On Morality and Moralism, Or, Did We Learn Anything from Christmas?
William Blake has this brilliant observation in The Everlasting Gospel. He differentiates Christ of his vision from Christ of Philistines: "Thine is the Friend of all Mankind, Mine speaks in parables to the blind."
This division is fundamental, and Christ interaction with Maria and Martha underscores it. Martha is running around, taking care of "mankind," while Mary does nothing sitting by Christ's feet. Martha rebukes Mary, yet, Christ takes Mary's side: “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Of course, Blake knew what he was talking about. He clearly witnesses the actual hijacking of morality, i.e. complex paradoxical interaction with the world, by moralism, simplistic serving of abstract mankind, according to the latest prescriptions of public opinion.
The whole complex system of morality, which involves love, self-scrutiny, striving for ideal, self-corrections and other torturous loops, has been reduced to taking the side of underdog and helping him. But who is the underdog? Do we really know?
Obviously, underdog is the one that moralizing majority, and its bullhorns in media, also known as ChatGPT wannabees, declare as such. Morality had been reduced to the Victimhood Olympics, where the help, support, and attention go to the victim of the day.
What for Huck Finn was a moral paradox, his desire to help the runaway slave, had become simplistic and spasmodic reaction, which does not manifest itself in true help, mind you, the help that Huck Finn provided knowing that he is going to hell for doing it, but in politically correct speech and Wokism.
Wokism is the modern version of Martha, modern version of "being the friend of all mankind," meaning of the designated victims. And God forbid you become a friend of all those rejected by PC dogmas.
It is this American moralism, this PC juggernaut, which is now marching on the planet, substituting the complex moral choices with the primitive taxonomies: whites are victimizers and therefore not humans, as opposed to their victims. Same applies to all sorts of social groups, nations, or cultures.
Albanians, Croats, or Bosniacs were declared victims, and bombing Serbs had become a moral act. Ukrainians -- the most privileged ethnic group of Soviet Union -- declared victims by the descendants of Polish and Ukrainian refugees in Canada - and lo and behold -- NATO is at war with Russia.
The list can go on, since moralism had totally vanquished morality, and continues to run roughshod over world cultures. There are occasional complaints coming from true religious leaders, but they are habitually ignored, because you know, religions are the instrument of oppression and victimization.
So yes, philistines of Blake seem to have an upper hand. They are running around imagining themselves as the friends of all mankind. The latest manifestation of it, was Greta, for example, whom her manipulative and moralizing parents wanted to turn into Johanna d'arc of her age. Except Johanna was a complex and tortured visionary, hated by the establishment of her day, while Greta is embraced by the moralizing majority and is flown around in Teslas.
Needless to say, Ancient Rome, Royal France, Tsarist Russia, Brezhnev's Soviet Union -- all witnessed the temporary triumph of provincial moralizing, which camouflaged their societies' total moral corruption. American Wokism -- exceptional as it pretends to be - is not avoiding what had been obvious to anyone who like Mary, "knows what is better," and is not worried about many things, particularly those, approved by the moralizing establishment.
