Friday, December 4, 2015

Apollo and Dionysus

I recently read an article (click HERE) claiming the Greek god Apollo was a "beta" and Dionysus was an "alpha." This classification makes no sense whatsoever. It's the attempt to shove human nature into tiny, extremely inaccurate boxes, which is what the True Believers in the Manosphere try to do.

Dionysus is considered to be the god of wine and partying. This is only partly right. More than anything else, he was the god of death and dismemberment, of human sacrifice - through "partying" and drugs (and alcohol is a drug).

This video? That was Reginald Denny, who was dragged out of his truck and nearly beat to death. See that dance after Denny is hit in the head with a brick? That's Dionysus - frenzied drunken rioting. How much do you want to bet the attacker is high or has been drinking - or both?

Denny, who was white, was attacked by blacks attempting to blame their problems on him, to scapegoat him, to murder and dismember him (one attacker fired a shotgun at him, but missed him). That's Dionysus in action.

The one who hurled the brick served four years for his attack, and later got life for murder (Denny, incidentally, was saved by an unarmed black man).

Rene Girard, a French Catholic theologian, has written extensively about these things. Scapegoating, he concluded, was done to maintain societies, to "renew" them, by finding someone to blame their problems on and kill them (the word "scapegoat" comes from ancient Jews trying to cast their problems on a goat and driving him into the wilderness).

Individuals try the same thing. This has been noticed for thousands of years, which is why in the story of the Garden of Eden Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent - a symbol of envy and hate. And so evil comes into the world.

You know who else was Dionysus? The serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. They had their own little private parties sacrificing people to themselves, mutilating and dismembering them, all to make these conscienceless, loveless cowards feel better about themselves for a little while....until the feeling wore off and they had to repeat their murders and mutilations.

Societies do the same thing. Notice (and it's now back in the news) how some Muslims partied and cheered after 9-11 - after the murder and mutilation of innocent Americans. So we returned the favor, 100 times more than they did us.

Bundy once made one woman watch while he killed another. Then he dismembered them and had sex with their body parts. Dahmer did the same thing, only with men. (They were "Dark Triad psychopaths," about which there is no good whatever.)

Dionysus is the demonic god of chaos who was supposed to lead to peace and calm - think the French Revolution, which was an orgy of death, destruction, mutilation and necrophilia.

Ever seen anyone act demonic after drinking? I have, several times. They act like they're possessed. That's Dionysus.

Apollo, on the other hand, is a very complex god, but he was the god or order, of imagination, and of sanity. I often think of the Founding Fathers, who were very intelligent, imaginative, sane, reasonable men who attempted to found a sane, orderly, peaceful, free society - one without Dionysus. Which, unfortunately, will never happen.

Stephen King, in his book about the horror genre, Danse Macabre, actually got it right. His monsters are Dionysian - blood-drinking vampires, brain-eating zombies, kid-killing clowns who ripped kids apart. When peace and order is restored, that was Apollonian. (King even uses the words Apollonian and Dionysian to describe these categories).

The Greeks knew a lot about human nature. They certainly knew enough to not try to shove people into silly little boxes.

By the way, when the Apollonian collapses what we have left is the Dionysian - because society is but a thin film on top of a lot of demented human nature.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I guess you could say in their own way the Greeks gave good and evil specific gods. But nothing really ever changes...the evil one's ego thinks they are powerful by constantly preying on the weak.

Glen Filthie said...

Hmpffff.

I think you are misapplying the concept as well, Unca Bob. I won't challenge your knowledge of greek mythology - but trying to apply the Greek Alphabet Soup to a mob of feral niggers is to take the concept out of context. So it goes for your serial killers too.

The alphabet soup is aimed at healthy men to describe their behaviour in normal settings and it is popular because - to a limited extent - it works. What are your thoughts on the so-called neo-reactionaries Bob? Isn't that 'Dark triad' and 'Dark Enlightenment' part and parcel of their beliefs?

Anonymous said...

The Los Angeles riots were partly a result of the Rodney King verdict, a verdict supported by few people of any race. I was shocked that The L.A. Four, as Denney's attackers were then called, got off so easy.

I also remember that it was four black people who led Denney to safety, including two women, one a nurse if I'm not mistaken.

Unknown said...

The one who threw the brick is now in prison for life, for murder.