Life in Babeldom, By George Panichas

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MODERN AGEA Q U A R T E R L Y R E V I E W

Life in Babeldom

PERHAPSHE MOST depressing sign of the

decline of American civilization is the

growingabsence of standardsof discrimi-

nation, especially in the Republic of Let-

ters. From the literary supplements of

our great national newspapers to the

academic quarterlies to intellectual jour-

nals of opinion that allocate space to t he

discussion of new books, the critical level

of reviewing seems especially diminished

and centerless. One finds that books se-

lected for notice are often of an ephem-

eral and even tawdry nature, chosen for

subject matter that is attuned to current

fads and trends, or to some doctrinaire

ideology, or to pluralistic concerns and

programs, or to mainstream cultural re-

quirements and preconceptions. Increas-

ingly books chosen for attention are those

written by famous personalities and ce-

lebrities who command instant name-

recognition and appeal. And the review-

ers of these books a re often those who

favor the conditions that characterize

the sta te of culture, precisely because

they are an intrinsic part of it. Even pub-lications that boast of their commitment

to a consideration of serious problems

and issues reflect the general confusion

of values.

Inevitably both literature and thought

will mirror the temper of the time, which

means the mirroring of the intellectual

and spiritual poverty of t he past twenty-

five years or more. During these years

there has been a steady retreat from

excellence and from tradition. We have

moved beyond the confines of medioc-

rity into the prison-house of decadence

as we continue to discard, with astonish-

ing abandon, basic moral and ethical

values in favor of the freedom that is

syno nymo us with t he license of

deconstruction, of dislodgement, of de-

basement. Clearly we have chosen to

travel on a kind of national freeway that

stretches th e long miles from nihilism to

anarchy, and that on all sides adjoins the

earthly creations of socio-political su-

perst ructures that reveal neither a sense

of order nor a sense of ending. The edu-

cational process is from top to bottom an

inherent support of the new superstruc-

tures now being built across the land.

Within each new superstructure one finds

a new gospel being written, and furiously

changing in accordance with the particu-lar demands of the dominant Zeitgeist.

What we are witnessing in such a de-

volving situation is the rejection of the

civilizing disciplines of tradition, of faith,

of history, and ultimately of language.

Modern Age 291



Indeed, we are finding fewer and fewer

temples dedicated to the discipline of

good order . The spirit of romanticism

and of revolution seems to rule to such a

degree that any expression of opposition

or dissent must be silenced, as in the

days of the Jacobins or of the Bolsheviki.

Surely the terrors of this twin spirit aptly

dramatize the destruction of order both

as a standard and as a need. But we are

not an especially patient people who can

learn from the lessons of history, as we

chase after the banners of experimenta-

tion and change, in the name of which we

cast aside the restraints of measure andlimit. In the process, we make a shibbo-

leth of an open society in which any

creative urge is exalted.

Such a process inevitably breeds the

worm of disorder in the human heart and

soul and in turn unleashes the attrition of

society and culture in which st andards

of order are extinguished, and in which

obligations are treated as the mortal en-

emy of rights. Yet we keep on buildingNew Babels, new lofty superstructures

and new visionary schemes, n the cham-

bers of which the language of confusion

becomes the common language of the

huckster. Today, thoughout the cham-

bers of Babeldom we hear the noisy lan-

guage of confusion, now the adopted

language of sectaries in academia, in lit-

erature, in the arts, in politics, in the

media. But each New Babel we build,

quicklyreplacing as it does another fallen

one, becomes still another Babel of bro-

ken walls. Our Babel-builders honor nei-

ther the; rule of law nor the spirit of

moderation rooted in our sacred patri-

mony; slaves of monomania and hubris,

they indiscriminately sow the seeds of

confusion in the mind and in the psyche.

They have no loyalty to the order ofthings, no reverence for what is of time-

less and permanent value in the making

of civilization. Their ideas become pro-

ductive of confusion that with the pas-

sage of time becomes worse confounded,

as whole cities are filled with confusion

and disorder.

No aspect ofAmerican culture escapes

the consequences of the Babel-builders’

dreams of avarice. Wherever one looks,

one encounters a magnified st at e of con-

fusion.As the language of confusion es-

calates in the unceasing drift of Ameri-

can civilization, we find that nothing re-

tains any sanctityof meaning. Everything

is questioned and everything is subject

to alteration. Indeed, for our Babel-build-

ers only the certainty of new and uglier

constructions, new ideas, new doctrines

has real credence. Religious orthodoxiesno less than political sovereignties are

subject to sudden and total transforma-

tions; literarycanons no less than proven

educational concepts are dismantled

without thought or notice. We tear down

ancient edifices unceremoniously to

make way for the new pantheons of

strange gods. We glorify music that con-

founds, art that blasphemes, clothing

styles that scandalize, films that reducelife to nudity and perversion. The

antinomian and the aberrational thus

become the norms of character and con-

duct, even in the highest political offices

of the land.

