Recall that we are still considering Kenneth Burke’s definition of human:
“Man is the symbol-using (symbol-making, symbol-misusing) . . . animal, inventor of (and moralized by) the negative . . . separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own making, goaded by the spirit of hierarchy (or moved by a sense of order) . . . and rotten with perfection.” (LSA 16)
We have considered three phrases and are now ready for PHRASE 4: GOADED BY THE SPIRIT OF HIERARCHY (OR MOVED BY A SENSE OF ORDER).
Virtually all animals have hierarchies, but these hierarchies are all “natural” hierarchies. In the insect world (which you visited in the show “It’s Tough to be a Bug” in the Animal Kingdom), the top of the hierarchy is typically a female, such as the Queen Bee. Among such birds as chickens, there is a “pecking order.” One chicken (or rooster) is in a position in which s/he has earned the honor of not being “peckable” by other fowl. (This is not the same as when English speakers speak “impeccable” German!) This non-peckable chicken is allowed to peck every other chicken in the hen-yard. However, none of the others can peck her/him. There are those below this chicken who can peck every other chicken EXCEPT the one at the top of the hierarchy. And, so it goes until you reach that one chicken that is peckable by every other chicken in the hen-yard, but is not allowed to peck ANY other chicken back. We call that lowest one on the hierarchy “hen-pecked.” Humans, noticing this natural hierarchy, label husbands who do not seem capable of fighting back against their wives’ onslaughts “henpecked.” A similar phenomenon occurs among wolves. The “leader of the pack” is allowed to bite the back of every other member of the wolf-pack. Some lowly wolf is bitten by all the pack, but cannot bite any other wolf. Humans, noticing this natural hierarchy, speak of “backbiting” going on in organizations as employees jostle for superior ranking in the organization.
What is enlightening to Burke is that, while various animal species seem to have a single “natural” hierarchy, humans have innumerable “symbolic” hierarchies. The Greek word HIEROS, translated “priest,” when combined with the Greek word ARCHE, meaning “first,” produces the word “hierarchy.” Even in the Catholic Church, there are priests who seek higher and higher positions. The highest or first priest in the Catholic Church would be higher than Bishop, Archbishop, or Cardinal: the Pope. Yet, the hierarchy goes even higher—to Jesus and God the Father. The bottom level of the hierarchy also goes lower than the lowest priest—to altar boy, parishioner, Protestant Christian, member of another religion altogether, atheist, and (eventually) Satan. This is, of course, a religious hierarchy.
There are educational hierarchies—with Ph.D.s at the top and illiterate grade school drop-outs at the bottom. There are athletic hierarchies as numerous as the number of events in the Winter and Summer Olympics, plus all organized (and unorganized) sports. There are corporate hierarchies at every corporation, as employees climb the corporate ladder. There are popularity hierarchies in Middle School.
I comment, on pages 306-307 of my chapter, “Communication, Hierarchy, and Dramatistic Form,” in Omar Swartz’s book, Transformative Communication Studies:
Another hierarchy is the family hierarchy. We call the competition among children in this hierarchy “sibling rivalry.” Politics is a hierarchy . . . humans create all kinds of symbolic hierarchies—from the best tobacco spitter in Tennessee to the best practitioner of speaking the English language in Britain, to the best looking hand model in Hollywood. Ironically, many of those who oppose hierarchy theoretically create their own new hierarchies, such as the hierarchy of “least hierarchical systems.”
Just as humans are symbol-MAKING,
INVENTORS of the negative,
And tool-MAKING,
they are also, now, hierarchy-MAKING.
Bottom line . . . humans MAKE things, and they MAKE things using their SYMBOLIC nature.
Almost everything Genesis claims that God MADE was MADE by God using his SYMBOLIC nature—he SPOKE. This symbolic nature (of both man and God) is what Burke may have been referring to when he said that man was goaded by a SPIRIT of hierarchy. (Spirit is, for Burke, another word for symbolicity.) While other animals HAVE hierarchies, their hierarchies are NOT OF THEIR OWN MAKING. The other animals utilize hierarchies that already exist in nature. Humans are different. They are capable of making things due to their symbolic nature as the “image of God,” the creator.
As I first mentioned in Disneology #6: “The term ‘create’ is used by Genesis only in terms of creating the ‘heavens and the earth’ in 1:1 (which seems to imply [in the term ‘heavens’] that the Sun, Moon, and stars were already created by Day One), creating ‘the great creatures of the sea and every living’ thing in the sea in 1:21 (the beginning of animal life), and God creating ‘man in his own image’ in 1:27.” Other activities of God in the creation week are described as God MAKING things. MAKING could be thought of as less impressive than (but certainly in the same order as) CREATING. Furthermore (based upon the Genesis 1:2 claim that the universe that God created was originally “without form and void”), the creation week account was essentially an account of God bringing this chaos into ORDER. First universe/mass, then light, then seas, then plant life, then water-based animal life, then birds, then amphibians, then land-based animal life, then mammals, and finally humans. This bringing to order was often essentially God MAKING something out of something that he had already created. God, according to Genesis, CREATED the heavens and the earth, but ORDER needed to be brought to the earth. With the exception of animal life and human life in God’s image, all of the other acts in the creation week consisted of MAKING. Even the contentious issue of God’s providing the Sun, Moon, and Stars as indicators of days, seasons, and years (on the 4th day) was a matter of God MAKING, NOT CREATING. That is, things that he had already created (Sun, Moon, and Stars) were now MADE to serve as time markers. It was not until the heated waters above the earth had sufficiently condensed that these preexisting (already created) celestial bodies could be made into “tools” for keeping time. Likewise, the tool-making animal (man) takes elements that already exist in his natural environment and MAKES them into useful instruments. Humans bring further ORDER into the universe.
Now, what about God’s hierarchy? My book on Revelation considers the hierarchical order of beings in the heavenly realm: First God (the one who is seated on the throne), then the Lamb, then the twenty-four elders (who may be a combination of the twelve apostles and the twelve sons of Israel). Beyond these, John equates all Christians--priests, prophets, saints (and even angels)—as “servants. There appears to be no hierarchy, except that of the two who in Revelation are worthy of worship (God and the Lamb). I discuss this hierarchy thoroughly on pages 145-148 of my book on Revelation:In both creation week and in heavenly hierarchy, one could say that God was “moved by a sense of order.” This is precisely the language used by Burke to describe humans. Since they are also “moved by a sense of order,” one could say that humans are the image of God.
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