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The next story one of Cain and Abel and it plays on that because in a very interesting way because it indicates what happens and I would say it it did what supports my general hypothesis about what the first story means because what happens with Cain and Abel is that well, they’re brothers right and So hypothetically the first two real human beings and they don’t really like each other Abel is a good guy by all appearances God smiles on him fate smiles on him. How about if we put it that way everything that he does seems to work out Well, he makes sacrifices Which the text insists upon and the sacrifices are rewarded by God. That’s a very very very very important crucial document because we already noted that men and women had discovered time in Genesis they discovered the duration of their life and the existence of death and the necessity for toil And by the time we get to Cain and Abel human beings have discovered in this dramatic manner that if they make sacrifices in the present that hypothetically the future can be better and that’s that’s like I don’t know if that’s not the major discovery of mankind. It’s certainly among the top one or two Because it’s very it’s really something for a creature for an animal like us to notice That if we give up something that we want right now We can sort of bargain with fate as it were to get something better in the future And that’s really what you do when you work right because when you work by definition You’re doing things that you’d rather not do right now because otherwise it wouldn’t be work And the reason that you’re doing that is because you think well if I give up what I really want to do Impulsively right now then over the medium to long term things will be better And so you learn you believe that making the appropriate sacrifices has the propitiates God Let’s say metaphorically and Abel sacrifices work man everything he touches turns to Sheep and camels and women and he has everything he wants and everyone likes him and everybody thinks he’s a good guy and You know that’s pretty good for Abel, but Kane isn’t doing so well and nothing he sacrifices appears to have the proper effect and there is some idea in the story that maybe the sacrifices He makes are a little bit on the half-hearted side and that God isn’t all that thrilled at those sacrifices as a consequence And that’s really worth thinking about again for about 50 years Because it is possible that if you’re making sacrifices And they’re not working out that well that it’s not so much that God hates you It’s that your sacrifices could be of a somewhat higher quality Right that you’re playing a game with yourself and with the structure of reality And you think you can get away with it And you can’t and the fact that you’re not getting away with it and that you can’t makes you bitter and resentful and cruel and vengeful and Homicidal eventually and worse than that because there are far worse places than you can go That you can go than merely homicidal anyways Kane has enough of this one day And he says to he came decides to have a chat with God and it goes something like this It’s quite a an arrogant chat really It’s almost as arrogant as Adams was stupid And Kane basically challenges God he says look I don’t know what sort of world you think you put together here, but We’ve got Abel and we’ve got me and like everything’s just working out for him, and you know he’s perfectly goddamn delightful and everyone likes him and and whatever he touches like King Midas turns to gold and it’s all easy for him and Then there’s me and I’m like breaking myself in half here and I’m offering up my sacrifices and like you turn your nose up at them and nothing works out for me and Implying by the way that it’s God’s fault. I would say more than implying stating quite Forthrightly that it’s God’s fault which you know takes a certain degree of arrogance You might think and that’s also worth thinking about for a very long period of time because it is possible that if things are going well for someone that you know and not going so well for you that it is a consequence of The quality of your sacrifices, and I don’t want to push that too far because I know that people have bad luck You know because we are fragile creatures intrinsically and terrible things can happen to us on a somewhat random basis But it’s still very much worth considering. That’s the rule in chapter 6 put your house in order before you criticize the world that The reason that things aren’t turning out for you as well as they might is because your sacrifices Just don’t have enough blood in them They’re just not what they should be you’re not putting your full heart into it and as a consequence you’re not reaping The fee you’re not reaping the crop that you might otherwise so and that’s a harsh thing to think but that’s actually what God tells Cain which is quite interesting I read a lot of different translations trying to understand this and what God basically says is look Buddy Before you dare to criticize the creator of the world or reality itself for that matter You might give some thought to your own actions, and here’s how I look at it