One wonders what Shakespeare would create of 1980-20l8 America! Probably his greatest tragedy. Think of the material he has to work with! The world’s greatest “democracy” is slowly transformed into a theocratic plutocracy, and…many people support it. The lower 99% conditioned to see their greedy Scrooge-like ( borrowing from Dickens) oppressors are really the “job creators!” The ruling top 1% has reduced its taxes by 50% from the middle class golden age of 1947-l973 – but – this is “good.” It means more wealth can “trickle down!” Think what Shakespeare could do with millions of poor and middle class people voting against themselves! The U.S top 1% has outdone Goebbels! Defeat is victory! OK, he borrowed from “l984” too.
How would Shakespeare treat 1980-2018 Republicans who run for public office with the intent of sabotaging government – and – rewarding their top 1% donor patrons? Yes, some Democrats are guilty too. What villains would Shakespeare have portraying successive cabinet secretaries ruining the environment and aiding polluters in the name of “public service?” How would Shakespeare portray crooked politicians (the real D.C.’swamp) taking billionaire’s money, and then writing laws favoring those same people?
Think what Shakespeare could do with Nixon-Reagan-Bush II-Trump! Would this be a separate comedy? Or several acts of the entire tragedy? Think what Shakespeare could do with Watergate! Or Iran-Contra; or with “weapons of mass destruction” that didn’t exist; or war crimes like Abu Ghraib or massive lying; or taxpayers paying for family business trips’ or hypocrites claiming to stand for “family values” doing the same things they’re legislating against!
Think what Shakespeare could do with a Supreme Court ruling (Citizens United) that facilitates billionaires corrupting government in the name of “freedom of speech!” And a Court that says paper people (corporations) are the same as real human people for legal rights (top 1% wins again). How would Shakespeare portray the arrogant, greedy billionaires using donor-anonymous “charities” to subvert democracy tax-free?
How would Shakespeare portray American voters who’ve supported and voted for politicians who’ve blatantly lied to them, demagogue people’s fears;used divide and conquer diversionary tactics covering the real 1980-2018 villains’ the top 1%
How would Shakespeare portray the children – the dead at Sandy Hook, the dead at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas- for whom the adults did nothing; actually worse than nothing by refusing to listen to them? And the living children and young adults, the outraged thousands of high school and college students protesting against being potential victims? What could he do with this ultimate irony of gutless adults being forced to see massive corruption, by their own children? How would he show who really is the real “adult in the room?”
Would this be Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy? The innocent, idealistic, truthful children, representing the true American ideals – are deliberately sabotaged by the “adults.” You can see it now, the stage slowly empties, then grows dark, while the music softly ends. The movie version ends with these words from Teddy Roosevelt’s Mount Rushmore plaque: We here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the coming years; and shame and disgrace will be ours if in our eyes the light of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men. Dickens had his Scrooge redeeming himself at the end. 2018 (or 2008 Scrooges) are not that generous, or even caring about what they’ve done.
With Justice For All 