I borrow my title from Shakespeare’s Richard III, a play about what happens when a corrupt and power-hungry individual becomes king. Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, ending in multiple deaths. As I write this, it is winter in the States, and it is increasingly looking as though we are heading into a national tragedy.
The book, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, provides important background details about the last election for President in the States. The details are indeed scary, not only because it shows the connections between Trump and Putin (President of Russia), but also because of the way it reveals the total incompetence of U.S. governmental officials and politicians to cope with cyber threats.
Dystopian literature–including such classic books as 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451—has been around a long time. Although it is not typically thought of as dystopian, Gulliver’s Travels was an early example. “Dystopian” is, of course, the opposite of Utopian, which describes the wonders of a perfect society. Utopian literature is scarce, primarily because there haven’t been any utopian societies.
There have been some that tried, but the impediment has always been the same: human nature. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare includes the line “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” Humans are not perfect, and our worst traits are based on greed, whether for money or power (and those typically go together). Academic politics are supposed to be vicious because the stakes are small, but compared with national politics, they are polite and gentle. As far as I know, no academic has ever been killed because of a school squabble.
The U.S. Constitution was crafted by people wise enough to anticipate some of the problems associated with the possible corruption of those elected to public office. I have no idea when the first corrupt politician was elected to office, but the U.S has had its share. It is easy to forget that not all of them were Republicans, but there have been plenty of Democrats on the list as well. Lord Acton is best known for saying, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Given the qualifier of “almost always,” the quotation seems accurate. Another saying is, Nice Guys Finish Last. Although that’s usually said with regard to romance, it may well have wider application.
We seem to be in a recurring loop: A long time ago, a group called “The Fugs” wrote and performed a song called Wide, Wide River, in which they asked a question about the way we always seem to be “voting for the lesser of two evils.” Neither George Washington nor Abraham Lincoln were universally popular in spite of their courageous leadership in difficult times, and both of them may have been considered the lesser of two evils at the time.
I have used Yates’ poem The Second Coming in previous posts. It continues to seem prophetic and appropriate for the current situation in the States. Do we still have time to save American democracy? I don’t know, and that troubles me. The only solution I can think of doesn’t seem practical. My sense is that we need to remove the profit motive from politics.
I think it’s fair that politicians receive salaries for the work they do, but their ability to supplement their salaries by supporting commercial enterprises should be eliminated. That would, of course, not be a popular position for those currently in office or for those who have hoped to profit from being elected or lobbying those who have been. It is not as though other ways to make a profit—and get rich—aren’t available.
I don’t know, however, how to get from here to there.
