The stump of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is a monument to something. As we think of it, we picture again the tree that once stretched toward the heavens, sheltering the birds and shading creatures below. The tree stretches between heaven and earth in its solid trunk, to dig deep into the soil with roots, and gather richness there to mingle with the fierce energy of the sun that enters its searching leaves above. The two worlds, heaven and earth, are the sources of the life of the tree. Now we see the capped stump, banded in bronze and iron in a picture of the violence and cutting short of aspiration by the intervention of the technologies, represented in succession of the ages. All aspiration is directed toward and consumed by the metallurgies that violently reshaped the world of man in the times of empire. The very earth of the rooted stump yields ore, burned in the captured energy of other trees and heated until a means becomes an end. A figurative end, the capped end of the stump, is now all that remains of what once was the path that connected the earth and heaven.
Nebuchadnezzar became a beast, yes, but what was he before he was a beast? And what did he become after? A beast by action of his own choice, becoming an abridged creature considering only self made power like the bronze and iron. A beast with roots, but no possibility of ascent. Could it be that man has two warring natures? Can man discard one and live with a new and self installed end, one forged by power? The dream stump gives us a picture worth many words. A stump so bound where once the energy of a star made its path, is now a terminus for self justifying metal. Why expand the empire? Because we can. We have the power and the forging of weapons – and our appetites are met in the forging and getting. A young man dreams of accomplishment and acquisition. Sometimes the two are seen as the same thing. Why go to school? To be fashioned and chopped, bluntly shod in a gleaming technical garb and restraint. To get a job. In a way of seeing, the tree now wears its grounding, the ore of its subterranean and dark communication, as a kind of crown. Glory in the earthly.
What of these roots? We concern ourselves with the radical – Latin ‘radix’ – the root. The word that comically gives us the radish, gives us the radicalized. Nebuchadnezzar is radicalized and turned upon himself to the root. A rooted essence is the possibility of one nature of Man. This digging ever closer to the earth. But this one essence isn’t the only center of Man.
Those who believe in destinies and origins believe in not only material but immaterial substance. We remark on the divine substance shared by the trinity in the Creed. This is certainly not ‘matter’. Some people do meditate substantively. Those that don’t find that only matter matters. But Essence matters. A dusty concept now set aside by productive people, the notion of essence and the possibility of the essential appears extra to the tasks of living and enjoying or pursuing happiness. What difference can an idea like this have under the tyranny of economy and productivity?
An idea that Aristotle brought forward in order to arrest his teacher Plato’s seemingly endless dilation on the meaning of the term ‘good’, the stipulation of the essential makes us separate the ‘essence’ of goodness from the application of the concept when talking about good actions, good feelings, good times, or good pizzas. The idea was that something in its essence was completely comprehended. This does not mean that things are completely comprehensible though. This is why essence exasperates. What good is an ‘essence’ (the essential) if I can’t ever grasp it? Think of the essence of a grandmother or a day at the beach or simply Man.
When we approach this problem directly, we can’t tell if man is an animal who is particularly reasonable, or if he is a god who is particularly insane. We do know, however, the difference between an ape and an angel. If you claim not to, then imagine sitting on a bus between the two. We know this by intuition, another idea from the past that has fewer adherents than the universal assent of not so long ago. It is this necessity of intuition in life that embarrasses the spirit of our age. Bertrand Russell confuted the reality and utility of Essences as an old idea of Aristotle’s that has no content, and proclaims (needlessly, I think, given the first assertion) that he has not use for the idea. Heraclitus would say ‘for this reason a dog barks also at what he doesn’t understand’.
An Essence can be understood as a root or wellspring of being for any given instance of a thing. Radix to radical, the radicalization of a thing is its turning to the essence. Radical still connotes strange to us, and that is because in our life it is odd to see anything or anyone essential. People who have been to war have seen it, and the disciples saw it.
Radicalization in current rhetoric is a term applied to the process whereby a harmless person becomes a dangerous terrorist. It appears that pursuing a root, or essence, renders one unfit for society. I wonder what sort of plant Man is that he has such strange roots. In order to think of this, I must concern myself with essences. In this case, what is the root or essence of man?
Ignorance of the essential leads to inadvertent trivialization. Bertrand Russell ran a private school with the idea that children needed no structure and that imposed morality obscured their potential. Strange idea for a man ignorant of essentials, or maybe not. The children ran wild and often naked, and like Nebuchadnezzar, didn’t read books but formed a ‘Lord of the Flies’ culture. Like Nebuchadnezzar, some of the children recovered themselves, and in later life looked back on the experience of Russell’s school with contempt. Russell himself fathered a team of illegitimate children. The unrooted, inconsequential and temporary is the realm of things non-essential. What is the root of Man? “Know thyself…”
Consider Man to be an amphibian. He resides in the stars or surges from the muck. In either context he appears essentially different. As an animal, he is different because he is rational. As an eternal, he is different because he is mortal. When he regards himself as a god, he devours his fellows. When he sees himself in the dust, he lifts others to the heavens. Rootedness depends on essential understanding, and much of man’s essence depends on what he believes, either by choice or faith. Radicalization is the path of authentic life, horrifying or beatific. Ignore essence by blinding yourself to the conscience and intuition, and you will surely gravitate to the roots of the essential animal who regards himself as a god. Essential rootedness depending on the essence cultivated grows either the tree of life or the gallows. We see again the Tree and the Stump of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Leave a Reply