Gog and Magog: American Dilemma
By Paul Edwards
In the arcane mythos of Medieval Christianity,
Gog and Magog were monstrous, demonic allies of
Satan, striving with him to see mankind damned to
perdition and eternal punishment in Hell.
Religious mythology, from the Greeks on down, has
been utilized to provide easily interpreted moral
imperatives for the guidance of vulnerable,
credulous humans. Gog and Magog embodied the power
of evil, as symbols of all that was corrupt,
perverse, and destructive in human nature, and were
dreaded as such.
Americans are short on mythology now, except for the
sleazy, dirty joke of Exceptionalist bullshit, but
the Gog/Magog model will serve well in describing
one aspect of the waning days of this despicable,
moribund empire: its governing political parties.
The Party of Gog is less a party than an
agglomeration of the bitterly resentful. It’s the
Big Tent of the furiously pissed off, an attribute
common to all its devotees. Their sources of
resentment are many, the causes are various, but a
raging fury bonds them.
They’re a mix of economic and social classes, a
broad range of education levels, predominantly white
but not exclusively, sexist male in presentation but
with an amazing number of white female adherents. In
their rage, they embrace a range of what civil
society deems odious, primitive prejudices, and they
flaunt them openly with prideful hostility. It is
clear that they have had to stifle their views for
far too long, waiting for their time to shine.
At its top financially are the maverick billionaires
who resent government impeding unfettered,
unrestrained acquisition of wealth, who believe
society should exist to enable unlimited privilege.
Under them are many very wealthy of the Ayn Rand
school, all reciting the mantra that government is
the enemy. These upper echelons harbor deep
animosity for the system in which they have done so
well because they have not done better.
Under this favored few, there is a great mass who
feel they’ve been denied what they deserve. Small
business men, ranchers, professionals, commercial,
industrial, or manufacturing workers who have lost
jobs or been replaced, they form a vast army with
minimum-wagers/part timers struggling desperately to
survive, and a mass of hillbillies and hicks with
slim or no prospects.
The prejudices the wealthiest trumpet loudest are
against all Democratic government or Social Welfare
for the poor, sick, old, and disadvantaged, which is
to say against society itself. This is hidden from
the lower orders who are better off not knowing.
The lower groups—with some spillover from the
wealthy—have simpler, more visceral biases. While
the super wealthy have to conceal their contempt for
their working class confreres, lower income groups
feel no need to hide their gross, vulgar hatreds.
These include, but are not limited to, race hate,
misogyny, and xenophobia, detestation of education,
intellect, science, history, humanism, evolution,
paleontology, and environmentalism. They vigorously
support religious and cultural hate, brutal
exploitation of nature and other nations, all
weapons—personal and of war— war-making in general,
violence as mediation, crudity, cruelty, a rabid
un-Christian Christianity, and killing wild animals
for fun.
The Party of Magog differs radically in membership
and core tenets, but not in the dogged loyalty of
its faithful. Their chief characteristic is a
passion to feel morally righteous, and a
mind-boggling credulity for virtuous pronouncements.
This party functions on the imperial model with a
slender elite controlling a mass of subjects. The
guiding principle of its rulers is that people must
be deceived, betrayed and cheated but constantly
reassured of the Party’s integrity and good
intentions. It claims other virtues but they are
negligible and negotiable. Its only true aim is
survival, power, control, and continuity of imperial
policy.
Accordingly, its top financiers are from the
dominant lords of the Billionaire Class, the
Establishment, the anointed nobility of the Deep
State, whose money is older than they are. Beneath
the Barons of Finance, is a large section of
millionaires of louchely liberal persuasion, whose
tiny, acid hearts belong to The Empire.
Under this vast wealth, a huge, varied segment of
our tattered, battered middle class forms the bulk
of membership. These folks are ready—no, eager—to
affirm whatever the politburo asserts, and ever
poised to adopt the designated Enemy of the Moment.
Education and status in this set runs down from the
high octane professionals and academics, to legions
of diplomates and the moderately educated, to high
school grads in crappy jobs, and a multi-racial mass
pursuing the non-existent American Dream.
The animating principle of the Party, beyond their
own privilege, is to steal as much money as possible
for the massive banks, corporations, and insiders of
the American War Machine. Since Gogs and Magogs both
worship Mars, they are united on looting the
treasury for the War Machine of all the money that
could be used for public good. Unity makes their
work simple. Gogs boast it; Magogs bullshit about
it. Both ignore its devastating effects on the
American people that neither represents.
This then is American politics, 2021. Well, fine,
you say, but what has any of it to do with medieval
mythology? I’d offer this. Since even phony
Christians no longer buy or obey the lunatic dogma
of Christianity, and we have no effective catalog of
holy nonsense to scare us, we must make do with
political monsters. Is there any doubt now that our
political parties have replaced the ancient
horrors in their satanic determination to effect our
destruction?
Gog and Magog live!
Paul Edwards is
a writer and film-maker in Montana. He can be
reached at: hgmnude@bresnan.net
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