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Mermaid, The Waterline p1

© Mary C. Legg

Andersen's story of the mermaid was not completely original in it's content. The story of teh water-sprite who falls in love with a passsing prince is far older than Andersen's Mermaid. The best-known variant is found in Dvorak's Rusalka, written as an opera. And although Rusalka never has a fishtale, she is a sprite and in the end she dies. There is no redemption for her. The prince's rejection kills her.

Another version is found in Jan de Hartog's, Lost Sea relating the tales of the Zuider Zee of a mermaid who fell in love with a passing sailor. Not all mermaids and water-sprites fall into the catagories of sirens luring sailors to their deaths or water-sprites who drown men in ponds. There are also the tales of the Willies and Sylphides who become water-nymphs because their betrothed jilted them on the eve of their wedding and left them languishing into an endless death that suspended them between heaven and earth.

Although historically, there are volumes of literature regarding this, the western society became scientific in the 19th century with the rise of industrialism, capitalism and Darwinism. With the Rise of Darwin, came the Fall of Man. Man became only another "thing" exploited mercilessly by industry and governments as he no longer had any soul or divine spiritual nature. If there is no God, then it's ipossible to say that man was created in God's image, easily nullifying 5000years of thinking. Science combined with commerce justifies exploitation of resources. Man is just another factor for economic thinking, formulas and projections. He loses his identity and value on the tables and statistical charts. He's no longer a bit lower than the angels, but rather counted along with the cattle, the hogsheads and lambchops. The Judeo-Christian Economist can refute any argument and justify greed by citing, "the poor shall always be amongst you.." or "he who does no work, should not eat;" thereby ignoring all the injunctions and provisions for the widow, the poor, the orphan, the shirtless, the ill, the imprisoned, etc. They do no work, so let them suffer: "their misery is not my responsibility". And if confronted, then the polemics change to "their work is of no value, so they have no food," as if the rich did not benefit from the exploitation of those who bear their throne.

Society should favor rich October 15, 2003 http://ogb.wfu.edu/editorials/editorials... By Jacob Lyles, Old Gold and Black Columnist

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