The Hamartia of decadence

Certain ideas stand out in my education in what were normally quite prosaic, uninspired classrooms. One of those ideas was the “hamartia”, or fatal flaw, of Greek Tragedy.  The concept was you take a hero, you take someone who is brave and otherwise decent, but some small chink in the armor, through which disaster flows.

Normally it is “hubris”, or excessive pride.  What I would submit it is for our culture is complacency.  This is a very non-heroic flaw, but we live in a non-heroic age (I would of course exclude from that our very brave, very self sacrificing armed forces: but as a culture how much do we REALLY value or even understand what their struggles entailed?  I think most people would be shocked to learn how hard even average jobs are out in the field).

I remember reading some time ago Nietzche’s “Das Geburt der Tragoedie” (I may have just screwed that up) in German, which made me feel like finding someone to feel superior to, even though I was a vain and silly human being who likely misunderstood half the German , and three fourths of the ideas.

Two things, only, stand out now all these years later: the opposition of the Dionysian and Apollonian, and his sense that tragedy is morally superior to comedy.

Now, “laughter is the best medicine”, and one cannot understand Shakespeare without factoring in his comedies too.  Comedies and tragedies happened at the same time in ancient Athens (I believe: this is not a period I am particularly versed in).

But I would submit the following: the essence of tragedy is the notion that THINGS FALL APART.  What was whole can be broken.  What was happy can be made grief stricken.  Deny this at your own peril.

Now, we have many, many movies in which things fall apart.  We have the zombie apocalypses.  We have Horror movies.  There is a series on now about the world some years after the energy grid fails.

But what do we SHARE as a culture, which makes us truly more responsible as human beings, which instills within us an ACTIONABLE fear of chaos?  Given the sheer volume of movies out there, some could no doubt qualify, but are we not fragmented by what we choose as isolated individuals to put in our magic light boxes?

I was dreaming last night of Will Ferrell putting on a show, assuming endless different characters, moving all over, creating quite a show.  It was an extended distraction.  I have no dislike of Ferrell–and will admit to having Anchorman on my shelf–but I think he as well as anyone symbolizes the deep silliness and irresponsibility of our culture as it exists today.