Social responsibility in martin

In martin's essay I detect a few highly relevant, almost prophetic qualities of social critic that astonished me in a way. History tends to repeat in various forms and the indifference that we experience today on a daily basis was detected by Melville as a destructive force that will lead to our down fall.  Violence takes shape in different forms, it can be demonstrated by rhetoric and abusive use of language as does Ahab. The way in which he demagogically lightens up the men in mutual enthusiasm is what we can translate in modern terms as pure fascism, populism and demagogy - a method of control and subjection of humans to  a  quest, mostly pointless, led by primitive whims and energized by pure irrational hated. Ahab form of speech is intentionally chosen and his articulation, that can wrongly be interpreted as natural and coming for the depth of his agonizing soul, is, as a matter of fact, a product of technology – an artefact that brutalizes knowledge and tunnels it to destruction. The dialectic of enlightenment comes immediately to mind in a sense of mastering a form of knowledge but using it in a sinful act.

Dictators, such as Ahab, also rise thanks to those “mounting to the masthead”, a beautiful metaphor describing a state of indifference (martin says that in a later state it leads to illumination and freedom) . Ismael escapes from reality on that masthead. He contemplates as if the world beneath him never existed and is merely a day dream, or perhaps a nightmare. Placing oneself at a deliberate distance from a problematic reality is a reflection of social irresponsibility “ignoring the reality of evil” - as martin puts it. Our redemption, in Melville’s Moby, is at the hand of Queequeg, the savage, the natural, the friendly and caring human who was not yet contaminated by our advanced society who sold it soul to the devil as did Dr. Faust.