Herod’s fears

In For the Time Being , W. H. Auden described Herod’s reaction to the news that “God has been born.” If this is true, and if the news gets out, Herod thinks, all is lost; confusion will reign. The passage is one of the most effective descriptions of the nature and hubris of modern liberalism that I have come across – hubris because the liberal believes that his order is the only alternative to chaos:

“Reason will be replaced by Revelation. Instead of Rational Law, objective truths perceptible to any who will undergo the necessary intellectual discipline, and the same for all, Knowledge will degenerate into a riot of subjective visions – feelings in the solar plexus induced by under-nourishment, angelic images generated by fevers or drugs, dream warnings inspired by the sound of falling water. Whole cosmogonies will be created out of some forgotten personal resentment, complete epics written in private languages [can you say Finnegan’s Wake? – PJL], the daubs of school children ranked above the greatest masterpieces.

“Idealism will be replaced by Materialism . . . Life after death will be an eternal dinner where all the guests are twenty years old . . . .

“Justice will be replaced by Pity as the cardinal human virtue, and all fear of retribution will vanish . . . . The New Aristocracy will consist exclusively of hermits, bums, and permanent invalids. The Rough Diamond, the Consumptive Whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the New Tragedy when the general, the statesman, and the philosopher have become the butt of every farce and satire.”