Current essay is a literary attempt to assess modern moral conditions through the prism of prevailing sins of our Western civilization. Following the outstanding example of Dante we will fight with demons embedded in human souls using strict and effective contrapassi that is by finding the types of punishment they deserve and finally putting them into adequate niche in inferno.
As civilization developed traditional sins became ridiculous to it. To kill, to rob and plunder, to betray: these sins are banal, aren’t they? They are so wide-spread that God ultimately understood that it is useless to oppose devilish human nature and social conditions that nurtured it. If something is normal (remember etymology of the word ‘norm’) then it should be welcomed.
This covenant of Devil and all conformists should be learned well by Saints. Indeed, Devil is a conformist or may be a HR manager since he exploits those segments of human nature that are helpful in his struggles with God.
Generating and developing sins is his well-designed strategy of creating human capital in modern society which is in its own right may be described as under-Moon reincarnation of Inferno. The hell is not the other world: it is our world in which paradise became its another name. Sinners are no longer placed in inferno: they have created their own paradise: everything has mingled – what a devilish grimace!
In modern world sins became innocuous: instead of being something that is punished they are extensively sanctioned by society. Calvinist God said: ‘Be individualist, your fate is predetermined – if you become rich and respected it is a sign of your being blessed by me’. Judaist God said: ‘Banks should work on Saturday: it is necessary to maintain economy viable’; Pope said: ‘Folks, freedom is a great evil, Christ was a conservative, human history didn’t see uglier interpretation than those heretics made by saying that ‘The last will be the first’ – is a call for revolution’. All gods became demagogues and populists or better say – ideologists – it was really a great progress of our civilization.
Honestly saying, we, the new sinners, are puzzled by how to classify our sins. First of all, what are they?
The first great sin produced by modern civilization is apathy, depression, hypochondria, spleen – any other words for the same thing? It makes people indifferent to what happens in their life, to other people and what is more important to their company.
To punish these sinners we encloister them into the walls of modern corporation. You would probably ask: whether they are not there already? Yes! What an insightful person you are! They are already in hell and will stay there forever, unless… Every crime has its punishment, Crime and Punishment – remember what Dostoevsky told us! As Englishmen sing at Guy Fawkes Night: ‘A pint of beer to rinse it down/ A faggot of sticks to burn him/Burn him in a tub of tar/Burn him like a blazing star/Burn his body from his head/Hip hip hoorah!/Hip hip hoorah hoorah! Replace these ugly tortures with trainings, corporate ethics, motivation and you will receive modern tortures: not tortures of body but tortures of soul.
The second great sin produced by modern civilization is hypocrisy. Who is not hypocritical? May be you, my reader? Say yes : it would be a great testament of your sin. Hypocrisy is our daily sin: oh, how banal it is! How often do you sinners take off your ugly masks? You even can’t put them aside: so firmly they are stuck to your faces.
This devilish carnival called society is a paradise for hypocrisy and even mirrors are smiling with servile grimace. This sin is so wide-spread and rooted in the nature of the moderns that it is difficult to find appropriate punishment. Who will be left on this poor Earth if this punishment is executed? So let’s be merciful, punish them with our love, with our hypocrisy!
The third big modern sin is debauchery. Though it was characteristic of the entire history of civilization it didn’t see so widespread dominance of debauchery as we, the sinners, enjoy now. Debauchery was something prohibited by Catholic church, something that was punished severely.
All books and pictures depicting the scenes of debauchery were burnt in holy fire. Strict rules of morality didn’t allow debauchery to progress. This is not to say that there were no lust and debauchery at all. Naturally it is existed but what do we moderns see know? Debauchery debauches itself. It is sanctioned by society which is by large devoid of religious principles that dominated in the past.
Modern society is secular par excellence and this secularism generates debauchery exponentially to the decline of morality and religious spirit. Debauchery is everywhere: on TV, radio, mass culture, in naked women bodies used as a crude material for advertising. If in the past debauchery hided in the black corners of our imagination, today it is on the march. Moral purity becomes the exclusion; moreover it is ridiculous to modern obscene consciousness.
Those who were the paramount of humanity are now mocked out everywhere: mass culture is in avant-garde of this defamation campaign. It is difficult to imagine the sin uglier than the sin of lust and debauchery! But how lusty it is! Don’t think that we speak from the instance of moral authority. We speak from the instance of sin and here we are, all we – moderns!
Once again we are at odds, what is the punishment for this sin? Dante would probably invent one. But he was sinless, he was Christian. And we? We are the sinners who love our sins and the punishment we impose on others. So let’s be merciless in relation to debauchery of others! You, debauchers, you are not men, you are TV channels, stupid dolls producing noise on the scene, you are advertisers inciting foul motives! What a charade you are!!! What a fun to be here with you!
At last our travel through modern sins valley is over. Unlike Dante we didn’t use the metaphor of Hell and its religious connotations.
We, the modern sinners, are too realistic to believe in Inferno. We are even more realistic to believe in anything. We don’t even pretend that we are sinless. This word is omitted from our vocabularly and we don’t use it to reproach somebody but only to mock at people. The disintegration of religious consciousness has left us with cold science and utilitarian routine of our daily life. It is impossible to change it, unless…
Sin has transformed from a moral category into a joke, obscene one. What was a sin now is a law, what was a Hell now is Death, mere nothingness. The contrapassi that were designed by us for modern sinners are so humane: we just left them stay where they are: doing their jobs, seeking for career growth, realizing their individualistic desires.
‘These are not proper punishments’ – somebody would say and will be wrong: can anybody imagine more severe punishment than incarcerating poor God creatures in the castle of ‘the best of all possible worlds?!