21st Century Poetic Justice

AKA God is always right

One of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day. I think it is because it simply resembles life where we wake up each day to same song and have a choice to pursue personal decadence or to serve others. There is a scene in the movie where Phil Connors is attempting to woo Rita where the topic of 19th Century French poetry comes into play. I am not a screen writer so I will simply attach the clip here.

I always feel a kinship with Rita as her role as a television producer is about as far away from her 19th Century French Poetry major as my role of restaurant CFO is to my philosophy degree. But, despite the frustration I encountered attending a liberal arts school in the ‘80’s, where wokeism was then called “Political Correctness,” I managed to find great professors that still taught the love of learning. Anyone wondering if these professors still exist in today’s ivy-covered institutions should read Margarita Mooney’s book, The Love of Learning, Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts. https://www.amazon.com/Love-Learning-Seven-Dialogues-Liberal/dp/1952826675

I have written many times about my love for and the importance of a liberal arts education. Learning how to think and defend my ideas has served me well throughout my personal and professional life. And learning to do so in the antagonistic and universally relative environment of 1980’s academia prepared me to weather the constant storm spewing from the bulkheads of popular culture. From those early days of university through to today, I have been at constant odds with academic elites, media group think and secular religions. Although this wasn’t the case in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I now also find myself at odds with the C-Suites of most corporations. The pressure for modern business leaders to shed their personal values and sound economic principles in the 21st Century is the propaganda of legends. History, if we survive our current malaise, will look back on this era when ordinary people holding access to the Truths of the Universe in their very hands chose to use that power for profane indulgences vs. personal enlightenment. It will be regarded as one of the greatest calamities since the toppling of Babel’s tower unless society can get itself out of the infinite Ground Hog’s Day loop. With this buildup and 100% of the irony intended, I suggest we add another major to the liberal arts curriculum.

I recommend that a degree of 21st Century Poetic Justice be added to a liberal arts curriculum and that students may choose to major or minor in its poetic glow. For what is human history but at series of human attempts and the poetic justice that followed from their folly. Poetic justice has been with us from time and memorial and, to be honest, an author could not pen a novel without healthy doses of poetic justice.

Here is my example for an Intro to Poetic Justice syllabus:

Intro to 21st Century Poetic Justice 101

This class will study the relationship between natural law and humans. Specifically, we will review, through the lens of history and literature, how man interacts with nature’s law and the results of defying that order. As an introductory course, we will examine a sample of poetic justices from ancient times to our modern era. A highlight of some of the poetic justices we will study are:

·       Mordecai while in exile in Babylon, refused to bow the Haman because of his reverence for God. In his rage, Haman built a gallows to execute Mordecai and all jews in exile only to find himself on the short end of that rope. Focal point, would Mordechai’s capitulation to Haman ended the Jewish people’s relationship to with God or would God simply have found another Mordecai?

·       The ancient Athenians tempted fate and the will of Athena when they sentenced her favorite earthly student, Socrates, to death. The Athenian mob did not silence the believer of non-state approved gods and the corrupter of youth Instead, they codified him has the world’s second most honored martyr. Western societies owe their religion and speech freedoms to the man who drank hemlock. Focal point, is the cock Socrates ordered to be sacrificed to Asclepius a metaphor for the healing of Socrates or humanity?

·       Dante’s Inferno envisioned nine circles of hell with historical references to the individuals he deemed were relegated to those levels. Focal point, does Dante’s vision serve merely to ease man’s earthly conscious by painting a picture of eternal damnation for individual treachery, or was he interpreting God’s eternal order and the poetic justice that awaits all who deceive?

·       The American colonists sent delegations to King George to discuss grievances of the distant Crown’s rule. The King and parliament mocked and rebuffed the colonist’s efforts at redress kicking off the Revolutionary War. Focal point, was the Declaration of Independence written as a warning to King George of the colonist’s resolve or a plea to God for divine protection in their quest for freedom and sovereignty?

·       Covid-19 pandemic cratered a booming American economy and sunk a presidency. The pandemic place man and science at the front and center of the pandemic battle line relegating God to the ash bin of history. The last two years of world leadership have brought bone crushing inflation, energy shortages and unmitigated crime. Focal point, would a red wave in the upcoming mid-term election be a representation poetic justice? If so, who is the orchestrator of that event and what does it mean to humanity?

I know my course on 21st Century Poetic justice looks like a combination of traditional history, literature, and religion. Sadly, in most modern liberal arts institutions, those three majors have been altered to obtain a secular Marxist end and all the topics discussed are filtered to lead the student to that forgone conclusion. My course on poetic justice is meant to ignite the eternal spark that is man’s quest for knowledge. Since my 21st Century Poetic Justice course title is vague enough, administrators may conclude that the death of God is the focal point and allow it to be taught. Eager professors seeking to teach Truth may be able to sneak this course past the goalie. Corrupting our youth by allowing them to study university non-sanctioned God and to contemplate the Truth therein may be the most poetic justice of all.