PostModernity: A Perpetual State of Modernity

(Philosophical)

What I am presenting here is my oversimplified Theory of Postmodernism and Modernity.

Postmodernism, a terminology that requires no introduction for my present discourse, is a philosophical movement that has rooted itself deeply into every spectrum of academic discipline from which it has transformed the actions and beliefs within institutions of power from governments to corporations around the globe. Postmodernity—is the argued period in which we live within a postmodern society versus that of Modernity (1500-?). I join Jacques Barzun’s timeframe found within his book, From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present (500 Years of Western Cultural Life). The Protestant Reformation changed the nature of power forever. Humanism and Protestantism shared a three-legged pedestal as Catholicism ruptured underneath the cataclysmic abrasion that has been festering decades prior to the Reformation. Modernity gains its preeminence from the idea that mankind with the use of science, reason, and technology can be improved at a nearly limitless potential. A product of thought that the Enlightenment took forth as their lamp for the future. While Luther, Calvin, Knox, and Zwingli believed that human nature was corrupt under the weight of sin that only Jesus Christ can redeem, it was their revolution that transferred the role of interpretation and potential over to the common. For good and for bad this set into motion our present state of late modernity—a perpetual state.

Perpetual State Theory

Simply put, I am arguing that postmodernism is a reflection of reality, not the actual source but a still water or a mirror that is reflecting the present state of the human mind. Modernity has not ceased to exist. Modernity has successfully entered into a warp state, a state of the hyper-real; hyper-individual; and hyper-sensitive. Postmodernism is the warp state of modernity. Modernity is a product of its own success which solidified four core essential elements of existence into the modern psyche: 1) Secularism; 2) Liberalism; 3) Socialism; and 4) Capitalism.

Out of this cycle, modernity was able to produce an unreal state of human existence outside the last five-thousand plus years of human civilization in only a short span of time. Capitalism slowly removed the old walls of government control and sustenance into a market state. Liberalism prides itself on the might of the individual. Socialism was and remains a reaction to both as it calls for community and regulation outside of a total free-market state. Lastly, secularism alone is not new, however, it gained popularity as cultures shifted from industry to post-industry and decadence. Science and technology play central roles in all four elements of modernity. Lastly, religion remains, almost as an antagonist, yet also a tool in the modern utilisation of puissance. Social justice, Critical Race Theories, Feminist movements, Gender studies are all examples of this layering of the Self as the quintessence of time and fortune.

Anti-liberty entities whether under the names of Fascism, Communism, Socialism, Maoism, or Totalitarianism; it changes nothing in that the present reality stands between two polars, a state of liberty or tyranny, liberalism or illiberalism. Social attitudes are now forced to conform under a perpetual state of flux. Late modernity has birthed neoliberalism, a merger between capitalism and liberalism, that can also include another ism—Corporatism.

Corporations are the High Churches of Modernity; the Cathedrals of yea or nay. Under a neoliberal market state the general public has great difficulty in explaining differences between private or public, real or fake, good or evil. Everything runs together into a stream of confusion at a speed that no single person can maintain without a collision, a collision of ideas and values and beliefs. This is now constantly happening as society is confronted with insurmountable conflicting differences; a wrecking of contradictions.

In a Secular Hyper-state, the only apparent resolution is a totalitarian reaction. Modernity cannot principally escape itself. There is nothing beyond Modernity except Pre-modernity. If liberalism and capitalism represent freedom then all other opposition is bound to represent oppression. Now that is not an absolute statement. There are “third-way” examples of communitarianism or another alternative of Theonomy that argue a way out of the cycle but truthfully they all fall prey to the dilemma of rights of the individual, liberty for all, and freedom without restraints (again not an absolute statement).

So what we are left with, I am arguing, is a discourse of conflicts: nature versus mankind; eat vegan or you are a horrible person; give up your religion; don’t tell me what to do; join the movement; hate speech… it all blends into an in-cohesive state, the perpetual state.

