{"id":2712,"date":"2021-02-17T13:08:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T13:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/02\/17\/ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-dust\/"},"modified":"2021-02-17T13:08:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T13:08:54","slug":"ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/02\/17\/ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes to Ashes; Dust to Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

"Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris.<\/em> This warning, from the Catholic liturgy for Ash Wednesday, is based on Genesis <\/em>3, 19: In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

How real can we and this world be if in a little while we all will be nothing but dust and ashes?<\/span><\/p>\n

Genesis<\/em> 3, 19 is true whether or not God exists and whether or not man is spirit.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vanitas2\"<\/a>The typical secularist is a reality denier who hides from the unalterable facts of death and impermanence.  This is shown by his self-deceptive behavior: he lives as if he will live forever and as if his projects are meaningful even though he knows that he won't and that they aren't.  If he were to face reality he would have to be a nihilist.  That he isn't shows that he is fooling himself.  If our secularist is a leftist utopian, then he pins his hopes on developments no reasonable person could believe in, and that he won't be around to enjoy in any case.  His erasure of the historical record allows him to persist in his self-deception. The Left is at war with memory and its lessons.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I will be coming back to this theme in connection with Ryszard Legutko, The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies<\/em> (Encounter Books, 2018). A quotation to tantalize: "Communism, as a system that started history anew, had to be, in essence, and in practice, against memory." (9)  We saw that play out in our cities last summer, as the Left stood idly by, and in many instances encouraged, the destruction of statues and other monuments for reasons that are no reasons at all but nihilistic ventings from the pit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our plesance here is all vain glory,<\/span>
This fals world is but transitory,<\/span>
The flesche is brukle, the Feynd is slee;<\/span>
Timor mortis conturbat me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

No stait in Erd here standis sicker;<\/span>
As with the wynd wavis the wicker,<\/span>
Wavis this wardlis vanitie;<\/span>
Timor mortis conturbat me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

(William Dunbar c. 1460 — c. 1520, from "Lament for the Makers.")<\/span><\/p>\n

Here lie I by the chancel door;<\/span>
They put me here because I was poor.<\/span>
The further in, the more you pay,<\/span>
But here lie I as snug as they.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Devon tombstone.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Here lies Piron, a complete nullibiety,<\/span>
Not even a Fellow of a Learned Society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alexis Piron, 1689-1773, "My Epitaph"<\/span><\/p>\n

Why hoard your maidenhead? There'll not be found<\/span>
A lad to love you, girl, under the ground.<\/span>
Love's joys are for the quick; but when we're dead<\/span>
It's dust and ashes, girl, will go to bed.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Asclepiades, fl. 290 B.C., tr. R. A. Furness)<\/span><\/p>\n

The world, perhaps, does not see that those who rightly engage in<\/span>
philosophy study only death and dying. And, if this be true, it<\/span>
would surely be strange for a man all through his life to desire<\/span>
only death, and then, when death comes to him, to be vexed at it,<\/span>
when it has been his study and his desire for so long.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plato, Phaedo<\/em>, St. 64, tr. F. J. Church<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. This warning, from the Catholic liturgy for Ash Wednesday, is based on Genesis 3, 19: In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. How real can we … Continue reading “Ashes to Ashes; Dust to Dust”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184,75,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-and-immortality","category-impermanence","category-time-and-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}