From last night's bullshit: Thoughts on Hermes and consumerism

[chironcentaur]

It truly is amazing what you can say that starts shit on the internet. Its also amazing the way two people can twist everything you say around until you sound like the biggest asshole on the planet.

It started when I made an innocent comment that, while I won't argue that Hermes is a god with connections with technology and the internet, I don't

Comments

[chironcentaur]

I'm rapidly gaining an appreciation for the crap Loki's people go through. I'm glad I'm not the only person in Hermes's camp (those who I genuinely believe are patronized by him and whose opinions I respect) that also want to half vomit with rage over what large portions of the community thinks that he is. At least its not just me. It does seem that the image of him people who are patronized by him see is very different from the image others who deal with him see, but there comes a point where it is just illogical, and you're clearly focusing too much on one tiny aspect of him (and ignoring all else) and projecting modern cultural crap onto his personality and opinions.

The way other people have it, you'd think Hermes was a wide eyed twit that would go blindly chasing after some shiny object that I tossed over my shoulder. Definitely what a god associated with wisdom would do! You'd also think if Hermes really is associated with the acquisition of wealth he would have been associated with the aristocracy back in the day, but he wasn't (speaking very generally, he was god of the working class). But nope, I'm wrong and I got nothing backing me up.

People do seem to have a tendency of seeing tricksters either as harmless sprites that pull ever so adorable little pranks and love shiny things and never do anything for a reason, or as chaotic demons that will fuck your shit up again for no good reason. It is annoying and shallow and it should be stopped. Spread the word. :-)

[chironcentaur]

Oh yes, I know what you mean. Also that just because you can't immediately see the reason doesn't mean that there isn't one.

Hermes rarely seems to do anything without a reason, even it it takes years to know what that reason is. This time I've spent with him has taught me nothing in his world is just a coincidence.

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes, which some people do think is the ultimate source of the Hermes as a twit notion (and I can't think of a better explanation) seems to bear that out for me, I see that paint a picture of someone who is very calculating. Everything he does there ultimately serves a purpose, works toward his goal, and in the end he walks away having gotten exactly what he wanted. I don't know what sort of filters you need to be looking through in order to read that as chases after anything shiny and new and causes mischief for the pure hell of it.

*eye roll*

[chironcentaur]

to (GRR) using Loki as an excuse to physically abuse their spouses ('cos He's all about beating the wives, don't you know.)

Seriously??? Oh gods, do I really want to know the story behind that one?

If I had a quarter for how many times I've heard people referring to Loki's short attention span, inability to discern right from wrong, propensity for shiny things and lack of judgment, I'd be able to build Him a temple the size of the Mormon Tabernacle

Yeah, I could build slightly smaller one next door. I hear a lot of the same things about Hermes (especially that short attention span, because being a rootless wanderer = having the attention span of a hyperactive child set loose in a toy store). Gods in general are complex beings, and some (like Hermes) are more complex than others, paradoxically so. But instead of recognizing that, that the god might have this side to him, people mistake that side for all the god is. They don't look beyond it or see how the god's many different sides might play off each other in different ways for different people. Also, pleas to relationships and study beside, its always the single most stereotypical, cartoon like image that people get focused on.