The Victory of Man

 

I've been trying to develop some artistic talent, and thus have been playing around with various apps on my computer and iPad each of which promise to produce art that is beyond what my talent and taste would normally produce.  But one of the low-effort things I came up with is the photo in this post.  I considered it a variation on Shelley's Ozymandias.  More specifically, an intermediate step along the way to Ozymandias.  While in Shelley's poem, the great king's worldly triumph is entirely erased by time except for his bold pronouncements of greatness.  In the modern parlance, he made claims of grandeur "that didn't age well."  In my drawing, I tried to express the impulsive zeal that accompanies worldly success: perhaps a politician defeats a corrupt incumbent ushering in a new era of hope or satisfying a yearning or change.  Or perhaps a development project is defeated due to community activism.  Regardless "the good guys" won.  However, hardly before the paint is dry, it starts to fade due to the persistent effects of time and entropy.  But it's not gone yet, and to my mind, that's just as poignant.

I'm reminded of the Boomer phenomenon that I witnessed growing up.  Boomers were going to change the world and bring down the System.  Then they grew up, got MBAs, bought BMWs and ended up becoming part of the System that they rebelled against as idealistic youths.  In my poor attempt and political commentary, I imaging this half-faded image remaining in place so the people that have grown up and sold out (a common complaint I heard among the boomers) have to walk by it every day and be reminded of (a) how stupid they used to be or (b) how stupid they are now (take your pick).

The Moral of the Story is that God, through the inexorable motions of time and nature, has the last word on whether this particular moment is a victory or a defeat.  And humans are part of nature (in my mind, I want to do a similar painting where the "Victory!" has been painted over, but am working on how to depict that so the words are painted over but still legible).  We do our part, but we shouldn't delude ourselves that our victories will be permanent or that our defeats cannot be overcome.

In the Catholic Church, the "conservative" side seemed ascendent with the back-to-back papacies of John-Paul II and Benedict XVI, then Francis came and undid it all.  Will his ideas and schemes survive his papacy?  Or will the Roman maxim of "Fat Pope-Skinny Pope" prove true yet again?  We'll see. 

God alone knows.  Victory belongs to Him and those who love and follow Him.