PROMETHEUS:
THE FIRST FREEDOM FIGHTER
The archetype of Prometheus reflects a recognition that freedom is the most fundamental fact in the cosmos. The cosmos is inconceivable without consciousness, and consciousness rests on intention. Free will, however conditioned, is a prerequisite of anyone being personally accountable for meaningful actions. Many things condition thought, constrain the will, and limit the imagination. But the capacity to exercise individual freedom despite these factors is the basis of any meaningful idea about existence.
FREEDOM IS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL FACT IN THE COSMOS…
Prometheus also epitomizes forethought. His very name means to “think ahead.” This is meant not just in a pragmatic sense, but also points to a deeper instinct for the gestalt nature of what is truth. Prometheus then imbued Man with these qualities to liberate him from totalitarianism and nature’s travails. When Zeus chains him to the mountainside, the eagle devouring his liver is an expression of the tyrant Zeus seeking to do what tyrants do: degenerate the creative, forward-thinking nature of Man so he may be supplicated, and to appropriate the superior Promethean powers of precognition, projection, and vision for himself. His nightly healing symbolizes the inborn and relentless power of Man for revitalization and regeneration, his inalienable creative capacity. The purpose of this definitively Promethean power is to expand humanity’s scope of free will and self-determination, to champion that he is not constrained within a sense of inexorable fate. By foreseeing possible futures, we may capture the opportunity to become the masters of our own destiny.
The Promethean spirit, a spirit which lies deeply within us, is an emblem of the inborn ability of the human individual to free himself through invention, science and creative enterprise. He is the bold symbol which declares the redefinition of the preconceived limits of the possible, making what once seemed impossible possible by means of creative will. The Promethean spirit is the strength to grasp the burdensome fact that even “knowledge” itself is not merely the mirroring of an objective ‘Reality’ by a limited, subjective individual’s mind. That we may grasp the external reality of things only by being more perceptive and precise. The Promethean instinct in fact grasps something profound which speaks like thunder to our modern preconceptions: that creativity, insight and enterprise exist prior to technology and science. That instead of a static thing owned by the elite/pharisees, a paradigm which constrains technological innovation, scientific knowledge itself is a white light of molten metal in the forge of industrious innovation. That every individual possesses this heroic forge within his breast.
SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE ITSELF IS A WHITE LIGHT OF MOLTEN METAL IN THE FORGE OF INDUSTRIOUS INNOVATION…
Prometheus brought the gift of techne to mankind. This techne or “craft” is not just technology but also the fine arts. Prometheus, as the creator of mankind, installs in us our most profound nature: the fire of inspiration as a sacred fountainhead of creativity. The inspirational power of beauty is an expression of the evolutionary force. A seduction to surmounting limitations is what ought to resonate within oneself in the face of harmonic proportionality or dynamic tension of an aesthetic work, whether in literature, painting, architecture, music, performing art, and of course great statuary.
Prometheus, as a loving father, sacrificed himself as a martyr for the sake of emancipating his children in order to imbue Man with this power of forethought. This makes him a paragon of ethics, the great exemplar for the cultivation of ethos. This ethos is embedded in his gift to the heart of Man – the gift of “craft” in the arts or sciences. The ethos requires that we recognize the fact that cultivating ethos, personally and socially, is about the pursuit of excellence. The Promethean, to which all are deeply called to aspire, has no tolerance for the pseudo moral outrage which demands so-called ‘social justice’ by valorizing disability and resentfully desecrating everything that which memorializes the achievement of those who excelled in their endeavors. The Promethean is a triumphant calling, not a mugger in an underpass.
PROMETHEUS IS A PARAGON OF ETHICS, THE GREAT EXEMPLAR FOR THE CULTIVATION OF ETHOS…
The individual pursuit of excellence is integral to being an authentic and conscientious human being who can contribute to fostering an ethical society, which in turn also provides children with an environment that encourages them to excel. An ethos – a character or moral fiber – geared toward the enhancement of capacities for creative expression does in fact depend on us embracing a mythos. Personal meaning cannot be forged by fiat from out of a cultural/historical vacuum. Individuals must draw from the mythic structures of living traditions, and the archetypes that sustain these structures on the level of the collective unconscious. But ethical conduct always involves a situational adaptation and appropriation of this heritage, not a subservience to it that is tantamount to a tyranny of the past over present and future generations. Our traditional heritage ought to inspire us positively rather than possess us. We believe the mythos of Prometheus is the most psychologically and socially powerful archetypal basis for an ethical society.
Prometheus rebels against his fellow titans, then rebels against the Olympian gods, who prove equally tyrannical, for the sake of Man. Resistance to any authority that is perceived to be arbitrary and illegitimate is integral to the Promethean ethos as well as the American ethos. Governments are legitimate only insofar as they serve to secure industrious and exploratory enterprise. The only justification of sovereign power is to secure the liberty of those individuals to pursue their enterprise.
THE ONLY JUSTIFICATION OF SOVEREIGN POWER IS TO SECURE THE LIBERTY OF THOSE INDIVIDUALS TO PURSUE ACTS OF CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT AND MEANING…
The Colossal Monument to Prometheus declares that governments unchain all economic dynamism to empower the industrious individual and to protect people from a dehumanization and degradation of their existence. The torch which Prometheus holds aloft burns for the freedom from collective coercion and freedom for the personal pursuit of meaning, purpose, wonder, and creative power. It demonstrates disdain for those states built to undermine the beauty of our nature, both at home and across the seas.
The Colossal Monument to Prometheus also declares unashamedly that Man is a heroic being, built for overcoming, deepening self-knowledge, and triumphantly creative endeavor. It is a bold lightning rod of courage that we do not renege on the human, Promethean, principle: that the soul endowed to Man has as its essential character personal meaning-making as a process of metamorphosis. The Colossus of Prometheus exemplifies the beauty of a bright American future of transformation, betterment, optimism, and human triumph. The great age of enlightened freedom is yet to come.