The term “sea change” is often misunderstood, much like the terms “paradigm shift” or “quantum leap” are. In this post I want to touch on it, and as usual, from a Christian perspective.
The phrase sea change was made popular by William Shakespeare in his play “The Tempest.” Briefly and narrowly, the King of Naples, his advisors and his young son named Prince Ferdinand are shipwrecked on a magical island (much like Gilligan was when the Minnow sank.) Prince Ferdinand swims for his life and when he reaches the island, there are none of his company in sight. He wonders what their fate might be, in particular that of his father.
At this point, a spirit (sprite) named Ariel begins to sing, and while Ferdinand can hear Ariel’s voice, he cannot see him. Part of Ariel’s song is:
“Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell.“
William Shakespeare, “The Tempest,” Scene ii of Act I
Prince Ferdinand thus believes his father is dead and that this is his father’s fate, related in a eulogy perhaps. In fact, his father did not perish, but that is beside the point.
What is sea change?
It takes a relatively short time for a body’s skin and organs to decay underwater–longer for the bones to dissolve. It takes still longer for coral to colonize something, even or especially at thirty feet (five fathoms) from the surface. But then, this is a magical island that the Bard writes of. According to Ariel, coral is now growing on what’s left of the King’s skeleton, while his eyes have been replaced with pearls. The transformation here that Shakespeare calls a “sea change” actually is from something of some value into something much more valuable, perhaps perishable to imperishable as well?1. It’s not just a drastic makeover. Something better must emerge.
So, put aside for a moment the question of whether the change in the king is for the good. Take political violence, for example. I read where someone once wondered whether political violence as we recall in Belfast years ago, or South Africa under Pieter Botha and as we remember in North America in the late eighteenth century is the death of something old or instead, is it the birth of something new? Perhaps it was Hannah Arendt who who wrote this? She had a summer vacation home not far from when I live, incidentally.
Was the political violence in South Africa the end of apartheid or rather the emergence of a true, multi-racial society? And what of the political violence in the the U.S. now, what we noted in Portland or Kenosha during the summer of 2020 or in Washington on January 6, 2021? What sort of society, what brave new world were those activists, be they left or right, forcing on us?
The world is going through radical change right now before our very eyes. But is it a sea change? Will the U.S. form a more perfect union than we have now five years hence? Will Ukraine be a better place a decade from now? Thousands, perhaps many more Ukrainians have already been been maimed, murdered or abducted to remote places in Russia like Penza or Vladimir, hundreds of miles from their homeland, for an uncertain future. That’s not sea change. That’s the subject of war crimes.
Economic change
Very few people in this world will escape the misery of this European conflict. I’m not referring to inconveniences such as petrol prices rising in England. People in some places of the world will literally starve to death for lack of grain. This crisis, on top of the supply chain disruptions, on top of the pandemic on top of climate change may push the world over a tipping point into the abyss. That’s not sea change. That’s unspeakable horror.
There will be economic consequences for Europe, particularly those countries with an appetite for Russian oil and gas. As petrol prices rise, so does the cost for every other good or service, thus, inflation. A global recession is not out of the question, either. President Emmanuel Macron of France wants to extend the retirement age in France from 62 to 65. Then there is the cost of rebuilding a modern country from the rubble of war. Who pays?
Political change
The time is ripe in the U.S. for a narcissist who says “I can save America” to make his way into the White House in 2024. Or maybe to make his way back into the White House? An authoritarian regime where enemies of the people (i.e., the free press) and other “troublemakers” (liberals) are quickly dispatched on the street is just what this country needs if many can be believed and if they get their way. This would be along the model of North Korea, China and Russia, itself. Genius, eh? That’s not sea change. That’s fascist.
Likely the Democrats in the U.S. will be soundly trounced this fall, given the mood of the country, a weak and ineffective leadership and runaway inflation. Marcon is in the political race of his life. If his opponent Marine Le Pen ever wins, France may very well re-evaluate its membership in NATO. Viktor Orbán of Hungary was re-elected recently and his close ties to President Putin may make unity difficult for NATO to maintain. Incidentally, expect Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to get a standing ovation while in Dallas next week as a guest speaker at the CPAC convention. The pro-Russian, anti-Ukranian leaning of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party is definitely a change but not one for the better. No sea change here.
And what is to keep China from invading Taiwan or Israel from attacking Iran, or North Korea attempting some mischief?
The world is repolarizing. There are periods in the earth’s history when the polarity of the magnetic sphere of the earth reversed from what it is now. For much of the Cold War, there were three axes: The First World, or the West (including Japan, Australia and New Zealand.). The Second World consisted of Communist countries, and the Third World the nonaligned nations, who for one reasonor another did not wish to be associated with either the West or Communism. We see a new polarity now, most recently in the votes in the UN to condemn Russia for its invasion into Ukraine and to suspend them from the UN Human Rights Commission. The new alignment pits NATO and the West against Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea
Today, most of the former Second World countries are democratic nations aligned with the European Community and NATO (e.g. Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, and so on.) Though Russia is no longer communist, it is not a liberal democracy, either. The word “liberal” does not mean “left” here, but rather inclusive and tolerant.
The environment
There is a radical change in the environment. Hardly a sea change because the change is undeniably for the worse. Hypercanes will soon replace hurricanes, millions of acres in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia are already being destroyed by fire or water. And the lack of water leads to the lack of hydroelectric power not to mention crop failures. Then we have rising ocean levels, mass human migration, the spread of tropical diseases in historically temperate zones on the planet. Also, the extinction of species as well. Calamity on an apocalyptic scale.
War
Picture this: Countries launching missles with fifteen nuclear warheads and nuclear-fueled engines to boot circling the planet month after month, year after year until these are suddenly and without warning dropped from the sky on an unsuspecting people. Have you heard of the term genetic warfare (not to be confused with germ warfare or biological warfare?) In genetic warfare, deadly diseases are designed to seek out animals of a certain species or perhaps, people of a certain race, destroying them while leaving animals and people of other species or races spared. It’s not quite that easy to obliterate a race because there is no single “race gene,” but see here and here. This subject was recently a topic of a recent (late July 2022) Aspen Security Forum.
True sea change
Examples of sea change may, however, be found in the Bible which in facts describes many types of sea change, the latter state always better than the former.. For example, law to grace, corruptible to incorruptible, darkness to light and death to life just to name a few illustrations.
Many children are taught to learn and obey the Ten Commandments. This, along with other Old Testament precepts, form what is known as the Law. Yet, it is humanly impossible to obey the law in its entirety throughout our lives (Romans 3:20.) Failure to keep the Law separates us from God and His kingdom (Heaven.) So, God sent His Son Jesus to atone for our sins. When we accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross on our behalf and believe that God the Father sent him (John 3:16), we enter a state of grace and our sins are forgiven (Romans 3:22.) In doing so, we pass from darkness and death into light and life (Acts 26:18.)
Sea change does happen and can happen in your life right now if you’ll only let God work this miracle in your life. This would definitely be a positive career move not only in the short term, but something you will be grateful for long after we all turn to dust.
Footnotes
1The submersion into the water has reminded some of the sacrament of baptism, where the King is now radically changed for the better, though no rebirth is apparent.
