Some old stories about Thor in the land of the
frost giants bring a
perspective to the supposed debacle of the past
mid-term elections.
(Commentary follows the mythology).
Adventures of Thor
Thor in Utgard
When Loki and Thor set out to visit Utgard, city
of the giants of Jotunheim, they came
across a peasant's cottage, and going in were
made welcome by the peasant, who
unfortunately had not enough food to satisfy
the voracious appetite of the thunder god.
Thor, however, seeing the problem, killed his
goats, and they ate the meat, Thor's strict
instructions being that no-one should break any
of the bones.
The peasant's son, however, a lad called Thialfi,
unable to resist, broke a tiny bone and
sucked the marrow. When morning came, Thor gathered
the bones of his goats together,
waved his hammer over them, and they sprang back
to life. Thor noticed, however, that
one of them limped slightly, and he perceived
that his orders had been disobeyed.
Furious, he demanded to know who had defied him,
and Thialfi admitted that it had been he.
Because the lad confessed of his own free will,
Thor relented, and took Thialfi with him to Utgard.
On the way there, the trio encountered a huge
mansion with five rooms, and they slept in
one. During the night they were disturbed by
terrible noises, and on awakening the next
morning found that the mansion they had slept
in was in fact the glove of a huge giant,
who introduced himself as Skrymir. The giant's
ribbing annoyed Thor, and he cast his
hammer three times at Skrymir's head, but the
giant just shrugged the blows off contemptuously.
Finally he left, advising the three to stay away
from Utgard. They went anyway.
Greeted by the king of the city, Utgard-Loki,
the three were asked to prove themselves
worthy to sit at table with giants, and Thialfi
offered to race their fastest youth, but though
he ran his fastest, his opponent always outstripped
him, sometimes arriving back at the finish
line before Thialfi had left. Disheartened, the
boy admitted he was defeated, and Loki
challenged their best eater. Although he ate
like a horse, Loki could not beat his opponent
either, who not only ate the meat and bones,
but the dishes and table as well.
Finally, it was Thor's turn. Given a huge horn
to drink from, he was told that their weakest man
could empty it in three draughts, but though
he drank long and deep, by the time he had taken
his third attempt at emptying it, the horn was
still almost full. Next, he was asked to try to pick up
Utgard-Loki's cat, but could only move one paw
off the ground. Finally, much embarrassed, he
challenged the giant's best wrestler, but Utgard-Loki
scoffed that his giants would not lower
themselves, in the light of how the thunder god
had acquitted himself so far. But if he liked,
said the king slyly, Thor could wrestle his old
grandmother. Dismayed, Thor found himself
struggling against the old crone, who in fact
forced him down to one knee.
Much ashamed, the trio partook of Utgard-Loki's
hospitality, and the next day made to
leave. But the king met them at the gate, and
explained to them that they should not feel so
disheartened: for the youth Thialfi had raced
was none other than thought, which no man
can beat in speed, Loki's opponent had been fire,
which devours everything, and as for
Thor, the first of his feats, the lowering of
the level in the drinking-horn, Utgard-Loki
explained that the horn had one of its ends in
the sea, and the level of the sea in that area
had gone down a considerable distance due to
the thunder god's massive draught. The cat
Thor had tried to lift had been Jormungand, the
world serpent, and the giants had been
much afraid to see that the thunder god could
actually lift one of its feet up! And the old
woman had been old age, against which no man
has defense. The king of the giant city
also admitted that he had been Skrymir, and that
he had only avoided serious injury from
Thor's hammer by moving a mountain between his
head and Mjollnir.
Hearing of the deception, Thor hurled his hammer
at Utgard-Loki, but the giant had
disappeared, as had the city.
_______________
Commentary:
Although the frost giants were indeed formidable,
and acted arrogant and
contemptuous of their smaller opponents,
they knew they had much to fear,
despite their braggadacio act. They didn't dare
engage them in fair contests,
and instead used their mastery of sorcery to
set them up in unwinnable matches,
to gauge their strength. While the Asgardians
hung their heads in shame at their
apparent one-sided losses, the frost giants knew
the truth of what the Asgardians
were up against. They hadn't performed badly,
despite appearances. The frost giants
knew they were no match for the Asgardians except
for their magicks which confused
their smaller foes, misleading them about what
was truly happening. Once the spell
was over, the frost giants quickly vanished,
afraid of their dimunitive foes in any fair fight.
Democrats haven't been contesting politics against
Bush alone. They were
up against greed ('it's YOUR MONEY!!!!'), and
the love of money is the
root of all evil. They have been up against the
money that money has put
up to win more money, huge contributions from
corporations that stand to
make billions. The GOP spent $200 million more
than the Democrats, but
another $50 million was spent by the pharmaceutical
company to tout what
a good plan the one they had the GOP pass in
the House is (covers 6% of
seniors). Their investment in buying up all of
the media (90%+ of all radio,
broadcast and cable television, magazines, newspapers,
and internet is owned
by just 5 international corporations) had added
a supercharger to the effect of
the more obvious right wing media. They use it
mercilessly, character
assassinating Clinton and Gore and the Democrats
with endless smears.
Yes, Clinton handled it better than Gore, but
he was still badly trashed
and sorely weakened.
Democrats have been up against terror and fear
as well. Experts in psychological
operations knew how to traumatize the country,
and knew the response would be
a flight to authority for security. They planned
for it, and relied on the media to
compliantly beat the drums for them, and they
did. They used the usual method
of a third party to bleed off Democrat voters,
and told the voters they favored
all the Democrats policies, except their versions
were patriotic, and the Dems' not.
Against this mighty juggernaut of unprecedented
power to command the
nation's agenda through the media, how have the
Democrats fared?
They won the presidency three times in a row,
the last time having it stolen.
They picked up seats in the House and the Senate
in '96, '98, and '00, picked up
net more governorships (including a net gain
in 2002), and regained majority
control of state legislatures. All the closest
Senate races were in 'red' states,
that had gone for Bush, many by large margins,
and they were very competitive
in many of these, with only 50,000 in Missouri
and New Hampshire making the
difference in keeping the Senate majority, even
with two dead senators. Without
two dead senators, losing the Senate wouldn't
have even been in question.
And the GOP has had to camouflage their policies
as the same as Democratic
policies, lying about their true agenda, to gain
these razor thin wins.
Polling this week shows over 60% of voters oppose
making Bush's tax cuts
permanent, his only economic plan. About 60%
said the tax cut either had
no effect, or was harmful (20% thinking it was
helpful). A large majority of
Americans oppose drilling in ANWR.
The rumors of the death of the Democratic party
are exaggerated. That the
Democrats were swamped and routed in the November
elections is factually
incorrect, even before considering the two dead
senators and the apparent
widespread voter fraud on behalf of the GOP they
needed to win.
This has been framed all wrong for a purpose,
and the friendly advice from
the usual suspects is not well intended. You
take away the fever dream
nightmare that accounts for Bush's popularity,
and the GOP would collapse
like a house of cards, like the former majority
ruling party in Canada,
the Conservative Party, collapsed into 3rd party
minority status.
I'm not saying the Democrats will be able to do
that. I'm not saying that
they won't lose in the future. But I am saying
that even in the face of these
seemingly insurmountable odds, they have shown
an electoral strength that
belies the claims that they are through as constituted
and need a radical
reorganization to remain viable. When you take
a critical look at what
they've been up against, the mighty billion dollar
smoke and mirrors
machines, the 10 year plus drumbeat of character
assassination and
worse, their performance rather indicates the
opposite.
...phil