Principles Over Politics: Integrity

(Special Series)

(Part 5: Final)

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. – Proverbs 10:9

The truth is, wrote Kent Hughes, “American culture is in big trouble. The colossal slide of integrity (especially masculine ethics) has grim spiritual, domestic, and political implications which threaten the survival of life as we know it” (Hughes 2001, p. 125, Discipline of a Godly Man). Integrity is an issue of structure, a consistency that holds the entire weight of the framework or the system or the person in question. Corruption is not integral. Lying and cheating are not integral. Threats, injustice, harm, and murder are not integral. All are corrosive elements to the whole of nature. Inwardly Christians acknowledge original sin—that inner corrupted nature which the Enlightenment set out to deny. However, Christ is the Soul Changer. And under true conviction we do not ignore the faulty broken nature, our purest impure identity as humans. Rather we embrace the healer that condemned the sin that dooms us all. We seek to rise to each occasion though flawed. None are flawless. Integrity is always battling erosion. Maintaining institutions and ourselves are paramount practices to keep falsity and brokenness at bay. To walk securely means to bind one self to ideals outside the self and toward God and surrounding ourselves with people of integrity. Nothing lasts forever but we can build lasting impressions into the imprint of time. Preserving life by preventing evil. Speaking against divorce and sexual immorality. Helping the poor. Creating equal opportunity especially for the downtrodden. Standing up as truth-sayers when our own lie, cheat, steal, and abuse others. In the end, our actions will be judged along with our faith. The Gospel must always come first. Yet we can never ignore the least amongst us. Stand TALL. Stand for TRUTH. Build on the rock, not the sand.

Truth eternal, wise Creator, Fallen man’s illuminator! Light of reason, hope, ambition, Fire of love and true contrition… – W.S. Vale 1935, Cowley (Hymn)

Principles Over Politics: Moral Courage

(Special Series)

(Part 4)

Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished” (1 Chronicles 28:20).

Aristotles’ mean for courage was between fear and recklessness. American author Henry van Dyke argued that there was a “sharp distinction between courage and recklessness” (Dyke, Courage Is the Standing Army of the Soul). Ignorance versus intelligence, according to Dyke, is that fine distinction that thrusts the drunkard into battle or equips the well-trained, studious solider who knows all that awaits them. Courage can come in several forms as well. Physical courage and intellectual courage both demand a surrendering of safety and peace. Leroy E. Mosher observed it was “easier to drift with the current than to oppose it” (Mosher, The Courage of His Convictions). While all of these are true statements, the highest form of truth manifests itself from the Christian pursuit of God as A.W. Tozer informed his readers that, “Our pursuit of God is successful just because He is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us” (Tozer 2006, p. 71, The Pursuit of God). Modern academia tells its students to cite their sources. Christians must acknowledge their source by which the God of David and Solomon gain their strength of moral courage.

Courage is the opposite of fear and no one can be courageous unless he first has fear. A courageous person acts despite being afraid; there is nothing special about doing that which he does not fear. Stimulating courage in one another is therefore a vital ministry. – R.C. Sproul

Fear and Courage

Principles Over Politics: Fidelity

(Special Series)

(Part 3)

[T]here are moral as well as practical consequences to intertemporal commitments. Gratitude, as well as loyalty and patriotism, for example, are all essentially commitments to behave differently in the future, toward individuals or societies, than one would behave on an impartial assessment of circumstances as they might exist at some future time, if those individuals and societies were encountered for the first time – Thomas Sowell

A Conflict of Visions

Fidelity is commitment; a place of assurance; bindings of loyalty; and a practice of faithfulness to a spouse, a friend, a job, or to God. It is the absolute expectation of those who profess, an oath, to their wives and husbands; God and Church; community and county; and resolute to helping their fellow man. Fidelity is the bonding of the soul to something greater than yourself.

What you have inherited from your forefathers, earn it, that you might own it. – Sir Roger Scruton

England and the Need for Nations

Principles Over Politics: Industry

(Special Series)

(Part 2)

A rich old farmer, who felt that he had not many more days to live, called his sons to his bedside.

“My sons,” he said, “heed what I have to say to you. Do not on any account part with the estate that has belonged to our family for so many generations. Somewhere on it is hidden a rich treasure. I do not know the exact spot, but it is there, and you will surely find it. Spare no energy and leave no spot unturned in your search.”

