Sanders Samson

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. . .