It's natural to be so overcome by Shakespeare's evocative fluency with words and his remarkable capacity to distil the essential elements of character, we forget the great playwright's most important feature. He was, in essence, a revolutionary.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
What Shakespeare accomplished was to reveal that kings, the leaders we look up to, are ordinary people motivated by emotions. Exceptional in so many ways and yet, deep down, still human. Sometimes driven by envy or pride; occasionally by jealousy, ambition, or fear; everybody has their own fatal flaw. What makes an individual great is an ability to recognise frailties and overcome them. What makes them mortal is they're driven by exactly those raw, elemental emotions and passions.
Some 400 years ago leaders were regarded as superhuman. There was, after all, no such thing as opinion polls and the 'public sphere' didn't exist. The social structure was so all-embracing, so overpowering, that an individual's capacity to even think outside the box was so circumscribed as to be non-existent. Now, of course, we like to think we're much more aware.
Today's media offers up the illusion of intimacy. We see leaders at home, off-duty, with friends and family and begin to imagine we've got some degree of familiarity with them. We imagine we understand their innermost emotions or motivations. We don't.
All journalists see is an extremely shallow veneer that covers an all-too-human reality. Occasionally this is delightful and uplifting. All too often, however, it's grubby and disappointing. That's the way life is. Every decision they make forces compromises and they end up shuffled off down a path separating them from the noble ideals they once espoused.
Individuals are complex. Pretending otherwise is foolish. Sometimes people go around making life better for others, like volunteer firefighters this time last year. This column doesn't get enough chance to praise the way our community works together. Unfortunately, too much is still going wrong.
Shakespeare demonstrated how established social structures fragment when they're put under pressure. There's no faster way for that to happen than when individuals make decisions for the wrong reasons and they're supported by a huge bureaucracy that won't speak out to present alternatives. In NSW today we have a Premier who isn't prepared to mandate mask-wearing or even tell people to stay home and watch cricket on TV. Sadly, we've been down this path before and it didn't work.
It's a mistake to see politicians as infallible or ignore their faults. Sadly, Shakespeare's central message remains only too valid: all individuals (journalists too) are badly flawed. Stay alert over the coming year - you'll need to.
- Nicholas Stuart is a regular columnist.