The father died, and no sooner was he in his grave than the sons set to work digging with all their might, turning up every foot of ground with their spades, and going over the whole farm two or three times.

No hidden gold did they find; but at harvest time when they had settled their accounts and had pocketed a rich profit far greater than that of any of their neighbors, they understood that the treasure their father had told them about was the wealth of a bountiful crop, and that in their industry had they found the treasure.

Industry is itself a treasure.

The Farmer And His Sons, Aseop Fable

Industriousness isn’t merely hard-work, it is proactive and driven with a purpose beyond greed, lust, and revenge. True work leaves eternal value for friends, family, church, and the community at large. Ken Harrison, chairmen of Promise Keepers, tells us that real men see the needs and seek to accomplish them, “He doesn’t look around for someone else to accomplish the task. He doesn’t make excuses. He doesn’t complain, slander, or gossip. He chooses to make a difference where he is” (Harrison 2019, p. 116, Rise of the Servant Kings). Whether manhood or womanhood, single or a family, young or old we are called to be a people who work for the good, the true, and the beautiful. Enterprise, merit, honesty, and empathy are positive externalities from industry derived from a people whose actions carry forth goodness and faithfulness rooted in Jesus Christ and Scripture. True Conservatives accept that their stances may be refuted and even result in death, but set on being industriousness because of its lasting benefits.

After all the very highest and most fundamental work of good citizenship is to leave the next generation in right shape… – Theodore Roosevelt

Principles Over Politics: Virtuous Individualism

(Special Series)

(Part 1)

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10: 29-37).

Hyper-individuality has spread infectiously throughout the world producing a toxic malaise over the minds, hearts, and souls of mankind. In reaction to it a dangerous collective desire of Identity and Identity Politics now stands to shatter any real sense of the individual beyond the group.

The term hyper-individualism can be described as a state of an individual acting in such a way that completely disregards the community. An attitude that carries over into the belief that an individuals identity of race, gender, sex, or personal background is the end all, be all position. Nothing another person has to say or do matters beyond the self. This attitude follows into their daily actions as the individual can do no wrong, demand a life to be lived without any form of judgement, and expect little in consequences to their actions. Rising tensions within harmful political environments make respect for differences of opinion a place of distain, yes, but that is only one part of a larger problem. Rather increasing tensions cause differences of opinion to intensify to the point of extremes, blinding individuals from seeing the faults in one or more positions.

Neither the radical beliefs of neoliberal individualism i.e. hyper-individuality nor the radical movements of collective solidarity (e.g. Marxism or Fascism) can suffice without calamity. Truthfully no system is perfect nor ideal, however, at the heart of the Christian faith and a philosophy of Primitive Conservatism is the individual who demonstrates mercy; whose actions are sacrificial not for their own vain glories but with the sole purpose to do right and to help others in-spite of differences.

“Justice without mercy is cruelty. Mercy without justice is the mother of all dissolution.” — Thomas Aquinas

Principles Over Politics: Exordium

(Special Series)

What then is a Christian to make of conservatism? The danger, it would seem, is not in conserving, for anyone may have a vocation to care for precious things, but in conservative ideology, which sets forth a picture of these things at variance with the faith. The same is true of liberalism. From time to time Christians may find themselves in tactical alliance with conservatives, just as with liberals, over particular policies, precepts, and laws. But they cannot be in strategic alliance, because their reasons for these stands are different; they are living in a different vision. For our allies’ sake as well as our own, it behooves us to remember the difference. We do not need another Social Gospel—just the Gospel. – J. Budziszewski

The Problem With Conservatism (1996)

