The Three Fates Spinning and Measuring the Thread of Man’s Destiny
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad, sometimes given in Latin as Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat (literally: Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason).”
The quote with variations stems from ancient Greece.
“All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” Enoch Powell, in his life of Joseph Chamberlain, published in 1977.
A life I was leading began to unravel while walking between two large buildings of a Federal Government Department in the latter half of the 1970’s. I had worked in the Department for a few years both in research and as a parliamentary writer. What triggered the break-up was simple enough, the realisation the then President of the United States of America was exactly like me a disintegrated man, certainly not one of wholeness. The dawning realisation of this fact felt horrendous. Shortly afterwards I resigned, and not for the first time went through a period of suffering, whose form I came to realise later is not necessary.
Margaret Thatcher, Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, or any other politician could be a study, wherein you can validate for yourself, in yourself, the laws governing the Universe, particularly so the laws, sometimes referred to, as the Law of Three and the Law of Seven. These Laws may be discerned in scriptures, mythology, in megalithic structures, ancient temples, and in medieval Gothic Cathedrals. Watch what will ensue from the most recent Presidential election (2024) in the USA and it may well be seen the aftermath will not turn out as many people envisage, it rarely does, and that rarely is itself transient. What is affirmed sooner or later meets with an opposing force and instigated policies contrary to beliefs most often turn into their opposite and it is very rare to see these opposite forces reconciled upwardly. Mrs Thatcher did not restore the UK to economic pre-eminence neither will Donald Trump make a country, which economically is skewed by a vast military industrial complex and unsustainable credit, great again. It is more a case, the rich become richer, the poor poorer. Deluded she could go on and on, Margaret Thatcher for a brief period, at least, towards the end of her political career came to realise she was in control of nothing and as a result, at her last cabinet meeting in November 1990 stated, “It’s a funny old world.” Speaking in 1993 of those colleagues who had advised her to stand down, “It was treachery with a smile on its face. Perhaps that was the worst thing of all.”
It is in some ways beyond funny, hilarious even, save for the tragic effects which to be borne lightly, not become desperately hysterical or lead to premature despair, requires the bawdy, communal humour of Chaucer or the masterful universal humour of Shakespeare who immediately after the murderous act unleashed by Macbeth introduces the porter’s drunken ramblings about being the gatekeeper to hell. This momentarily introduces a stop, releases excessive tension but also prepares the observer for what is to come. Appearance clashes with reality the castle which received King Duncan as a guest is befouled by treachery and moral corruption. The latent ambition in Macbeth falls prey to the words uttered through the witches, which once begun is fated to continue. It is for Banquo, who too will be murdered, to warn,
“But ’tis strange;
And oftentimes to win us to our harm
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.”
Clever, oft times skilful politicians using mockery, claiming ‘righteousness’, and by other means ‘play’ on the lowly based ‘animal’ nature with its fears, potential prejudices, divisions, violence; what occurred in Germany in the 1930’s – 40’s can be readily repeated there, and in any other country where there is a bureaucracy, propaganda, and fear. Invariably such a down pulling direction is a perversion of The Way of Perfection and instead of opening up, isolates, inflates the ego and so much more, left unchecked it invariable ends in destruction. Should we not change the cycle begins again, most usually in a descending spiral.
In the military sense Herr Hitler to whom Mr Trump is sometimes (somewhat misleadingly in my view) compared was not a coward. He was in his younger years recklessly brave. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class for his bravery early in 1914 and Iron Cross 1st class in 1918. To be awarded 1st class was exceptional for a low ranking corporal. Ironically given what followed, he was recommended for the latter award by his superior officer Hugo Gutman, who was Jewish.
Somewhere in his life Adolf Hitler became a racist acquiring a terrible hatred of among others, the Jews. As Carl Jung indicated, in a room on his own or with but a handful of others Hitler was nothing, but in front of an audience, a crowd, he visibly inflated. As a ravenous animal feeds off both the living and the dead, so a force in him fed off the throngs and adoration, and kept eating until the end; symbolically indeed, he died in a reinforced concreted hole sixty feet under the ground, screaming vitriol, blaming, ordering total destruction, no longer of those with Disabilities, or Communists, Jews, Slavs, Romani, but what was left of the German nation itself. They had shown themselves in his eyes not to be the superior Aryan master race and had failed him. All the while, thousands who joyously welcomed him on his triumphant return from Paris in 1940, were dying in the devastated city above him.
This ending is strikingly portrayed in the film Downfall in 2004. The screenplay drew on the books Inside Hitler’s Bunker by historian Joachim Fest and Until the Final Hour by Traudl Junge, one of Hitler’s secretaries. However to view only the man and miss the force that took, used, and devoured him is to miss the essential. But before all this Hitler had declared,
What luck, for governments, that the people are stupid.
If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things.
Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.
The greater the crime perpetrated by the leadership, the less likely it is that people will ever believe their leaders to be capable of perpetrating such an event.
In youth I was touched by the questioning influence of I. F. Stone (American investigative journalist, writer, and author), he offering another side of the same coin expressed the following,
All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.
Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie.
When war comes, reason is regarded as treason.
One may be taken aback to hear all governments lie, prime ministers lie, presidents lie, kings, queens and princess lie, and even those placed upon pedestals, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandala lied. But there are levels too in the realm of politics and it is beneficial to remember what Martin Luther wrote centuries ago, “Truth can only manifest through a lie.”
Election results such as they are, bring about elation for some, for others despondency, for others indifference. It is easy enough to offer several reasons why Donald Trump ‘won’ the election and just as readily reasons could be offered why Kamala Harris ‘lost’. Millions of words will be expended about personalities, flaws, strategies and much else but at the end of the day all this will be a diversion, in the same manner all the historical reasons as to why WWI began are empty as to the real cause of War. Fragmentation labels, WWI, WWII, such is erroneous, war varying in scale is a continuum, when was there not war?
In Ian Kershaw’s biography of Adolf Hitler there is a line in the chapter entitled The Beerhall Agitator, which stands out. The words, were written by Hitler during his years being an agitator,
“It makes no difference whatever whether they laugh at us or revile us … whether they represent us as clowns or criminals; the main thing is that they mention us, that they concern themselves with us again and again …”
People vote and elect their leaders and governments, or so it seems. A careful sustained examination of what Hitler wrote gradually reveals something that has elements of a horror story; for in fact it is an illusion to believe people elect, more it is they are hypnotized and used. Such a form of hypnotism is profoundly dangerous as it deprives one of the possibility of cultivating an unique individuality and pulls those so mesmerized deeper into materiality.
In the tragedy of King Lear, the despairing Gloucester, after being blinded by Cornwall and Regan wanders on the heath. There in desolation and desiring of death, he speaks the words,
“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods:
They kill us for their sport.”
Gloucester’s philosophical musing indicates that as man is, he is incapable of placing a moral order upon a world that is harsh and is ruled by inflexible laws. Instead of divine justice there is only the “sport” of inscrutable gods who reward cruelty and delight in human suffering. But there are other gods who delight not in the suffering of humanity, and whereas in the play the innocent are killed along with those of more sinister bearing, there is redemption. Though Lear dies through suffering and grief, it is a suffering that redeems and awakens.
It is a drama where the predominantly second-tier players Albany, Kent and Edgar emerge as the true characters who by acting in their own just ways purify the conflict. One who can act justly no longer lives solely in himself for something greater and higher lives within him, and as Simone Weil indicated, “It has to be recognised that no kindness can go further than justice without constituting a fault under a false appearance of kindness.”
Touching upon the influence of fate in human affairs, Albany towards the play’s ending declares,
… All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!
Traol Chú Mhara