Public humiliation is something no one would wish upon themselves. Private humiliation can be funny, even though embarassing, but the more eyes are present in the humiliating process, the more awkward the situation gets. The person who is being humiliated feels the worse, naturally, but what about the by-standers, the silent watchers, the stimulators and the humiliator himself? A situation with this group of people can be related to larger events, such as the death of Christ, or to small, more casual events like bullying at the school playground. The different persons are always present no matter what the situation is. The process of humiliation needs more than just the two to tango, it needs a group to riverdance and an audience to watch.
Imagine that you have supported a group of people close to you something they really have craved for. In a group of youth, you're the only one who can bring cigarettes to the other minors or the only man in a nation who can get his people the daily supplies they need in order to survive. You support the others with what you can harvest and you run into a situation where you have to break the law harshly in order to get what you need, what the others need. You trick the officials and are free for a while, until the day they catch you. This is where the humiliation process will begin.
Prometheus was a clever man in the times of the antique Greek. Unfortunately for him, he was an audacious man as well. Regarding the late sacrificial offerings to Olympian gods, Prometheus provided Zeus with a selection between beef hidden inside an ox's stomach (something goodt hidden inside something not-so-pleasant), and the bull's bones wrapped completely in "glistening fat" (something inedible hidden inside something pleasant). Zeus demonstrated the meaning of greediness and chose the latter and men could, from that moment on, keep the meat to themselves and sacrifice only the bones of the animals to the gods. Naturally, Zeus was pretty pissed off. He'd been tricked by a mortal being, so he went on and had his revenge on mankind by removing fire from them. Prometheous decided to prove his improvidence again and stole the fire back from Zeus by tricking him again. Zeus, the old fool, got screwed double-time by a mortal and raised the stakes.
Prometheus was bound to a stone. An eagle would descend upon him for all eternity and eat his liver. His liver would regenerate every day and the eagle would eat it again, and again, and again.. A terrible fate for a man who had to balance between the walls of morality.
The story doesn't tell whether there were people watching Prometheus suffer every day but there's no doubt about that. People are such wrong creatures that they're attracted to the situations where they can watch someone else suffer, as long as it's not a person they know or themselves. Whether it's the crucification of Jesus, public executions of the Middle Ages, grave-looking men walking down the Green Mile to Ol' Sparky to face their electrical death or the cool kid pushing the nerd around in the school yard, there will always be people watching it happen. They will not do anything to stop it, nor will they do anything to provoke the situation more. They just watch in silence. What goes around in the heads of these people? Do they know what they're doing and what they could be doing? I have no idea. I can't recognize myself from this group. Could be because I've never been in that group or could be that I just can't consciously tell whether I've been a part of the silent watchers.
All I know is that I have had my liver eaten, piece by piece, day by day.
.swimming in black waters.
No comments:
Post a Comment