In Ideas Have Consequences (1948), Richard Weaver described comfort as the god of modern man. Even in our post-modern times, mass man continues to kneel at the altar of comfort though he occasionally does obeisance to lesser gods such as equality and wokeness. Weaver’s writings challenged man to exchange the ease promised by technological advancement for a strenuous and romantic life that existed in non-materialist societies of days gone by. Specifically, Weaver pointed to the Old South as “the last non-materialist civilization in the Western World” and touted its virtues.
Mass man has shown little inclination to heed Weaver’s advice, but the coronavirus panic of 2020 is shaking people. Indeed, the god of comfort does not look so vigorous today. Comfort resembles the Philistine fertility god Dagon who had the Ark of the Covenant placed at his feet in the temple located in Ashdod. (1 Samuel 5:1-5) The Philistines had captured the Ark after the Israelites, without consulting Jehovah, impiously attempted to use it as some sort of magic box to give them victory in battle. Dagon did not fare well when alone at night with the Ark and was found by his priests toppled from his throne and later decapitated. One can assume the look on the faces of the pagan priests who found the mistreated Dagon to be akin to that of so many Westerners confined to high-rise apartments and surrounded by supplies of toilet paper and packaged meals snatched up as shelter-in-place orders issued.
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