Compelled Self-sacrifice - Religious flagellation (Middle Ages), climate activism, and lockdowns (best, literature)

[jbgusa]

I am in the midst of reading The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. I have just finished reading about the "pagan Roman/Greek" and Middle Ages (Christian) periods. This passage was striking:

Originally Posted by The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt

It had taken a thousand years to win the struggle and secure the triumph of pain seeking. "Did our Redeemer not endure scourging?" Damian asked those critics who called into question the celebration of the whip. Weren't the apostles and many of the saints and martyrs flogged? What better way to follow in their footsteps, what surer method of imitating Christ, than to suffer the blows that they suffered…. Shame at appearing naked before the eyes of others has no place, nor does the embarrassment of being seen trembling, howling, or sobbing…. Henry Suso, who carved the name of Jesus on his chest, had an iron cross fixed with nails pressed into his back and whipped himself until the blood flowed. Suso's contemporary, Elsbeth of Oye, a nun from Zurich, whipped herself so energetically that the bystanders in the chapel were spattered with her blood.

It strikes me that whether we know it or not, we are falling in the footsteps of our medieval, self-torturing ancestors. We undertake actions of dubious utility (even if they address real problems), for reasons that cannot be verbalized. When one challenges the actions, such as abnegating society from internal combustion, the advocates get very defensive, use epithets such as calling skeptics “deniers”, or refusing to discuss the subject. This is very similar to the way people approach religion.

Same goes with Covid lockdowns. A threat comes into being, sounds plausible, and right away we are closing everything that makes living worthwhile or fun. How do we distinguish this from the apostles’ self-whipping? I don't honestly think we can.

[YorktownGal]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

I am in the midst of reading The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. I have just finished reading about the "pagan Roman/Greek" and Middle Ages (Christian) periods. This passage was striking:
It strikes me that whether we know it or not, we are falling in the footsteps of our medieval, self-torturing ancestors. We undertake actions of dubious utility (even if they address real problems), for reasons that cannot be verbalized. When one challenges the actions, such as abnegating society from internal combustion, the advocates get very defensive, use epithets such as calling skeptics “deniers”, or refusing to discuss the subject. This is very similar to the way people approach religion.

Same goes with Covid lockdowns. A threat comes into being, sounds plausible, and right away we are closing everything that makes living worthwhile or fun. How do we distinguish this from the apostles’ self-whipping? I don't honestly think we can.

First, there is no record of Apostles self-flagellation.

Monks or Nuns saved the books & knowledge of the ancient world for us.

Monks and nuns performed many practical services in the Middle Ages, for they housed travelers, nursed the sick, and assisted the poor; abbots and abbesses dispensed advice to secular rulers.

But monasticism also offered society a spiritual outlet and ideal with important consequences for medieval culture as a whole. Monasteries encouraged literacy, promoted learning, and preserved the classics of ancient literature, including the works of Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, and Aristotle.

To beautify the celebration of the liturgy, monastic composers enriched the scope and sophistication of choral music, and to create the best environment for devotion, monasticism developed a close and fruitful partnership with the visual arts.

The need for books and buildings made religious houses active patrons of the arts, and the monastic obligation to perform manual work allowed many monks and nuns to serve God as creative artists. Exceptionally, some of them signed their works in words that seem intended not only to name the maker but also to identify the object as a prayerful offering.

Perhaps a few crazy monks did Self-flagellation during the Dark Ages, but not the general population. The general population depended on manual labor to survive. Self harm causing bodily harm meant being unable to work, and therefore, to eat.

Secondly, Stephen Jay Greenblatt is an American Shakespearean, literary historian, and author. There is a real difference between a literary historian and a real historian. I wouldn't take his point of view as fact.

Thirdly, green energy causes harm to the environment. We are cutting down first growth forest for wind farms and solar farms. We are killing birds and changing migration patterns with wind farms.

Fourthly Covid lockdowns began with fear and was extended past the "15 days to slow the spread" to a matter of state control. I would liken it to George Orwell's 1984 before self flagellation.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

First, there is no record of Apostles self-flagellation.

Monks or Nuns saved the books & knowledge of the ancient world for us.

The book sheds some light on that. Suffice to say it's a bit more of a complex story.

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

Perhaps a few crazy monks did Self-flagellation during the Dark Ages, but not the general population. The general population depended on manual labor to survive. Self harm causing bodily harm meant being unable to work, and therefore, to eat.

You have to be right on that. That does not mean it wasn't glorified as an ideal.

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

Secondly, Stephen Jay Greenblatt is an American Shakespearean, literary historian, and author. There is a real difference between a literary historian and a real historian. I wouldn't take his point of view as fact.

The book appears well researched and convincing.

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

Thirdly, green energy causes harm to the environment. We are cutting down first growth forest for wind farms and solar farms. We are killing birds and changing migration patterns with wind farms.

Fourthly Covid lockdowns began with fear and was extended past the "15 days to slow the spread" to a matter of state control. I would liken it to George Orwell's 1984 before self flagellation.

I think both have an element of truth in there. I think from the state end it was control. The people though had to have some willingness to accept it. That's where the element of self-punishment comes in. People were willing to accept the restrictions. In my area, in suburban New York City, one warm afternoon last March, I believe March 21 or 22, after the lockdowns started, the outdoor tennis courts were all being played. I thought that was great, since both running and tennis are conducted more than six feet apart, and very rarely played by Covid-19 sufferers. The next day our village's mayor had the courts locked and the basketball hoops at neighborhood courts removed.

I could see that the authorities were dedicated to making us miserable, not safe. Anyone who plays tennis within six feet of another player has a far more serious problem than a virus. It's called a racket. And I was about the only person who objected. Around that time, the mantra, along with climate change is "we can't go on living this way." No one benefits from the self-flagellation. Somehow, as a society, we believe in it, much like a religion.