Freethinkers
Prometheus, Lucifer, Trump and Milei
freethinker: a person who thinks freely or independently : one who forms opinions on the basis of reason independently of authority especially: one who rejects or is skeptical of religious dogma
Freethinkers will set you free. They’ve been doing it for thousands of years. In the world of mythology, the two characters that illustrate this, are Prometheus, and Lucifer.
Yes, Lucifer.
Dogmatic Christians reading this, are getting antsy about now. To them, Lucifer is evil. And Adam and Eve are real people. Not a myth. Nonetheless, the name, Lucifer, means bringer of light. I say he brings self awareness to two children who are neglected by their father.
Well, Eve is neglected. Yahweh takes Adam on walkabouts to name things, like animals.
Prometheus brings fire, and light, to humanity. Both characters are punished for making decisions, on their own, about human beings. Zeus forbade fire and Yahweh forbade the eating of certain fruits. Both, the giving of the fire, and the eating of the forbidden, means revolution.
With fire, one gets light, and when one gets light, one can see what’s in front of their face. In the Promethean myth, Zeus wants humanity as slaves for the gods. What exactly Yahweh has in mind, is on the murky side. But that is a story for another session at the old history desk. Today we are interested in these gods, or angels, whatever label you stick on them, because they are freethinkers. However, not only do they think their own thoughts, they take action as well. And for their actions, they are punished.
Freethinkers are free to think, as long as they don’t tell anyone their thoughts, or act on them. Freethinkers aren’t always right about their solutions.
Prometheus is in Zeus’ face about the god’s treatment of humans. Prometheus is the honest man. He tells you what he thinks, and what he will do about it. Zeus said no to fire, so Prometheus had to steal it. He then calls in Athena, who gives humanity a rational brain. Uh-oh. The gods are in trouble now. So Zeus says to humanity, “Back at ya, guys!” He gives them women, because he has created only men. That’s the Pandora’s jar story.
So what is Zeus thinking, that men couldn’t get into trouble all by themselves? That living in the dark is some sort of reward, and women are a punishment? Zeus has Prometheus arrested for thinking men would want joy, sex, a reason to create new tools, and a future, which children bring. Zeus order the Titan to be handcuffed to that cliff, where an eagle arrives, everyday, to eat the god’s liver. At night, Prometheus would grow a new liver, so the eating by the eagle begins again. How long did this last? Until one of Zeus’ sons rescued Prometheus. His name? Herkales.
As for Lucifer, there is no evidence that he is the snake, in Eden. His name doesn’t crop up until much, much later in the Bible (Isiah). Satan is another name that has a surprising meaning, which is adversary or accuser. In the verb form, it means obstructing or opposing. So he opposes the creation of humans. The Qur’an tells us so. Ibis thinks for himself, and begins a revolution, that doesn’t end well for him. Indeed, to hear the story, the Islamic version of the creation of Adam, go here.
Yes, freethinkers are given much grief. Because freethinkers think differently from the crowd. They are the opposite of the conformist, or the, go along to get along, crowd.
Let’s get back to Eden. It is the woman, Eve, who decides to break the law, and eat the fruit. The Snake guy only encouraged her to do what she wanted to do. He also lied to her, well, guys will do that to women. However, is Eve is a fully grown woman, or is she a child in a woman’s body? Just how experienced in life is she? And, is she the freethinker?
The guy, Adam, decides to join her in that disobedience. We could have an entire argument about why Adam didn’t step up and take the blame for his woman. We would consider that the manly thing to do. However, as my brother would say, “Men are weak.” On the other hand, the feminists would agree, that as an equal partner in the Eden enterprise, Eve has to take responsibility for her act of eating that first apple.
Why does the apple always get the blame? It is an easy fruit to pick right off the tree and bite into. One would have to peal an orange, an avocado or a mango. A peach is too juicy, meaning, it would leave evidence down a naked chest. So the apple it is, a firm fruit with juice that sprays out, and is easily hidden on the body. A forensic team would have to be called in to prove an apple had been eaten. Forensics can also point out that the snake is a harmless Garter snake. True, snakes do hide. This story of Eden gives us that reference about a, “…snake in the grass,” which means an entity with hidden motives. It also serves as a story on why we fear snakes.
