“Beauty will save the world.” -Dostoevsky
We have entered a strange time in American history. We are swimming in a flood of propaganda and misinformation. On top of that, artificial intelligence will create a tsunami of more information, now generated without any human agent as its source. We are drowning in unfiltered information.
America has now fulfilled the pipe dream of many to be governed, not by the principles of a just and democratic republic, but by the principles of Capitalism and business. Truth is too expensive for capitalism, so our health will be monitored by a host of non-scientists whose medical understanding comes from scanning the internet for marginal scientists who will provide a convenient quote for their pseudo-scientific theories.
Justice is also too expensive for Capitalism, so our incoming president’s first nominee for the guardian of our nation’s ethical integrity has been accused by the House Ethics Committee of illegal activity including sex and drugs and of obstruction of justice. The nominee has stepped down, but the lack of an ethical compass remains.
Many are feeling adrift and fear that they are drowning in the current flood, but there are also ancient myths that remind us humanity has been here before and survived.
Religious myths are not about historical events. Myths are attempts to simply and poetically present the grand themes of human experience. The story of Noah and the flood appears to be a restatement of ancient Babylonian and Sumerian myths where a righteous human being is instructed by God, or the Gods, to build a boat that will endure the flood sent to end human evil and violence. Ancient myths do not give us answers, but they help us deepen and widen our questions.
To hold onto our humanity through this current flood will require an organizing principle for our information. We must learn to sift through truth claims, not by how they make us feel, but how they illumine our physical experience, how they call us to nurture the web of life, and by how they call us to serve our entire human family.
Myths remind us that the flood of evils raining on our one human family are the result of ancient evils. In my opinion, these are some of the evils we must renounce to be truly human:
-Laws based on the belief that might makes right and that personal possessions are of more value than the common good.
-Beliefs based on reported special revelation instead of the truths we find manifested in nature and in the experiences we hold in common with honest human beings all over the world.
-And, we must ALL renounce the belief that our group is more beloved of God and is, therefore, justified in mistreating the rest of us.
This is not the first time humankind has been adrift in a flood of lies and violence. Whereas many have lost their bearings in this voracious tide, the ancient myths remind us that we, as a species, have been here before and can endure such times.
Finding today’s “ark” means choosing ideas because they are true even if they are uncomfortable. Finding today’s ark means choosing our actions because they are just, even if that means a fairer distribution of the earth’s goods. This ark will require us to choose our values because they make us kind, not because they make us rich. And, finally, boarding this ark will mean choosing our art, not because it is entertaining, but because it makes nature’s beauty more manifest in the world.