Giving Thanks vs Pay as You Go I

It sometimes amazes me the way that things come together. Or maybe it's just the way that things get put together in my head. This is the first of a two part post.

Demons and gods

First, I happened to be rereading (go figure) G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man. In the book, Chesterton dissects the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, normally cast as a struggle for economic supremacy, and comes to the conclusion that it was actually a war between demons, masquerading as gods, demanding human sacrifice; and struggling philosophy with its nascent realization of the basic human rights. Chesterton says that in the ancient world "demons often walked abroad like dragons. They could be positively and publicly enthroned as gods. Their enormous images could be set up in public temples in the center of populous cities...overlooked by the moderns who speak of all such evil as primitive and early in evolution. That, as a matter of fact some of the highest civilizations of the world were the very place where the horns of Satan were exalted, not only to the stars, but to the very face of the sun."


The Aztecs

Then, the other night I was watching The History Channel (it may have been History International, I'm not sure, it was like 3:00am) and they aired back to back documentaries about the Aztecs. The first was a fascinating piece covering the alleged sacrifice of 20,000 (yes, that's twenty thousand) human victims over a period of four days during the re dedication the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan (bear with me, I'm working from memory here) in 1487. It was pretty much a forensic kind of "could they really have done this" thing. The conclusion of those involved was a solid "yes". It was pretty chilling stuff actually.

The second documentary focused primarily on the conflict between Hernando Cortez and Montezuma. The gist of the film ended up being that the ignorant Cortez, blinded by his Catholic worldview and lust for wealth, ignored what essentially amounted to a simple misunderstanding between cultural worldviews. It was the contention of the film makers that the Aztec view that the gods required human blood to maintain the universe was just as valid as Cortez's "Eurocentric" view that the universe was a system designed by a God who allowed it to function on its own. The Aztec view was that man was required to "pay as you go"; the European view was that the universe was the gift of a benevolent God.

The errors

I have no issues with the first documentary. It was fairly cut and dried and seemed to realize that there is such a thing as an objectively evil act, and that the Aztec civilization was based on such evil. The second missed this point entirely. In fact, the second documentary actually attempted to excuse the Aztec evil as being valid, since definitions of what is evil varies from culture to culture. That view is rubbish!

In order to illustrate Aztec knowledge of the abhorrence of their actions, let's examine the history of that meeting between Cortez and Montezuma. During their initial meeting, Montezuma himself, the most powerful man on the continent, conducted the new arrivals on a tour of his capital. Tellingly, he saved the Grand Pyramid for the last stop on the tour. Its purpose was readily apparent to the Spanish. Montezuma's guided tour was not an act of mere hospitality designed to acquaint his visitors with the quaint practices of his benign empire. Not at all. Montezuma's purpose was to let the Spanish know that which every other people whom he Aztecs had subdued already knew all too well; that is, the fate (victims of human sacrifice) which awaited the interlopers if they stepped out of line.

As one who believes in the existence of the preternatural, I wholeheartedly agree with Chesterton's contention that there are demons who masquerade as gods. I further agree with his assessment that these demons actually produce results which benefit, or seem to benefit, those cultures who deny the natural law inherent in all men and fall into their thrall. Hence we see the concern of the Abrahamic God when His people fall into apostasy and the punishments visited upon His people for that apostasy; we see the harsh treatment of those idol worshipping civilizations by His people when they conquer those peoples. It is illustrated in the cry of Cato before the Roman Senate that "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed), not merely brought to heel. Cortez, with a handful of Spanish Conquitadores brought down the greatest civilization ever to exist on a newly discovered continent. An outraged world united to battle the evil of European Fascism whose highest priority, even in the midst of the fight for its very survival remained its extermination of an entire race.

Thankfully, this chapter of our history has been closed. Our civilization, our culture has progressed beyond this point. Or has it? Tomorrow (I hope) we'll see.

Until then, all the best. Joe