Page 66 - GALIET KAFKABEL JOB, KANT AND MILTON: Omnipotence, Impotence and Rebellion IV+

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once downcast by authority and lawyers (T190-1),366 Block crawls on all fours. Exiled defendants, drained of funds, fatigued in spirit, surrender and humble their dignity to a corrupt and vengeful bureaucracy (T84, T181; 13:7). Why? They are no longer equal amongst men; they are treated like beasts or dogs before the law.367 Against the infinite hierarchy of power, they are inferior and infinitely so. Thus groundless and disoriented, they are colonized and are disabled to discern friends from enemies,368 the innocent from the guilty, justice from injustice. Impotent, Zeno’s infinite vortex devours them as if it were Kronos’ jaw.
If they seek help, Yahweh and the Judge are absent and elusive (23:8-10; T215-16, 231), oblivious and inclement (9:14; T215-6). Yahweh and the Judge will ignore Job and K’s pleas to hear their case (13:18; T5, 14, 125). Whether they cry out to Him or remain silent, He neither hears nor responds (30:20-21; T231) on issues of indictment (9:17; 10:2; 31:35; 9:17; T6, 11, 58), sin or guilt (4:6; 13:18-23; T15-6, 106, 212-13), divine justice (9:15),369 justice (T145), but solely on matters of power (9:19-20;370 T216-17; 225-31). The autocratic and overlapping linguistic game 3⁄4 whether in the apparatus of Kafkabel’s Court or State, or of Jobel’s Divine Court 3⁄4 is not founded on divine justice as Job posits (9:1-4),371 or on justice as K naively believes at first (T23). Instead, only the argument from authority, or ad baculum prevails.372 In a debate or lawsuit with an arbitrary Yahweh, “Job will never be in the right.”373 Even if Job has the right arguments for his debate with God, he will get nowhere374 (9:3-4:32f).375 Even if K has the right arguments, the priest-prison chaplain proves him perverse: “that is how the guilty speak” (T213). Man in the position in which he is placed, has no rights,” whatsoever “in a contest of justice with either Prosecutor or God,”376 or its corrupt judges and servants (T13-18; 51; 214-217), or against a system of laws and universal lies in a “state of eternal equilibrium”377 (in Job, retributive justice; in K, the Parable of the Law). The Trial’s Magistrate cannot be
366 Just as the prison Chaplain will shout as if a sergeant at K, Leni shouts at Block: “Block! To the Lawyer!” (T190). Leni punishes Block for K’s outburst, just as the prison Chaplain participates in K’s punishment by delivering K’s guilty verdict (T213), just as the flogger punishes the guards for K’s allegations (192).
367 Block, the Merchant, and the downcast and humble defendant at the mock court best exemplify the humiliating impotence, and powerlessness and meekness experienced at the fickle law courts (T70). They behave like puppies in the presence of the legal hounds (T195). Lawyers are at times depicted as clawed (T52).
368 This exemplifies Block’s crippling and disoriented state in Kafkabel, where no one knows left from right, up from down. He cannot discern or resent Huld for his despotism. Instead Block blames and insults K, his defendant, “Why do you talk to me like that? Insulting Me? In front of lawyer who tolerates us out of compassion?” (192-193). Where the human spirit is devoured under the pretense of compassion, there is no dignity. Block, without a doubt, has lost all moral ground and dignity. There is no sense of self. He cannot discern friends from foes. The same occurs when Job bows down to Yahweh, in the theophany: Job cannot discern the hypocrisy: Yahweh is friend and foe, punisher and forgiver, ruthlessness and mercy. He is the god of quantum states: fickle, irrational, spinning in every direction. Dionysus was kinder: Grecians knew where they stood with him; and they had their temporary salvation in Apollo. They knew they were two separate deities sharing the same temple; and not one deity that has two-faced. Yahweh is guilty; yet plays innocent with his victims. What kind of deity is he?
369 To Cox, the threefold repetition of “nh,” “anser” (in Hebrew) suggests a court proceeding. The style of these verses reflects ancient Israel’s traditional juridical. Job is under judgement; however, none of his arguments shall merit an answer. Cox, Dermot. The Triumph of Impotence. Job and the Tradition of the Absurd. Analecta Gregoriana. Roma: Universita Gregoriana Editrice, 1978. 74
370 “If it be a matter of power, here He is!/But if of justice, who will arraign Him?/Though I am in the right, my mouth would condemn me/Though I am blameless, it would prove me perverse” (Job 9:19-20).
371 Job argues humans cannot be just before God (Job 9:1-4) for God bases the dilemma on power, not justice. That is, God’s justice is founded on power. Hence, beings cannot argue with God (Job 9:5-21).
372 See G. Fohrer, Das Buch Hiob, 206, on the argument from authority, and Terrien, Job, 95, on argument ad baculum. Terrien claims that Job even compares God to a gangster (hatap) and speaks of his immorality. See Job, Terrien, “L’amoralité de l’omnipotence. Les normes humaines ne s’appliquent pas a la conduite de Dieu, que Job compare a un gánster: His evidence for this he gives in a footnote, where he says, “Le verbe htp, saisir comme une proie, est un hápax legomenon, mais des mots dérivés de sa racine s’emploient pour désigner le rapt, le vio, la violence.” Cox, Dermot. The Triumph of Impotence. Job and the Tradition of the Absurd. Analecta Gregoriana. Roma: Universita Gregoriana Editrice, 1978. 73
373 See Dhorme, E. Le Livre de Job. 2nd Edition. Paris: Etudes Bibliques, 1926. 27ff. Cox, Dermot. The Triumph of Impotence. Job and the Tradition of the Absurd. Analecta Gregoriana. Roma: Universita Gregoriana Editrice, 1978. 73
374 Cox, Dermot. The Triumph of Impotence. Job and the Tradition of the Absurd. Analecta Gregoriana. Roma: Universita Gregoriana Editrice, 1978. 74
375 If Job desired to contend with God, it was hopelessly absurd. “God was [is] not a man like Job [me], whom he [I] could answer when they [we] came to trial together” (Job 9:32f). “If one wished to contend with Him, He would not answer once in a thousand times. However wise and stouthearted a man might be, has he ever argued with God and emerged unscathed?” (Job 9:3-4).
376 Cox, Dermot. The Triumph of Impotence. Job and the Tradition of the Absurd. Analecta Gregoriana. Roma: Universita Gregoriana Editrice, 1978. 73 377 See The Trial, T119.
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