And so we come to the end of the world...
Well, maybe not really. Not the end, exactly. But you must confess, there is something a little apocalyptic about the scenes coming out of Houston right now.
And I’m going to write about that today. I’m going to get rather (sorry) Biblical on you. Or, at least, I’m going to use pseudo-Biblical language. And I’m going to reference the apocryphal book of Enoch.
For you see, I’m going to talk about floods, and Giants, and very, very wealthy men...
Who, it seems, if they could, would consume the world right down to the bedrock.
And never once consider they shouldn’t.
*
Background: for a variety of obscure reasons (obscure even to me, sometimes) I’ve always been interested in the various literatures which float around at the edges of religion—books and stories, that is, that arise from the same sources as do the major holy books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but which are not themselves considered canonical. (And, by the way, I’m no scholar. I’m just reading these books out of curiosity. If you are a specialist in the field, feel free to write in with comments and corrections.)
Now, understand, I’m not particularly religious. I don’t treat these books as sacred texts. (I’m not sure I believe in sacred texts.) But, they can be rather fascinating, both as literature and history.
And, there are a bunch of such books about, actually. Jewish books, early Christian books, Gnostic books, and on and on. you’ll recall that a Gospel of Judas showed up back in the early 1980s, though the book itself supposedly dates from the late second century C.E. It relates the tale of Jesus from the perspective of a Judas himself, here presented as a hero who does what has to be done so that Christ’s mission will be complete. Needless to say, the book created rather a stir in certain circles.
But, right at the moment, the books which interest me the most are Enoch 1 and Enoch 2.
Enoch, of course, shows up briefly in Genesis as the prophet who “walks with God,” and ultimately vanishes into heaven. It’s almost just a cameo role, hardly worth mentioning, and Enoch might not be remembered at all if it hadn’t been for someone (or many someones) who sometime around 300 BCE adopted him as a major character in a whole series of tales (epics, really) in which his adventures in heaven are recounted in great detail.
For a variety of reasons, the books of Enoch almost completely disappeared in the West (both for Jews and Christians). But, fortunately, they survived elsewhere, for instance in the Ethiopian Bible.
Why I mention all of this is that Enoch...or rather, Enoch’s authors...also talk about the Great Flood that drowns out mankind for its “wickedness” in Genesis. But Enoch has a curious take on the whole story. In his version, where everything goes wrong is waaay back, sometime after the expulsion from Eden, when certain Angels looked upon “the daughters of men,” and, well, not to put too fine a point on it, got the hots.
They, these angels, descended to earth and got very busy with the ladies. Then, when they were done, the women in question had hybrid children, the Nephilim, or Giants, who unfortunately, did not take after the heavenly side of the family. Rather, they grew up to be monsters, brutish and evil, and wholly devoted to themselves.
In fact, the Giants ate everything. They consumed all they could find, utterly without restraint, eating the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea...and, finally, humans. The world, indeed, was stripped bare, as we read in Chapter 7 of 1 Enoch:
And the women conceiving brought forth giants,
Whose stature was each three hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labour of men produced; until it became impossible to feed them;
When they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them;
And began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, and to drink their blood.
Then the earth reproved the unrighteous.
Finally, things got so bad, that heaven had to respond or else all life on earth would perish. So, the Great Flood was sent, and the giants vanished under its waves.
*
There’s lots of other really great lines in the book. For instance, at one point, the humans who are being cannibalized by the Giants appeal to heaven, “And men, being destroyed, cried out; and their voice reached to heaven” (1 Enoch 8: 9), and what may be my very favorite line is in Chapter 9, and involves the earth herself seeking redress, “The earth deprived of her children has cried even to the gate of heaven,” (1 Enoch 9: 2).
I’ve always been interested in Enoch’s interpretation of the Flood because it sort of says that it wasn’t humans who’d sinned, and who were getting exterminated, but rather the Giants, who never learned empathy, never learned to control their appetites, and never discovered the virtues of self-restraint.
That’s rather more satisfying, don’t you think, than the more usual view of things, where we are ourselves the villains? And Enoch gives us a God who is our avenger rather than our destroyer, which is comforting.
But...also...doesn’t it sound just a bit familiar?
Doesn’t it sound, just a little, like the run up to Houston?
*
We’re learning, now, that when Harvey hit Houston, it may have encountered a city uniquely vulnerable. It appears—at least from what I’m reading in the papers and on the Web—that some city authorities, some city planners, and some real estate developers had been told repeatedly that there were dangers in the way they were building and where they were building. It seems that they had been informed that constructing homes and stores over wetlands, and in areas that might have taken run-off during storms, was to court disaster. But, or so I’m reading, they did not change their behavior. It was easier, more profitable for them, to just keep doing what they were doing.
I’m reading, too, that Harvey himself was a bit of a surprise to some authorities, both in Texas and elsewhere, because it was a super-storm, a storm of almost unbelievable power. Again, they had been warned that such storms were coming, and more will come, because the world is warming, and the consequences of that will include ever more, and ever more potent hurricanes. Indeed, if they’d ever doubted it, they could have simply looked at recent history—Katrina, Sandy, and now Harvey.
Yet, they were surprised anyway. Why? Maybe because they were busy telling themselves (or, at least, telling the rest of us) that global warming was a “Hoax,” “Junk Science,” and “a Liberal conspiracy hatched by the Chinese to cripple our economy.” Or, to put it another way, it was in their interest to deny the facts.
Moreover...and here’s the really scary one...we are discovering, too, that this will probably not be the end of it. We are finding that the Great and the Powerful will almost certainly not learn from Harvey...just as they didn’t learn from Katrina and Sandy. As I write this, I am already starting to see comments in certain quarters about how Harvey really wasn’t the result of climate change, and how it wasn’t anyone’s fault that Houston is underwater, and how, really, government relief and/or regulation would be a mistake, and we ought to just sit back and let corporations and Free Enterprise get on with their high and holy business.
Or, again to put it all another way, those of us who are not rich and powerful, should know our place, not interfere, and wait quietly while storm, and flood, and fire, and desert...grow closer every day.
*
In short, the Rich and the Powerful, the 1%, the Billionaire Boys Club, whatever you want to call it...in Houston and elsewhere...had no intention then, and has no intention now of hearing calls for restraint. They will drill, and they will extract, and they will mine, and they will burn, and they pollute as much they like, thank you very much. And if we object, well, tough shit for us.
Their will to power is unbounded, their capacity for consumption unlimited, and their hunger is (alas) insatiable.
By now, I am sure, you see the link...my none-too-subtle metaphor, the connection between the Giants who consumed the very earth itself, and our own Power Elite...who, like Giants, have no interest in self-restraint.
Which is...disturbing.
Thus, I hope there is, out there, somewhere...maybe you who read this...an Enoch, who will have the talent and the prophetic power necessary to confront our Giants, and help them understand that restraint and self-control are absolutely necessary for our survival—theirs as well as ours, for not even Giants are tall enough to stand above the Flood which may be coming.
Or, if there is not an Enoch...
Then let us pray...or, if you do not pray, then devoutly hope...that there is at least a Noah, and an Ark big enough to carry birds, and beasts, and ourselves away...
From the children of rebel angels...whose appetites were such that they devoured all, until, at last, and in anguish, the earth deprived of her children cried even to the gate of heaven.
And heaven’s fury may well be...
Brutal, beyond our power to imagine.
---
Sources:
The Book of Enoch http://book-ofenoch.com/
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