Friday, May 4, 2012

Get Him to the Greek

The Greek stuff always gets 'em in the end, writes J.R. Dunn:
As the Greeks saw it, "nemesis" was an abstract force (personified by the goddess of divine justice of the same name) aimed directly at the destruction of a single individual. It is nemesis that brings down the heroes of the tragedies. A force that builds up over years, inescapable, inevitable, and in large part created by the hero's own actions. Nemesis is very much the Western equivalent of karma. It is a form of divine payback, which, we are told, is a bitch. 
Nemesis is what is taking down Barack Obama... 
Nobody acts with the arrogance of an Obama without paying for it. In the ancient dramas, it was called hubris. (A lot of debate exists as to how that word was actually pronounced, there being no "u" sound in ancient Greek. Some say it's an "ee" sound; some say a "y.") The hero apes the gods; begins to view himself as more than human, beyond the laws that prevail even on Olympus; and the machinery of fate starts grinding. And once that machinery goes into motion, it doesn't stop until its victim has been reduced to dust.
Nemesis is a beeyotch, eh, Barry?

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