Tuesday, May 05, 2020

"I do not know much about gods;


"but I think that the market/Is a strong green god—"

We who are about to die for the shareholders salute you!

Just to reinforce the idea that we are living in Rome; and pretty much in its last days.  And no, I don't expect the coronavirus experience to change this cultural attitude very much at all.

A coin of Julius Caesar shows his spirit descending cometlike to takes it place among the eternal deities. A coin of Augustus Caesar calls him divi filius, son of a divine one, son of a god, son of the aforesaid comet. A coin of Tiberius Caesar hails him as pontifex maximuis, supreme bridge builder between earth and heaven, high priest of an imperial people. A silver denarius was a day's pay for a laborer and, if a day laborer meant somebody who worked every day rather than somebody who looked for work every day, it would have been a very good salary. Imagine this situation: If, after three days of hard work, a day laborer held those silver denarii in his hand, how would he, could he, should he distinguish between politics and religion in the Roman Empire?....

Rome, and Rome alone, had built a kingdom and only it could approve how to build an underkingdom, a minrealm, a subordinate rule.
Jon Dominic Cross and Jonathan Reed, Excavating Jesus, revised & updated (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), pp. 178-79

Our coins depict dead Presidents; but they are secular deities.  Look at the outrage when Trump violated the "holy space" of the Lincoln Memorial recently, to hold is "town hall" on FoxNews.  Trump tells his followers to join him virtually in the Mass led by Cardinal Dolan. Republicans from Chris Christie to Dan Patrick tell us some must sacrifice for the good of others, just as everyone in the Roman Empire was meant to sacrifice to the power and authority of Rome.  The proudly foolish statement "Land of the Free Because of the Brave" would be right at home in the Rome of the Caesars, because it was the Caesars who brought security, prosperity, and the Pax Romana, to the Empire for the benefit of all; and without it?  How do we distinguish betweent politics and religion in the American empire?  Not much better than the Roman  Empire did; and for much the same reasons.

At the same time, Trump supporters in Arizona; all three of them.

And what's important now is the number of judges Trump has appointed, and George Conway's connection to Project Lincoln:

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