You Have To Laugh

[poliphilo]

The thing that bothers me most about the Pope isn't anything he's said or done (we all make mistakes and have silly beliefs) but that people will turn out in their thousands to be in his general vicinity- simply because of what he is. Look at him; there's very little there to detain us. He's old, he's ugly, he doesn't have his predecessor's bully-boy charisma, nor any particular vibe of holiness; he has nothing very interesting to say- and clearly knows very little about the culture he presumes to address- and when he speaks he mumbles- reading from a script. If he were not the pope- not dignified by office- but just the elderly professor he would have been if he hadn't been so ambitious you wouldn't give him a second glance.

One of the things he's been saying is that the decay of faith begets tyranny. Actually no. I couldn't disagree more. The habit of faith- the taking of things on trust- the deferring to a person dressed up like a Christmas tree just because he has a high-sounding title- is what begets tyranny. National Socialism went down a storm in Benedict's native Bavaria because they were already soused in the flamboyantly theatrical, authoritarian, sickly-sweet, plaster and gold leaf culture of Tridentine Catholicism. Tyrants down the ages have used religion as a handy tool (often despising it as they did so) and clerics- in very great numbers- in spite of the faith they're supposed to have in something quite different- have been only too happy to crown them and bless their flags and sometimes- even- their execution squads.

The one thing most likely to stop a tyranny from gaining a grip is the cultivation- in the individual- of a lively, sceptical, irreverent intelligence.  We defend ourselves against power by highlighting its absurdity, and refusing to accord a man especial respect because he has a costume and a title. Benedict- who has been an inquisitor, a censor and a scourge of independent thinkers -  has spent most of his career enforcing conformity and repressing the one thing that best guarantees our freedom. Driving down our streets in his funny little car, conducting his open air spectaculars, he is doing what tyrants and the friends of tyrants have always done; he is using theatrics to overawe us and boot us into line.  This being Britain- with its longstanding history of finding important people funny- he's not likely to have much success. Even so, we owe it to ourselves to keep up the great tradition- and laugh and point. The price of freedom is eternal mockery.

Comments

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Now that nearly two years have passed since the US Presidential elections, I am in the process of depersonalizing my distaste for President Obama. I no longer feel like cursing when I hear his name mentioned, for example. :-) I am mystified by how much I personalized my distaste for his politics during the campaign, however. Some kind of switch flipped in me when the second George Bush first took office, and politics on that level suddenly became intensely personal. Perhaps it has something to do with how the election went down, or perhaps it is because I was at a point of political awakening in my development. Whatever the case, politics has been personal since then, and it's kind of distressing, since I have little to no influence on things at that level.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I felt rather the same about Tony Blair- and Gordon Brown after him. I feel less personally involved with David Cameron, but that's because I expect so little of him. He is, after all, a Tory. With Blair and Brown- who were notionally on the left- there is a sense of betrayal.

Brown has slipped out of the limelight, but Blair just won't go away. I can hardly see his smug, smiling, prosperous face without feeling a surge of anger.