Blogging, the Brain, The Sopranos, Hobbes, The Revolution

Yesterday, November 6th, I was reading Archaeology Magazine aboutht the mysterious Picts of Scotland. Like the Anglo Saxons and the Celts, they were a preliterate society and left no records of themselves for us so all we have to go on is the mentions of them by Romans in regard to battles on the frontier of Briton in the few hundred years around 300 ad. Recent excavations on a hilltop have revealed traces which point to a Pictish settlement of about 4000 residents with an enclosed fort at the top of the hill which the magazine aarticle authors describe as 'high status' because of the presence of Samian pottery, Roman amphora, possibly for wine, and metal worked objects. What stuck in my mind after reading the article was how often I have both read and heard on tv archaeology programs these descriptions of 'high status' dwellings, based on the pottery and other artifacts found there. The Picts were noted by the Romans for their ferocity in defending their lands from invasion and for the blue tatooing over their bodies which is the origin of the description name 'Picts' which stands for pictured or image covered people. The article went on to say that the people called 'Picts' were actually probably a loose network of Celtic and Gaul tribal people draawn together mainly to defend themselves from the Romans.

When you read and listen to books and programs about the times of the Anglo Saxons, the Celts, the Northern Barbariansm the vikings, what is striking is the clash of the lawless savagery of the cultures of conquest and pillage. These peoples as well as the Romans, were in the process of organizing themseles into lawful civilizations, by which I mean civilizations that do not exist by means of the invasion and pillage of their neighbors. As we know, the Vikings business was theft, enslavement, extortion and destruction. These basically evil and destructive ways of making a living are with us still in the form of the 'mob' the Cosa Nostra, the drug cartels, and all the other forms of organized crime including politial organized crime such as ISIS.

The philosopher, Hobbes, who "implied that natyure is red in tooth and claw unless we set up social institutions to curb and control it, in so far as human nature interferes with the smooth running of human society."

Re-watching the Sopranos, described by many tv critics as the greatest tv series of the golden age of tv series, brings to mind many thoughts and conjectures about Hobbes and that part of human nature which pumps itself up with the false idea that "might makes right." Many times in human history we have seen this play out, most recently in World War II where the Nazi Party initially was thriving via the notion of brute force as the greatest weapon for the conquest of neighboring lands and seizing the products of others' labor as well as their lives. They were defeated, so was Napoleon. It seems to me that civilzation is always moving towards greater organization based on cooperation and non-viloent resolution of conflict and the distribution of resources, but you cannot help but see this constact contest played out in the show the Sopranos.

The criminals in this show live entirely off the labor of others, through extortion, robbery and murder. They are a cancer on society. I think the character of Dr. Melfi, the psychologist that Tony Soprano sees from the beginning of the series, represents US, the viewers, who are mesmerized by this human contradiction, a human who looks like us in so many ways but appears to act devoid of the characteristics the rest of us take for granted, empathy, a sense of fair play. Like Dr. Melfi, we want to know what makes him tick, how this creature 'works' and as so often has happened in psychiatry and in culture, it gets blamed on his mother, who Dr. Melfi labels as 'anti-social' and 'borderine personality disordered.' However, that takes away all responsibility for all the decisions made by Tony Soprano the rest of his life. We all rise from and evolve from our family originas

The Sopranos have all the 'high status' objects of our modern culture, expensive car, expensive lavish house, swimming pool, jewelry and cash, and yet none of them are happy. In a previous post, I said that it was like watching the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire all over again because the Roman Empire, like the Nazi Empire rose on its brute strength and conquest, and declined and fell. Historians have picked over the corpse of the Roman Empire for the more than thousand years describing the causes of the decline. One of the indisputable causes as well as contributing factors, was the rise of Christianity. The value system that Christianity, at least in its early stages exemplified was the opposite of the "Might makes Right" value system. It made a moral right, a right based on love and cooperation, empathy and compassion, sharing and understanding and it superceded the irrational fluctuating emotional systems of pagan religions of greedy and temperamental gods.

These forces are again playing out in our own culture. Men scratch and claw blood money to buy the symbols of status current to the American Empire, expensive cars, huge expensive mansions, exotic label clothing and products (think designer bags and label suits and clothes such as Armani or Prada) while their greed becomes a cancer that eats at the fabric of their society.

Sadly, the side of human nature that is greedy and lazy and craves excess has arisen in our society and instead of hunerstnding the subtle message of history implied in shows about the Vikings or the Sopranos, people revel in the brute violence of it, just taking and using and discarding in immediacy without thinking of consquences and without empathy. That is the destructive force which will kill our society and our planet unless the better side of our natures finds some expression that can, like an immune system, find, envelope and unarm this dangerous disease.

As I have said in previous posts, robot hackers have destroyed the comments function on this blog site so if you wish to discuss any posts, it is best to e-mail me and I can reply. wrightj45@yahoo.com

Such beautiful augumn weather, I hope you are able to get out and about in it! Happy Trails - Jo Ann

The book History Club is going to read for our January meeting is FOUNDING BROTHERS, by Joseph Ellis who won a Pulitzer Prize. I imagine we will find a mirror in the arguments and ideas they faced in creating this nation, to the one we face today in trying to maintain it.