The Stupidity of Power

The Stupidity of Power or How an ancient Gnostic myth sounds surprisingly contemporary. An ancient Gnostic text, discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945, known as the Hypostasis of the Archons retells the Garden of Eden story in a remarkably subversive fashion. This document, probably written by Jews or Christians in the early third century CE, describes a creation in which hostile divine figures, corresponding to the heavenly court of the Hebrew Bible, fashion human beings as a sly mechanism for entrapping the higher gods above them. Not only do they fail to do so in the end, but their machinations result in their own downfall. I will argue that this strange version of the Eden story is a deliberate and self-conscious critique of violent or coercive power. Central to this critique is an emphasis on the stupidity of power and violence, its ultimate incapacity to produce anything of value. I will further argue that the applicability of this understanding is not limited to the ancient world, but could serve as an equally powerful condemnation of coercive violence today.

• Thursday, April 13 1:30-2:30 pm College Avenue Campus CB 112
• Presenter: Dr. Bill Arnal