Internet mobs - the Erinyes of modern life

The Erinyes (Furies) were three goddesses of vengeance and retribution who punished men for crimes against the natural order. They were particularly concerned with homicide, unfilial conduct, offenses against the gods, and perjury. A victim seeking justice could call down the curse of the Erinyes upon the criminal. The most powerful of these was the curse of the parent upon the child--for the Erinyes were born of just such a crime, being sprung from the blood of Ouranos (Uranus), when he was castrated by his son Kronos (Cronus).

The wrath of the Erinyes manifested itself in a number of ways. The most severe of these was the tormenting madness inflicted upon a patricide or matricide. Murderers might suffer illness or disease; and a nation harbouring such a criminal, could suffer dearth, and with it hunger and disease. The wrath of the Erinyes could only be placated with the rite ritual purification and the completion of some task assigned for atonement.

That is from Aaron J. Atsmas.

Jonathan Haidt has commented on the fact that social justice has become a substitute religion in many universities, a faith-based system of understanding the world without any grounding in the pursuit of factual reality.

Marrying those two ideas together and it is easy to see internet trolls and internet mobs as modern versions of the Furies. Vaporous beings seeking not just vengeance and retribution but purification and atonement. For those of us grounded in classical liberalism, the causal casting aside of natural rights, rule of law, consent of the governed, equality before the law and especially due process, seems to be the act of madmen. But perhaps they are just the acts of the Furies.

Wikipedia notes:

Their number is usually left indeterminate. Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recognized three: Alecto or Alekto ("endless"), Megaera ("jealous rage"), and Tisiphone or Tilphousia ("vengeful destruction"), all of whom appear in the Aeneid.

Endless, jealous rage, vengeful destruction - Yes, that sounds like the internet outrage mobs with which we are familiar.

The fact that their targets are sometimes indeed repulsive, and likely guilty, monsters (thinking of Harvey Weinstein) should not vitiate the foundations of classical liberalism such as due process. Yet so many public figures and institutions seem comfortable casting aside their allegiance to classical liberalism in order to appease the Furies.

The only redeeming grace in the tragedy is that those unwilling to publicly support classical liberalism will likely end up sharing the fate of Orestes.

The Remorse of Orestes or Orestes Pursued by the Furies, 1892 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)

Click to enlarge.