German opera composer Richard Wagner ends his four opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (the Ring), with the famous immolation scene from his final Ring opera, Gotterdammerung. Those who have endured sitting in the opera house for over 15 hours witness Brunnhilde ignite a fire that engulfs the world, rises to engulf all the gods of Valhalla, and descends to engulf the Nibelungs of the underworld. Only the Rhine Maidens, whose gold was stolen over 15 hours ago in the opening minutes of the first opera Das Rheingold, survive.
It was the loss of the gold, 15 hours before, that created the strife and hate that led to the world's extinction. With the gold, now fashioned into a magic ring, returned to its rightful place, peace can again triumph, but only after the human race and all the gods have died in flames.
For 60 or 70 years after Gotterdammerung first premiered, the final scene of Gotterdammerung strongly influenced Wagner's fellow Germans, including Adolf Hitler. As the Red Army closed in on Berlin and the Americans and British drove deep into western Germany, Hitler recalled the immolation scene of Gotterdammerung and determined that, if he had failed, then as much of Europe as possible would go down with him. He ordered the hopeless defense of Berlin, a needless battle that caused the deaths of over 80,000 soldiers, and gave additional orders, which were never carried out, for his generals to destroy whatever was left of Germany, giving no thought to sparing German civilians.
Here in the United States, there have been those who have subconciously sought to follow the path of Brunnhilde, who have been ready to ignite our economy, and thereby our country, into flaming destruction, rather than concede an ideological truth. President Hoover resisted calls for his administration to provide relief for the unemployed, labeling the idea as "a usurpation of the primary liberties of man by government."
The deliberate entry of Government into business in competition with the citizen, or in replacement of private enterprise - other than as a minor incident to some major public purpose - is regimentation of the people directly into bureaucracy. That, of course, is socialism in the connotation of any sociologist or economist and confirmed as such today by the acclaim of the socialists.
For Hoover, it was better for Americans to starve, and for businesses to shut down and for workers to lose their jobs, than for the government to infringe upon his own concept of personal liberty.
But Herbert Hoover was not alone. He had counterparts on the left who also preferred the flames of Gotterdammerung to rebuilding our economy. In 1932 the Communists did field a candidate, William Z. Foster, who nationwide polled 100,000 votes. But the Party chiefs quietly told their members to vote for Herbert Hoover, and even, if they could, to disguise themselves as Republicans and volunteer to reelect Hoover. The American Communist Party leaders were convinced that a reelected Hoover would not serve out his second term, there would either be a Fascist, or a Communist, revolution, and they were willing to risk the former for the hope of the latter. And I think they were right. They were, like President Hoover, prepared to ignite the flames of Gotterdaammerung to destroy our country for the sake of their ideological purity.
That brings us to the Republican Party of October 2013, who, for the sake of their ideological purity, have taken the first steps to destroy our nation's economy, and, with these steps, put the rest of the world's economy in peril. Incredibly, many of them, not content with shutting down the federal government, are proclaimed this past weekend that a default on our nation's debt obligations is no big deal, or even, that "raising the debt ceiling is bad." Either these people are stupid, or they are emulating Brunnhilde, igniting the torch that will destroy everything. But I started to think about Gotterdammerung and Brunnhilde, as I sat at home prevented from going to work, when I read - sorry I can't find a link - that Congressman Steve Israel reported that he had approached an unnamed Tea Party Republican in the Capitol gym and asked this Congressman if he was concerned that the government shutdown and possible debt default would destroy the Republican Party, and this congressman's reelection prospects to boot. The Congressman replied, "Maybe so, but we'll take this government down with us."
A final word about Gotterdammerung, the opera ends on notes of hope, not despair. A motif that was heard only once before, in the second of the Ring Operas (maybe 12 hours ago), Die Walkure, is sung again by Brunnhilde as she is about to enter the flames. And the orchestral coda ends in this beautiful theme. The ring has been restored to the Rhine Maidens, so the world again has hope. In the ashes of World War II, a new, democratic and peace loving Germany arose. And the Great Depression gave rise to a government that at least until 1980 was committed to relieving the poor, and bettering the lives of the greatest number. So perhaps, The Tea Party, Limbaugh and Fox News, and their stooges in the Congress will only immolate themselves, and, emulating Brunnhilde, throw that magic ring into the Potomac (instead of the Rhine) making possible a new and better country.