Iceman
Living Liberty Today with Charlie Earl
Some 55 years ago I studied a play by Eugene O’Neill titled “The Iceman Cometh.” The work was later adapted to film several times since its 1946 debut. It seems that my studies in theater arts centered on dystopian because Chekov, Ibsen, and Conrad dominated my time. “The Iceman Cometh,” however, was, in my view, the most hopeless. It featured a collection of raging alcoholics who were trapped in a world of make believe about futures that would never be realized. They shared one tiny thread of ‘happiness’ when traveling salesman, Hickey, would arrive at their bar/rooming house for his semi-annual party that provided free drinks for all. Drinking to deaden the time while waiting for a free-drink bash was their besotted state of anticipation and happiness. Hickey was their hope, their deliverer from the hazy routine. Until Hickey proved to be a lying fraud, a false hope, an illusion, and the final nail in a coffin of despair.
In Minneapolis it’s not a play or a film. It is, however, just as dystopian as something O’Neill might have conjured up. I have family members who have lived in the suburbs of ‘Minny’ for years. They are basically “normal.” I have a friend who is a pastor in Minnesota and a native of the Land of the Lakes state. He’s rather ‘normal.’ I know several Swedes and Norwegians with cherished family heritages from Minnesota, and they appear to be generally normal. So, what’s going on in Minneapolis? Has the lovable Swedish Chef fallen into the deep abyss of incurable insanity?
Because I have followed electoral politics for many years, I have been aware of the quirky nature of the Minnesota political landscape. Forty-nine states have Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, Greens and others. Only Minnesota claims the Democrat-Farm-Labor Party as a major player in politics. It seems, at times, to be a gasping remnant from the glory days of William Jennings Bryan and his strident defense of the underdog. So, while Minnesota may have been a half-bubble off plumb politically, it wasn’t always crazy as in California crazy until now. I suspect the problem is sociological rather than historical. It is an urban madness versus a rural sensibility.
In the early days of our nation’s growth, the crazies were those lonely souls on the prairie who suffered from lack of contact from other humans, but as the country grew and industry developed, cities sprung up and with them there were the problems of densely packing people together in tight restricted spaces. Craziness rapidly migrated from the solitary farms to the teeming masses packed together. In my view, the insanity of the cities illustrates the failure of humankind to achieve ‘Paradise’ via our own devices and means. Our power is inadequate, and our wisdom is deficient for building a harmonious and peaceful society. Yes, Brutus, we are underlings, and without a greater power directing us, we will fail.
Now I know as a preacher of the Gospel and a follower of Jesus Christ, I should not be arbitrarily describing people or communities as crazy. My faith and my reason inform me, however, that when we are drowning in the slurry of sin, insanity generally prevails. For one to embrace ‘being lost’ when the cleansing alternative is so readily available does suggest one has lost his/her senses. In some respects, insanity is the default mode for humanity since the Fall, otherwise there would have been more than eight people on the ark when the flood occurred. After all, they had 120 years to choose as Noah was building the boat. I beg of you, my friends, choose sanity before the raindrops come.