Last week, the "leftist-progressive", independent mayor of Budapest's ninth district made waves by installing this MLB-inspired, one-meter high statue in her part of the Hungarian capital for a period of two weeks. The announcement instigated a predictable uproar from the "right-wing, nationalist" government, which was immediately followed by an equally predictable defensive barrage of faux bemusement and moral self-righteousness from the ninth district mayor and her team of professional agitators.
I confess - this sort of nonsense usually piqued my interest before the birdemic coup, but when I encounter stories like this today, I tend to see them for what they are - baited hooks; nothing more. "Look at this stupid evil! Doesn't it look tasty? Come have a nibble!" Or conversely, from the opposite perspective, "Can you believe the intolerance of these people? Why can't they just "woke" up! Come take a little bite of this morsel!"
No, I'm not particularly interested in any of that anymore.
Though I find it impossible to see the monstrosity above as a piece of art, I will do my best to pretend. For the sake of this post, I will attempt to mirror the meandering process of thinking and impression-processing that works through me whenever I stop to study a sculpture or a painting, even one as garish as this.
The iconic symbol of the country and city of birth has followed me to the country of my heritage. When I left New York in 2011, Liberty Enlightening the World was an oxidized beacon, stoic and towering, golden-flamed torch in hand, but the color revolution has reduced her grandeur. She now kneels in submission, her torch-less hand curled into an angry fist raised in defiant protest against the mass-marketed sins of humanity.
Every single component of the System idolizes and promotes this new, kneeling normal. Think about that for a moment. Every single component.
Servitus over Libertas.
After the birth of my son in 2011, I dove back hard into the Catholic Church, and ordered a book called Liberty: The God That Failed by Catholic author Christopher A. Ferrara. According to Ferrara, it was the dark forces of Enlightenment that did in the Church and Christendom. Yes, it was the Freemasons and philosophes who darkened the world by enlightening it with liberty.
The Statue of Liberty was designed by a Mason, don't you know? Washington never converted on his deathbed. In fact, he never really uttered the word God at all. For guys like him, it was all Deist, Supreme Architect stuff and nothing more.
The book was well-researched and well-written, but I never got around to finishing it. At around the same time, I crawled out of the water of Catholicism and sat down on the shore, content to take a brief dip once a week.
Nevertheless, Ferrara and all the chroniclers of the Not-So-Secret-Yet-Still-Secret War between the Church and Masonry are correct about one thing - Liberty is not God.
This, however, is not an apology for the doctrine that God is not Liberty.
The original statue was modeled after the Roman goddess Libertas. Beyond that, there's not much that is religious about it. At the same time, the glow from its torch permitted varying degrees of religious liberty. Great swaths of America became what is often referred to as "a Christian country."
The current situation in the United States and the arrival of this inverted, mini statue in Budapest perplexes me. Is it a synchronicity? A personal connection specifically meant for me? An omen? A declaration?
If things go one way, Servitus will reign unopposed. At least that is what it looks like. But what if things go the other way? Will Libertas regain her pedestal? And then what? Back to normal? Democracy with a side of fries? Is that even desirable?
I yearn for a new statue altogether. Or no statue at all.
I think about Libertas in terms of consciousness - that missed opportunity in the eighteenth century and everything that has followed since. The missed opportunity created Libertas. And the culmination of Libertas has led to Servitus. Servitus strikes me as the death of consciousness. Even worse, the death of spirit - the deadening of humanity, which is also the deadening of God. What comes then? Destruction?
But I do not think Servitus has won decisively - not yet anyway.
Perhaps we will rediscover libertas again - true libertas - the kind of libertas that does not need to impose its glory upon the world with through the promise of a beckoning, light-casting statue.
The kind of libertas that can lead us from enlightening to finding the Light, if we so choose.
I confess - this sort of nonsense usually piqued my interest before the birdemic coup, but when I encounter stories like this today, I tend to see them for what they are - baited hooks; nothing more. "Look at this stupid evil! Doesn't it look tasty? Come have a nibble!" Or conversely, from the opposite perspective, "Can you believe the intolerance of these people? Why can't they just "woke" up! Come take a little bite of this morsel!"
No, I'm not particularly interested in any of that anymore.
Though I find it impossible to see the monstrosity above as a piece of art, I will do my best to pretend. For the sake of this post, I will attempt to mirror the meandering process of thinking and impression-processing that works through me whenever I stop to study a sculpture or a painting, even one as garish as this.
The iconic symbol of the country and city of birth has followed me to the country of my heritage. When I left New York in 2011, Liberty Enlightening the World was an oxidized beacon, stoic and towering, golden-flamed torch in hand, but the color revolution has reduced her grandeur. She now kneels in submission, her torch-less hand curled into an angry fist raised in defiant protest against the mass-marketed sins of humanity.
Every single component of the System idolizes and promotes this new, kneeling normal. Think about that for a moment. Every single component.
Servitus over Libertas.
After the birth of my son in 2011, I dove back hard into the Catholic Church, and ordered a book called Liberty: The God That Failed by Catholic author Christopher A. Ferrara. According to Ferrara, it was the dark forces of Enlightenment that did in the Church and Christendom. Yes, it was the Freemasons and philosophes who darkened the world by enlightening it with liberty.
The Statue of Liberty was designed by a Mason, don't you know? Washington never converted on his deathbed. In fact, he never really uttered the word God at all. For guys like him, it was all Deist, Supreme Architect stuff and nothing more.
The book was well-researched and well-written, but I never got around to finishing it. At around the same time, I crawled out of the water of Catholicism and sat down on the shore, content to take a brief dip once a week.
Nevertheless, Ferrara and all the chroniclers of the Not-So-Secret-Yet-Still-Secret War between the Church and Masonry are correct about one thing - Liberty is not God.
This, however, is not an apology for the doctrine that God is not Liberty.
The original statue was modeled after the Roman goddess Libertas. Beyond that, there's not much that is religious about it. At the same time, the glow from its torch permitted varying degrees of religious liberty. Great swaths of America became what is often referred to as "a Christian country."
The current situation in the United States and the arrival of this inverted, mini statue in Budapest perplexes me. Is it a synchronicity? A personal connection specifically meant for me? An omen? A declaration?
If things go one way, Servitus will reign unopposed. At least that is what it looks like. But what if things go the other way? Will Libertas regain her pedestal? And then what? Back to normal? Democracy with a side of fries? Is that even desirable?
I yearn for a new statue altogether. Or no statue at all.
I think about Libertas in terms of consciousness - that missed opportunity in the eighteenth century and everything that has followed since. The missed opportunity created Libertas. And the culmination of Libertas has led to Servitus. Servitus strikes me as the death of consciousness. Even worse, the death of spirit - the deadening of humanity, which is also the deadening of God. What comes then? Destruction?
But I do not think Servitus has won decisively - not yet anyway.
Perhaps we will rediscover libertas again - true libertas - the kind of libertas that does not need to impose its glory upon the world with through the promise of a beckoning, light-casting statue.
The kind of libertas that can lead us from enlightening to finding the Light, if we so choose.
RSS Feed