Conservatism at its purest form is philosophical though it inevitably holds political weight in decisions of property, rights, laws, war, and nearly every other area of socioeconomic and political consequence. Richard M. Weaver reminded us in 1948 that Ideas Have Consequences, what we believe and follow, can reverberate throughout all of human history. “The modern position,” wrote Weaver, “seems only another manifestation of egotism, which develops when man has reached a point at which he will no longer admit the right to existence of things not of his own contriving” (Weaver, p. 154). Faith is more than tradition. Christ is beyond any philosophy. Historic Christianity is rooted in truth and reality that centers on the wholeness of Jesus Christ. Conservative philosophy at best recognizes the need for God and the institutions of the Christian faith, but it is not a practice of faith. As Professor Budziszewski of government and philosophy at the University of Texas in Austin and author of the blog, UndergroundThomist, distinctly makes clear: there is the Christian Faith and there is Conservatism and Liberalism and every other philosophical, ideological, and political system. At the end of the 1996 article (the article can be read in full at First Things website) he notes the essential truth of Christ and His Kingdom:

Christians can no more be others on the right than others on the left. Citizenship is an obligation of the faith, therefore the Christian will not abstain from the politics of the nation-state. But his primary mode of politics must always be witness. It is a good and necessary thing to change the welfare laws, but better yet to go out and feed the poor. It is a good and necessary thing to ban abortion, but better yet to sustain young women and their babies by taking them into the fellowship of faith. This is the way the kingdom of God is built.

The Problem With Conservatism (1996)

Therefore what comes first in terms of principles must be through and by the means of Christ, the Scriptures, and the Church. Christendom can be the only root source of a Primitive Conservative. Politics is secondary. Our identity is tertiary. Philosophy a helpmate. Surrender is strength not a weakness. Intersection is inevitable in the world of questions concerning morality, law, justice, or economics.

The Common Good

Tom Nelson, President of Made to Flourish, a network that works with churches in helping people flourish for the common good, argues that one of the best ways to achieve an act of common good is through our daily work (Nelson 2017, pp. 78-79, The Economics of Neighborly Love). By no means against the Free Market, Nelson seeks to make the case for a “triple bottom-line approaches that take into account not only profit but also promoting the flourishing of people as well as the planet” (pp. 79-80). One of several approaches to economic revitalization, the real father of economics can be found in the ideas of Thomas Aquinas whose central doctrines and dogmas remain as a central, though controversial, voice within Catholicism and broader Christianity.

Gloria L. Zúñiga at Acton Institute explains that “Thomistic economic thought… is grounded on private property and voluntary exchange as the principle for determining licit contracts.” Mary L. Hirschfeld, professor of economics and theology, wrote the book Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy (2018), arguing that there are intrinsic values modern society can learn from Aquinas for the sake of redeeming a neoliberal society from its moral shortcomings.

Alternatives and reforms to a capitalistic society are nothing new to conservative thought as the late Sir Roger Scruton explains that “to be a conservative at best is to be a reluctant Capitalist you have to acknowledge the free-market… but it has to be tempered.” Our source for the “good life” derives from a similar stream but diverges from its source as to the ultimate purpose over ones life. Economics is simply one example for indeed Jesus Christ did not come to establish an economic doctrine or political order on the Earth. He came to die for the sins of the world and to redeem all that is His. Yet he tells believers not to be anxious or to worry but to build up for the Kingdom of Heaven:

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12: 32-34).

Giving, charity, helpfulness are virtues to be practiced for they are goodness in of themselves; eternal values of immense worth as conservatives understand them to be. However the Christian does not simply do good, he does it at the service of God who commands them to do good. A distinct difference not because of a total lack of will to do any good but that Christians acknowledge the source by which goodness is bequeathed. For none do good, not even one (Psalm 14:3; Rom. 3:11). A secular reader shall fail in their attempt to decipher its meaning without close inspection as much as new Christian in the faith who fails to study the scriptures. Acts of “good” can be accomplished by all men but their heart remains corrupted. Christ is the redeemer of the heart—that is the Gospel. Secondly, all life comes from God the creator. He is worthy of acknowledgement. And lastly Christians source their life around the Gospel. Good works follow after it but virtue is not their source or it is simply vanity. Harry Blamires succinctly summarizes this truth in his book, The Christian Mind (1963), between the Modern mind and the mind of the Christian:

If Christians think carefully and prayerfully, they will come to understand what the Incarnation means for them in terms of their twentieth-century vocation… They will learn what are the proper twentieth-century modes of judging the world, of identifying the self with its sins, of being in and yet of being out of this world which our Lord inhabited and yet was not of. But these vital insights will be achieved only if there is among us a Christian mind sharp enough as an instrument of discrimination to cut cleanly through the befuddling mental jungle which constitutes the practical ethic of our secular society (pp. 104-105).

