FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - Imperative: Delenda Carthago

Rant Number 500        7 August 2012

Marcus Cato was a Roman statesman with a bee in his bonnet: Carthage, Rome’s great rival. He wanted her annihilated. So Cato would unfailingly conclude his speeches, never mind what the subject, with an obsessive imperative: Delenda Carthago. ‘Carthage must be destroyed.’

Carthage was no mean city. Indeed, a great North African civilisation, with an aggressive sea drive. Barcelona and Cartagena owe their existence to ancient Carthage. Aristotle discussed her constitution in his Politics. Hannibal, one of the greatest generals of all times, was a Carthaginian. The city’s conflict with Rome resulted in three great wars. By the third one Carthage’s power had been crushed and really was the shadow of her former self. Cato, however, was implacable. He knew a reinvigorated Carthage would pose a deadly threat to Rome’s hegemony. His imperative won the day: in 146 BC the Romans utterly destroyed Carthage forever. Today’s traveller inspecting the measly remains near Tunis may well sigh with another Latin tag: Sic transit gloriae mundi:  Thus pass away the glory and pomp of this world.

Archaeology is not my point. Ideology, politics and metaphysics are. Is there something out there in the world – a nation, a power, a doctrine, a person, an idea, a philosophy – about which you feel, deep down, viscerally as well as intellectually, like saying: ‘It is imperative it should be destroyed’?

Hard question. It smacks of intolerance, even fanaticism, makes your flesh creep a bit, does it not? We can all get along together, surely? Peaceful coexistence, pluralism, diversity and blah-blah-blah. Only a few extremists, rogue states and weirdoes would dissent. You get that broadcast to you 24 hours a day. State propaganda never gives it a rest. But it was not always so...

Winston Churchill, I suppose, was another Cato. Never mind if he coined no similar tag to immortalise him, the gist was the same. ‘Delendo Hitler.’ Churchill actually wrote that for him the war aim was exceedingly simple: to destroy Hitler. Everything else was subordinated to that. Britain got through the war financially broke, in hock to the Yanks and her empire kaput but never mind - Churchill’ goal was attained: Hitler and National Socialism were indeed totally ‘deleted’.

In a previous century the roles appeared reversed. The French revolutionaries first and Napoleon after declared Pitt’s England an enemy of the human race. She was publicly compared to Carthage and her extermination was planned...Well, you know the end of that one. History did not quite repeat itself, France did not vanish from history, thank God, but her arrogant might, her plan for world conquest were broken for good.

Fast forward to 2012. Here the choice is wide open. It ranges over religions, economic and political systems, philosophies and individuals. Who is your pet hatred? I don’t just mean dislike. I can’t stand David Beckham, for example, I really dislike him, but sure I would never wish to ‘delete’ him. No, I mean, real, profound, incommensurable opposition and loathing.

‘Fr Frank, that isn’t right. No one should feel like that about anyone or anything. It is sick. Besides, Christianity is a religion of love. How can you...?’ Well, maybe. Churchill was at least sporadically Christian but that did not stop him from wanting to wipe out the man with the funny moustache. And Christians have not hesitated to radically extirpate witches, pagans and heretics. Aberrations? Beside the point. The Church acted as her beliefs dictated and that’s that.

‘But Churchill was defending Britain, not attacking...’ Irrelevant. Hitler offered peace to Britain after conquering France but Churchill turned the offer down. ‘Delendo Hitler’ – his imperative overruled everything else – and it did.

Marx and Lenin felt that way about capitalism. Their love of the proletariat was matched by their hatred of the bourgeoisie. The Soviet Union embodied their posthumous hopes. ‘We shall bury you!’ Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev once mocked the West. The script let him down, alas.

So, who would you crave to cancel out? It depends on who ‘you’ designates. Don’t need a crystal ball to divine Netanyahu’s mind on this, I think. I also imagine a few folks in the Arab and Muslim world gleefully coming up with instantaneous candidates. Maybe not quite a total deletion, I hope, but something somewhat approximating that...If I were a Kurd, I suppose I would similarly have a few pet hatreds, states, nations who impede my people’s self-determination...well, you get it, I am sure. Delenda Turquia...And a few others.

It could of course just be a humdrum individual. Not a big fish like Tony Blair but someone more intimate to you, more personal. Maybe a banker? The biggest bastards under the sun, some argue. One who has wiped out your hard-earned life’s savings? Or is it the heart? Someone who had stolen your darling from you. Jealousy, the green-eyed monster...Well depicted in a Munch’s painting at Tate Modern. Jealousy is capable of appalling deeds. Latin curses at the Museum of London evince that kind of feeling by frustrated lovers. Othello also is about that.

Or could it be...the Olympics? Huh! That would be funny! It is sending the whole nation into ecstasy. Is there anyone so mad to desire...forget it.

Eschatology of course is the name of the wider game. Discourse about the last things. Most religions or secular ideologies have ideas about the end. Messianism is another name for it. But a messiah requires an anti-messiah. The Book of Revelation has the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet. Muslim eschatology has repellent figures like Dajjal, the Beast, the Spy and the Sufyani. All foul personages that cry out for obliteration. But secular eschatologies exist, too. The US neo-cons sought to impose worldwide liberal democracy and its wonders. (Capitalism? Globalisation? Consumerism?) They invaded and destroyed countries and are still at it. Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the end of history – realised messianism without a messiah. Behind the mealy-mouthed, reiterated assertions of ‘community’, peace and fraternity, forces out there are openly plotting for the deletion of any meaningful alternative.

And the priest? Whom would he annihilate?

No way. Don’t ask me to commit online suicide, please!

Revd Frank Julian Gelli