PrintMarch 31, 2009
Whom the Gods Would Destroy
... they first make mad," said the Greeks. And they certainly knew what they were talking about, since what we call the Golden Age of Greece meant one savage war after another between the city-states, all of them riddled with plots, treason, sabotage and class war, along with unbridled hedonism, rebellion, tyranny, oppression, everyday slavery and finally miserable defeat in war. Plato, Socrates and Aristotle yearned for a life of reason, because they saw so little of it in their own world. They became the intellectual founders of modern civilization, which also shows us a constant struggle between madness and reason. Human societies seem to be prone to madness. The life of reason, like perfect love, is an ideal that is never quite realized. Which brings me to a certain madness in American culture today. I've come to believe there really is such a thing as American self-hatred. That sounds strange to my ears, because self-hatred is something we talk about for lifelong...(Read Full Article)