Christ is the source of our Common Good; He is the Principle; the Rule of Thumb; and the Sole Being Worthy of Adoration. A.W. Tozer tells us that to be a follower of God means to be “other-worldly” (Tozer 2006, The Pursuit of God, p. 63). Or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer hammered it out straight for his readers in The Cost of Discipleship (1995), “Faith can no longer mean sitting still and waiting—they must rise and follow him. The call frees them from all earthly ties, and binds them to Jesus Christ alone” (pp. 62-63).

This week will be a week of explanation of what it means to hold to principles over politics; truth over lies; reality over irreality. A foundation that built from faith in Christ and Christ Alone. Sourced from Christian Doctrines and Dogmas in the face of a world that fails to love; fails to do justice; and fails in establishing dignity for all.

Slow & Steady: Winning The Race

(MereBeautyInTruth)

If the hare had been racing an Alligator Snapping Turtle (pictured above) he would have been eaten with the turtle winning the race by default.

Jesting aside, a central purpose behind Truth In Focus (TIR) and Visual Philosophy (See This Month’s) is to be an aesthetic abruption to modernities fast-paced world. Mere Beauty In Truth unequivocally requires a sustainable consumption of information including knowledge growth.

Jean Baudrillard, a postmodernist and French philosopher, rightly estimated that mankind presently lives in a state of hyperreality:

“Postmodernity is said to be a culture of fragmentary sensations, eclectic nostalgia, disposable simulacra, and promiscuous superficiality, in which the traditionally valued qualities of depth, coherence, meaning, originality, and authenticity are evacuated or dissolved amid the random swirl of empty signals.”

And,

“The media represents a world that is more real than reality that we can experience. People lose the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. They also begin to engage with the fantasy without realizing what it really is. They seek happiness and fulfilment through the simulacra of reality, e.g. media and avoid the contact/interaction with the real world.”

– Simulacra and Simulation (1987)

Granted I am not a postmodernist nor do I agree that we presently live in a post-modern age but Baudrillard description of what late modernity has produced remains a precise, accurate description. From Deep Fakes to Deep State what truth is and where truth exists appears unclear speaking from an outsiders perspective looking in at competing worldview’s, the nature of institutions, and the unprecedented mining of data. A clear definer of the age is that data and information are up for grabs to the highest and most powerful bidders. TRUTH IS AT STAKE.

TRUTH IS AT STAKE.

Importing droves of information is antithetical in a period where information is overabundant. Arising from that debauchery a collision occurred resulting in hysteria. Men can be women, women can be men while no gender is claimed to exist (all false); people can “believe” whatever they want purportedly without risk (all a lie). Up, down, left, right nothing has meaning. Our universe is on life support receiving 24/7 blood transfusions while being told that your iron levels are normal, life is steady. Relative normality is avoidance from reality.

Therefore, we must recapture the truth. Reclaim reality.

Part of doing so is practicing a slower method of dissemination. To clearly think one must have the time to think. Of course slow is not always right. But hyperreality disfigures and fragments without repose. So let’s all be the snapping alligator turtle: Slow, Steady, and Ready for a Fight.

MONDAY ANNOUNCEMENTS

(September 7, 2020)

Upcoming

Monday, Sept 7 – Visual Philosophy

Type: Aesthetic/Art/Philosophy

Description: A monthly series of aesthetic outlook on art, photography, architecture, and other mediums through my theory of the aesthetic, MereBeautyInTruth. This month: The Oath of the Horatii

Wed, Sept 9 – Thy Week, Thus Far

Type: News

Description: A shortlist of the weeks articles, podcasts, or videos that readers and listeners should pay attention to along with a small analysis of the listed newsworthy mentions.

Thur, Sept 10 – A Special Announcement for a new series from a new medium starting on Sept 10, 2020.

