Sinners in the hand of a political hurricane

Winds were pretty brutal throughout the last 24 hours at the Bog – some sleet providing a staccato background to less than restful sleep. The power flickered a few times last night; no real power loss happened. I sure wish that the rest of the country could have had my good luck.

I’m hoping the millions of people reeling from the storm can quickly get relief and their lives back in balance.

Some would argue that even this storm pales in comparison to the dark clouds and lightning coming from both camps in our current political campaign. Thunder claps, hail, fire and brimstone – just listen to a bunch of the preaching coming from the national candidates and their surrogates. I don’t think Cotton Mather or Jonathan Edwards’ sermons were as full of the vitriol we see in today’s political landscape. I will, however, applaud a certain "poetic-noir" found in Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God:

"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours."

From Jonathan Edwards, The Works of President Edwards, vol. 6 (1817; New York: Burt Franklin, 1968), pp. 458, 461–62.

A recent article in the New York Times assessed the efficacy of some of the presidential advertisements. The conclusions were that the attack ads are far less effective than the spots where the candidates lay out their plans and stance. Advertisements where candidates can candidly discuss the success of their record while in office also carry significant weight.

So why is most political discourse about what is wrong with the other guy? And, with the multitudes of forums that now beleaguer our senses (blogs, Craigslist “rants and raves”, comments following online articles, Facebook timeline posts) it seems that gotcha becomes the new sport. Studies show that 18-24 year olds get their political information from comics.

Oh, none of this is new – they were beating each other with canes over a hundred years ago in Congress. I’m grateful to hurricane Sandy for pressing a pause button (albeit short lived) to the campaigning.

Of my favorite of Shakespeare's passages is from Act III, Scene 2 of King Lear where the monarch rants against a brutal storm:

"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!"

After 20 or so robo-calls in an evening and television spots that belie credibility, I can empathize with Lear’s rage.

If you can, send the Red Cross a couple of bucks to help those displaced by Sandy – and be sure to vote.



Edwards' image reported in the public domain and available here:   Edwards
Lear's image reported to be in the public domain and available here:  Lear