It
ain't necessarily so
no
it ain't
necessarily so
De tings
dat yr liable
to read
in de
Bible
well
dey ain't necessarily so. . .
With that proviso in mind, I've been revisiting the Samson
story (Judges 16). Samson is, loosely speaking, the Hercules of Hebrew
scripture, incredibly strong, capable of tearing a lion apart with his bare
hands and beating back the massed enemies of his people with but a jawbone.
It's hard to resist comparing his death to that of Hercules:
Deianira, who trapped Hercules
in the poisoned cloak of fire that burns him to death, is roughly comparable to
Delilah, who, by cutting off his hair, deprives Samson of his divinely imparted
superpower.
Worthwhile as that comparison may be, it's not the direction
I want to take right now.
I'm drawn to the end of the story, where Samson, weak, captured
by his enemies, and about to be executed, begs Yahweh for one last surge of strength,
and, when it arrives, uses it to bring the temple of the enemy down on himself
and all those around him:
Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple
on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died
than while he lived.
I think Sanders is in late Samson mode. Don't know where he
thinks his power comes from — Yahweh or Zeus; Norman Thomas, Eugene V. Debs, FDR,
or Leon Trotsky — he's willing to use
this late life power to bring the edifice down on himself and his enemies
alike.
He doesn't seem to know or care what the world will look
like after such a collapse.
Then
again:
It
ain't necessarily so
no
it ain't
necessarily so
De tings
dat yr liable
to read
in de
Bible
well
dey ain't necessarily so. . .
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