Just Empty Shadows

 Gods and men - they're all the same to me in the rampant confusion of unpredictable fate. They march through my dreams in this anonymous fourth-floor room, and they're no more to me than they were to those who believed in them. Idols of leery, wide-eyed Africans, animal deities of hinterland savages, the Egyptians'' personified symbols, luminous Greek divinities, stiff Roman gods, Mithras lord of the Sun and of emotion, Jesus lord of consequences and charity, various versions of the same Christ, new holy gods of new towns - all of them make up the funeral march (be it a pilgrimage or burial) of error and illusion. They all march, and behind them march the dreams that are just empty shadows cast on the ground but that the worst dreamers suppose are firmly planted there; pathetic concepts without body or soul - Liberty, Humanity, Happiness, a Better Future, Social Science - moving forward in the solitude of darkness like leaves dragged along by the train of a royal robe stolen by beggars. 

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, text 273

I think this is an especially brilliant passage, and there's a lot to unpack here. First off, I'm shamelessly stealing his reference to "luminous Greek divinities, stiff Roman gods," for my epics book. I've often proposed, and not originally, that the Greek gods were gods for the individual, while the Roman gods were more gods for the state (and you could more generally make the same argument about Greek vs. Roman heroes), so I guess it's not too surprising that Pessoa would refer to the Greeks gods as "luminous" or the Roman gods as "stiff." Of course, Pessoa is also talking about other "empty shadows" as well, including Liberty or Happiness or a Better Future, all of which "march through [Pessoa's] dreams in this anonymous fourth-flood room." I don't think I'm necessarily agreeing with Pessoa here, because we need dreams, even if they are "pathetic concepts without body or soul." Some people, mainly on the right, have been making fun of Kamala Harris's message of hope, but to me that's just a postured world weariness. Thucydides, when discussing the Peloponnesian War, reminded us how fear can warp the human soul. Trump both feeds off fear and also generates more fear, because it is a good marketing strategy, but this fear doesn't exist in a vacuum - I do think it is warping the soul of America.