Magic has its price

Magic has its price

In the world today there is the belief in magic, in power without price, and this is a unique belief. Sure in ancient times there was such a thing as magic, but that magic always came with a price, whether  it be from gods, demons, or something else it always involved a sacrifice of some sort. Probably because at heart the ancients knew what reality was, a give and take, action and consequence; essentially tradeoffs for everything. In the modern day world we don’t think of magic this way, we think of magic as  somehow power without consequence, looking at the tales of now vs. the tales of then, and that is the essential difference. The world is full of examples just like that, of magical thinking, of thinking that this political system, or this technology, or this way of life always comes without any consequence, that there never will be price to be paid for it. The capitalist system is a perfect example of magical thinking also, in that it subscribes to the idea that there will never be a price for certain actions and deeds, that there will never be a reckoning, that my riches are good because they benefit me; but never is there a thought of what the price will be for said riches. Our society has as its credo, the stupidly optimistic belief of no consequence, of all gain and no loss. It can think of this because of the way it is organized, as it is organized around deferred cost, specifically deferred cost into the future, or  transferral  of cost elsewhere. We have grown so used to doing this, that we have even bought into the idea that there is no cost, that there is only benefit and no loss. The ancients understood the futility of doing this, they couched it in language of hubris, of retribution from the gods; but there was always the idea that there would come a day of reckoning for the benefit, this was why many of them sacrificed, to pay for that benefit. We are no less superstitious then what the ancients were, but the difference is that we have grown rather fond of never paying for what we gain. The fondness is a danger, because it blinds us to the reality, and the reality is that there is always a cost for everything. It is not necessarily what the ancients thought it was, but it is still there; and just because we believe that it is not there, does not deny the facts of the cost existing. The danger lies in letting the cost build up, and build and build, until it overwhelms the blinders we have put on our reality; and at last the gods, in a way, finally come calling to punish us for our hubris; and destroy the stupid conceit on which our society is based upon. For the costs perhaps can be deferred, but not forever,  and perhaps deferring it made it much worse than if  we  had faced it head on.