand what they could have been thinking when knowing full well that just as, in this complicated world of globalized affairs (granted, globalization did not exist then, but they could have sensed nations inching toward this in trade even if intransigent in matters of state), one would not care to burden citizens with governmental responsibilities that they would not have time, inclination, knowledge, and competence to pursue the way Athens did it in the pure democracy of their small city-state with marginal success long ago, one should not trust the masses to choose their representational leaders. Normally, the masses are insular, complacent, parochial, and self-interested individuals. They do not think of the common good or even the good of a small neighborhood unless that locality consists of people who do not deviate too much from themselves. And when they go to ballot boxes (in America, it is electing electors, which is kind of like voting for one-task representatives who will vote for representatives in a representational democracy, an absolutely bizarre concept), it is not after having reviewed the platforms of both parties and after having studied the voting records, legislative stances, and integrity of each candidate, but from impressions from brief video and sound bites, sometimes few, sometimes myriad, but scraps of reality nonetheless. And although voting in an informed manner is something that, theoretically, could be successful in a society of diligent mediocrity, as were most citizens of Athens, it is not realistically viable for people maintaining regular jobs and families in the contemporary era. And what is true here is doubly true of jurors. Most court cases that are being tried are of a complexity that requires expertise not only of witnesses but of jurors and is much too daunting, but let us not digress from the matter at hand. To allow normal people to enter the ballot box is like an election by drawing names from a hat. It is like trusting kids with shotguns and expecting that there will be no negative ramifications of inappropriate firings, and no Trumps.

This is why Tocqueville said democracy is the tyranny of the majority, Thoreau saw how rhetoric could manipulate American voters toward support of an imperialistic agenda in the Mexican War to which the only remedy would be non-violent civil disobedience of the masses, and why Plato said democracy inevitably leads to demagoguery and tyranny. It would be most interesting if Tocqueville were resurrected and wrote a sequel to his book “Democracy in America.” I imagine, like Plato, he would have thought it a colorful experiment in freedom of expression that should not be pursued. I imagine his studies of institutions of today would have less sanguine assessments after the first and hopefully only Trump presidency to which there are still numerous acolytes in legislative and judicial branches of government fearing reprisals by the population should they cease kowtowing to this inept leader.

The fact that Trump lacks the intellect required to be a successful tyrant is of little consolation with half the population believing his rhetoric of lies and congressmen and senators as well as state representatives needing to keep their jobs by being proponents of his lies. And this democratic demagoguery occurs so easily in a climate that we now have in which news and information from respected sources is thought of as not only obsolete but an insolent passing along of propaganda in brainwashing attempts of the elite toward those who don’t want to be told what to think. Trump also attracts a population that likes his vitriolic displays, believing his unconventional language lacking proper diplomacy and decorum because they equate his uncivility as a sign of honesty. They particularly like his flouting of democratic institutions and norms and uttering his grievances which they equate as their grievances. We have never witnessed anything like this in America. Pure Athenian democracy floundered from the 27-year Peloponnesian War (the often cited speeches Athenians made in government forums of the need to punish the Island of Lesbos for pulling out of the Delian League to support Sparta thought of as the quintessence of a form of demagoguery that ended in tyranny when Athens finally lost the war); but America seems to be foundering in 7 years. Of course, the odd interpretation of the right to bear arms in a 2008 Supreme Court miscarriage of justice now allows every homeowner to feel that he has the moral authority to fire a gun at anyone he deems to be a trespasser, and this might have ushered in this climate of incivility, a moral dissolution that a fear-mongering demagogue like Trump has used to his favor. In any case, American democracy is faltering, even though as a land of immigrants, Americans should have always been redesigning itself anew, including its ideas of democracy—change being the only deliverance from atrophy, dilapidation, implosion, and dissipation. The lie of democracy, however, gives one solace that he or she controls the country’s affairs without lifting a hand to help one’s fellow man, let alone doing anything that might be remotely construed as governing the country, and it gives him a sense that he is the joint owner of the nation, and a nation where every man is free as though freedom (i.e., obsession with work, money, and being perceived as a member of the wealthier tier of society) did not offer its own captivity.

Religion

Richard Dawkins is absolutely right in suggesting that all of us are atheists concerning the gods of the past which we now call mythological, and we need to be bold enough to recognize that the gods of the contemporary era will in the distant future be referred to under that category of mythology as well. It amazes me how during times of adversity we calm our minds by thinking God will intervene somehow, or when absolutely hopeless, think that he will provide heavenly compensation. We think he considers our suffering, ignoring famines, earthquakes, pestilence, and all things vastly bad that affect thousands or millions of people and attest to a god that will allow vast amounts of men to be extinguished from life in the blink of an eye. Likewise, we ignore that if the body is the temple of the soul with a deceased body molding and disintegrating like a loaf of bread and this fetid filth needing to be buried in its own venerated landfill, the cemetery, the soul, emotions, memories, thoughts, and personality that are given that term, would have to disintegrate. However, Democritus, the Ancient Greek philosopher who first had the epiphany of a material world of atoms and molecules, was also a staunch believer that the soul was temporary as well, so I guess I am not totally alone in positing this idea.

Most counterintuitively, lies are our salvation. They allow each one of us to ease into and delve more completely through the stages of life in conformity with others. Lies allow a more peaceful linear continuum, feeling, albeit knowing otherwise, that he or she will go on forever, and that he or she holds great purpose. Without lies, anxieties would disrupt those stages, and one might be homicidal or suicidal, childless or homeless, or be less constructive in child rearing and being a stable member of society than what he would be otherwise.

 

Steven David Justin Sills is a literary writer living in Phuket, Thailand. His book of poetry is in many libraries in the United States and a copy of one book owned by a library was scanned by the Internet Archive. Sills’ work can also be found on the Online Book Page at the University of Pennsylvania. Sills finished his last literary novel The Three Hour Lady over two years ago, and until recently, he was devoting that time to writing a long war poem about what is happening in Ukraine. Most of those 25 poems including his most recent poem are at this particular journal. As his graduate degree is great books of the Western Canon he has been wanting to write his own ethical treatise, and this forum affords him that opportunity.

Richard Spisak began his artistic career as a light artist in the Lumonics Studios of Mel Tanner, a legendary Light Artist. After serving under Jack Horkheimer as a planetarium operator at the Miami Space-Transit Planetarium, he left to begin traveling with Lumist Kenvin Lyman, whose show Dazzleland Studios traveled across America. Richard later worked as a Laserist with LASERIUM and Laser Productions, served as a technical producer for the festival company PACE Concerts, and later as operations Manager and Senior Producer at WWHP and WTCN-TV in Stuart Florida.

Richard writes for Theatre, TV, radio, and the web. He published two short story collections, Two Small Windows, in a Pair of Mirror Doors, and Between the Silences. Followed by his poetry collection 7370 Allen Drive and the recently released STONE POETRY. Richard also produces “POETS of the East,” a televised webcast featuring poets from across the globe.