chariots of fire iii

Eric Liddell runs for the glory of God. his kleos is linked to the fear and love of God, not self-deification. Eric's primary synergy is with God, then his wife, then his children, then others. There's an enormous energy in this synergy that is released and out of this energy and love from God, he runs. Eric's agon is an intellectual agon, how to achieve a kleos (glory) for both himself and the jewish character and also nostos (homecoming) for both. In doing this, he submits to the help of the royalty in England whom he obviously dislikes.

Chariots of fire takes place during a time in which American Power was rising and British Power was declining. It is a vision of an Old England, still filled with values and virtue perhaps. There are the pictures of old, grand men looking at the young grand men in Cambridge, asking them, "What have you done?" Later, T.S. Eliot would show this grand society as a society that is filled with paralysis and psychosis. Generally, when I meet a wealthy person, I highly suspect that he has a psychological problem. The rich also objectify everything so they wouldn't even know if they had a problem.

American Power would represent gross materialism. I'm better than you cause I have a more expensive car, more expensive house. I do admit that this is the most annoying form of social stratification.