King Canute

Posted on January 13, 2003 in Myths & Mysticism Social Justice

This legendary and insightful king grew tired of the excessive praise his subjects dripped on him. To show them that he was only human, he commanded that they bring his throne to the shingle beach at Dover. He mounted the dais and began to shout at the incoming waves: “Cease! I command you! Cease!” Of course, they did not.

Canute had a healthy sense of the limits of his power. He could not work miracles. Nevertheless, I think it is healthful to take a brief, second look at his emblematic act: the monarch showed that he was not omnipotent, that nature would not obey him. He remained human, with only a human’s ability to control things. He never denied his ability to persuade people.

Sometimes we invoke King Canute as a reason for keeping silent against evil. Since the rise of Spencerism in the late 19th century (an aberrant interpretation of Darwin’s theory which Darwin himself did not hold), the myth that violence and hatred are unstoppable because they are a part of human nature has taken hold. Fundamentalism, I note, began as a movement specifically against this ideology. As expressed by William Jennings Bryant, humankind was above the animal: we weren’t just creatures of instinct — “Nature red in tooth and claw” as Tennyson described it. We could answer to a higher purpose, that of good, and do good works.

Sadly, Spencerism has encroached on modern day Fundamentalism. It played very nicely in conjunction with Calvinism which prescribed a social order of the “elect” and the “damned”. It led to the formation of institutions such as Bob Jones University where dating between the races is forbidden. Modern Fundamentalism begins to look an awful lot like a caste system, complete with an ideal of personal redemption that demands that you know your place and don’t attempt to leave it. It’s Spencerism with a religious cast to it.

One of the excuses that people give is that evil is instinctual — “human nature” — that you can’t stop it. So stop trying, they say. Go on. Just save yourself and live your life pretty much as you always did, giving up only alcohol, drugs, and promiscuous sex. Violence remains OK, because, after all, did not God allow the genocide of the inhabitants of Jericho? Faith is the only important thing. Works are secondary.

In the Fundamentalist view, God and instinct become confused. What God “doesn’t like” — homosexuality, etc. — become “unnatural” and violence becomes OK when it is wreaked against the people you don’t like.

I resist this. And I reject the application of the legend of King Canute here. People are not a tide and humanity is not the ocean. We can speak to the evil — which I define as hatred — in others one person at a time, or to many using media such as the InterNet. Canute, I suspect, was a master of persuasion and good judgement: his legend as a King may well rest on his abilities as a peacemaker (I do not recall any tales of him waging war.)

It’s not troubled water we address our social concerns to: it’s a troubled society filled with troubled minds. Fear rules the day. If one doesn’t want to get wet, one can walk away from the tideline — beyond the splash zone. This is simple. Nature can be evaded — if not controlled — using the native abilities of our heads, arms, and legs.

We can use the same to learn to live better with one another, without malice. We must see that what we direct our voices towards have minds and ears. Here, we must forget the example of Canute and remember that of the Prophet Jeremiah: When those in power seem immovable, when they laugh at us and destroy the words we have given them, we must turn again to our consciences. “Take another scroll,” said Yahweh to Jeremiah, when Jehoiakim burned the first one. Keep pressing the message of true justice.