Tyranny and Rebellion

In Greek myth, Ouranos is the sky, and the father of all that came after. He is cruel, and is overtaken by one of his sons, the titan Cronus. Cronus then succeeds Ouranos to become the ruler of all things. Cronus too becomes a tyrant, eating all of his children so they may not overthrow him and he too is overthrown by Zeus in a great war. Zeus then becomes ruler of all things and he too commits sins as a leader of gods and men. This pattern continues in Greek myth, and provides an accurate reflection of most human history. Like the way a snake sheds its skin, sons replace fathers in leadership. The old may resist the new, but eventually it must submit.

The classic trope plays out like this. Rulers hear about a future where they are overthrown, and then commit atrocities to prevent this. These actions of tyranny creates the very rebellion that then leads to their removal from power. The future comes to replace the past. This process can be done with grace, or violently, depending on whether the leader is able to accept that their time must pass.

This repeating pattern of father gods continues to this day, in the form of men and women leaders. These anointed leaders are our models for the human archetype of the father, as the leader plays the role of father for organized groups of people. This is innate to our psyche, seeking out parent archetypes in our lives to create order and stability. We study our parents and our leaders very closely. We identify where they are successful fathers and mothers and where they fall short. This then becomes the quest for the next generation, to improve on the leadership of their elders. There is a quote from Greek myth that represents this well.

At last, when no man is angry any more at wrongdoing or feels shame in the presence of the miserable, Zeus will destroy them too. And yet even then something might be done, if only the common people would rise and put down rulers that oppress them.” (Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology)

One of the developmental tasks of a generation is to challenge their elders with that which they have learned from their observations of them. Yet there is also a humbling truth that while we may have insights the previous generation did not, we are just as vulnerable to the hubris of thinking our truth is the final draft, as history decisively disproves. This attitude creates insecurity in the reformers position, and often presents as aggressive and shaming to those they want to challenge. This ironically, is an act of trying to defeat tyranny with tyranny, and these people have unconsciously already become that which they are trying to usurp.

This sets the stage for the pattern of conflict between old and new to continue onwards. There is a place for using force to eject tyrants, but knowing when to use such force takes discernment and maturity.

While there are many things we must change and reform from the choices of the past, there is also much we must preserve. In current American Politics, we see the republican party as the representatives of the preservation of the old traditions; often tyrannically so. The democrats tend to represent the rebel, and reforming the way we think and act to old issues, often aggressively so. This is the modern day war between Cronus and Ouranos, Zues and Cronus, Jesus and the pantheons, and many other molting forms of predominant thinking throughout the human saga.

The skillful integration of the old and the new still evades us as a species, and we do great violence to each other in the process of creating change. The intention of democracy is so novel seen in this light. A rule of law that attempts to allow the reformer and the traditionalist to battle it out in war of ideas rather than through bloodshed. Yet no container as yet can fully contain the rage that the traditionalist feels towards the rebel and the rebel towards the traditionalist, and people continue to die as a result, even in “civilized” America.

The rage of the reformer is the rage of the young who feel trampled by the old. The rage of feeling that the system doesn’t include them or care. The rage that lies in the yearning of all youth to be properly attended to by their caretakers, and not left to the wayside and abused. The rage of the traditionalist is the rage of people who feel the world crumbling around them, the pillars of their identity threatened, and being told they need to change. It’s the rage of the parent who feels deeply threatened by the anger of their children, and cannot bear the psychological burden of admitting they have failed and disappointed their youth.

And one day we too will be challenged by the generation who tells us of wrongs we commit, and we will be tested as the current elders are being tested. Can we stand for what we believe without harming the challengers? Can we help people learn to speak for themselves without standing for violence? This perhaps is the deeper quest in the game of politics, of handling tyranny, and in negotiating the passing of the baton through the generations of the human story.