Published: January 31, 2008 11:51 pm            

Is it wise to disport with the devil?

Tantalizing a tiger recently proved deadly for one San Francisco zoo visitor and almost so for two others. “Foolhardy,” commenters dismissed the tragedy, “Reckless.” “What did those kids expect?”

Obviously they expected to enjoy some malicious mischief unscathed, but they underestimated the beast.

We all do.

William Blake composed companion poems entitled “The Lamb,” employing a traditional symbol of Christ, and His adversary, represented by “The Tiger.” From the not-so-subtle fiery imagery throughout, it’s evident that the latter exemplifies the devil. Yet, since Blake adheres to Biblical symbolism in “The Lamb,” why choose a tiger? Why not a serpent?

To most of us, a snake is repulsive, but a tiger in its striking gold and black, is a gorgeous feline, moving with compelling, near-hypnotic grace that Blake perceptively describes as “fearful symmetry” - - beautiful but lethal.

A cynical limerick warns,

There was a young lady of Niger

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

When she returned from her ride,

The lady was inside,

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

“If you sup with the devil, use a long spoon,” counseled Machiavelli, alluding to the medieval custom of diners sharing a common dish. Machiavelli’s implication is sinister: sometimes dealing with the devil may be expedient - - we can outwit him. That is the epitome of arrogance. “The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape,” Shakespeare observed. Satan is not a comic scarlet personification with horns, hoofs, a tail and a pitchfork to be repudiated as archaic superstition, but a relentless evil force with myriads of magnetically charismatic guises. Lying Lucifer is likely to resemble a rock star or a near-naked voluptuous blonde, or whatever entrances us. Preying on our needs for acceptance and affection, the Infernal Impersonator assumes as many aliases as insidious manifestations, enticing with surface glamour and the allure of being cool.

Often taking no physical form, the Ultimate Deceiver emerges as an attitude, a seductively daring thought or modish innovation, promising an ecstatic high on drugs or self-gratification in a plethora of materialism and selfishness.

“You got no reason to be scared of me,” says Mephistopheles the Mendacious. “Look how long you’ve lived with your wife.”

“Hey, babe, gals are entitled to sexual experimentation now, just like guys.”

Horne - - Devil - - 2

“Get with it, man, internet porn’ll turn you on. It’s harmless.”

“You poor thing, you deserve a little fun.”

“Honey, that workaholic nerd neglects you. Make him cry in his beer.”

“Witchcraft’s the hot thing, you’ll get a rush out of these rites.”

If we mentally indulge such inclinations, they gradually change us, then translate into action. We become what we think about.

Old Scratch turns our values topsy-turvy, indoctrinating us with counterfeit “tolerance,” the fallacy that accepting any and all behavior is cool, broadminded, enlightened; and that censuring any, narrow-minded, intolerant, and politically incorrect. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” chanted the witches in Macbeth.

The thing is, we have to judge behavior - - though without condemning - - for some types are cruelly devastating, not only to indulgers, but to those they influence. For several generations adults have destroyed boundaries, though most young people desire such security. We have taught our children that it’s delightful to celebrate high school graduation with extravagant excursions, drugs, recreational sex, excessive use of alcohol, and we and they have suffered excruciating consequences. Sporting with the devil inevitably spawns malignant repercussions for individuals, their families, people they don’t even know, and society in general. In our time it has propagated moral chaos.

Yet this has happened before. Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire describes similar conditions, as do tomes depicting ancient Greece’s final century of western world domination. Our technology has masked the parallels. Human behavior has degenerated almost to the abysmal nadir that caused those and other once ascendant world powers to be overcome by disciplined foes. “America is great because it is good,” proclaimed Alexis de Toqueville. “If it ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.”

Those of us who scoff at the idiocy of amusing oneself by teasing a savage animal might be well advised to contemplate the societal monster we are creating, in which increasing violence, drug usage, dishonesty, corruption, and blatant immorality are the accepted norm. Complacently, we indulge in them with the arrogant insensitivity brought on by a plague of universal blasé acceptance.

T.S. Eliot wrote that the only hope for modern society is a return to traditional religious values. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies shows us that civilization is fragile, poised precariously upon adherence to certain timeless precepts. Without these, humans revert to savagery, to the level of lower animals.

We still have choices. In this new year perhaps each of us should identify his or her personal beast and decline the devil’s table. We can tell Old Arch-Tempter, “Get lost, Creep, before I am. I’m through being fake cool and politically correct. I’m going to face and stand for truth and values and help other people. Minus you, there’s more fun to be had, anyway. You know where you can go, but without me.” By so doing, observing the qualitative distinction between judging behavior and judging people, we can indeed change society.

It’s the tiger that dines on the would-be rider, and a long spoon does no good if the chicken cordon bleu is poisoned.

        

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