Dante, Led Zeppelin, and capitalism

In Dante Alighieri’s work The Inferno, he says that the path to heaven is through hell. The social outcome of this belief is the embrace of corruption, the practice of evil for good ends.

Led Zeppelin references Dante in it’s most popular work, Stairway to Heaven, which features a woman corrupting her body (drug use) in order to climb the stairway to heaven.

What this spiritual methodology results in is the destruction of the earth for the sake of holiness, and I find no greater blasphemy, no more hideous conception, no more unfortunate embrace, than the West holding Dante in such high regard.

Dante coincided with the rise of capitalism in 14th century Europe. Capitalism and feudalism are similar systems, differing largely in that feudalism was linked closely to heredity, whereas capitalism is linked more socially (the concept of “networking” for example is strictly capitalist).

Under Dante Western culture shifted toward worldly destruction for the sake of spiritual ambition.

Under Dante, nuclear war and global warming are considered “holy”. They are necessary parts of the path through hell. According to The Rapture, the true believers will simply “ascend to heaven” and leave a smoldering earth behind (hence the “Left Behind” series).

Destroying the Elite Left

(To destroy is to transform)

You stand against rape but you don’t know what rape is
You stand against war but you don’t know what war is
You stand against exploitation in utter ignorance

To know is your first task, to understand your quest
But it’s so much easier to be righteously indignant
Denouncing is a pain pill, hating brings a smile
How terrible, how terrible, how terrible they are

Punching bag? Er, what what? Michael Richards? Who?
Nothing is solved because nothing is ever addressed
You can’t look at swastikas because they are much too painful
You can’t see wife beaters because they are much too unpleasant
Better to hate what is not them than to destroy what they are

There are two kinds of you. Some say ‘how depressing this all is’ and turn on the TV
Some are activists, or join organizations, the militant arm
But there is a third way, besides fighting and ignoring
It starts with knowing, and it ends with destroying

So stop burying Michael Richards under the rug
Stop putting your pain behind bars
Stop being threatened by ‘nappy headed hos’
Start down the moral path – study in depth your enemies
And then destroy them. Destroy all of them