User blogs
HYPERBOREA
In this, my 50th
blog post, I introduce the concept of Hyperborea, by which I mean a state of
mind that is characterized by the principle of awe in the face of Leviathan,
that earthly titan who is man writ large, subordinating all space and matter under
the dominion of commerce.
The name, Hyperborea,
is intended to evoke an image of the frozen north, buffeted by blizzards and blanketed
in snowdrifts that could swallow mere men. Here barbarians make their home, ply
their trades and spill their blood. Such as these, in the days when deities
seemed responsible for the world, would have told their sons and daughters of Odin,
or of Conan’s Crom, both of whom had this in common: they were indifferent to human
suffering, and equally indifferent to human joy, caring only for their own vast
and inscrutable plans. Leviathan is much the same. Not a deity, nor
supernatural in any way, but vast and inscrutable, and as cold and indifferent
as the killing storms of winter.
Worship is wasted on
Leviathan, as is prayer. Sacrifices on smoking altars will go unnoticed, and
chalices of wine or whiskey will go untasted. Pious service in Leviathan’s name
will win you no favor, and in fact makes no sense as priestcraft, for to
live in the modern world is to render service daily to the Gogmagogian
superbeast of human commerce - whether we mean to or not, and whether we like it or not.
One facet of what
some would call “religious experience” remains available to us: the principle
of awe. Tremendous is Leviathan and stupendous is its power! Like a juggernaut
it strides forth into a future that will not be denied it, crushing under its
heel all the forces of inertia or anachronism that stupidly oppose its greedy
and rapacious progress. All will be devoured; all, metabolized; and all that is
useless, excreted. A spectacle such as this has not been seen on the earth
since the early days of insect genesis, when the first six-legged swarms brought
continents under their sway. Leviathan will surpass even this, for what are
mere continents when there are whole new planets to colonize?
Join me in
Hyperborea if you dare. Let us stand on the blustery peaks of frozen mountains
and scan the horizon for signs and portents of Cyclopean enterprise.
I will, of course,
have more to say on this. ISCHYROS DIAVOLOS!
