An article in the NY Times this morning about a "Golem" industry developing in Czechoslovakia got me to thinking about puppets of the mind. We should never pooh-pooh the monster under the bed or in the closet. In one cartoon, not wildly successful, there is a toe eating monster in the bathtub drain. Children's imaginations are wonderfully agile. They bring up these unreal realities as their protection against having to do what their adults want them to do. But, what did Rabbi Loew of Prague in the 16th Century do when anti-Semitism, then a new and powerful puppet of the enemies of the Jews created to crush the Jewish presence in that country? Why, he created his own puppet of the mind, a Golem to combat anti-Semitism.
What comes first? Does the creation of a puppet of the mind, the Golem, come without the idea of it forming in the mind first? I think we all have puppets of the mind rattling around in our minds that will one day make the world a better place for us who suffer from so many afflictions that beset us. Just think about the fear and trembling of a "Swine-flu" that we have no vaccine for but which causes so much mindless fluttering around from here to there. We could create a modern day Golem of a powerful government laboratory that will find the answer to this and other threats to our health and safety. Instead we think of all the anti-Golem monsters that have existed and continue to pop up to harm us.
There is a recrudescence of interest in the mythical Golem created by the real Rabbi Loew. He is part of the history of his country. He is credited in creating a giant out of clay and bringing it to some kind of life with the word "emet", meaning 'life' written on its forehead. The Golem promptly went about thumping the heads of the enemies of the Jews. When its job was done it again became a lump of clay.
The persistence of the idea of some kind of super-hero has, of course, its history in the comic book creations that produced "Superman" and his descendants. The super heroes were mostly interested in saving America and Americans from outside enemies such as Fascism and Communism. You might also add, hate groups and other White supremacy gangs to this list. I am most interested in the addition of money and power mad super rich enemies of the people (the "mud" peoples) who live to serve their masters.
Puppets of the mind have a power to change our lives. The puppet (marionette) I have created reminds us of the world of 1939, 70 years ago, when the monsters of that day came out from under the bed and out of the closet to scare us.