being God and all You’re in a house, and there’s a doorway and in the doorway There’s a predatory cat and it’s it’s sexually aroused, and it’s after you and You invite it in voluntarily and you let it have its way with you and Something’s produced as a consequence of that that’s well you might say unholy and And what’s the idea and the idea is well? It’s sin that crouches out the door the That means to miss the mark it means to make an error and it’s something you have to invite into your life But it isn’t just that you invite it in and it stands with you It’s that you invite it in this this this malevolent way of being and you Enter into a creative union with it That’s that’s symbolized in this particular story using a sexual metaphor And it’s the combination of your perverse will and this capacity for cruelty and malevolence That you meld together into something that’s uniquely pathological and yours and That’s basically what God tells Cain That’s what you’ve done And that’s why your life isn’t turning out as well as it might or as well as your brothers and so why don’t you Get the hell out of my sight and think about that for a while and Cain leaves and he’s not happy about it at all Which is fully understandable because you know if you’re having a wretched time of it Then you’re having a wretched time of it, and then if your brother’s doing well. You know that’s just Salt in your wounds man, and then then maybe you could rationalize that because the world’s unfair And your brother is lucky, and you’re unlucky and all of that and you can you know? Reserve a little bit of self-respect as a consequence of that rationalization even though. It’s pretty thin but then you decide to go and have it out with God and He just basically says no that’s all lies, and it’s actually a hundred percent Not only a hundred percent your fault but something that you’ve done voluntarily and that you know you did and that you made far worse by doing it voluntarily and now you’re lying about it and complaining about the structure of reality and So of all the bad news you could possibly get about why it is that things aren’t going well for you That’s the worst Especially if it’s actually delivered by God because then it’s hard to argue with So what happens well you’d think that maybe if Kane had any sense which he doesn’t he’s too far gone he’d go sit in the cave for about a decade and and eat locusts and honey if he could find some and think about all the terrible things he did and Then come out and like apologize to Abel and to the people he didn’t do well for and and like with a little humility Start again and and maybe have a life, but that isn’t what happens What happens is that he decides he’s going to take revenge and he takes revenge in a terrible way He kills Abel and then you think well. What does that mean? And this is a terrible story right because it’s really the first story about human beings That we have in at the base of our culture because Adam and Eve were made by God So they don’t count Kane and Abel they were born they count and so the first story is this terrible murder of a brother and a murder that was motivated by jealousy and spite for for for for living positively in the world right, it’s about the worst story you can imagine and so Kane goes and kills Abel and God you know Asks him about it and Kane says well am I my brother’s keeper and that doesn’t work out so well because God has actually figured it out and Kane says my punishment is more than I can bear and It might be because God has banished him He’s put a mark on him and banished him and told people to leave Kane the hell alone And I think that was to stop like a cycle of revenge killings Let’s say although it’s complicated to say but maybe his punishment is more than he can bear because there’s a problem when you Take your ideal let’s say Abel happens to be your brother But your ideal the person you really wish you could be because that’s what Kane wants and then you kill it You killed your ideal you’ve destroyed your ideal and then what do you have? You’ve got nothing because you need an ideal to live for and if you destroy your ideal Then you’ve got nothing and Kane says well my punishment is more than I can bear and maybe that’s because life without that ideal is more than can be born and Well It gets worse from there really because you know it isn’t only that Abel that Kane killed Abel to get rid of Abel That’s bad enough It’s plenty bad even at the cost of his own soul in some sense Which was something Kane was apparently willing to sacrifice But the real reason that he did it was to shake his fist in anger at the structure of reality itself the unfairness of being and then that’s Metaphorically represented as the proclivity to take revenge on God by destroying God’s ideal and so the story is even darker than mere murder because it goes farther down than Homicide and if you’re wondering why it is that people do the terrible things they do that are truly terrible The things that are almost incomprehensibly terrible you have to go beyond mere motivation for homicide and even torture and homicide and you have to look at the motivations that will turn human beings against being itself