Week in Review (5/20-5/24)
Crying Statues, Lost Elephants, Graves of Soldiers, and Missing my Dad
“Barely Legal” was a controversial show by graffiti artist Banksy, held in an industrial warehouse in Los Angeles, California. The expression “the elephant in the room” is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous. The metaphorical elephant represents an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.
In 1814, Ivan Krylov (1769–1844), poet and fabulist, wrote a fable entitled The Inquisitive Man, which tells of a man who goes to a museum and notices all sorts of tiny things, but fails to notice an elephant. The first widely disseminated conceptual reference was a story written by Mark Twain in 1882, The Stolen White Elephant, which recounts the inept, far-ranging activities of detectives trying to find a lost elephant that was right on the spot after all. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first recorded use of the phrase, as a simile, in The New York Times on June 20th 1959: “Financing schools has become a problem about equal to having an elephant in the living room. It's so big you just can't ignore it.”
This week’s Banksy article caused me to pause and consider what my elephants are. What am I choosing not to see, not to face, not to address, not to talk about?
Weeping Statues and Defiant Graffiti
This week the publishing trail took me to a Weeping Mary statue on Apparition Hill in Bosnia, and to Somerset, England for Banksy’s temporary art installation, Dismaland Bemusement Park, a dystopian Disneyland-style theme park. Never a dull moment!
Vatican Under Fire
Early this week I published an article, When Statues Cry: Do we owe Mary an apology? The veneration of Mother Mary has been central to the Roman Catholic Church. The subject of Mary came up for me this week with the recent news that the Vatican has lost control of her place in the church. There have always been claims of Mary appearing and speaking to people in apparitions, and reaching out to humankind in the tears of statues. Reports this week indicated that the Vatican has concerns that the veneration of Mary is being exploited.
The Vatican is cracking down on purported religious or supernatural experiences. Turns out that holy hoaxes are on the rise. Last week the Vatican’s doctrinal office overhauled its process for evaluating alleged supernatural phenomena that have marked church history. A statement was released that details the new process for authenticating claims of weeping Mary statues and Mary apparitions.
Since publishing this piece, a follow-up article indicated that there has been problems with the Vatican’s new norms for vetting supernatural phenomena. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of judging the acts of God. I was sure the Detroit Lions would win the Super Bowl and blew that, how could I possibly be responsible for determining if a claim about a Mary apparition was legit? No, I wouldn’t want that job - Supernatural Quality Control Specialist.
Given my professional work in areas such as the Philosophy of Religion and religious deconstruction, the topic of religious experience often comes up. It can be a touchy subject because a religious person, and understandably so, may not take too kindly to having their God or supernatural experiences explained scientifically, which seems to rule out that it could be understood supernaturally. See the problem here?
There is a field of study called the neuroscience of religion. It also known as neurotheology or spiritual neuroscience. The discipline studies the cognitive neuroscience of religious experience and spirituality. I plan on publishing an article on the topic of religious experience in the future, but some useful resources to explore if you are interested are:
The Neuroscience of Religious Experience by Patrick McNamara
Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought by Pascal Boyer
Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience by William P. Alston
The “God” Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God by Matthew Alper
The Varieties of Religious Experience by Williams James
Father of Street Art Philosophy
The other article I published this week was the latest installment in my series, “Philosophers You Have Never Heard Of”. This piece is titled, Unmasking the Rebel of Existencilism, and is about the iconic street artist, Banksy.
Banksy is a pseudonym. His identity remains unconfirmed and although there has been much speculation over the years, his true identity has never been revealed. Writing this article on Banksy deeply impacted me. It challenged the ways I was taught to think about philosophy and who qualifies as a philosopher. The word “philosophy” means “love of wisdom”. The two words “love” and “wisdom” sound so charming, beautiful and noble. But sometimes there must be tough love and as that iconic movie line goes, “You can’t handle the truth.”
George Orwell wrote, “Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” Is that us? Are we living in an empire of lies and don’t know it? Banksy’s graffiti asserts that we are. What did we do? We made the graffiti illegal, and ignored the message. Orwell also wrote, “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Just ask Martin Luther King, Jr. Turns out, the most revolutionary action is that rare and courageous step to face the plain and simple truth. The most damming choice is to sweep it under Banksy’s carpet.
