Last Tuesday, I visited the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, and having had the pleasure of admiring Tintoretto's Crucifixion, I was moved to wonder whether Christ had died in vain and why humanity seems to have a predilection for being crucified by its own misdeeds and crucifying others in the process. We seem to live in what one might call a World of Fridays. Can Easter save us?
The Hebrews celebrated Pesach; today we Christians celebrate Easter; a fortnight ago, Iranians celebrated Nowruz, and Moslems had their Eid. All three are inspired by the notion of Return, echoing the primeval Eleusinian Spring of the ancient Greeks. According to the Greeks, the Goddess Persephone ̶ Princess of the Underworld ̶ rose up from the bowels of Hades (Pluto) to rejoin Her Earth Mama Demeter (Ceres) who was so ecstatic to embrace the fruit of her loins that she showered the world in spring!
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to celebrate this year, especially for the agnostic. Mind you, even the faith of those who believe in an eternal being was severely tested by the utter destruction exacted by the US's Operation Epic Fury and Israel's merciless beating of Iran and Lebanon. Iran responded in kind, though not as effectively. It seems to me that it has become quite common to have our Easters, Pesachs, Eids, and other festivals ruined by terrorism and wars.
Of course, the warmongers clothe their violence in holy language, claiming they are doing the will of God or some other god-like figurers, and that a deity blesses their violence. One would-be god had his war blessed by pastors in The White House. The miracles of spring and renewal were rather sparse, falling well short of any miraculous parting of the sea and the falling of manna from heaven to feed the hungry. The dead in Lebanon, Iran and other lands in the region were not resurrected. God appears to have abandoned men to their folly, and He sent no new Jesus to calm the storm.
It is a sign of mankind's complex personality that the bombs and missiles raining down on them still did not stop them from having their Sabzi Polo Mahi in Iran, the Last Supper Seder in Israel, and the Easter lunch in the West. People still nibbled their herb platter sabzi khordan in Iran, the matzah ball soup in Israel, and the chocolate bunnies and coloured eggs in the West. But this year all these delicious foods were more like a therapy to forget for some moments that people were not "shaking the dust" of the past and starting afresh. Rather, mankind was killing again the Paschal lamb. Trump was trying to bomb Iran out of existence and threatening to drop some more bombs "just for fun", as he said, while Iran was threatening to attack tourism sites worldwide.
Language is evolving so rapidly that sometimes one is forced to wonder what is real or what is just virtual reality. Trump's bombardment of Iran was called "Operation Epic Fury." Did a gamer come up with that name? Clickbait influencers immediately re-christened it "Operation Epstein Fury," the reference clearly attributing to Trump the launching of a war to deflect attention from the Epstein Files which remain a political thorn in his side.
Personally, I think "folly" would have been more appropriate than "Fury", because the architects of this mess ̶ the babbling US president, the horror actors in his cabinet, the real estate developers, the Israeli prime minister who counts on the war helping him avoid a corruption trial and possible conviction, the brutal mullahs whose theocracy has become a synonym for repression and human rights violations ̶ are all remarkably, hubristically and rather dangerously foolish.
Fools can be funny, but this fool's errand is devastating to people all over the Middle East. President Trump expressed shock that a big country like Iran would actually fight back when pelted with American bombs. "They weren't supposed to," he whined (not so subtly blaming Jared). Meanwhile, one million people have had to flee their homes in Lebanon, the Americans and Israelis have caused an estimated $800m of damages to buildings and infrastructure in Iran, tourism in the Gulf states has disintegrated, and millions of people all over the global inflation is once again threatening economic stability all over the world.
And so, I am not alone in wondering what the events of Holy Week and Easter ̶ these seminal events in Christianity ̶ have to say in a time of slaughter and mayhem in the Middle East. The horror and barbarity of the Hamas attacks, the horror and devastation of the slaughter and starvation taking place unabated in Gaza, and now the war in the Gulf has tested our faith in God, as He seemed unwilling to intervene and stop the madness.
