What is Iconoclastic Pomposity?

Well, it is a term I coined coming from the following two root words, defined by Webster’s Dictionary as:

Iconoclast: a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions

Pompous: having or exhibiting self-importance: arrogant

Therefore, iconoclastic pomposity is the act of pretentiously defaming or destroying what others hold sacred or regard as tradition.

As an example, let’s take Andres Serrano’s famous photo; “Piss Christ”. In 1989 Mr. Serrano submerged a small crucifix (Jesus on the cross) in a glass of his own urine and photographed it. By its very name, “Piss Christ”, it is understood that the artist was crossing a line he knew would draw the wrath of others who follow the Christian faith (regardless of the statement he was making). Whatever the motives of the artist, both he and the art community certainly practiced at least a little bit of iconoclastic pomposity with the sort of “how dare you ridicule or judge me simply because I dropped your most sacred of all symbols in a glass of piss” attitude.

The artist new the attention it would draw, and the art community was arrogant about his statement.

Even though a nun at the time made the statement in an interview with Bill Moyers that “she regarded the work as not blasphemous but a statement on ‘what we have done to Christ’" (from Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ), this event most clearly illustrates iconoclastic pomposity.

“How dare you criticize or judge me, simply because I dropped your most sacred of all symbols in a glass of piss.”

Let’s take it a step further and combine the definitions of our words.

Iconoclastic pomposity: a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions while exhibiting self-importance or arrogance.

Sound familiar?

All societies, great and small have practiced iconoclastic pomposity in one form or another. Family units as well; whether blood related or not. Manifest Destiny and the taking of the America’s from the Native Americans was certainly a form of iconoclastic pomposity. Religious persecution of the Puritans, driving them to the America’s in the first place was equally an act of iconoclastic pomposity. The ensuing British suppression of the American Colonists was brimming with iconoclastic pomposity.

Any war that has ever been waged had its genesis in an act of iconoclastic pomposity. Certainly any form of Terrorism is brimming over with iconoclastic pomposity.

All intolerance in world history was seeded and fertilized by iconoclastic pomposity. Slavery is the result of such an extreme act of iconoclastic pomposity, that it defiles the most sacred of all institutions: the human soul.

Whenever one individual calls another stupid for not believing in the same religion, or lack of religion they do, it is an act of iconoclastic pomposity. Is there really a difference between “You’re an idiot because you believe in the Bible” and “You’re an idiot because you don’t believe in the Bible”? Two sides of the same intolerant coin. Iconoclastic pomposity.

Wherever 2 individuals argue not to uncover the truth, but to win and be right, they practice iconoclastic pomposity. Wherever there is argumentum ad hominem, there is iconoclastic pomposity. Washington D.C. and media networks are loaded with iconoclastic pomposity. Democrats and Republicans practice it towards each other each day.

Do you get the idea now?

So is Iconoclastic Pomposity good or bad? Right or wrong?

Well, its got nothing to do with that.

Iconoclastic Pomposity is the foundation upon which ALL human folly is built.

It provides a justification to cause harm to another.

Neither good nor bad. Neither right nor wrong. Merely instinctual human behavior- encoded in our DNA and passed down from our ancestors.

Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ”, and example of iconoclastic pomposity, was met head on with the iconoclastic pomposity of its opponents. Mr. Serrano had been granted $15,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts to create, among other things, the “Piss Christ”. Senators led by Jesse Helms were outraged that tax dollars went into a work they found so offensive, and tried to cut funding to future artists and more closely monitor the works of artists and how the grants were laid out. Their own sense of righteousness driving them to believe that their efforts were sound; to curb the free speech of all future artists because this one made something they did not like.

Which of them was right? There is no right. They were reacting at an instinctual level. They were both acting out of a sense of “right”. That is where the pomposity comes in.

So, you may wonder at this point, if indeed you made it this far, why would I name my blog after the “foundation upon which all human folly is built”?

Because once mankind recognizes that iconoclastic pomposity and all the intolerance and injustice it breeds; all the lies it perpetuates; all the truth it obscures; is instinct, then mankind can begin to forge a world without it. We can begin the long arduous process of purging the genetic code from our DNA. We can remove such needless suffering from the life experience of our descendants.

If you ask me, it’s already started. The fact that I can sit here and write this and post it on the web for any one in the world to see, sit her as a free man in a free country full of opportunity and wonder, that I can have the sum of human knowledge right here at my fingertips to draw from, is proof that we are evolving from our hateful past.

The time between World War II and 1998 is the longest period in recorded history that Western Europe has gone without a war. Sure, the threat of destroying the world with nuclear weapons had a little to do with it, but still, it’s progress. The fact that for the first time in human history slavery is illegal in all countries (although unfortunately still practiced at length) is a step forward. Now if we can get people to just obey that law, then we get somewhere.

The fact that world nations acknowledge human rights violations at all is a step forward. We stand at the dawn of a new era in human history, without doubt.

As long as human beings strive to uncover absolute truths about ourselves and our cosmos, we will progress toward a better world. A more tolerant world. A world in which iconoclastic pomposity will not longer drive human behavior.