Select Myths and Random Thoughts on Elections - Alcyonenews

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Posted October 18, 2024

Select Myths and Random Thoughts on Elections

“Although people of all countries, eras, and stages of civilization have developed myths that explain the existence and workings of natural phenomena, recount the deeds of gods or heroes, or seek to justify social or political institutions, the myths of the Greeks have remained unrivalled in the Western world as sources of imaginative and appealing ideas. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in Classical mythological themes.”

Encyclopaedia Britannica

It has been said that if elections could affect change, they would have been outlawed. They have not been outlawed and the election industry is thriving. The explanation is that elections are efficient propaganda ammunition, well suited to pacify people enamoured with the idea of becoming free. Anyway it is hard to guess how things would have unfolded if elections had been outlawed.

The Greeks noticed what was up and coming and depicted it as the Lernaean Hydra, a multi-headed beast with the ability to grow new necks and heads when any of those it already has would become redundant or because changing social conditions caused the Hydra to need additional heads. In fear of the new and in desperation for not getting a handle on the phenomenon, the myth-makers brought in Hercules to handle the situation. He failed in that. This because the Lernaean Hydra was depicting that which we now call “Civilization” and which was galloping at the time, as it does now. In a sense we are talking about the mobile connection between humans and nature. The higher we ratch ourselves up the mountain of Knowledge, the wider the horizon becomes and the more destinations we plot on the maps in our minds.

Succinctly said, Hydra the Civilization creates ever-more work for us, leaving us ever-less leisure time. Another factor in the equation is that civilization is often non-elective – After the Heart-Pacemaker was invented and one’s father comes to need

one, the family buys it even if they have to sell their home to cover the cost.

While some events affect individuals, many affect groups within society and others affect the whole society. They all have to be “managed”, meaning to make them operational and to set them to benefit us instead of hurting us. Atomic science may be managed to cure cancer and produce electricity or be mismanaged to produce Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The golden Age of Greece was marked by the Lernaean Hydra’s prolific sprouting of heads. For example the time had come that people had to stop doing certain bodily functions in the street and were forced to build sewage systems. This in turn had imposed the need for water supply systems to drink and to flush with. This taxed the time people had to play and laze about; and it became increasingly difficult to get something for nothing, to forage. But the Lernaean Hydra kept growing ever-more Necks and Heads. It thus overwhelmed Hercules and made this the Labour he had to leave undone.

We may say this ushered in the Age of Co-operation. People have to get together to build and operate sewage disposal systems, railroads, bridges, ships and spacecraft. And to grow food and to manage any shortage of such. The managing of situations society traverses is known collectively as “Governance”. To avert mismanagement and to affect fair allocation of the benefits of Governing the society, the Greeks concocted Democratia. This was people governing themselves collectively. But since change is the only constant and since the precincts of governance have stretched far beyond where God dwelt, we pretend that the moat our ancestors dug around the castle will guard well the nukes we foolishly store therein. Democratia could age and “generations” of it are “successive”. Change is constant but its subjects are variable, by definition.

People claim Plato did not believe in democratia. In school I was taught Plato wanted the Human society governed by the “Aristocracy of the Mind”. This conforms with Plato’s assertion that the human society should be governed by the Philosophers ( = the friends of wisdom) to the exclusion of the kings ( = power-holders) and their ilk. The superiority of Plato’s approach is not that the Philosopher would handle better a problem, it is instead in that they will likely avert the occurrence of the problem. The difference is vast.

Democratia has aged and is old and decrepit, a taxidermied skin of the Lion of Old. It is only so because we do not know better. But our ignorance is not innate, it is intensely induced. We badly need to shed anachronism to catch up with our modern times. We can do it, all we need is to get rid of those who kill our will ...