Epitaph on a Tyrant
Epitaph on a Tyrant
W.H. Auden (1907-1973)
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the street.
This poem, published in 1940, speaks to this moment when another tyrant is crying.
But Vladimir Putin is an easy mark. Everyone is piling on, which creates a moment of self righteousness: We civilized people would never act in this way!
This poem, like every verse of Scripture, is truly understood when we use it as a lamp to illumine our own shadow side, and not a blunt instrument with which to club our enemies.
You could of course name other “good” nation’s wars and “military operations” that have left children dead in the street, but you could also reflect on your own life. Where have I enforced some version of my own “perfection”? This is the departure point for tyrants, Auden suggests. Not brutality, at least not to start, but perfection, some ideal that is more important than other people’s lives.
Most of us have lived with a tyrant, at home or at work. We can avoid tyranny by laying down our need for perfection and seeking wholeness instead.
Timely and timeless insight, David. Reminds me of Kenneth Burke’s comment, “Mankind is rotten with perfection.”
So much to ponder in those 5 words.
Perfection here is another word for power. People like VVP think the world will be “perfect” if they rule it. One of the temptations of Jesus was religious power, i.e., he was taken to the top of the temple and offered the opportunity to do what he pleased as a religious leader. He declined. Religious power can be deadly. Check out Diana Butler Bass’s “Next Year in Kiyv.” Sorry, no link, but you can probably Google it.
Thank you, Ann—that’s a great insight, the wilderness temptation of Jesus, and the lure of religious power.
Thanks. Sorry I misspelled Kyiv.
What is perfect? Can such a state actually exist in a world of perception where each individual interprets what is perceived through myriad layers of mental filters (belief systems) that are peculiar to them?
I’ve been a carpenter for many years and have worked on numerous projects for individuals that emphatically expressed that they wanted the outcome of the project to be perfect. What I learned through these various projects where the originator of the project wanted/demanded perfection, was that what one person recognizes as being perfect can vary widely and wildly from how another person recognizes perfection.
I consider that the idea of perfection is highly individualized and is a component of a person’s unique reality that has been constructed out of their interpretations of what they have perceived. While these unique realities can be shared, agreed upon, disagreed with, embraced or rejected; it is only when one begins to enforce their own reality onto another or others that trouble ensues.