Were all snakes, in the beginning, Garter snakes? That is, non poisonous? Garter snakes are a good snake to have in one’s garden, since they eat garden pests, like snails, grasshoppers and mice. Indeed, during a winter in New Jersey, I thought of getting a Garter snake for inside my house, since I had a rather bad infestation of mice. I got a cuddly cat instead. But I digress.
Snake in the grass, refers to manipulative people who lie. Indeed, the entire story is about lying and liars. So humanity’s kick off is about lies, as well as being honest.
Adam does tell the truth, when he points to Eve, and admits she gave him the apple. But therein lies another human foible: passing the buck. In this case, the snake ends up with all the blame for starting this thing, called sin. But he never forces either human to eat that apple.
No one forces you to sin, unless they hold a gun to your head.
Whilst we are looking at words, let’s take a peek at the word, sin. What is it? An immoral act, against divine law or humanity’s laws. Except that what we know about divine law is humanity’s laws as well. A lie is a lie, and stealing is stealing. Therefore, The Snake lies, Eve eats, Adam passes the buck after his own decision to try the fruit.
Adam is a child in a man’s body. He does not have the inner wherewithal to stand up to his dad, and say, “Yes, I decided to try that fruit out for myself, to see if I would drop dead.”
Adam and Eve are easily forgiven. Methinks their dad might be a child in a god’s body.
Damn freethinkers! Who are they to think for themselves? Freethinkers are, as Javier Milei put it, choosing to be a lion instead of a sheep. Which is to say, they prefer to grow up, to walk away from the dog nipping at their heels, to live their own life.
The decision here is to be the hunter, not the hunted.
That is what freethinking is. To feel free to question authority. Whatever authority one comes up against: government, religion, educational institutions.
Our present day life is built on the backs of freethinkers: from Socrates to Jesus to Jordan Petersen, from Hatshepsut to Hypatia to Camille Paglia, from those neolithic toolmakers and weavers, to Henry Ford and on to Steve Jobs, none of these people could be stopped, except by death. Two of those innovators, Jesus and Hypatia, are murdered for telling the people, saying it out loud, what they are thinking.
Trump, so far, has not been murdered. But he is persecuted. He is chained to a cliff and that eagle, a symbol of the United States, eats away his liver every damn day. However, like Zeus persecuting Prometheus, Trump’s enemies fail to see the inevitable blowback: that a cruel god will lose its substance, and be replaced.
Where is the Herakles that will untie Trump from the cliff’s edge? Will he be from the conformists or the nonconformists?
Truth is, there are more conformists than not. Spinoza was one who understood this only too well. This is from Adam Kirsch’s New Yorker article on Feb. 5th, 2024.
“As a freethinker who had run afoul of both Judaism and Christianity, Spinoza knew that bigotry and fanaticism weren’t just imposed on the people; they were also imposed by the people.”
Think of the people that de-platform, and cancel and politicize the DOJ, and you get the picture. Freethinkers frighten the power structure. And any conformist out there.
Anyone that will say no to the old, worn out ways, or propose a new idea, to the current power structure, and their followers, is playing a risky game. And they may be punished for their trouble. Like Trump, who says words others are afraid to say out loud. Or Milei , who takes the tiger by the tail by telling the truth about Argentina. The conformists hate them both.
The eternal fight of good against evil is the fight about truth versus the lies. The people who would live as lions and not sheep, must hold up the light to see that the emperor has no clothes. Like that little boy, it is time to point it out that the world is full of the naked who are not self aware. Dogma, whether taught by priests or politicians, holds many lies that rub up against the truth.
I prefer the way Milei tells it: “I did not come here to guide lambs, I came here to awaken the lions.”
A fat elephant may think his size will keep him safe, but a pride of lions, working together, can make him their lunch.
The pride can easily take down a braying jackass as well.
Freethinking isn’t for everyone. As Hercule Poirot would say, one has to engage those little gray cells to see things as they really are. As the song says, “I can see clearly now…” is the non conformist’s favorite lyrics.