Civil Commotion

Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
V: The Moral Ideal

§359   We must realise all that has been accumulated as the result of the highest moral idealism: how almost all other values have crystallised round it. This shows that it has been desired for a very long time and with the strongest passions and that it has not yet been attained: otherwise it would have disappointed everybody (that is to say, it would have been followed by a more moderate valuation).

The saint as the most powerful type of man: this ideal it is which has elevated the value of moral perfection so high. One would think that the whole of science had been engaged in proving that the moral man is the most powerful and most godly. The conquest of the senses and the passions, everything inspired terror; the unnatural seemed to the spectators to be supernatural and transcendental —

Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
V: The Moral Ideal

§358   The ideal slave (the “good man”). He who cannot regard himself as a “purpose”, and who cannot give himself any aim whatsoever, instinctively honours the morality of unselfishness. Everything urges him to this morality: his prudence, his experience and his vanity. And even faith is a form of self-denial.

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Atavism: delightful feeling, to be able to obey unconditionally for once.

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Industry, modesty, benevolence, temperance, are just so many obstacles in the way of sovereign sentiments, of great ingenuity, of an heroic purpose, of noble existence for one’s self.

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It is not a question of going ahead (to that end all that is required is to be at best a herdsman, that is to say, the prime need of the herd), it is rather a matter of getting along alone, of being able to be another.

I have two links today from Civil Commotion readers, both worthwhile.

First, rightly and sarcastically characterized as reminiscent of a Saturday Night Live skit, a couple of Holy Men address the question, “Do People in Heaven Know What Is Happening on Earth?” Keep in mind as you watch this that it is supposed to be a learned, serious conversation about an important matter.

Second, an actually thoughtful sermon by Dr. Jim Somerville, Pastor of Richmond, Virginia’s First Baptist Church. I reject most of his premises, as I imagine most readers do, but within the framework of those premises he clearly is struggling to find a position that is both consonant with Christian teaching and not utterly irrelevant to the world around him. He deserves respect for that. Bonus: He’s not a buffoonish howler; in fact, you can hardly even tell he’s a Southern Baptist.

As everybody in the universe must know by now, the Confederate battle-flag which has flown in front of the South Carolina statehouse for more than half-a-century has been lowered — possibly for the last time.

Watch the video and notice the unseemly pomp, and the careful folding once lowered, on behalf of a symbol that warrants only disdain from decent adults.

My idea was better: It should have remained right where it was, and the memorial should have been retrofitted to an observance of a shameful episode in the state’s history, as has been done with the now-abandoned Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. Merely removing the flag from public view does nothing to change the underlying culture; that requires frank, unambiguous moral condemnation from bona fide leaders — and this isn’t it. This is a half-measure, a band-aid on gangrene.

The trial of John Scopes began 90-years ago today, on July 10, 1925.

The trial of the infidel Scopes, beginning here this hot, lovely morning, will greatly resemble, I suspect, the trial of a prohibition agent accused of mayhem in Union Hill, N.J. That is to say, it will be conducted with the most austere regard for the highest principles of jurisprudence. Judge and jury will go to extreme lengths to assure the prisoner the last and least of his rights. He will be protected in his person and feelings by the full military and naval power of the State of Tennessee. No one will be permitted to pull his nose, to pray publicly for his condemnation or even to make a face at him. But all the same he will be bumped off inevitably when the time comes, and to the applause of all right-thinking men.

H.L. Mencken

It should be a source of embarrassment to all sane Americans that, even today, uneducated and resolutely ignorant yahoos are able to undermine the future of their children and their country by obstructing proper science education in public schools — and that they enjoy public subsidies while doing so. Tax privileges for religion must end.