lovelessness

"What hath put the present Age into so great confusion is the cruel hatred, and spiteful envie which in these days in seen to reign generally amongst men. All help then for these present evils, is to be hoped for from infusing Charity, reciprocal affection, and that sanctified love of our neighbor, which is God’s chiefest commandment, into mankind; we out therefore to employ all our skill in taking away the occasions of those hatreds, which in these days reign in men’s hearts."

This is extracted from Traiano Boccalini’s allegorical satire Ragguagli di Parnaso, published in Venice in 1612-13, in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment by Frances A. Yates. (Does that somehow remind you of the Bobby Kennedy's speech on Mindless Menace Of Violence?)

Apollo, the archer-god of medicine and healing, light and truth, found the world in a terrible state, and decided to seek the council of wise men to remedy the situation. It was evident that a ‘deep general reformation’ was necessary and the council discussed the subject at length. A lot of proposals were put forth but all, in the end, were considered impractical. As time passed, the council got distracted with trivialities and finally, the idea of general reformation was given up altogether and things remained “as wretched as ever”.

All attempts at reformation failed because they “had produced only rigorous regulations and had not tackled the deep issues”. According to Solon, the wisest of men, “what was mainly wrong with the age was lovelessness.”

Pity. May be the world we live in now wouldn’t be as messed up if the ancient Gods and wise folks could come up with something then. Well…I guess we’ll have to deal with it now, at this age. Who knows, may be there is time to leave behind a different kind of myth for the kids of the future? May be one in which we do fix things up? Time will tell.