Fri, Sept 11 – Burke, Kirk, & Scruton: A Conservative Legacy for the Future

Type: Insight

Description: A look at Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and Roger Scruton influence on Conservatism and why they are the leading voices for the future of this philosophical movement.

Join

Facebook : Truth In Focus

(Looking forward to having more interaction and special sessions on Facebook! Please join us!)

Instagram: MereBeautyInTruth

(This week, in preparation for the next Visual Philosophy, photos will be posted but only one will be analyzed each month.)

Youtube: AllThingsVeritas

(After much delay I am happy to announce the return of AllThingsVeritas on Youtube! A Biblical Vlog series will be starting in September. Be on the lookout for a special announcement. Please join and like and be ready to learn and grow.)

Highlight

Edward Kyle Richey

See: A Visual Philosophy Series for the Month of September 2020. MereBeautyInTruth.

Want to know more about me? See About Section

Visual Philosophy

(Month of September, Series 2020)

Mere Beauty In Truth

Mere Beauty In Truth (click link for Instagram) is my theory of the Aesthetic. Influenced by the late Sir Roger Scruton I aim to use art, nature, architecture, and other mediums to witness a higher form, reality and truth about life through perception. 

Beauty requires us to recognize the ugly, the profane, and the false through a keen sense of what is true beauty i.e. that which strikes a profoundness inside us all putting us at its mercy. We do so by training our heart on the full range of emotions experienced in our lives. Fear, anger, happiness, and anxiety all mean something deeper within us. A friend once explained that to recognize a forgery one must study the real thing in complete and absolute detail. Mere Beauty In Truth is the study of the real thing we call beauty.

My ultimate hope it to show the Transcendence and the Immense of God through beauty and design, the ugly and the broken, so as to help us grasp truth and ultimate reality to the best of our limited ability. 

Aesthetic value is not merely art. Art is simply one principled medium of interpretation. We would not necessarily call a person or nature art but each can serve as an expression through a medium. Aesthetics targets the full range of expression through taste, smell, sound, sight, and intuition. 

Please enjoy.

The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David

Overview: Prior to the Roman Republic, Rome was founded by Romulus (753-715 B.C.) Rome’s first King as myth would have it and of which there would be Seven Kings total. Of the Seven Kings the third, King Tullus Hostilius (673-641 B.C.), would commission the three Horatii sons (triplets) to save Rome from a costly war the king commanded them to fight another group of brothers, the Curiatii Alban. Rather having war after war, per their agreement, whomever wins the battle between the brothers settles the dispute. Out of love for their country, the three Horatii brothers swear an oath before their father to save Rome or die.

Patriotism is the central theme of this work of art.

There are three central themes within this piece: The Three Brothers, The Women and Children, and The Father.

At First Glance: The Three Brothers. Nothing about war is beautiful; war is rift with bloodshed and gore, screams and fear, chaos and uncertainty. War eventually exhausts the soul of a people. Even the best of men comprehend its deepest and darkest repercussions. What the three Horatii brothers submit themselves before is not merely heroic, courageous, and dutiful but sacrificial and righteous and just as they symbolically represent Rome yet literally put forth their lives. The tension of the moment is expressively seen in the gripping hands between two of the brothers:

The arm wrapped around the waist of one brother, his hand hardly relaxed rather tense and prepared with a hint of healthy fear as they prepare themselves for battle. And the hand of the brother at the foreground, gripping his pilum, knowing full well his life is dependent upon its durability and the dexterity of his brothers.

Notice the brother’s forearms. Strong, resilient, determined; those are the arms of real men; men set on saving a kingdom and her people from despair. The gradual rising of each arm, one, two, three as each hand slightly rises above another, one, two, three in oath but equal in cause, purpose, and rank. Three marks the divine, the triunity of brothers whose willpower can overcome even the gods in this glorious moment. Divine! Nothing can lay asunder a brotherhood founded on ideals above themselves. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done! It is patriotism personified. Not a brainwashing or a corrupt cause this is courage on a canvas.