Too often, our societal institutions expect us to be nice, complaint, repressed, timid, inhibited, mannerly, obedient, fearful, amiable, submissive people. But you can be a loving, compassionate, respectful and kind person AND be a rebellious, defiant, passionate, disobedient, subversive, nonconformist, mischievous, self-willed, fully expressed, freethinker, heretic, and free spirit human being.
Every time Banksy graffiti-painted a public building, bridge, tunnel, parking lot or wall, he was doing something illegal, and yet he was adamantly against violence. He wrote, “The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules.” Banksy said, “Sometimes the right thing to do is the wrong thing to do.” And, “You have to live as a villain to die as a hero.”
There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside each of us first. In my book, Inner Anarchy, I make the point that Jesus was wrongly understood as someone who had little faith in the transformation of the world, and instead proclaimed the reward of an afterlife in Heaven as compensation. In my view, Jesus called for a transformation of the human heart and the liberation of the oppressed, and insisted that it was possible now.
As a practical matter, one might stage their own inner anarchy by doing the following:
Unlearn something
Our heads have been programmed with all kinds of false and disempowering beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies that are ruling us from within and governing our lives, and it’s time to identify and ditch them one by one.
Switch sources
Stop conceding to external sources of authority and living your life on the basis of the “shoulds” and expectations of others, and claim responsibility and authority for your own life, and start by listening, following, and expressing the truth you access within yourself.
Stop doing something
The current system and order that espouses ego, greed, materialism, vanity, and self-absorption only has the power we give to it through our participation; divest yourself from that old order by refusing to play the game.
Question everything
Don’t accept any rationale or justification for the status quo, but dig into it and make it legitimize itself to you on the basis of critical thinking, direct experience, and your highest truth.
Educate yourself
Ignorance is one of the biggest obstacles, but the antidote is to take the time to explore beneath the surface and understand what's driving the way things currently are in our world.
Make powerful alliances
Rather than running with the herd, find and connect with others who are serious about living life differently and consequentially.
Go deeper
The “self-help” movement is often pedaling gimmicks, quick-fix schemes and formulas, superficial change, and symptom-management; go deeper than this by addressing the root causes of your chronic unhappiness and disharmony in life.
Express yourself
Express yourself and your revolutionary ideas – make videos and art, speak, sing, tell stories and write; let social media be your public wall to share your message.
Expect resistance
Expect resistance and don’t back down – exposing and confronting the systems of our world that perpetuate domination, injustice oppression, and disharmony in our world won’t be thrilled with you.
Russian-American anarchist Alexander Berkman wrote,
“The social revolution means much more than the reorganization of conditions only: it means the establishment of new human values and social relationships, a changed attitude of human to human, as of one free and independent to his or her equal; it means a different spirit in individual and collective life, and that spirit cannot be born overnight. It is a spirit to be cultivated, to be nurtured and reared, as the most delicate flower it is, for indeed it is the flower of a new and beautiful existence.”
Remembering Dad
Monday is Memorial Day, a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the military personnel who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.
From 1868 to 1970, Memorial Day was observed on May 30. Since 1971, it is observed on the last Monday of May. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, “the flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon only, then raised briskly to the top of the staff until sunset, in honor of the nation’s battle heroes” on Memorial Day. Every Memorial Day, there is a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery as a symbolic grave for fallen soldiers whose remains were not found or identified.
Memorial Day for me has always an occasion to hold a deep remembrance of my father. I have an old, faded black-and-white photograph of a tall, imposing, full-blooded Italian young man dressed in combat gear leaning against a three-ton World War II Sherman tank. On the back of the picture a date is scribbled out: 10/27/44.
My father led a tank battalion in WWII, serving under the command of George S. Patton. He arrived at Omaha Beach with the bodies of dead soldiers floating in the water. His battalion was one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings. Dad fought in some key and decisive battles in the war including the Battle of the Bulge. At his funeral there was a 21-gun salute, and Taps was played on a bugle. His only son, I carried his casket to the grave.
In the below picture is my father with his comrades-in-arms. My father never talked about his experience of war. I carry some regret and sadness that we talked so little about it. I know the war affected him in ways I could never understand.
