THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL

The title is taken from the famous masterpiece film by Luis Buñuel. Death and destruction can arrive unexpectedly on a wonderful and serene sunny day: the smoke of destruction stands out in the clear sky. If it were a natural disaster, we would certainly ask ourselves why, but it would be easy to accept that such an event could be part of the order of things.
However, since it is an act committed by man, a flurry of questions arises.
The bronze statue is that of St. Michael the Archangel, placed on Castel Santangelo in Rome, the former Mausoleum of Hadrian. But here it does not symbolize divine punishment, but rather the destructive force, the other face and counterweight of the creative force, like the Indian SHIVA or the THANATOS of the Hellenes.
This painting is a question: is man truly endowed with a total conscious and full free will, or is he instead often dragged by a universal flow greater and stronger than him, which exploits his weaknesses to force him to conform to the evolutionary direction of creation and the universe, purposes that are not very intelligible to us? Are individuals and peoples always and exclusively endowed with Apollonian reasoning and absolute freedom of choice when, thinking of a final "Good", they carry out immense destruction? Or are they unconsciously pervaded by an unknowable will, blinded by a god, as Heracles was by the madness sent to him by Hera, when he exterminated his own family? Do we follow - rarely consciously - a mysterious direction in the Universe? Or are we really just stupid and presumptuous beasts, deluded into thinking that we are the architects of our own destiny?
S.B.