His Flickering Greatness

Paradise Lost: Illustration by Gustave Doré

Columnist Maureen Dowd on Sunday in an Op-Ed in The New York Times appropriately titled “Flickering Greatness” chronicles the self-consumed persona of our President against the backdrop of the Friday derailment of his "legacy" and "reputation." “Obama must wonder if the moment of his greatness is flickering.”

“The Obama White House has managed Congress poorly, with arrogance — or worse, neglect.”

“Obama has always resented the idea that it mattered for him to charm and knead and whip and hug and horse-trade his way to legislative victories, to lubricate the levers of government with personal loyalty.”

Dowd insists it is all about him. “Obama casts himself as the man alone in the arena, refusing to let Democrats stand on stage with him at key moments or even give them a lift in his limo.”

Obama’s self-consumed persona is a common syndrome transcending kings and time. Consider the proverb of the King of Babel who morphs into something insidious:

“Take up this proverb against the king of Babylon... He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger.... How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down.... They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms” (cf. Isaiah 14:4-16).

How can I be saved?

The Rebuilding of Babel

Babel, Valckenborch 1595

“And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.” “He was a mighty hunter before [against] the LORD,” a hunter of the postdiluvian monsters of that world as well as a hunter of men, “wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD” “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel” in land of Shinar. There he compelled them to build a city and a tower that reached to the heavens to make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But God had said: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,” NOT build cities and towers.

“And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower.... And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language... and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.... let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel....” (Genesis 11:5-9)

Today, another son of Cush brandishing the unmitigated arrogance of Nimrod is driven by a frenzied lust for the “unilateral authority” (Trade Promotion Authority) to enslave the people of the earth, and compel them to build again Babel and her tower!

How can I be saved?

The Babel Syndrome

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:1-9)