Dionysus must win

Dionysus must win

We have dedicated our course to studying individuals that have made an impact on history. In our journey over the past weeks, we have leapt from one thinker to the next, reading about how they were shaped the world and how they, in turn, shaped the world. Our readings for this week were no different. This week, we read the words of Malcolm X, Ella Baker and Martin Luther king. Not much binds them together, except for their unshaken conviction to the truth and the creation of a better world. 

An unseemly combination of people cast from different walks of life. Though they had a common goal, the emancipation of the African-American, their plans for that emancipation were nowhere near similar. Yet one thing tied them together. Their failure, and their victory within that failure. As MLK said, “Life is the continual story of shattered dreams”. All of these individuals had dealt with failure. All of them knew the task that lay before them was almost unachievable. However, even in the face of all this, even as their colleagues were literally being murdered, they persevered. “The cause of humanity”, as Ella called it, was too big a dream to let go. “The rise of the black world”, according to Malcolm, was inevitable. 

“You will be misunderstood”, MLK predicted and misunderstood they all were. The black prophetic tradition is fraught with personalities that were misjudged for speaking their truth and ultimately murdered. Both Malcolm and MLK stand together in this regard. Not because of their political views but in their undying hope for the future. Despite everything that they endured in their lifetime, despite all the hate that was hurled in their path, they still believed in love. It is their unwavering belief that their struggle will bear its fruit, that groups these two together. The end may not be near but “it's about being in the process” that matters. 

  This is the tragedy of Dionysus too. Like him, he cannot help but see the good in people, the possibilities in our world. Both of them are Dionysus’ children, and just like him, they lose in the end. Both of them payed with their lives for their views but where Dionysus dies, his dream lives on. The promise lives on: of hope, of freedom. In their afterlife, they became symbols for the better world they were trying to create. A world where they might have lived, where Dionysus may have finally won. 

I feel like we are also stuck in the same predicament. We all envision a better world but there is a deep sense of hopelessness that defines us. We see the possibility of good but we believe that it will never come to be. The world has always been this way and will probably be like this forever. Their stories, however, prove how mouldable the world really is. How different it used to be and how dynamic it really is. Even though they died like Dionysus, their story nonetheless teaches a lesson of hope. Life may be a story of shattered dreams, but it is also a story of shattered barriers. These heroes may all die, but their dreams do not.

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