12-16-2019, 01:39 PM
** 16-Dec-2019 World View: Kismet
Totally disagree. Being religious has nothing to do with it.
Here's an anecdote I heard a motivational speaker tell several
decades ago:
The point of this little anecdote is that it doesn't matter whether
you're religious or not. You're still responsible for your own
fate. You plant the seeds. If you plant weeds, you'll get weeds
back. If you plant flowers, you'll get flowers. Plant a turnip,
get a turnip, never any doubt. But if you go around screwing
people, then one day someone will screw you back, and everyone
else will be cheering him on.
This is related to some things about Greek tragedy that I've written
in the past.
I've found that few non-Greeks really understand what tragedy is
about. As a Greek I know that a sense of tragedy is in my
bones. Tragedy as an art form was invented in ancient Greece, and
three of four great tragic artists of all time were Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides of ancient Greece, with the fourth being
Shakespeare.
What tragedy does is to bring order out of seemingly random events.
Many people misunderstand the deepest meanings of tragedy. If a child
is killed in a random traffic accident, then it's a terrible event but
it's not a tragedy in the classical sense, because of that randomness.
The essence of classical tragedy is that the tragic event is not
random. The tragic event is inevitable: it MUST occur, and the reason
it must occur is because of the nature, the personality, the character
of the protagonists. A true tragedy cannot be prevented, even by
those who foresee it, because the forces bringing about the tragedy
are too powerful for anyone to stop.
Like the child killed in a random traffic accident, the protagonists
of a true tragedy have a great future before them, and in the Greek
view, perhaps even a heroic future. But the heroic future turns into
disaster because the players in the true tragedy move step by step
towards that disaster; and all of us on the outside can see it coming,
because these particular players are uniquely capable of inflicting
this disaster on one another.
Today we're witnessing a tragedy in progress, where the protagonists
are China, Japan and the US. We can see the play moving toward
disaster, but we can't do anything to stop it (or delay it, or speed
it up). It's a true tragedy that cannot be prevented, even though we
can foresee it, because the forces bringing about the tragedy are too
powerful for anyone to stop.
The same is true of the individual and Kismet. A person creates his
own fate, and the ending is inevitable. Whether you're religious or
not is irrelevant. In the end, we all get what we deserve.
FishbellykanakaDude Wrote:> Quibble: If you believe in "Kismet/et al", then you're
> religious.
Totally disagree. Being religious has nothing to do with it.
Here's an anecdote I heard a motivational speaker tell several
decades ago:
Quote: A man bought a plot of land that was really a mess.
It was covered with weeds and all kinds of crap. There was even a
sickening smell.
But the guy got to work. He worked every day, six days a week,
from 6 am to 8 pm. He cleaned out all the crap. He cleaned out
all the weeds. He ploughed the land. He planted seeds. He
watered the seeds every day, making sure to clean up any new
weeds.
Within a few months, he had the most beautiful plot of land in the
region, with lovely flowers and plants.
One day, while the man was working on his land, someone walked by
and said: "That's a beautiful plot of land that God has given to
you."
The man thought for a second and said, "Yeah, God did give me a
beautiful plot of land. But you should have seen what kind of
shape it was in when God was taking care of it."
The point of this little anecdote is that it doesn't matter whether
you're religious or not. You're still responsible for your own
fate. You plant the seeds. If you plant weeds, you'll get weeds
back. If you plant flowers, you'll get flowers. Plant a turnip,
get a turnip, never any doubt. But if you go around screwing
people, then one day someone will screw you back, and everyone
else will be cheering him on.
This is related to some things about Greek tragedy that I've written
in the past.
I've found that few non-Greeks really understand what tragedy is
about. As a Greek I know that a sense of tragedy is in my
bones. Tragedy as an art form was invented in ancient Greece, and
three of four great tragic artists of all time were Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides of ancient Greece, with the fourth being
Shakespeare.
What tragedy does is to bring order out of seemingly random events.
Many people misunderstand the deepest meanings of tragedy. If a child
is killed in a random traffic accident, then it's a terrible event but
it's not a tragedy in the classical sense, because of that randomness.
The essence of classical tragedy is that the tragic event is not
random. The tragic event is inevitable: it MUST occur, and the reason
it must occur is because of the nature, the personality, the character
of the protagonists. A true tragedy cannot be prevented, even by
those who foresee it, because the forces bringing about the tragedy
are too powerful for anyone to stop.
Like the child killed in a random traffic accident, the protagonists
of a true tragedy have a great future before them, and in the Greek
view, perhaps even a heroic future. But the heroic future turns into
disaster because the players in the true tragedy move step by step
towards that disaster; and all of us on the outside can see it coming,
because these particular players are uniquely capable of inflicting
this disaster on one another.
Today we're witnessing a tragedy in progress, where the protagonists
are China, Japan and the US. We can see the play moving toward
disaster, but we can't do anything to stop it (or delay it, or speed
it up). It's a true tragedy that cannot be prevented, even though we
can foresee it, because the forces bringing about the tragedy are too
powerful for anyone to stop.
The same is true of the individual and Kismet. A person creates his
own fate, and the ending is inevitable. Whether you're religious or
not is irrelevant. In the end, we all get what we deserve.
