Secular Infallibility

He performs the ritual every minute. A blur, of spinning ball enters a mystic zone for an instant, and an instant later he raises his right hand to announce, solemnly, “Strike three!” The batter may hurl his bat down and kick dust, may scowl, plead, argue, or threaten. His manager may flame out of the dugout and leap like Baryshnikov around the stolid figure at the plate. Fifty thousand fans may shake the heavens as they scream for his blood. But, with or without protest, amidst the fury of indignation or the passivity of stunned silence, the decision of the man behind the plate will stand.

I regard the umpire’s irrevocable decision as a handy example of secular infallibility, the voice of absolute command in liberal and liberated democracies. Similar examples of ultimate decision confront us daily in our economic and political as well as our sporting lives. At a time when absolutes annoy us, why does secular infallibility, our contemporary secret, provide so much comfort, and papal infallibility, our contemporary embarrassment, provoke so much outrage?

FZ

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Frank Zepezauer

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He performs the ritual every minute. A blur, of spinning ball enters a mystic zone for an instant, and an instant later he raises his right hand to announce, solemnly, “Strike three!” The batter may hurl his bat down and kick dust, may scowl, plead, argue, or threaten. His manager may flame out of the dugout and leap like Baryshnikov around the stolid figure at the plate. Fifty thousand fans may shake the heavens as they scream for his blood. But, with or without protest, amidst the fury of indignation or the passivity of stunned silence, the decision of the man behind the plate will stand.

I regard the umpire’s irrevocable decision as a handy example of secular infallibility, the voice of absolute command in liberal and liberated democracies. Similar examples of ultimate decision confront us daily in our economic and political as well as our sporting lives. At a time when absolutes annoy us, why does secular infallibility, our contemporary secret, provide so much comfort, and papal infallibility, our contemporary embarrassment, provoke so much outrage?