Freeeday 5 January 2001

Pic of the day: "People gorge themselves on saturated fat..."

Saviors

Today I was reading the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv, when I noticed an article that referred to Alan Greenspan as "savior". Repeatedly. I know I use to mention him as "savior of the world economy", which I think is a pretty good job description. But seeing a man referred to as "savior" without any modifiers is a bit creepy, even when the context is a given.

The commentary was otherwise excellent. I had thought to write something like that - in fact, I had written something like that on a floppy - but here's the short of it: If people believe that Greenspan can save them, then he cannot. It is necessary for people to fear a recession in order to avoid it.

I see lots of economists are voicing doubts about whether Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has the situation in hand. Perhaps he has panicked? they insinuate. Or perhaps he knows some terrible news which he has not yet shared with the public. That's good, guys. Just keep people afraid. That's what's needed. And in the meantime, I will write about saviors.

***

Already years ago, I thought deeply about this very fact: That if there are saviors, then people are going to need them more. People are going to take chances. Say if superheroes were real, like Superman or Green Lantern or the Flash: People would be a lot more likely to take chances, because the superheroes were there to save them. Since even superheroes can't be everywhere, things would probably be worse than without them.

Let's take an even more extreme situation: The guardian angel. If your guardian angel was visible and physically powerful, wouldn't you be likely to take chances? I've seen atheists argue that it should be forbidden to teach religion to small children because they might believe in the guardian angel and just walk out into the traffic without looking. Hmm. Luckily, guardian angels are usually invisible and unobtrusive.

From a Buddhist point of view, I guess the same would apply to the soul and its Savior. People believe in a Savior so they don't really worry all that much about degrading their soul in thoughts and acts of egotistical desire. After all, the Savior will fix it and make it all all right, yes? Intriguingly, this argument was already familiar to the apostle Paul, though he did not agree with it.

***

To return to the less spiritual meaning of saviors, I guess we already have this problem today. At least here in the semi-socialist Europe, the State has taken on a kind of savior role. Indeed, I fear that it has taken on the mantle of God, to some extent. It is to the State that people ask for their daily bread, if they lack it. And not just bread, but a color TV too.

But most notable is the expectation that the State-owned hospitals will heal them. If not life eternal, then certainly a century of it? People gorge themselves on saturated fat, plop their flabby ass in the sofa before the TV, and light a smoke. Then when they get the corresponding illnesses, they complain bitterly about lack of hospital capacity. Tell you what? There wouldn't been waiting lines for the hospital if there weren't thousands of people equally careless as you.

SuperWoman told me about how in Germany people got coronal bypass operations, then went home to stuff themselves on fat again, and then after a while returned for more bypass. It seemed they believed they could just go on and on that way. (Evidently these people like hospitals better than I do.) I'm sure there are similar cases here in Norway - indeed, her aunt related some similar stories.

I tentatively conclude, then, that saviors that don't demand and scare can easily get a bit too comfortable for our own good. Make of that what you want.