Many of us were surely hoping that the darkness of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday would prevail over the joy and light of Easter Sunday. Most of us prayed to God to silence the guns of war, to rescue and deliver those who were dying. But it seems the answer we kept getting was deafening silence.
Today, we must hope that people in power will realise that in a world of Fridays, violence begets violence. The Friday world is zero sum. Nobody wins. We need to become Sunday people. To do this we must first seek to know the things that make for peace (and equally important is to know the things that don't make for peace). The work of justice and mercy make for peace. Revenge and violence do not.
For mankind to find peace, people have to embrace our mutuality and interconnectedness. The war in Ukraine, that in the Middle East, the devastating civil war in Sudan, the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the post-coup conflict in Myanmar, and persistent, violent fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may seem far away and inconsequential. It's a tragic irony that the suffering of millions can go unnoticed, simply because it doesn't make the evening news.
Many of us bemoan wars elsewhere but are astonishingly unaware of the wars of tribalism and dehumanization of our neighbours that occur daily in Malta. We do not have a military industrial complex in our country, but the war drums of politicians beat as loudly. Armies of foot solders attack each other relentlessly on the political party communications media and the social media, sowing discord and displaying utmost disrespect for human dignity. The political masters preach peace and dialogue but manipulate the foot soldiers into fearing harm from their "enemies", all the more to think that their existence depends on the enemies' destruction.
People do not seem to understand that words are powerful weapons of war, capable of inflicting psychological, social, and physical harm equivalent to conventional combat. Politicians everywhere, not least in Malta, mobilize armies, demonize enemies, and shape propaganda to win, or lose, battles. Through social media and political discourse, language is deployed to divide societies and wage information warfare, often having more lasting impact than traditional military force.
It's enough to read the headlines: "PM fuelling fear and racism" (Malta Today), "Repubblika calls out PM for putting a gun to their head" (The Shift), "Opposition has descended into 'the deepest abyss'" (The Malta Independent), "Alex Borg says The Prime Minister acted like a Bully" (Malta Today), "Robert Abela's attack dog" (Times of Malta), and "Traitors standing in the way of Maltese progress" (l-orizzont). The more divisive and war-like language is spewed out every day by the parties' bulldogs on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram reels.
The use of language continues to play a significant part in fomenting discord. Words are increasingly being used to divide people and exercise power, intertwining linguistics with politics to construct alternative parallel realities that spur aggression. In this context where propaganda reshapes what is true and what is not, understanding the evolution of political discourse is essential.
Politicians and governments are employing newspeak to soften the terrors of social and physical wars waged in both the domestic and foreign arenas. Language is not only reflecting but also reshaping political dynamics and power shifts. The concept of newspeak, coined by George Orwell in his dystopian novels (the most popular being "1984"), has been reimagined in modern linguistic strategies of propaganda.
In political science, newspeak is understood as a tool for power regimes to maintain control by restricting the range and scope of ideas, exemplified by, for example, turning an invasion into "a special military operation" (Ukraine) or by Trump's 'war is peace' military vocabulary phrase. These linguistic gymnastics distort traditional meanings to align them with ideological perspectives, creating a situation where criticism of any kind becomes unthinkable. In this way, putting a gun to somebody's head, falling into a dark abyss, falling prey to a bully, and the fear of an attack dog, turn language into a battlefield. Constant repetition of these linguistic themes ensures that the language becomes second nature to the population.
The current wars act, paradoxically, as a dark backdrop that intensifies the Easter message of hope, resurrection, and peace, transforming it from a traditional celebration into an urgent plea for humanity to reject violence. The very human need for hope in times of uncertainty resonates far beyond religious walls., The story of Easter reassures us that, in a world where global crises and personal struggles present endless challenges, change is still possible.
My augury on this Easter Sunday therefore is that it may remind us that, in a Sunday world, we are responsible to each other, and ̶ for those of us who believe in a deity ̶ responsible before God. To quote Dr. Martin Luther King, in a Sunday world "darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Frans Camilleri is an economist. He studied at Oxford and University of East Anglia, is a former corporate head at Air Malta, and has served on various public and private boards.