03-24-2021
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;”
This is what Marc Anthony said at Julius Caesar’s funeral according to Shakespeare.
“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”
Shakespeare was paid to entertain. So he probably twisted the history. But he made his points. The whole of the Roman Senate had stabbed Caesar, each required to blood his dagger even after the general and dictator fell. Marc Anthony, being Caesar’s ally, thought he might be next. So he walked a fine line at the funeral before high tailing it out of Rome.
He and Caesar had squashed the civil war, making Caesar dictator for life and alienating Anthony in the process, but now that war would continue as Rome fumbled to replace the ancient Senate with a new form of government. The Republic was dead, had been since Caesar crossed the Rubicon some years past. In still a few more years they would name Augustus emperor and eventually begin their decline.
“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.”
Ain’t that the truth. The truth was, Caesar had done many good things for Rome. He was even mindful of the poor. But a dictator has many enemies and there is no guarantee that from a wise dictator, the next in line will be equally wise. In fact, most dictators are not.
I’m not trying to draw a direct analogy from there to 2021. I simply want to look at how damaging a country divided can be, how volatile, how unpredictable, how positively unstable things can become. Any time political power is in the hands of the few, that power may be misused, corrupt to the bone, in very little time. That is why our constitution lays out three co-equal branches, each designed to balance against the other two. It is intended to be slow and require a majority of popular support before enacting law or taxes or regulation.
I have complained at how long things take to get done. The grinding wheels are ever so frustrating, yet the intention behind it is wise; and as our institutions fail, one by one, we move more and more towards tyrannical rule.
Shake sphere goes on,
“The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it. Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest– For Brutus is an honourable man;”
Within any government, even within a single faction or party, there is always dissent. You have to hand it to our Democrats, because they all pipe the same smoke….. for now. The Republicans show their divisions. They even advertise them. We’re left to wonder about the Dems. That’s how it works when there is no transparency. That’s what happens when you put fences up around the Capitol and a gag order at the border. Nobody talks. That’s why each and every Senator had to take a stab at Caesar. The guilt needed to be shared. The fingers point.
I love Anthony’s sarcasm. They are all honorable men!
“So are they all, all honourable men– Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.
I only wish that our so called representatives had studied Shakespeare. Most of his work describes the English Court and all of the treachery that nepotism breeds. He shows us the ugly yet immutable characteristics of humanity in hopes that we can learn to avoid such things. Today, we dive head first into slander and sabotage, and so I ask, will these people never learn?
Trump is hardly buried and may very well make a come back. But still they denigrate and misrepresent his deeds as they hide their own. In order to build a tyrannical state, our leaders must show cause to do so. What better cause than to keep blaming Trump? They spew hatred in all directions, hoping to elevate themselves in morbid self righteousness. My question: How many sheep are really buying it?
“He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
“When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.
They screamed that Trump was a dictator, Trump was a tyrant. But he was a transparent as anyone ever to hold the office. Problem was, he was Trump, and he did not bow to the Deep State.
“You all did see that on the Lupercal (a holiday) I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
“Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
Trump signed Executive orders just like Obama did. Now Biden holds the record. Why? Because our Congress is non-functioning and useless. While the Dems keep submitting socialistic legislation, it’s all the Republicans can do to thwart it, minimize and mitigate it – as best they can. Instead of the people’s business, we have a food fight in the Capitol, behind barbed wire fences and 5,000 soldiers no less.
There are too many people in power who want a semi-dictator – so long as he or she is on their side. Then they can benefit and wield authority, all behind someone else to shoulder the blame. This is not what Tom Jefferson and company had in mind.
Covid gave the states’ governors reason to place a crown on their heads and you can see how that worked out. The more a government meddles in the affairs of private citizens, the more those citizens resent the government. Will we the people get squashed completely? Or will we rise up and set these despots straight? Time will tell.
Continuing our Shakespeare….
“O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.“
It should read, today: “ .. and men and women have lost all reason .. “
My heart is buried in the pages of history where a united republic once stood as an example to the world. Those days are gone.