We worry quite a bit about what has changed and is changing in society and whether
help is still possible before it's too late. It's not too late, provided we get rid of the
apprentices and bring the master back to set things straight.
Goethe's "The
Sorcerer's Apprentice" comes to mind whenever thinking about all of what is happening
to us and our society.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
That old sorcerer has vanished
And for once has gone away!
Spirits called by him, now banished,
My commands shall soon obey.
Every step and saying
That he used, I know,
And with sprites obeying
My arts I will show.
Flow, flow onward
Stretches many
Spare not any
Water rushing,
Ever streaming fully
downward
Toward the pool in current
gushing.
Come, old broomstick, you are needed,
Take these rags and wrap them round you!
Long my orders you have heeded,
By my wishes now I've bound you.
Have two legs and stand,
And a head for you.
Run, and in your hand
Hold a bucket too.
Flow, flow onward
Stretches many,
Spare not any
Water rushing,
Ever streaming fully
downward
Toward the pool in current
gushing.
See him, toward the shore he's racing
There, he's at the stream already,
Back like lightning he is chasing,
Pouring water fast and steady.
Once again he hastens!
How the water spills,
How the water basins
Brimming full he fills!
Stop now, hear me!
Ample measure
Of your treasure
We have gotten!
Ah, I see it, dear me, dear
me.
Master's word I have forgotten!
Ah, the word with which the master
Makes the broom a broom once more!
Ah, he runs and fetches faster!
Be a broomstick as before!
Ever new the torrents
That by him are fed,
Ah, a hundred currents
Pour upon my head!
No, no longer
Can I please him,
I will seize him!
That is spiteful!
My misgivings grow the
stronger.
What a mien, his eyes how
frightful!
Brood of hell, you're not a mortal!
Shall the entire house go under?
Over threshold over portal
Streams of water rush and thunder.
Broom accursed and mean,
Who will have his will,
Stick that you have been,
Once again stand still!
Can I never, Broom, appease
you?
I will seize you,
Hold and whack you,
And your ancient wood
I'll sever,
With a whetted axe I'll crack
you.
He returns, more water dragging!
Now I'll throw myself upon you!
Soon, Oh goblin, you'll be sagging.
Crash! The sharp axe has undone you.
What a good blow, truly!
There, he's split, I see.
Hope now rises newly,
And my breathing's free.
Woe betide me!
Both halves scurry
In a hurry,
Rise like towers
There beside me.
Help me, help, eternal powers!
Off they run, till wet and wetter
Hall and steps immersed are lying.
What a flood that naught can fetter!
Lord and master, hear me crying! -
Ah, he comes excited.
Sir, my need is sore.
Spirits that I've cited
My commands ignore.
"To the
lonely
Corner, broom!
Hear your doom.
As a spirit
When he wills, your master
only
Calls you, then 'tis time to
hear it."
1779, translation by Edwin Zeydel,
1955
How often at work we see that someone wants to eliminate a
work process, a procedure, without understanding it's purpose, its history of evolution,
and thereby summons a whole set of problems that everybody had forgotten about or never
knew; problems that the problematic procedure or process — a solution to a
long-forgotten problem — had been solving perfectly or almost so for quite some
time.
What would be wrong with trying to perfect a solution that may be found wanting?
If one has a hang nail, then there are better solutions than to amputate the afflicted
finger or even the whole hand.
Isn't it just the same with the eradication of the family? Problems are
re-emerging to plague us that humanity never wrote down because they had been solved
before writing had been invented or had been solved a long as 5,000 to 2,000 years
ago. The progress that civilization made during the past few thousand years is being
rapidly undone in a mad rush that began when a few decades ago we started to dismantle the
family and other social traditions, as we try our best to return to the paganism of the
stone age and the moral standards of the jungle.
We should at least get rid of the apprentices. They sure are making a mess of
things.
