An Open Letter to Dante on the Great Man’s Place in Hell
Sr. Dante Alighieri
1 Via Paradisio
Florence,
Italy
Dear Sr. Alighieri,
Putting aside that you have been dead for 700 years, I hope this letter finds you well.
I write as a pilgrim of the sort who was guided through the depths of hell in your blockbuster poem, The Inferno. People are still reading the poem today, and I am one of them.
I regret troubling you after all this time, but facts have come to light in our century about a sinner, a certain Great Man. His sins are so singular and prodigious that I am compelled to ask your advice about his assignment in hell.
Your vision of hell is quite clear. Hell exists to punish sinners eternally in proportion to their sins. It involves merciless retribution. Many sinners are placed in a circle around which they trudge and are tormented ceaselessly along their way. The torments are designed to mock the sins committed. This is the kind of “get what you deserve” system that our Great Man would appreciate.
The first few circles at the top are for minor sinners. The latter ones, further down, are reserved for truly odious people. But I confess I have struggled to place the Great Man in his proper circle. He seems to fit in so many at once.
The greedy get what’s coming to them in the fourth circle. Half of them clutch a big rock at their chest and rush in one direction, only to crash into those from the other half coming in the opposite direction. They fall, cursing the other, but then pick up their treasure rock and circle again until the next crash. The Great Man is certainly greedy, and he exploits his position to enrich himself and his family. But stopping at the fourth circle seems inadequate.
In the seventh circle, tyrants given to violence and plunder, who “brought warfare to the public ways,” are boiled in a river of blood. Liars and fraudsters are punished in the eighth circle, where they are condemned to quarrel and exchange blows eternally with their neighbors.
It is in the ninth circle, as close to the absolute pit of hell as a sinner can get, where betrayal in all its ugliness gets what it deserves. Betrayers of country are suspended in a frozen lake with heads, arms, and legs protruding randomly. On the worst of these traitors, Satan himself gnaws eternally.
The Great Man’s sins have broken the mold, as he says, like nothing anybody has ever seen before. So, venerable poet, you must see my problem. Others may disagree or have their own equally valid list, yet in my opinion here are the sins he has committed that will require a reckoning.
The Great Man insults those who disagree with him in the coarsest terms, much like a schoolyard bully. His example has undermined the tone and quality of American civil and social discourse.
He has promoted the fiction that we have been invaded by immigrants, when in fact we benefit immensely from their contributions. This has caused a dehumanization of innocent people of color and foreign birth, marking them out for suspicion, harassment, and fear.
He has shamed us in the international community by shredding the rules-based order, disrespecting international institutions, insulting and misusing our allies, and reverting to a “might-makes-right” behavior that the world has evolved beyond.
He has installed sycophants, incompetents, and clowns into high public office, not because he believes they will make our government more responsive or just, but because he knows they will create a debacle, upend decades of science, and destroy the independence of our agencies.
He has converted the proud Department of Justice into the shameful Department of Retribution and sought to pervert the courts and the rule of law.
He has put masked and armed government agents into our streets, who kill us upon the slightest pretext.
Because he is so vain that he cannot imagine losing unless he was cheated, the Great Man has impugned the electoral process, tried to induce election officials to manufacture votes, and when this failed duped gullible followers into attacking the seat of our government, defiling, injuring and killing as they went. But to the Great Man these were not crimes because they were done in his service.
As you must realize, Sr. Alighieri, sins of this magnitude must be carefully considered. Those of us who are interested will want to know where to find the Great Man for the rest of eternity. It is certainly possible that big changes will have to be made in hell to accommodate him – maybe even his own special ring. He would like that.
But on that question, I will await your kind reply.
In all respect,
Your Pilgrim
*Image by Vitosmo on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DanteDetail.jpg