Feet of fortitude, aligned nearly perfectly as they unify with the foot of their father. Their shadows even marking the moment as if it were transposing on sacred ground before the feet of hero’s. Those are feet that march and run toward their enemy never turning their backs for defeat. And the foot of a father who bestows his sons as worthy. Standing alone, simply studying the feet of these men, tells the story of a sacrum testimonium; a testimony of an oath that all hero’s must give.

Two of three brothers would die, however, the third would be triumphant and bringing a long line of glory for Rome.

Key Point: Patriotic duty can be a sacred cause but it must be a worthy and just cause. And duty requires an oath of commitment by righteous men who know the difference between right and wrong; good and evil.

At First Glance: The Women and the Children. Woe and sorrow befall on the family; the brothers cannot show their tears; the father must not weep so as to keep their spirits soaring; and so the women take on the brave cause of shedding what is felt by all in the room. Hardly weak, it should be said that the woman and children are the strongest as their emotions rightly rise to the occasion. Perhaps even demanding before slumping into a tearful surrender that they can go fight for them! No, that would not be honorable to the men who desire to fight. Our modern distaste for good men revolts at the idea that women were not allowed to fight in war. But we fail to consider the preciousness of this act and that no Roman nor Greek nor Jew nor American would simply say that all women are incapable of fighting; no they knew better, they each understood the strength of one woman, a woman who bears life itself, can kill a thousand men if they had to in the name of their family and countrymen. Vessels meaning worthy of protecting not objects nor property to be abused, these women had real men who respected womanhood and the power of the feminine. Make no mistake about it.

Together they share grief. Perhaps these are wives of two brothers, now sisters, sharing in their pain. If a feminine epistemology exists, this exemplifies it because only women can share such eternal bonds of birth and deep love and a heavy sorrow for their men. The woman in white, her arms dangling lifelessly to her side, faint and unnerved, her white stola represents purity, loyalty, and chastity. She wears her feelings on her sleeve.

The woman in red, symbolic of war and battle, her body drained by the event as her arms also lay lifeless, she weeps with her sister-in-law. Nothing more to do but pray and shed tears that will water the grounds of the land and people they love.

Alas a different strength appears. A grandmother of comfort, a dutiful wife, and a mother who loves her sons. Draped in purple, an aristocrat, she has seen much and done even more for her family. Now as her daughters cry over their men, she comforts their children. She knows this pain all too well.

Innocence, the eyes of a boy whose father must go into battle; the eyes of a child who has seen nothing that life offers him either good or bad; that is a terrified boy who dare not cry for the sake of his baby brother. That boy will one day be a man, a man of honor who cares for his younger brother, his mother, and his grandparents.

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church blindfolds a child each time they choose their pope during the final selection, that child then picks a name from a bag; an act representing a child’s innocence and goodness from God. Indeed, this boy carries that innocence; an unknowing goodness that loves his mother, his father, his grandmother, his grandfather, his uncles, and his aunts. However, the striking look of the older boys face pierces the soul of all who dare peer into his eyes. Perhaps an innocence too holy for us all?

Key Point: The Women and Children are examples of real and justifiable emotions. They are not in the background hiding away from the men and their oath; they are part of the sacred oath to protect and serve their nation in need.

At First Glance: The Father. Likely in his sixties, wearing a red cloak as a means of bonding with his sons in preparation for war, the father bestows upon them three swords; a Triumvirate whose power is to decide the fate of Rome through a single battle. This Triumvirate would be prophetic yet very different from those of Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus (60 B.C.) and Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian (43 B.C.). Nothing political was being held that day, no rhetoric, no false appearances. Simply a proud father speaking boastfully with clarity so his sons knew what awaited them. An oath he had likely said generations ago, words even today that hold a sacred tone; “I do solemnly swear before God and before Man…” words that have meaning and purpose, words that reign true for all eternity. Nothing could make a father more proud than to see his sons fighting for a just cause. Notice no helmet is to be found, those days are gone for an old man but his spirit remains. He fought and lived. Now he sends forth the next generation.

Though two of his sons would never return the man knew a greater good would be accomplished should they succeed. Like the waiting of the prodigal son this father was waiting for their return in preparation to celebrate. He had faith in his sons.

Key Point: Fatherhood is a servants role in raising children, caring for your wife, and in service to your country.