Season 2 Podcast 61 The Tragic Flaw

The Tragic FlawMost tragedies, like a Greek drama, are staged in advance, one tragic event inevitably following the other due to the main character’s central weakness.  A tragic flaw is an inherent weakness, such as excessive pride in the hero or protagonist that leads to inevitable ruin. The primary question is freewill versus determinism. Does the protagonist have freewill, and could the tragedy have been averted? Christianity says yes.  That is why Christ died for our sins. The world that has adopted atheism says no.  Though the world acknowledges evil, the world denies the existence of sin for sin is a judgment of God. Regardless of the rhetoric, the world actually believes in the existence of Satan in an abstract way.  The world only denies the existence God. Often in tragedy not only the protagonist dies but many of the people around him. In drama, critics call it the ‘tragic flaw.’  In ancient drama tragic heroes were kings or queens or persons of greatness. In modern tragedy it may be a person of no social importance such as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.  Being human, we all have a tragic flaw, or more realistically many tragic flaws because we are all imperfect. In our sinful world those tragic flaws are continually displayed causing unspeakable suffering.  In Christian terms the tragic flaws are called temptations, the root cause being Satan.  The remedy is repentance which helps us to overcome tragic flaws. In our progression toward sanctification, we are constantly making adjustments.It could also be said that every environment, even a republic devoted to liberty, has a tragic flaw. Satan’s entire desire is to bring us into captivity. The reason I fear for the freedom of our nation today is that, unlike our forefathers, we are no longer aware of the tragic flaws that are inherent  in our system.  We are living in denial. Our nation began because we had taxation without representation.  Today our nation is crumbling because we have taxation without responsible representation. Both lead to the same end, exorbitant taxes without anything to show for it as power becomes more and more centralized.