There is no surcease to what contem-

porary Babel-builders propose to d o in

achieving their vision of a technologico-

benthamite world order. For them there

is no divine ladder of ascent in the spec-

tacle of self-abandon. Their aim is to

reconstruct the human personality into

.t he anarchic personality a s the measure

of all things. In a deep sense, he present-

day Babel-builders are the most advanced

collective version of the Grand Inquisi-

tor , radically tailored t o the grotesque-

ries of an age in which rebellion, not

redemption, is the substance of life andbelief.

What these Babel-builders are acclaim-

ing is that there are no limits to nature

and to man’s actions. Which also means

that no moral limits can be permitted to

292 - Fall 2001



restrict human possibility; that , in espe-

cial,no moral precepts can be allowed to

impede the human capacity for good or

for evil; that there is no frontier to man’s

aspirations; and that , therefore, there isno possible standard that can be im-

posed on the human potential without

limitingits end-results in whatever shape

or form, or in whatever quality or ethos.

Limit is still another word that is now

scorned insofar as it establishes bound-

aries to go beyond which involves incal-

culable risks and traps for both the indi-

vidual and the community. To erase

boundaries that in any way inhibit socialaction and moral freedom is now viewed

as an imperial need.

To go outward and upward, ad infini-

tum, regardless of costs, and without any

fear of headlong extremities, is the per-

sistent cry of the false priests and proph-

ets of a new heaven and a new earth.

Nothing, we are repeatedly told, should

weaken our quest for self-fulfillment, no

prescriptive counsel or inner check

should curtail our grand ambitions, no

power on earth can dilute our illusion of

the man-god @ater omnipotens) in his

dominion over all things and triumph

over human tragedy.We choose, then, to

worship the gods of secularism, and of a

relativism that takes u s to the brink of

chaos. Our Babel-builders will never ad-

mit that we are now deep into the night ofchaos, of which disorder and confusion

are the most evident symptoms. Any such

admission must ultimately acknowledge

some existing standard, or axion, o r ref-

erent that helps to test and to correct,

and in effect to give order to the condi-

tions of existence in general and of soci-

ety and culture in particular.

We live in an age that venerates no

canon that is centered in a line of conti-nuity of the history of mankind. Venera-

tion is still another word deemed mean-

ingless since it signifies a transcendental

act of humility, which constitutes sedi-

tion that cannot be tolerated. The lures

Modem Age

of seduction and indulgence now reign

with an unparalleled might that over-

whelms humanity. The canons of criti-

cism, of judgment and analysis, are

pushed aside in order to legitimate andto acclaim a diabolic imagination that is

consonant with the needs of enlighten-

ment in the guise of a participatory de-

mocracy. The preservation of a humane

literature, and particularly the nurturing

of the moral imagination, in these cir-

cumstances, is menaced as language de-

volves and as the power of the word is

cheapened. When language is emptied of

moral meaning, of value, of history, ofspiritual truth, it is reduced to language

of impiety stamped in violence, in dis-

jointedness, in depravity, in idolatry.

What the contemporary lords of culture

refuse to accept is that the flight from the

logos is tied to the flight from God. Lan-

guage is demeaned once the soul of man

is demeaned, and in turn we become a

people of the lie who lie to ourselves and

to others.

There are many among us who will

insist that the towers of opportunity are

indestructible and no goal is unrealiz-

able. And there are among us those who

will ridicule even the slightest hint that

our Babel-builders are arrogant and defi-

ant in their schemes to scale new heights

and to go beyond the furthest limits. In

our furious pursuit of opportunity (asof

rights) we ignore or denigrate all reality;

nothing must get in the way of our uto-

pian longings. What is to be most regret-

ted today is the severe disproportion

between opportunity and reality, to the

degree that opportunity cancels both

the reality of things and the limitations

imposed by reality on itself and within

which it resides. This process of cancel-

lation leads to the blanket rejection ofany moral code or religious creed that

specifies standards and limits, and that

stressesprudence and circumspectness.

But neither moral code nor religious

creed is esteemed in the present-day

293



setting in which unlimited rights and

opportunity are in themselves offshoots

of the illusion of progress. Alas, what we

fail to observe or to consider is that

illusion is a tendency that turns into an

overmastering and imperi!ing ha-bit

(praxis).At all levels of our national and

cultural life,as it becomes more dramati-

cally evident, it is the pattern of disorder

and confusion that prevails and that de-

fineslife

in Babeldom.

--Geoqe A. Pnnichns

7August 2001

294 Fall 2001

Documents

Life in Babeldom, By George Panichas