Events are in the Saddle
The horseman serves the horse,
The neat-herd serves the neat,
The merchant serves the purse,
The eater serves his meat;
'T is the day of the chattel
Web to weave, and corn to grind;
Things are in the saddle,
And ride mankind.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1847
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Emerson’s “things are in the saddle” is often paraphrased as “events are in the saddle.” It’s definitely two different meanings, though both get to the nut on the question of human control of both things and events. In this regards, I was reading the letters of Simone Weil and came across a letter she wrote to her brother right after the Germans had marched into Poland in the fall of 1939.
She wrote,
“The temptation to let newspapers, telegraphy, and current events in general absorb one’s time and mind is very great, but intellectually dangerous.” (Yasha has nice contemporary piece on this)
“The very people who have spent their lives actively involved with current events in pursuit of some goal or other are now forced to abandon [their involvement], and make do with the limited work that has been assigned to them by fate. For destiny settles everything now, and after destiny, the decisions that a few men in positions of power around the world might be called on to make at a moment's notice when facing unexpected situations. The role of private individuals is indefinitely non-existent, outside of activities suited to private individuals. Those who tried to go on beyond these limits would either be totally powerless to do so or risk achieving a result contrary to their desires, regardless in fact of what their desires might be, given how much stronger events now are than man.”
This struck me for its immediacy. Once again, the US bombs another peoples. There’s nothing in the whole mess of things and events that makes one feel more politically powerless than the complete inability to effect the black heart of the military leviathan at the foundation of American life.
Yet, Weil’s quote made me think of much more than this event and of the general political atmosphere in America across my lifetime. I was from a very young age a news junkie. When I got into politics, for awhile I could fool myself in thinking my junkiedom was part of my job. Over time, as I watched the decline of democracy in America and most especially the total retreat of most individuals into the activities of private affairs, it became increasingly clear I was completely incapable, no matter my desires, of impacting the events I was concerned. And as Weil notes, my actions, especially in regards to electing people, were achieving results contrary to my desires.
Much worse, as democracy in America atrophied, the few men in positions of power making decisions at a moment’s notice to unexpected situations rose, though they too are more puppets of fate than either they or we care to believe. More importantly, this ability for the few to unilaterally act is very much a symptom of political decline. There is an incredible inertia across all American politics at this point, an inertia effortlessly moving people and events as if any and all knowledge previously gained from the exact same actions is instantaneously forgotten.
Weil recommended,
“In so far is one thinks about current events, it's necessary to try and focus the mind on studies, like history, strategy, etc., that prepare one to understand them without becoming directly engaged. Even if knowledge in such subjects were never to serve any purpose, acquiring such know-how allows one to avoid being demoralized during the bad periods the world must go to (what in the 17th century was called the misfortune of the times). But for that one needs books."
I found a soul-sister. Though all said, Weil never disengaged. At the end of her short, beautiful life she was still contemplating how to create a nursing corp that would be parachuted onto the war’s front lines.
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