My dad and I never had a particularly close relationship and for some years I held some resentment about this, until I realized that no human being is perfect, he did the best he could under the circumstances (such as the Great Depression, and WWII), and I should be more grateful for a father who served his country courageously and succeeded in making a career as an engineer at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant and providing for his family until it all crumbled beneath the weight of my sister’s tragic death and my mother’s alcoholism.
Some of the values my father lived were: personal responsibility, work ethic, self-reliance, and frugality. He was a friendly and good-hearted person who was liked by many. After all these years there are ways I still miss my dad.
Though Memorial Day honors those who have given their lives in service to their country, there are also the many living military veterans. Today, there are more than 18 million living veterans in the United States, representing about 6% of the country's adult population.
Veteran suicide is one of the greatest crises of our time. Death by suicide among our Armed Forces has claimed more lives than we’ve lost in most major conflicts, including World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Global War on Terror.
Veterans are at 72% higher risk of suicide than those who haven’t served. Over 2 million troops are diagnosed with at least one mental health issue. There have been 20 consecutive years of veteran suicides exceeding 7,000. It’s the 2nd leading cause of death in veterans under age 45. We lose 22 veterans daily to suicide. Lack of access to mental health services contributes to the high suicide rates among veterans.
In many cases Veteran suicide is preventable. We all have to do our part to make sure our nation’s veterans know help is available and they are not alone. A recent study of soldiers were asked why they tried to kill themselves. Out of the 33 reasons they had to choose from, all of the soldiers included one in particular — a desire to end intense emotional distress. A veteran may not want to take their lives but see no other way of ending their emotional pain.
John McCain wrote,
“Few veterans cherish a romantic remembrance of war. War is awful. When nations seek to settle their differences by force of arms a million tragedies ensue. Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.”
I’ve never been someone into war and warfare, as a topic of personal interest. War is generally defined as violent conflict between states or nations. There are many different ways of approaching war as a subject of interest.
The concept of “just war” and its ethical implications.
The impact of war on civilian populations.
The role of women in war throughout history.
The psychological effects of war on soldiers and societies.
The evolution of warfare technology and its impact on strategy.
The role of diplomacy in preventing and ending wars.
The impact of war on the environment.
The portrayal of war in film and literature.
The role of child soldiers in contemporary conflicts.
The impact of war on economic development.
The role of international law in regulating warfare.
The impact of war on cultural heritage and historical sites.
The role of media in shaping public perception of war.
The ethics of drone warfare and targeted killings.
The role of mercenaries and private military companies in conflicts.
The impact of war on global migration and refugee crises.
The role of peacekeeping forces in post-conflict regions.
The challenges of post-war reconciliation and nation-building.
The role of war memorials in remembering and interpreting conflict.
The impact of cyber warfare on national security.
For my part, I decided to learn more about WWII. The popular military historian Antony Beevor recommends some of his own favorite books about the Second World War.
Song of the Week
The song of the week is “The Keeper” by Chris Cornell.
I come from far away
My boots don't know this ground
But they know it's real
It doesn't take too long
For this road to become
A battlefield
And before I let one more fire go out
Understand that I won't give one inch of ground
From beneath yours and my feet
Whatever the price happens to be
I may not be the keeper of the flame
But I am the keeper
Beauty and truth collide
Where love meets genocide
Where laughter meets fear
Confusion all around
And as I try to feed these mouths
That have never known singing
And before I let one more tear hit the ground
I will be the one standing between you and the sound
Of the rounds echoing out
Out of the dark
The smoke and the spark
Aimed at the heart of the flame
I am the keeper ooooh
I cannot see the light
At the end of the tunnel tonight
My eyes are weary
And before I let one more life get erased
From the ashes I will rise for you and the ghosts
Of the names the faces and frames
The love and the pain for you I remain
Though I'm not worthy of being
The keeper of the flame
I am the keeper
I am the keeper
In Summary
What is your elephant in the room?
Sometimes the best philosophy is spray painted on a wall.
Even the Vatican can’t always figure out the acts of God.
22 veterans die from suicide each day.
I miss my dad.
“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
- Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
♥️