{"id":2457,"date":"2020-12-16T07:05:17","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T07:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=139804"},"modified":"2020-12-16T07:05:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T07:05:17","slug":"from-cult-to-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/16\/from-cult-to-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"From Cult to Culture\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
From Cult to Culture <\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, there are many to choose from<\/p>\n Few, though, have the answer of those two things United in Jesus? Her feet, crushing a serpent! But why Don\u2019tcha know? The Ophites \u2014 Letting it drink from her cup<\/p>\n Pourquoi? Well, first of all:<\/p>\n The nomeus<\/p>\n Just, look at those shepherds!<\/p>\n The pharaohs<\/p>\n And Zeus, Agamemnon (Though he\u2019s a special case)<\/p>\n The pharaoh\u2019s a shepherd \u2014 the flail!<\/p>\n The crook of the Fates Who raised the dead \u2014<\/p>\n The true exception<\/p>\n to the Nomos Cuts.<\/p>\n What an odd coincidence! For, as for that tree, all kabbalists agree, in our courts,<\/p>\n In that maxim<\/p>\n Salus populi\u2026 Not health, perhaps,<\/p>\n but health\u2019s preconditions (food, housing<\/p>\n Water that\u2019s clean) And homes aren\u2019t safe Must be replaced Police violence \u2014 that term is redundant Ravaging the globe The angel of history\u2019s wings close<\/p>\n And allow to land and heal, make whole The storm that blows from paradise Relax, do no harm
To the question (for one)<\/p>\n
In the center of the garden
Life and knowledge \u2014 or dogma
Indeed, which means the two trees
Are Physis<\/em> and Nomos<\/em>
Nature and convention, or law
Nature as growth and change
Or rigid rules
The letter of law, or the spirit
The physis, of course, takes the form
Of the physician
The other tree, the Nomos,
takes the form of
What comes from the Nomos:
The nomeus, the shepherd
Shepherd and healer<\/p>\n
But look at that statue of Mary
Down the street. In front of the church
Of the transfiguration
Now that the leaves
On those trees have all dried and fallen
Like tongues you can see her bare ankles<\/p>\n
Mary, o! That serpent is Jesus himself<\/p>\n
At least say those Gnostics,<\/p>\n
The fact of the matter\u2019s that Mary
Should be Ariadne, concerning the snake
Or Hygieia, better yet,<\/p>\n
And David, Muhammad, and Moses<\/p>\n
The church as well, the pastorate
Demands obedience
Exploits all those sheep
Providing security, yes \u2014 se cura,
The absence of care
But who cares?
Says the fascist \u2014 sfacim!
Tying all those shepherds\u2019 crooks
Into bundles, your fasces
No, nomeus stands at the root
Of the four-fold mega-crisis
(Ecocide, state violence, pandemic\u2026)
And negation of the Nomos is Physis
The physician,
Son of a god, restorer of sight
To the blind, who raised the dead
(Hippolytus), and was killed
For shattering the order for
Zeus himself can\u2019t alter the decisions<\/p>\n
Until, my friend, Asclepius<\/p>\n
and recall: the Fates are three:
Clotho spins the thread of life,
The legislature, spinning measures
Which Lachesis measures
And Atropos, as the decider, the executive,<\/p>\n
The three that are one, the law
But not, alas, the true law, the healer
Physis\/Tree of life<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the true law
Moreover, Asclepius\u2019 daughter, Hygieia,
A healer as well
Called Salus by the Romans
Arrives like a jinn in our books of law,<\/p>\n
The public health (should be supreme)
And this, in fact, does function
As a legal exception \u2014 nullifies law
Now isn\u2019t that strange?
And where health is impeded
Not present<\/p>\n
Where air is polluted,<\/p>\n
That true law\u2019s in breach
A duty arises to fix the conditions
Of disease \u2014 these<\/p>\n
With conditions of health
Clean water, and rest
Provide all this. Forgive all debts.
Conditions of health, not prisons<\/p>\n
Whoever impedes the conditions of ease
Is in breach of the duty
To stop the cataclysmic storm
The bulldozers of progress
Said Wild Bill Douglas, in his dissent<\/a><\/p>\n
The storm that won\u2019t let<\/p>\n
What\u2019s been destroyed<\/p>\n
As Benjamin says,
From those two trees,
And what can stop its crushing wind?
The emergency brake
The maxim again
Can shut the engines
Allowing the angel to land
And build the conditions of health
Of ease, of peace,
Allowing the planet to heal itself
Yup, that\u2019s the cult<\/p>\n
It\u2019s free, no fee, to join
Just print this and recite it
From a loading dock some time
If you\u2019re up to the task
And wear a mask
Whether or not you\u2019re shy<\/p>\n\n